Strategic & Client Advice
At Ellis-Miller + Partners, we recognise that procuring a building project is inherently complex, laden with risks from the initial strategic planning stage onwards. For clients new to construction—particularly those in the public or voluntary sectors—these challenges can lead to cost overruns, delayed completions, designs that fall short of expectations, or substandard quality in the final scheme. To safeguard against such pitfalls, independent expertise is essential to guide and oversee the entire process. This is where our Client and Strategic Advisory services come into play, drawing on the specialised skills of our accredited professionals to deliver projects that are efficient, value-driven, and aligned with your vision.
The RIBA Client Adviser Role
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) established the Client Adviser qualification to address the growing demand for impartial guidance in commissioning buildings, especially among public sector clients such as the NHS, local authorities, and education bodies. As one of only over 100 RIBA-accredited Client Advisers in the UK, our partner Barry Coupe embodies this expertise. Selected by the RIBA for his comprehensive procurement knowledge, design acumen, business insight, and proven track record of on-time, on-budget deliveries, Barry provides independent strategic advice directly to clients—separate from the design team.
In practice, an RIBA Client Adviser works closely with your team from the outset, helping to define project objectives, develop a robust brief, assess feasibility and capacity, and embed sustainability and safety strategies. Key responsibilities include appointing the optimal design team, evaluating procurement routes and contractor selections, and administering tailored contracts to ensure value for money. This holistic oversight mitigates risks, maximises quality, and transforms ambitious ideas into successful outcomes. Barry has applied this approach across diverse sectors, from major school developments and charity-funded NHS departments to care home facilities for national organisations. In commercial contexts, his counsel has prompted strategic pivots that saved clients millions in development costs, underscoring the transformative impact of early, expert intervention.
Strategic Advisory Services
Complementing the Client Adviser role, our Strategic Advisory services—led by partner Jonathan Ellis-Miller—focus on high-level planning and execution to secure the best possible outcomes for clients across public and private sectors. A Strategic Adviser in construction acts as a trusted partner, offering deep industry insight to navigate complex procurements, identify risks and opportunities, and craft bespoke strategies that align with organisational goals. This involves overseeing project lifecycles from inception to completion, conducting market analysis, refining policies for compliance and growth, and facilitating stakeholder collaboration to drive informed decision-making. Unlike tactical project management, strategic advice emphasises long-term vision: evaluating investment viability, optimising procurement models, and ensuring schemes deliver measurable benefits, such as enhanced community impact or commercial returns.
Jonathan brings unparalleled experience to this role, having collaborated with both private developers and public entities on multimillion-pound initiatives. As an Enabler for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), he supported local authorities in assembling top-tier project teams for school procurements, including Birmingham City Council’s PPP2 and Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes with a combined £2.25 billion budget. His team at Ellis-Miller + Partners served as Client Advisers for Nottingham City Council BSF, Hertfordshire County Council BSF, and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council BSF, while also advising bidders like Balfour Beatty and Wates on competitive tenders. On the private front, Jonathan guided Criterion Capital through their ambitious 4,000-home Build to Rent project, from team selection to ongoing management, ensuring seamless delivery. Additionally, he pioneered CABE Design Journey Spatial Plans—an innovative, interactive masterplanning tool that empowers clients to visualise and refine spatial strategies with precision.
Whether you’re embarking on a public infrastructure scheme or a private development, Ellis-Miller + Partners’ Client and Strategic Advisory services provide the independent, forward-thinking support needed to turn challenges into enduring successes. Contact us to discuss how we can safeguard and elevate your next project.
Canford School
Barry Coupe – Governor Responsible for Property and Development at Canford SchoolBarry Coupe served as a Governor at Canford School, Wimborne, Dorset – one of the UK's top independent co-educational public schools. As the designated Governor for property and future projects, he acted as an RIBA Client Adviser, collaborating closely with the Director of Estates. His responsibilities included managing alterations and refurbishments to the school's historic Grade I listed buildings (designed in part by Sir Charles Barry), alongside the ongoing maintenance and stewardship of 370 acres of stunning parkland, incorporating a golf course. He also ensured rigorous financial control to keep all works within approved annual budgets. Between 2012 and 2022, Canford School authorised and successfully delivered £40 million in capital projects without any borrowing. Key developments included:
A state-of-the-art new Library (opened September 2021)
Two new boys' boarding houses
Comprehensive refurbishment of the Assembly Hall
A new Sixth Form Centre / College facilities
All projects were completed on time and on budget, reflecting prudent governance and strategic planning. To secure the highest-quality designs, Barry initiated open architectural competitions for each scheme, appointing different architects accordingly. In partnership with the Director of Estates, he led the creation of comprehensive project briefs, drawing on detailed input from departmental heads to align with the school's educational vision. The consistent success of these major capital projects at Canford School stemmed from outstanding communication among the client team, designers, and contractors – combined with a shared, precise understanding of objectives from the outset.
