Non lighting professionals – understanding light/lighting
This two-day course (available in‑person or online) has been expertly crafted for planners, developers, architects and managers with no prior lighting background.
Delivered by Lorraine Calcott IEng FILP IALD CLD MSLL MCIBSE MBSS, the programme provides essential knowledge on what makes a quality lighting design and how to interpret planning conditions.
The programme provides essential knowledge on
✓ What makes a quality lighting design
✓ How to interpret planning conditions
You’ll learn to recognise the impact of layout and tree obstruction on light, assess environmental and well‑being considerations, and confidently review lighting proposals to ensure compliance and value. Whether you’re reviewing lighting designers’ work or integrating thoughtful illumination into your projects, this course equips you with the expertise to raise standards across your organisation.
Over two days, attendees gain practical skills to identify lighting pitfalls, engage with qualified designers, and enhance both ecological and human wellbeing outcomes. The focus extends beyond mere aesthetics: you’ll explore how strategic lighting supports sleep, mood and environmental health, while ensuring designs meet regulatory requirements. Real‑world examples, including planning and public realm projects, demonstrate how good lighting drives architectural excellence, protects the environment and positively affects occupants.
Secure your place and transform how you approach lighting, for your projects and your people.
NHS and healthcare professionals – How to use light to improve health
This half-day course has been specifically designed for NHS and healthcare professionals seeking to understand the critical role lighting plays in supporting both patient recovery and staff wellbeing. Delivered in accessible terms, this training explores the fundamentals of spectrally specific lighting, why it matters, how it works, and the consequences of getting it wrong. From circadian rhythms and cellular repair to glare reduction and emotional comfort, attendees will gain a solid foundation in what truly healthy lighting looks like in clinical environments.
Participants will learn how to recognise quality lighting specifications, assess maintenance requirements, and understand why certain controls and technologies can enhance, or undermine, patient outcomes. The course also examines how poor lighting contributes to sleep disruption, disorientation, and extended bed occupancy, while good lighting has the potential to shorten recovery times, improve sleep, and reduce stress for both patients and healthcare workers alike.
Book now to bring light-based healing into your healthcare practice.
New parents – Improving sleep and health at the start of your parenthood journey
This course is born out of a deep commitment to help new parents survive, and even thrive, through the chaotic early days of parenthood. Newborns don’t arrive with circadian rhythms in place, and as your baby struggles to make sense of day and night, so does your sleep-deprived brain. The result? Zombie parents lurching from bottle to cot, often too exhausted to think straight. But here’s the good news: by understanding how light influences your baby’s biological development, and your own, you can take back some control and start creating a calmer, more restful routine for everyone.
In this short but powerful session, you’ll learn what kind of light to avoid, what to embrace, and how to design a sleep-friendly space that actually supports circadian development for both you and your baby. From practical tips on night feeds to the truth about those tempting ‘sleep gadgets’, you’ll leave empowered, not overwhelmed. Parenthood will always be a bit exhausting, but it doesn’t have to be sleepless.
Join us and let light guide you through the most important transition of your life, with a little more rest along the way.
More information:
Download – Babies and Sleep
Lighting for ecologists – how to find the balance and write the most impactful conditions
This half-day course is designed for ecologists and environmental professionals facing increasing pressure to protect biodiversity while supporting fast-paced development demands. With the UK government relaxing environmental safeguards in favour of housing targets, the need to write robust, enforceable lighting conditions has never been more critical.
Whether you’re dealing with established habitats or planned green infrastructure, this session will equip you to understand what lighting should, and shouldn’t, be allowed, and how to request it with confidence and clarity.
Led by Lorraine Calcott IEng FILP IALD CLD MSLL MCIBSE MBSS, who has collaborated with Natural England and ecologists across the UK for decades, the course combines technical insight with practical, real-world application. You’ll learn how to balance safety for human receptors with effective mitigation for bats, invertebrates and other sensitive species, using examples from some of the most sensitive ecological sites in the country. From Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) to vertical illuminance and spectral control, this is training designed to strengthen your planning outcomes and your impact.
Book your place and learn how to defend ecology with confidence, and evidence.
