Construction skills event being hosted at Ark Academy in Wembley

By Lucy Atlee, Senior Quality and Design Manager, Places for London

For us at Places for London embedding social value at every level is vital in helping us create a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive London.

Enabling local people to take their first steps in the construction industry or move into the next chapter of their career is a huge part of what we’re doing to help areas thrive. Since 2019, more than 9,300 people have received training through our network of centres across the capital and we have supported 3,300 into jobs.  We are also working with schools all over the city to help thousands of young people understand the vast range of roles across the built environment sector and inspire them to join the industry.

London is one of the most diverse cities in the world and we believe that identifying and celebrating this makes for a much richer programme of engagement.  When developing the designs for our arches in Kilburn – we hosted both online and in-person sessions, providing a variety of times for people to give their feedback at a time which better suited their needs, such around childcare or working hours. It also involved different methods of engagement, such as questionnaires, interviews, and design exhibitions, so people could share their vision for what they wanted. This led to almost 60 per cent of the survey responses for the Kilburn Arches coming from women and the majority of engagement workshops or exhibitions having at least 50 per cent representation from women. 

We’re going above and beyond to try and improve the safety of women, girls and gender-diverse people within our developments. At our site at Blackhorse View, we worked with Mayors Design Advocates (MDAs) to look at women’s safety by hosting a night walk and workshop with women living in our development to inform future projects.

We have been working with teenagers and more specifically – teenage girls – to help us design play-space at our sites. We know that play-space for teenagers is more likely to be used by boys than girls – with new developments often featuring skate parks or football pitches. At Wembley Park, we hosted workshops with students – asking them to provide their ideas and aspirations for the spaces, and then when we returned for a second visit, we showed them how their input had informed the updated designs. In Kidbrooke,  as well as running play-space workshops, we worked with MDAs in a follow up session to upskill the girls on how to be design reviewers, think about built environment careers and be confident to engage with future consultations in their local area. We intend to run workshops like this at all of our sites. 

Our aspiration is to create truly sustainable neighbourhoods. Join us in the London Pavilion at UKREiiF this May to hear about how we are working with partners to help transform London’s communities.  

By Lucy Atlee, Senior Quality and Design Manager, Places for London