Maple ward’s staff and service users have moved to Dovedale 2 ward.

This is a major moment as now all of our adult acute inpatient wards are operating in refurbished spaces. This means we have addressed the final part of the changes the Care Quality Commission (CQC) told us to make to ensure the places where we care for service users are safe.

Dovedale 2 is a more modern, safe and therapeutic space for our staff and service users to be in.

The ward itself was originally built in 2021 and designed to offer a more therapeutic space, including a comfortable lounge, gym facilities and an outdoor space which features raised beds and can be accessed without supervision by our service users.

The staff team has a multidisciplinary team meeting room on the ward with refreshment facilities and a wall mounted screen, plus a relaxing staff rest area available nearby.

Richard Bulmer, head of service for acute and community services, said: “The staff working on the wards have been adaptable, compassionate and dedicated in supporting these moves over the last few years. All the hard work from staff to make sure these changes have been managed to be person-centred for our service users shouldn't be underestimated. The environments we work in make a difference to everyone who works and receives care and treatment on our wards. Thank you.”

A big congratulations to all of the teams involved in the therapeutic environments programme for making this move happen successfully, and for all of your work and dedication throughout the last four years of this programme.

Since this programme began in August 2020 we have:

• Removed dormitories from our inpatient accommodation
• Eliminated mixed sex accommodation in our acute inpatient areas
• Built a new ‘decant’ ward to make these moves possible
• Redesigned our three acute inpatient wards
• Created a new staff rest area at the Michael Carlisle Centre
• Built a gym for service users at the same site
• Completed the removal of safety risks to the CQC’s standards
• Redesigned the Longley centre reception and crisis services area
• Given service users unsupervised access to outdoor space across our wards
• Been nominated for a national award for our newly designed Health Based Place of Safety
• Involved hundreds of staff, service users, experts by experience and partners

We now plan to refurbish and redesign Maple ward to improve the environment, including by removing safety risks, upgrading the outdoor space and offering better de-escalation spaces.