Are there any further questions I can assist with?
Experiencing difficulty locating the desired information? Reach out for a discussion.
House builders and developers – Working lighting effectively into your layouts
+
A course for housing developers and site promoters
This half-day course has been created specifically for housing developers and site promoters who want to avoid the costly pitfalls of poor lighting integration. Too often, lighting is left to the last minute, or worse, handed to a free product-based layout from a manufacturer, and it shows.
+
Learn to avoid escalations
From delayed approvals and failed planning conditions to sky-high bond costs and on-site redesigns, these issues can quickly escalate into hundreds of thousands in lost time and revenue. A professional lighting designer, brought in early, can prevent all of this with a design that satisfies local authorities, ecologists, and the demands of good layout planning.
+
Real-world case studies
Through real-world case studies, attendees will learn how to engage with lighting proactively, before you find out a column can’t go where your layout puts it. We’ll show how poor column placement, inappropriate light spill, obtrusive light and missed ecological constraints can derail an otherwise solid scheme.
+
Key takeaways
You’ll leave understanding exactly what a qualified lighting designer brings to the table: safer streets, happier planners, protected habitats, and fewer costly surprises.
Avoid expensive mistakes, get lighting right from the start and build smarter, not harder.
Installers and contractors – understanding the nuances of lighting design
This one-hour course is tailored for contractors and installers working on housing developments who are tasked with bringing lighting designs to life. While the drawings might look straightforward, every column placement, mounting height, and tilt angle has been calculated for a reason. Yet all too often, fittings are installed wherever there’s space or convenience, 3 metres from where specified, tilted upwards instead of level, or even positioned within tree canopies. These deviations, however small they seem, can compromise safety, ecological mitigation, visual comfort, and the chances of adoption by the local authority.
Get it right first time, learn how to install lighting the way it was meant to be.
More information:
Download – Installers and contractors; understanding the nuances of lighting design
Improving your mitochondrial health – How to age better and live a healthier life
This three-hour course explores the groundbreaking research of Professor Glen Jeffrey and Professor Robert Fosbury at UCL, shining a light, quite literally, on how infrared can transform human health. Delivered online or in person, it offers professionals and the health-conscious public a compelling introduction to mitochondrial support through daily light exposure. From the vital role of daylight to the powerful regenerative effects of near-infrared, attendees will uncover the science behind better ageing, improved immunity, and enhanced cell function, all driven by light.
We’ll explore real-world, research-backed outcomes on how infrared lighting may support those living with many conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and vision decline. You’ll also discover its surprising benefits for pollinators, plant vitality, and even food production. Whether you’re looking to improve workplace wellness, integrate light-based therapy into health practice, or simply make informed choices for your own wellbeing, this course offers practical insight grounded in the latest peer-reviewed science.
Join us to unlock the healing power of light and discover what ageing better really looks like.
What customers think of us
“Lorraine’s delivery was excellent and the day was highly informative”
“My team and I recently attended a one day training course by It Does Lighting, covering the basics of lighting design for town planners and other non-lighting professionals.
I thought Lorraine’s delivery was excellent and the day was highly informative. I had very little understanding of lighting design prior to this. However, I now feel I have the skills to do an initial sense check on a lighting design/scheme, in that I would know what information to look for and how to tell if it has been properly considered. This will be useful at pre-app meetings and when reviewing initial plans, when I do not have access the a specialist lighting consultant. I would then be able to ask appropriate initial questions before paying a consultant to carry out a full review at the appropriate time. We also spent some time during the training thinking about the types of information that would need to be captured within a lighting condition. This was also really useful and will ensure that we can control lighting design appropriately, through each stage of the planning process”
Alexander Tayler
Planning Officer
Ebbsfleet
“This training highlighted just how valuable a skilled lighting designer can be”
“We recently had the pleasure of hosting Lorraine from It Does Lighting for a full day of training focused on lighting standards, design essentials, and how ‘good’ lighting supports the delivery of safe and secure built environments. The session was highly informative, giving our security consultants a clearer understanding of the standards that shape lighting design and how to achieve compliant, effective lighting solutions in our projects.