Nottingham BSF
Jonathan Ellis-Miller served as Client Design Advisor to Nottingham City Council £250 million Building Schools for the Future programme (2007–2010), one of the flagship waves of the national BSF initiative to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England.
Acting as the council’s independent design champion, Jonathan played a pivotal role in selecting bidders during the competitive OJEU procurement process, rigorously evaluating technical capability and design vision. He then safeguarded design quality at every stage: chairing design reviews, scrutinising contractor proposals, challenging cost-driven compromises, and ensuring architectural ambition aligned with educational transformation and long-term sustainability.
The programme successfully delivered seven new or fully refurbished secondary schools plus an exemplary city-wide sample project, all completed on time despite the 2010 national cancellation of later BSF phases. Jonathan’s hands-on involvement in bidder selection and relentless focus on design excellence produced outstanding learning environments that continue to benefit Nottingham’s pupils and communities.
Hertfordshire BSF/ Stevenage
Jonathan Ellis-Miller and the Ellis-Miller + Partners team were appointed joint Client Design Advisors for Hertfordshire County Council’s £500 million Building Schools for the Future programme, a landmark wave of the national BSF initiative to transform secondary education through PFI procurement.
The brief centred on renewing post-war system-built schools, including several Grade II-listed examples. A standout project was the £38 million remodelling of The Nobel School in Stevenage: replacing 1960s prefabricated buildings with a contemporary campus featuring extensive new-build elements, sensitive refurbishment of retained structures, open-plan collaborative teaching spaces, enhanced sustainability measures, and flexible facilities for a broad curriculum. Completed in 2013 despite the 2010 national BSF cancellation, Nobel’s transformation earned widespread praise and an Ofsted ‘good’ rating for its exemplary learning environment.
Jonathan guided bidder selection, chaired rigorous design reviews, and safeguarded heritage and educational ambition throughout. This proven expertise in complex PFI procurement, listed post-war school refurbishment, and delivering award-worthy outcomes remains at the heart of Ellis-Miller + Partners’ approach to education architecture.
Rotherham BSF
Jonathan Ellis-Miller and the Ellis-Miller + Partners team served as Client Design Advisors for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s £222 million Building Schools for the Future programme—a transformative wave of the national BSF initiative launched in 2004 to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools via PFI procurement, prioritising deprived areas based on GCSE results and free school meals uptake.
Central to their role was detailed, hands-on engagement with sample schools, including Aston Comprehensive School (now Aston Academy), where they assisted in devising forward-thinking educational visions tailored to pupil needs and wellbeing. The team crafted exemplar designs for modern, sustainable learning spaces, blending refurbishment with innovative builds. Schools were delighted with the outcomes, praising the enhanced facilities that boosted attainment and community ties.
Ellis-Miller + Partners were also instrumental in procuring Maltby Academy through the same rigorous OJEU process, ensuring its 2010 academy conversion aligned with BSF goals despite the 2010 national cancellation. This expertise in visioning, exemplar design, and PFI delivery underpins our approach to exemplary education architecture.
CABE Enabler/
Birmingham PPP2/BSF
Jonathan Ellis-Miller’s significant career in architecture and built environment advocacy shines through his pivotal roles with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the UK’s foremost government advisor on architecture, urban design, and public spaces from 1999 to 2011. CABE championed innovative, inclusive designs to elevate everyday environments, influencing policies that prioritised quality, sustainability, and community impact.
Appointed by CABE as an enabler on its transformative Schools programme, Jonathan provided expert guidance to local authorities and schools, ensuring designs met educational needs while fostering creativity and wellbeing. Progressing to senior Enabler, he honed strategies for high-impact school transformations nationwide and was involved in the training of other Enablers.
His expertise caught the eye of Birmingham City Council during their PPP2 schools procurement programme—a strategic public-private partnership initiative to modernise secondary education facilities through efficient, value-driven commissioning. Delighted with Jonathan’s insightful performance, the council insisted on his involvement in their ambitious Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project. This £2.4 billion endeavour, the largest BSF scheme, aimed to rebuild or refurbish all 89 secondary schools by 2024, delivering cutting-edge learning spaces that boosted attainment and aspiration. Though curtailed in 2010, Jonathan’s contributions helped complete 22 exemplary projects, leaving a lasting legacy in sustainable school architecture.
