MHS Homes Halloween Open Day 🎃 
 
Last week, we attended the MHS Homes Open Day hosted on John Street in Rochester. Teaming up with mhs homes, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, Kent Police, Green Doctors, Medway Council and Jewson, we engaged with the local community to help residents understand what support is available to them, whilst also taking part in some spooktacular Halloween activities! 
 
It was a great success and a fantastic opportunity to speak with the local residents.

Demolition and groundworks are well underway at Oakwood Court Care Home in Amberley Close, Haywards Heath. 
 
The care home is undergoing a refurbishment and major extension utilising Retrofit technologies to help Sussex Housing & Care provide much needed additional care for older people in the Sussex area.
 
The partial demolition of the existing building and phased design and construction will provide new en-suite bedrooms and communal and ancillary areas for residents and their families to enjoy.
 
The project has involved collaboration between the design team, specialist ecologist and Client to provide suitable habitat and roosting areas for 78no bats found on site, with a European Protected Species License granted with detailed plans for mitigation, with ongoing monitoring for five years after completion of works.
 
#demolition #refurbishment #retrofit

Niblock are passionate about shaping the future of the construction industry. To support Careers in Construction Month, our Social Value Executive, Jodie Pitt, has been on a mission to inspire and empower young minds in secondary schools across London Boroughs.
 
Partnering with the Construction Youth Trust, Jodie volunteered to support engaging sessions, including:
 
📚 “How To Be a Professional”
📝 CV Writing Workshops
🤝 Exploring Transferable Skills
🎙️ Mock Interviews
🛠️ Navigating Apprenticeship Applications
 
The enthusiasm and curiosity of the students was great to see. They often asked Jodie, “What made you want to work in construction industry?” and by the end of each session, they left with newfound knowledge that can shape their career journeys.

“It was fantastic to have Jodie attend our session and provide insight on the construction and built environment sector, the students were particularly interested in hearing about the apprenticeships available at Niblock. During the session Jodie also supported the students with an activity encouraging them to look at the transferrable skills! Thank you for all of your support, it was fantastic to have you along !”- Holly Fanshawe, Senior Programme Manager at CYT.

“It was such a pleasure to welcome Jodie to the Year 11 “CV surgery with an employer” at Jo Richardson school. The students really appreciated her appraisal of their CV’s and absolutely took on board her invaluable advice. They were especially interested in hearing about the apprenticeships available at Niblock! Jodie, we really appreciate you! Thank you for your unwavering support.”- Wendy Heller, Senior Construction Skills Manager at CYT.

#CareersInConstruction #EmpoweringYouth #BuildingTheFuture

Today is World Mental Health Day! 
 
To better understand what we as a business can do to improve our policies surrounding mental health, we took part in an interactive and engaging Mental Health Training Session hosted by Mates in Mind Charity and Peter Kelly this morning focusing on mental health in the Construction Industry in the ‘eye of the storm’ – post covid pandemic and during the cost of living crisis.

Discussions focused on how to make our strategies preventative rather than simply reactive and what we can do to further break down the stigma surrounding poor mental health. We also discussed how psychosocial risk factors are directly related to the frequency of accidents in the workplace and the importance of managing these to improve health and safety on Construction Sites.

Questions included:

🌟 How can we create a healthy workplace?
🌟 How can we control psychological risks at work?
🌟 How can we shift the emphasis to encourage men to talk about their mental health?
🌟 How can we better express ourselves and show compassion in response to a colleague conversing about their mental health?
 
A clear message we took away from the session: instead of simply supporting poor mental health and wellbeing, we need to optimise mental health and well being. #Thriving and not just #surviving.

#normalisingtheconversation
#thereisnohealthwithoutmentalhealth #beamate