Lorraine was very accommodating, taking time to cover specific areas of interest from our team, which made the session even more relevant to our work. Her experience shone through in practical guidance on avoiding design pitfalls, reducing obtrusive light, and ensuring compliance with British Standards.
This training highlighted just how valuable a skilled lighting designer can be, especially in challenging environments where safety, usability, and compliance need to work together. We’d highly recommend Lorraine’s training to any team looking to better their understanding of the role of lighting. It was a productive, engaging day that’s added a lot to our approach”
Gareth Hulmes
Toren Consulting Ltd
“Lorraine provided an exemplary training day”
“EDC appointed Lorraine to provide a training package for our planning team on lighting in the public realm. The aim was to use the training to help us develop our approach around guidance, assessment and conditioning for lighting in future planning applications for Ebbsfleet Garden City.
Lorraine provided an exemplary training day, covering all key areas of lighting within the public realm that was comprehensive, but presented in a clear and logical manner, with lots of practical examples and real-world project-based insight that helped to convey the essence of her knowledge in a simple and digestible manner.
Her technical expertise was supported by a genuine passion for the discipline, which helped to enthuse our team with an interest and desire to develop best practise approaches to lighting going forwards”
Simon Harrison,
Head of Design
Ebbsfleet
Frequently Asked Questions – Education and Training
What could I learn on your training course for non-lighting professionals?
We have a variety of offers for you to learn what is specific to your needs. There is no one size fits all and each course is tailored to help your sector better understand how to interact and utilise a lighting professional on your design team. We explain how to save cost on your project, deliver healthy, inspiring, innovative designs and why competency in your chosen lighting professional is essential. Ecology, health, planning, education, town centre regeneration, street lighting, office lighting, commercial spaces, you name it we cover it.
Do you deliver online courses and webinars?
Yes all formats can be accommodated and in the future we will have a full downloadable education programme online, in easy to learn 30 minute modules. Drop us a line to be on the wait list for these when they arrive information@itdoes.co.uk.
If I am a new parent do you deliver webinars to help me understand my babies sleep needs?
Yes, we work with the health service providers to deliver meaningful information to you by webinar that will support you, your baby and help you get the most from this exciting (but tiring) time in your lives. Having a new baby shouldn’t mean you need to be like a sleep deprived zombie for the first two years, let us help.
Do you provide training for care home providers on how to light their properties to improve health?
We certainly do; in fact we have won awards for it. We can help you light these spaces not only to provide safe functional spaces but also to improve the sleep and biological health of those who work and live within it. We don’t just want you to live better we want you to sleep better too.
I oversee a company’s HR and my staff are complaining of headaches and illness, what courses do you offer to help me improve our office environment?
This is an area of growing concern, and we can certainly help. Poor artificial lighting, restricted spectrum daylight, glare, screens and a variety of other aspects plague office workers but it doesn’t have to be that way. Bad lighting should never impact your staff and is normally down to poor design or product choices made by non lighting professionals, or perhaps even budget constraints meant to save money that are now hitting your bottom line with staff absence. We can help you improve, or eliminate, these costly mistakes and bring not only great functional well-lit spaces but also improve health and wellness, giving your company the thumbs up in how to be a great employer.
We deliver research led solutions that dispense with HR nightmares, get in touch for more information.
I am a house builder who wants to light my development for British Standard compliance and planning authority approval. Can you help my team understand lighting and its integration into this process to avoid costly delays?
Our courses will enable your design teams to fully grasp why early interaction with your competent lighting professional is essential for a smooth-running project. Countless times projects are delayed by companies trying to use free designs, or unqualified people, to deliver lighting and it results in millions of pounds of hold ups when you want to start on site. We explain why you need a lighting professional, how best to use them, what challenges we face that you may not know and how we can design around them with collaboration in the early design stages. We help you understand ecology, health and compliance in relation to lighting and how Secure by Design, Lighting Impact Assessments and other key elements of your build process needs properly designed lighting.
You will come away enlightened and saving money on your projects for the future.
Are there any further questions I can assist with?
Experiencing difficulty locating the desired information? Reach out for a discussion.