Co-Designing Safer Spaces: Developing a Non-Visual Patient Safety Aid in Partnership with Mental Health and Secure Children’s Services

Synopsis

This session will present the co-development journey of a ground-breaking non-visual patient safety aid designed specifically for use in psychiatric intensive care and other mental health settings and secure children care settings. Developed through close collaboration with NHS mental health trusts, clinical teams, service users, and industry partners, this solution addresses a critical unmet need: enhancing patient safety in low-stimulation environments where visual alerts may be unsuitable or inaccessible.
The project was guided from inception to implementation by the NHS Digital Health Technologies Assessment Criteria (DTAC), ensuring clinical efficacy, patient-centred design, interoperability, data protection, and rigorous evidence standards.
Attendees will gain insight into how these criteria were operationalised throughout the project—from early-stage needs assessment and stakeholder engagement through to prototyping, pilot deployment, and real-world evaluation.
The session will explore:
● The unique challenges of designing safety solutions in Secure Children’s Settings & mental health wards.

● How inclusive design and co-production methodologies led to a practical, human-centred innovation.

● Lessons learned from working across institutional boundaries to align safety, usability, and digital compliance.

● Early feedback and impact data from pilot sites.

This presentation will be valuable for clinical leaders, quality and safety specialists, digital health innovators, and policymakers interested in practical, scalable models of digital co-development in complex care settings.