Mental Health Facility Wins ATLAS Award Offering Clever Design and a Safe Haven for Patients and Staff

The complex project involved innovative designs and bespoke solutions to create a secure and safe facility, with its success partly due to the experience and expertise of Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), Steve Downing and Ellen Ramasawmy from the Metropolitan police.

The new £82 million hospital facility is part of the North London Mental Health Partnership’s vision of ‘Better Mental Health. Better Communities. Better Lives’, aimed at transforming and destigmatising mental health care.

Constructed to replace the ageing in-patient facilities of St Pancras Hospital, Highgate East is a purpose built cutting-edge facility that paves the way for a new approach to mental health  -  one that values both therapeutic care and the sense of well-being that comes from being in a calming and safe physical environment, where architecture and design play a key role.

The challenge for everyone involved in the project was to create a welcoming, modern inclusive environment that was also secure and kept patients and staff safe from harm, and to protect them from intrusions onto the site by others or break-ins.

This vision was brought to life through collaboration and partnerships between the North London NHS Foundation Trust, the Kingsway Group, Ryder Architecture, BAM Construction and the Met DOCOs Steve Downing and Ellen Ramasawmy. Service users also played an important role in shaping the design, feel and look.

Every aspect of the building was carefully considered with both design and safety in mind. For example, the reception area is light and welcoming, but it also has full height laminated glass screens, access control and includes extra layers of security. Within the facility there are compartmentalised spaces throughout which create safe spaces for staff and service users that can be isolated off and accessed with remote audio and visual controlled door-sets. 

To further protect service users and staff, CCTV monitoring is in place throughout alongside practical anti-harm measures such as specialist doors and hinges, security windows and handrails with smooth rounded edges. SBD member company Kawneer UK Ltd supplied the curtain walling and profiles, but many of the requirements needed unique bespoke designs that weren’t readily available off the shelf and the DOCOs Downing and Ramasawmy worked closely with the design team and site manager to advise at all stages of the build. 

The result is a modern dynamic facility which is bright and welcoming, contributing to healing and recovery. The building is protected by a secure boundary to help prevent unauthorised exit and entry. Each of the 78 single ensuite rooms is designed to be safe and comfortable, featuring individual room temperature controls, soft furnishings, reinforced TV panels, and modern secure or heavy base furniture to prevent injury. There are calming sensory rooms and airy commons areas with TVs and pool tables to help create a sense of community. There is even an on-site state-of-the-art gym. 

Each ward in the building has access to an outdoor space through a series of terraced sky gardens to allow service users to connect with nature and spend valuable time outside. They are all fully enclosed with considered anti suicide measures such as sloped windowsills, tall boundaries and CCTV. However, they are also open and airy with soft low level planting to create a warm safe space.

On the ground floor there’s a public café open to all, helping to build connections with the local communities of Highgate and Camden. This fosters a sense of inclusivity, which in turn aims to break down barriers and challenge perceptions of mental health.

Highgate East is testament to the fact that thoughtfully designed spaces can create an aesthetically pleasing environment that not only enhances well-being for staff and service users, but also incorporates strategic safety measures to help prevent crime both inside and out of the facility.

Bev Harrison, BAM Construction said, “The design of Highgate East has always been based around destigmatising mental health services by creating an environment (both internally and externally) that supports the emotional and psychological well-being of service users. This principle was followed through to the security aspect of the project, where it was critical to provide safe spaces for both staff and service users but without being intrusive to their working and living conditions. The feedback to date since handing over has been really positive which speaks volumes to the consideration of the design right the way through to working with our supply chain to deliver a high quality, secure building for our client.”

Steve Downing, Met DOCO, also commented, “I was delighted to be able to award Highgate East with SBD accreditation. The close working relationship between all parties from start to finish really helped to ensure that this facility can help and support staff and service users in providing a welcoming, safe and where required, secure way. A key driver of the Secured by Design initiative includes the construction of well-designed places, buildings and environments that not only promote sustainable communities, health and well-being; but also helping to ensure that this is delivered in a safe, secure and accessible way. Mitigating the opportunities for crime is not only about reducing and preventing injury and crime, but also about building strong, cohesive, vibrant and participatory communities.”

A video walkthrough of the facility can be found here: North London NHS Foundation Trust | 📹 Check out this video of Highgate East, our brand new state-of-the-art mental health inpatient building! ⠀ ⠀ Highgate East offers 78... | Instagram

What is Secured by Design?
Secured by Design (SBD) is the official police security initiative that works to improve the security of buildings and their immediate surroundings to provide safe places to live, work, shop and visit. 

SBD’s product based accreditation scheme – the Police Preferred Specification - provides a recognised standard for all security products that can deter and reduce crime.

There are currently many hundreds of companies producing thousands of attack resistant crime prevention products, across 30 different crime categories, which have achieved Police Preferred Specification.

Improved security
Developers around the UK can achieve SBD awards for incorporating crime prevention measures and techniques into their developments in all kinds of building sectors, such as residential, education, health, transport, commercial, retail, sport and leisure. Indeed, SBD can be used as evidence to discharge third-party obligations under Part Q of Schedule 1 (Security) to the English Building Regulations, the Scottish Building Standard 4.13 (Security) and Welsh Building Regulations Part Q (Security – Dwellings). These awards are gained by working with police Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), who advise architects, developers and local authority planners long before construction begins – and continue to provide advice and guidance until the development is complete. 

Academic and other research shows that improving standards of security in brand new and refurbished properties, helps deter and reduce crime. Reducing crime and the fear of crime has direct links to better physical and mental well-being, such as with regard to high volume crimes like domestic abuse.    

The built environment influences the behaviour of people who work, live, socialise or simply pass through. SBD seeks to create environments where the law-abiding feel safe and secure whilst at the same time causing the criminal or anti-social to feel vulnerable to detection and thereby influence behaviour in a positive way. This continues to be a key objective for SBD.

Find out more about SBD Developers Awards here.

SBD Design Guides
SBD has produced a series of authoritative Design Guides to assist the building, design and construction industry to incorporate security into developments to comply with the Building Regulations in England, Scotland and Wales and meet the requirements of SBD.

These Design Guides, available to download for free at the SBD website, have been updated over the years to keep pace with changing patterns of criminal behaviour and advances in building design and new technology.

They are a valuable source of reference to architects, developers, self-builders, local authority planners and police officers and cover a range of building sectors, including residential, education, health, transport and commercial.  

Police Designing Out Crime Officers 
DOCOs provide specialist crime reduction advice to the public, businesses and colleagues about premises or property security. They also work with building developers, architects, and council planning departments regarding new developments and refurbishments, to 'design out' crimes like burglary and anti-social behaviour (ASB) by providing advice on street lighting, building and street layout, entrances and exits - as well as preferred standards and specifications for doors, windows, and locks, under the Secured by Design initiative. 

DOCOs are able to deliver site specific interventions required to help design out crime in areas that suffer disproportionately from acquisitive crime, based on local crime pattern analysis, police, local authority and community engagement and the collective knowledge and experience of how criminals behave.
DOCOs are specialist problem solvers, working every day to make a positive difference, changing lives for the better and helping people to be safe and secure in their homes.

Contact details for local DOCOs can be found here.