Bedford Hospital Emergency Care Unit Wins ATLAS Award for Innovative and Secure Design

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust appointed its supply chain partner to deliver a state-of-the-art facility aimed at reducing waiting times and improving access to healthcare services in the local community.

Plans for the walk-in unit began in January 2025. Positioned opposite the Emergency Department, the build was carefully designed to minimise disruption and accelerate delivery. As a result, 90% of the construction took place off-site where customisable pods were designed, manufactured and then later craned into position at the hospital site.

  The new pods being craned into position at Bedford Hospital Image: Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

From the project’s inception, Bedfordshire Police’s Designing Out Crime Officers, Lara Curtyane and Lesley Johnson, liaised with all parties involved including the project manager Josh Skelcey, the engineering design team Troup-Bywaters, quantity surveyors CPM Consultants and architects Philipps & Co.

The DOCOs were satisfied that the design plans, layout and material specification were thorough and well considered. They worked closely with all parties to highlight the value of Secured by Design (SBD) in meeting and exceeding BREEAM. They also introduced key SBD measures to ensure the new unit met excellent safety standards and strengthened overall security around the high-risk A&E environment. The team also recommended the installation of SBD accredited secure drugs cabinets throughout the facility.

The result is a modern, efficient healthcare facility that balances accessibility with robust security, ensuring patients and staff feel safer and more supported. The £3.6m unit includes consultation rooms, clinical management rooms, examination rooms, assessment areas and other supporting services. It now sees approximately 70 patients a day who are assessed, diagnosed and treated on the same day, reducing the need for hospital admissions and alleviating pressure on the Accident & Emergency department.

This project is also particularly significant because it is the first SBD application made in Bedford Borough Council and the first non-residential application for Bedfordshire. Following its success, and the impact of the work carried out by DOCOs Lara and Lesley, David Carter, Chief Executive of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed that Bedfordshire NHS will be applying for a further five SBD awards during their 5-year redevelopment plan.

In a joint statement the DOCOs said, “Working with Bedfordshire NHS Trust had some challenging moments but with negotiation and compromise, common ground was found which has resulted in a sound working relationship with all the parties involved and a new healthcare building where staff and patients feel secure.

We are proud to have our efforts acknowledged so early in our DOCO careers and look forward to working with many more architects and developers to ensure Bedfordshire is a safe place to live and work.”

Melanie Banks, Director of Redevelopment and Strategic Planning Bedfordshire Hospitals, said, “It’s been incredible to see how this project has developed over the past eight months and the how this brand new unit has come to life.

“With population growth across Bedfordshire significantly higher than the national average and in Bedford Borough it’s more than double, the demand on our services continues to grow. The new SDEC will make a huge difference to patients needing our service.”

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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.