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At Acorn Safety Services, we work in partnership with our clients to provide health and safety consultancy services, including CDM, fire risk assessments, and legionella risk management, both on schedule and within budget. We address all health and safety challenges without extra expenses, delays, or unwelcome surprises. Our consultancy services are designed to advise and support our clients, helping them to understand and meet their legal obligations regarding the management of health and safety risks.
Building Confidence, Not Just Compliance: How Bruntwood Achieved Seamless Health and Safety Management Across a £2.4M Refurbishment with the Best in the UK
Creating thriving cities requires more than architectural ambition it demands operational excellence, especially in health and safety compliance. Bruntwood Management Services Limited, the facilities arm of Bruntwood, understands this implicitly. As one of the UK’s leading commercial property specialists, Bruntwood’s reputation rests on delivering modern, efficient and safe spaces where businesses can flourish. But even the most experienced property managers know that large-scale refurbishments across multiple active buildings can present complex health and safety challenges.
When Bruntwood embarked on a multi-site, £2.4 million refurbishment programme across a series of occupied commercial buildings, they knew that safety and compliance couldn’t be left to chance. That’s why they turned to Acorn Safety Services—one of the best for health and safety in the UK—to act as their Project Health & Safety Consultant and CDM Advisor.
The Challenge: Coordinating Safety in Live Working Environments
The project scope was ambitious: refurbishment of common areas including lift lobbies, stairwells, washrooms and a link corridor across five individual floors and multiple buildings, Washbrook, McLaren, and Statham each with their own operational dynamics. Works were to be completed while tenants remained in-situ, and the project spanned over nine months.
The complexity wasn’t just in the construction itself. It lay in managing risk across multiple concurrent workstreams in occupied buildings, where any lapse in safety protocol could lead to operational disruption, reputational damage or worse, harm to those using the space. Bruntwood needed a partner who could not only anticipate and mitigate risk, but also integrate seamlessly with their teams and contractors to deliver a compliant, incident-free programme from start to finish.
The Solution: Strategic Safety Leadership from Acorn Safety Services
With decades of experience in managing health and safety across high-value commercial refurbishments, Acorn Safety Services brought a structured yet responsive approach to the role of CDM Advisor and Project H&S Consultant.
Their involvement began at the earliest stages of the project, providing pre-construction advice and support to ensure all design and planning processes were aligned with current CDM Regulations 2015. Working closely with Bruntwood’s project management team and principal contractors, Acorn Safety Services helped develop robust Construction Phase Plans that addressed the unique challenges of working in live, multi-tenanted buildings.
Each building presented its own set of variables. The Washbrook 2nd and 3rd floors required careful sequencing of lift lobby refurbishments to avoid bottlenecks in tenant movement. The McLaren 3rd and Statham 3rd & 4th floors involved significant WC upgrades, where water isolation and temporary facilities had to be managed sensitively. The Duckworth stairwell and McLaren’s first-floor link corridor needed precise coordination to maintain fire escape routes and accessibility.
Acorn Safety Services didn’t just provide oversight—they embedded themselves in Bruntwood’s operational rhythm. Regular site inspections, safety audits, and contractor briefings ensured that hazards were not only identified but proactively managed. Risk assessments were continuously updated and communicated, and any non-conformances were addressed with practical, on-the-ground solutions that kept works moving without compromising safety or compliance.
The Outcome: A Seamless, Safe Transformation
Over the course of nine months, the refurbishment programme was completed on time and without major incident. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, Bruntwood was able to maintain full operational continuity across all affected buildings—a testament to the planning, foresight and rigorous safety management made possible by Acorn Safety Services.
Feedback from contractors and internal stakeholders alike highlighted the clarity and effectiveness of the health and safety protocols in place. Acorn’s proactive engagement and deep understanding of regulatory responsibilities gave Bruntwood’s project team confidence at every stage. More importantly, it gave building users peace of mind, knowing that transformation was happening around them without risk to their wellbeing.
By the end of the project, Bruntwood had not only delivered a significant upgrade to its commercial offering but had done so with a level of safety compliance that aligned with its core purpose: creating spaces where people and businesses can thrive.
Setting the Standard for Health and Safety in the UK
Bruntwood’s refurbishment success is a clear example of what’s possible when top-tier property management meets the best in health and safety consultancy in the UK. Acorn Safety Services didn’t just help Bruntwood meet their statutory obligations, they elevated the standard of compliance and operational safety across a complex, high-stakes project.
In a construction landscape where the margin for error is razor-thin and reputations are built on reliability, Bruntwood’s partnership with Acorn Safety Services stands as a model of how strategic health and safety leadership can turn a challenging programme into a showcase of best practice.
For construction managers, property developers, and facilities operators across the UK, this project underlines one powerful truth: when the stakes are high, only the best for health and safety will do.
