Global construction consultancy Davis Langdon, an AECOM company, today announced that it has been commissioned as programme manager and delivery partner by Care UK, a leading independent provider of health and social care services, for its plans to develop at least 30 new care homes across the country over the next five years.

For the past four years, Davis Langdon has worked with Care UK as employer’s agent, cost manager, quality monitor and health and safety consultant on a number of projects including the recently opened specialist dementia nursing home, Harry Sotnick House in Portsmouth.

This new appointment will give Davis Langdon a much wider remit to help the organisation carry out its ambitious growth strategy. The expanded programme manager role includes the provision of strategic programme management, procurement and supplier engineering management and running the centralised programme management office.

Additional responsibilities that Davis Langdon will manage include the establishment of the programme’s success criteria, clarifying the scope of the programme and defining an optimal delivery strategy. Davis Langdon will also set out a clear process for assuring Care UK gets value for money from inception through delivery of the completed buildings, mitigate the supply side risk, realise economies of scale through a centralised overview function and defining the factors that will drive the development programme’s success.

Richard Smith, Head of Property for Care UK’s residential services, said: “Having worked closely with Davis Langdon for the past four years, we are confident that they will help deliver Care UK’s development programme efficiently and effectively.”

Paul Houghton, a director for Davis Langdon, commented: “Working with a forward-thinking and innovative organisation like Care UK has given us the opportunity to offer our leading edge programme management and supply chain engineering services, in addition to our core consultancy service offering, which are ideal for clients undertaking a large development programme. The services we are providing Care UK will help maximise the value from their investment which will result in improved quality developments for their residents and lower running costs for their maintenance teams, combined with more cost effective capital investment per care home.”

Houghton continued: “Over the years that Davis Langdon has worked with Care UK we have helped them deliver high quality nursing homes in a cost effective and programme efficient manner. Additionally, we have enabled them to establish a specification document which balances increased quality materials with lower maintenance costs and improved procurement processes, similar to those used to procure the successful London Olympic development programme.”