Aspen Wood, Mersey Care NHS FT – Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Nominee Information

Aspen Wood is the new 40 bed, £35M Leaning Disability Low Secure Forensic inpatient unit for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. The new facility delivers 2 x 20 bed bespoke LD inpatient wards sub-divided into 4 and 5 bed living units, full OT/support spaces, therapy and sensory rooms including de-escalation/Immersive therapy spaces, and low/high stimulus areas. The new building is set in its own landscaped retreat and the external design architecture blends seamlessly with its rural surroundings.

The project is a direct response to the 2015 national plan ‘Building the right support: A national implementation plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities’ (NHS England), the objective of which was to transform care and treatment for people with learning disabilities by ensuring services are provided in more appropriate, therapeutic, and clinically effective settings.

The clinical team is led by Consultant Forensic Psychiatrists, Dr Frank Maguire and Dr Johannes Cronje. Together they designed a responsive new clinical model to support people more effectively to a life beyond care and which included a reduction in required beds from 82 in 2017 to 40 today. The design methodology for Aspen Wood was truly ‘person centred’ with the clinical team input working alongside people with lived experience/service to include service user voices to inform all aspects of the design, which we document and shared inclusively through our social media channels. As a therapeutic environment for challenging service users with Learning Disabilities, the building also had to deliver on onerous Forensic and MSU building standards around safety and security.

The clinical team pushed the architects and contractors hard to reduce the stigma around learning disability services and reflect the modern values, ethos and culture advocated by the Trust; which supports person-centred, progressive and forward-thinking mental health services supporting local and regional communities. The new building also reinforces the Trust’s/site’s status as a centre of excellence for mental health and LD services nationally/internationally. Senior clinical nurse managers tell visitors that this is the best designed hospital they have seen and its completion follows years of exhaustive engagement, learning and input from critical friends across wide-ranging clinical disciplines.

An essential aspect of the design of the new unit includes optimum multi-functional spaces to help improve therapeutic and social interactions for service users. Other key aspirations incorporated through full MDT engagement include:

• clear sight-lines throughout the building

• maximising natural ventilation with post Covid awareness

• ease of control of heating, ventilation and light by both service users and staff

• provision of tranquil spaces for service users to use for relaxation

• selection of flexible spaces for optimum space usage

• therapy rooms and space for de-escalation purposes

• an abundance of natural light to promote circadian wellbeing

• free-flowing space, with avoidance of pinch points

• ease of access to a range of beautiful outside spaces

• actively managed levels of acoustic control to support a calm environment

• use of technology and innovation to enhance service user care and support recovery and to ensure digital poverty is minimised