The initial appointment was by Rotherham College Group, who later merged with Worksop College and Wath-upon-Dearne College to create the RNN Group. For the project’s government funding to stay secure, the RNN Group had to restructure two-thirds of its senior management team, meaning that the original client contact for the scheme, up until the RIBA Stage 2 design, was replaced.
To overcome this, the staff from the newly-formed RNN Group – who took over the project – were given a full and comprehensive handover on the scheme by both the staff of Rotherham College Group who had remained after the restructuring, as well as by the Architect. This ensured that all knowledge was kept within the Client Team, and that this disruption of staff did not affect the programme.
Once the new Client Team was established, the continuity of staff was maintained throughout the entire project.
Another challenge faced by the RNN Group was in securing the funding -due to the economic uncertainties faced by the UK in the wake of the EU Referendum. Once the ‘Brexit’ vote had been cast, the Client was told to halt all work on the project whilst they re-secured the government funding. This process took 6 months in total, and set the programme back considerably – even though the original finish date had to be maintained. The Client was able to help the Design Team to overcome this by working collaboratively in order to create a new programme of works that achieved the original deadline date without affecting the quality of the finished building.
