Our newly refurbished Stanage ward has opened its doors to staff and service users, who have moved into their new site this week.

The all new Stanage ward is a 16 bed therapeutic environment which is now occupied by male service users.

• All ensuite bedrooms
• New de-escalation space with clinically-proven calming facilities and technology, such as sensory lighting options, and access to an individual outdoor space
• Relaxation space
• Quiet space
• New dispensary and treatment room
• Large dining area
• Redesigned courtyard and open access to an unsupervised garden space, including occupational therapy facilities such as raised beds for planting
• Artwork from local artist such as Pete McKee and Jill Ray, plus landscape prints of Sheffield and nearby spots in the Peak District. All of this is intended to 'bring the outside in,' including both calming nature spots and the local communities
• Communal area with large sofa and table tennis table
• Improved staff facilities, multi-disciplinary team (MDT) room and family room

The design of the ward followed the same process as with Burbage ward, which we opened in late 2022. The layout of the ward was dictated by the building, however the flow of the specific rooms was coproduced with the ward team. The décor and furnishings were consulted on by service users and staff, including the choice of artwork for the walls.

Richard Bulmer, head of service for acute and community services, said: “This new ward is a big improvement to our therapeutic spaces at SHSC. We’re delighted to open the doors to allow our fantastic Team SHSC staff to begin using the environment to work together and deliver the best care possible for our service users.”

Opening this new-look ward is another milestone for the therapeutic environments programme, and the project and capital teams behind it. The teams have now opened three new or refitted wards, our Health Based Place of Safety, a staff rest area, the new Longley Centre reception, Single Point of Access service, among other upgrade works across our sites.

Adele Sabin, head of the therapeutic environments programme team, said: “We have been working on this project for around 15 months, so it is a real pleasure to share the fruit of all the efforts of the litany of teams involved with the people it will make a difference to.

“I want to say a big thank you to everybody who has come together and worked really hard to ensure we built an environment that is high quality and where care can be provided in a safe, compassionate and dignified way which helps our service users to get better more quickly.”

The programme will now move on to refurbishing and redesigning Maple ward.