CABE Design Journey/
Exemplar Spatial Plans
Ellis-Miller + Partners played a pivotal role in CABE’s groundbreaking interactive web resource, The Design Journey (2007–2008). Commissioned by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, our studio collaborated closely with CABE’s education team to conceive, design and deliver this award-winning online tool that introduced thousands of schoolchildren to the principles of thoughtful spatial planning and sustainable urban design.
Working from concept through to final delivery, Ellis-Miller shaped the user experience, visual language and interactive narrative that made complex design processes accessible and engaging for Key Stage 2–4 pupils across the UK. The resulting platform – part digital adventure, part master-planning primer – remains a landmark example of how innovative digital design can inspire the next generation of place-makers.
Discover more about our work with CABE and our continued commitment to design education and exemplary built environments.
Blind Veterans UK Charity
London/Brighton
Barry Coupe, was appointed Chairman of Blind Veterans UK, a £32m national charity, with a clear mandate to overhaul its property portfolio and long-term investment strategy.
Having spent his career advising clients on complex building projects, Barry uniquely understands commissions from the client’s perspective. When a condition survey revealed that modernising the charity’s 1937 Ovingdean rehabilitation centre would cost £20m, he rejected the conventional refurbishment route in favour of a bolder, client-focused solution.
Working closely with the Board and Brighton & Hove City Council, Barry secured planning consent for residential development on adjacent land, unlocking substantial value. The Ovingdean site was sold for £13m. Those proceeds enabled the charity to acquire and fully refurbish a superior existing care home in Rustington, West Sussex, creating a state-of-the-art national Centre of Wellbeing for a net additional outlay of just £3m – a £17m saving.
This transformative outcome demonstrates Barry’s ability to combine strategic estate insight, planning expertise and rigorous cost control to deliver exceptional client value.
West Dorset Offices/
Dorchester
Featherstone Properties acquired the former West Dorset Council Offices in Dorchester with an ambitious vision for total refurbishment. Appointing Barry Coupe as RIBA Client Adviser, the practice provided independent guidance from feasibility and design appraisal through tender, contract administration and final account.
Despite an attractive lowest tender of £1,987,000 against the Quantity Surveyor’s £2,250,000 cost plan, concerns over under-pricing of mechanical and electrical services proved well-founded when the contractor entered financial difficulty at 80% completion.
Acting decisively, Barry Coupe advised against re-tendering the part-complete project and instead recommended retaining the existing site team, paying labour weekly and controlling material orders directly. This pragmatic solution-maintained momentum, mitigated risk and delivered the fully refurbished building for a final account of just under £2,250,000 – precisely on the original budget.
Another example of Barry Coupes expertise in rescuing troubled projects and delivering outstanding client outcomes in Dorset and across the Southwest.
New Thoracic Department Royal Bournemouth Hospital/
Bournemouth
Barry Coupe acted as RIBA Client Adviser for a specialist Thoracic Projects Charity to deliver a state-of-the-art Thoracic and Chest Unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Working within a tight £2 million budget and the existing footprint, the challenge was to fully replace the outdated department without expanding the building envelope.
By challenging conventional NHS procurement routes, we assembled a fully collaborative team from day one – NHS project managers, architects, M&E engineers, main contractor and the lead thoracic consultant – fostering genuine partnership and shared objectives.
The result: completion three months ahead of programme and £250,000 under budget. The savings enabled the Trust to acquire advanced diagnostic equipment beyond the original scope. Widely praised for its efficiency and clinical excellence, the project has been shortlisted for a national NHS Project Award.
Design Review/
Nationwide
Inspire East / London Borough of Hackney / London Borough of Enfield / Cambridge City Council / Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea / Design Council / CABE / Places Matter!
Jonathan Ellis-Miller has spent over two decades as a panellist on the UK’s most respected design review bodies, including Design Council CABE, Inspire East, Places Matter, London Boroughs of Hackney and Enfield, Cambridge City Council, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This is not a sideline – it is embedded professional experience at the highest level of independent scrutiny.
Clients benefit directly because every scheme we design is stress-tested against the ten nationally recognised Design Review Principles (Design Council 2023): it is reviewed as if by an independent, expert, multidisciplinary panel – because that is exactly how Jonathan has been trained to think.
Your project gains from scrutiny that is independent in outlook yet informed by insider knowledge; expert and multidisciplinary by instinct; timely, proportionate, transparent, and wholly objective. Risks are spotted early, planning hurdles anticipated, and design quality driven upwards long before formal submission. The result? Higher approval rates, reduced delays, lower costs through avoided redesign, and buildings that genuinely enhance their context.
In short, appointing Ellis-Miller + Partners means your architect doesn’t just understand good design – he has spent years formally defining it for others. That expertise now works exclusively for you.