RECENT NEWS

Following the retirement ‘by rotation’ of Russell Hogarth, Clive Stone, and Cath Lake, as directors of the Design in Mental Health Network during 2018, Jenny Gill reported at the Network’s 2018 AGM in Manchester in October that while the latter two individuals had been re-elected, a new member had been elected to the Board.

Speaking at the Design in Mental Health Network’s 2018 AGM at October’s Healthcare Estates 2018 event in Manchester, the DiMHN’s chair, Jenny Gill, explained that all the DiMHN Workstreams had had a very busy year.

RSK Group, which claims to be the UK’s leading integrated environmental, engineering, and technical services business, has announced its latest acquisition – design, property, and construction consultancy, Pellings – the ninth acquisition that RSK, a privately owned company with 36 international offices, over 2,700 staff, and an annual turnover of £200 m, has made in the 2018/2019 financial year.

The NHS Long Term Plan, launched on 7 January, sets out how the £20.5 billion budget settlement for the NHS, announced by the Prime Minister last summer, will be spent over the next five years, and includes measures to prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases, as well as to provide better access to mental health services for adults and children.

The Department of Health says the Plan ‘focuses on building an NHS fit for the future’, by:

•enabling everyone to get the best start in life;

•helping communities to live well;

•helping people to age well.

The Mental Health Policy Group has published a ‘Consensus Statement’ with ‘partner organisations committed to improving the lives of people with mental health problems’.

The Door & Hardware Federation (DHF) has released a new Best Practice Guide for the locks and building hardware industry covering the British Standard for Mechanically Operated Push-Button Locksets (BS 8607:2014 + A1:2016).

Static Systems Group recently welcomed committee members from the Design in Mental Health Network (DiMHN) to its Staffordshire headquarters, where the DiMHN committee combined a CPD visit with its latest board meeting.

The main aims of the visit, which was co-hosted by Static Systems Group and Guardian Staff Safety Systems, were to establish opportunities for collaborative working and highlight the latest product developments in attack alarm, fire, and call systems.

Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Mental Health Network, part of the NHS Confederation, has welcomed Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock’s announcement of a new strategy for dealing with violence against NHS staff.

Confirmation of the extra £20.5 bn more in ‘real terms’ annual funding for the NHS by 2023-2024 announced this June, – including at least £2 bn annually for mental health, and an end to the use of the current PFI model, were among the notable elements impacting on health and social care in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s 2018 Budget Speech delivered on 29 October.

The third in a series of ‘Design With People in Mind’ guides to be published to date by the Design in Mental Health Network – this time focusing on the importance of stakeholder engagement in the design of both new-builds and refurbishments in mental healthcare, was launched at IHEEM’s Healthcare Estates 2018 in early October.

100% Hackitt – an industry initiative to encourage the government to deliver all of the recommendations contained within Dame Judith's report – was launched in Westminster on 22 October by Local Authority Building Control (LABC) and the British Board of Agrément (BBA).

NHS Trusts in England are being strongly encouraged by NHSI Improvement to apply for s share of £46 m in Public Dividend Funding to implement ‘energy-efficient’ LED lighting in their healthcare facilities, in the process not only improving the patient environment, but also potentially cutting their annual electricity usage by 5-20 per cent.

Announcing the money’s availability during an ‘NHSI Surgery’ held on 10 October during IHEEM's Healthcare Estates 2018 event, Fiona Daly, NHSI’s National Sustainability and EFM Workforce lead / Operational Productivity, announced that against a backdrop where the organisation is ‘committed to working with provides to help realise savings’, implementing energy-saving LED lighting schemes in healthcare facilities had been shown to offer ‘proven return-on-investment’ and both maintenance and carbon savings.

Find Memory Care has teamed up with Tees, Esk & Wear Valley NHS to enhance the environment at Acomb Garth in York, a unit for male adults with dementia.

Intastop has launched a ‘hygienic, impactresistant sheet’ as a cladding for walls and doors.

When developing products for the mental health sector, it should be obvious that standard designs won’t be appropriate, points out Alan Rees, MD of Corby-based Creative Ironmongery, who adds that, nevertheless, ‘some suppliers will try to convince buyers that a standard product is adequate’.

The new Zen seating range from Pineapple Contracts is ‘helping to build areas of calm, relaxation, and rest, in areas of challenging behaviour’.

British Gypsum’s ThistlePro DuraFinish skimming plaster is helping to protect the walls from accidental damage at a new sensory room facility for a charity organisation set up to prevent isolation for families affected by autistic spectrum condition, Autism Isolation No More.

Stanley Security has partnered with Londonbased security start-up, Doordeck, to launch the Stanley OneDoor smartphone-based access control system, which can be used with existing Stanley access control products, and reportedly ‘rolled out to an entire building in under one hour, without the need for new hardware’.

With its height, whitewashed walls, slate-clad appearance, and rural setting, combining to lend it a homely, domestic feel, at first glance the new Rathview Mental Health Facility in Omagh is perhaps not what you would expect.

Britplas has been appointed to supply the window and glazing package to Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s new mental health facility in Southport, continuing a relationship between the two organisations which started 12 years ago with the installation of the first ever Safevent windows.