NEWS
‘Building’Award win tops off a successful year for Britplas COVER STORY
Britplas, leading supplier of specialist windows to the mental health sector, has won the Specialist Contractor of the Year award in the 2020 Building Awards. These prestigious annual awards celebrate the very best of the UK construction sector, and the winners were announced in an online film released at the end of last year.
The Warrington-based manufacturer says it has experienced sustained growth since the inception of its Safevent window some 15 years ago. The product has been continuously developed, with the latest innovation being the launch of the patented Multask handle – an opening winder, patient thumb lock, and staff lock within a single anti-ligature, stainless steel component.
In 2020, Britplas completed Safevent installations at Blossom Court, a new four-ward, 74-bedded inpatient
mental health facility at St Ann’s Hospital in Tottenham, and a significant refurbishment project at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, among many other projects undertaken both for the NHS and private sector clients.
The company has also been selected to supply Safevent windows to the new state-of-the art mental health facility being built at Springfield University Hospital in Tooting by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. With the build now underway, the £150 m development will include eight new inpatient wards, and is set to open in 2022.
Britplas
18 Kingsland Grange,Woolston, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 4RW T: 01925 824317; E:
sales@britplas.com;
www.britplas.com
A ‘five-step approach’ to door safety
Kingsway Group has augmented its well- proven ‘Design, Develop, Deliver’ approach to door manufacture and supply by adding to its offering two new elements – door installation by its own employed personnel, and a new maintenance package – under which it will carry out a comprehensive annual ‘health-check’ for all doors supplied to, say, an NHS Trust, send a subsequent condition report and list ‘action items’ required to return any ‘failing’ doors to compliance, and maintain all the doors it has supplied on an ongoing basis. Sales director, Julian Hall, elaborates: “After working through our existing three- step process for over 2,000 completed mental health projects to date, it became obvious that there were two further important steps we should offer – full installation, and ongoing door maintenance by our own team. Correct installation of life- safety products is critical to their proper operation, anti-ligature door systems being no exception. While we can fully train and support third-party installation teams, we have now set up our own employed installation team which provides the complete certification.”
Kingsway says problems overcome via this ‘new, joined-up approach’ are as follows:
requirement in public buildings, and this, coupled with use of anti-ligature hardware, means unique requirements for door maintenance in mental health
l Clear communication, with the company the point of contact for the entire process.
l Kingsway Group is a BM Trada ‘Q’ installation certified installer, enabling doors to be marked accordingly – ‘for end-to-end certification’.
l Its installers are fully trained in working in secure environments, and ‘flexible’ working in mental health wards.
l Fire-stopping and gaps around the door are correct, with all hardware checked at the project’s end.
Julian Hall says of the second new service: “Fire door maintenance is a key
Residential learning disabilities unit opens
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has officially opened a new low secure Learning Disability Residential Unit at Tatchbury Mount in Calmore in Hampshire. ‘Ashford’ is a purpose-built 10-bedded ward specifically for adult men with a
THE NETWORK | JANUARY 2021
learning disability detained under the Mental Health Act. Representing an investment of around £10 million, it has been welcomed by the 40+ strong multi- disciplinary team who will work there – comprising nurses, support workers,
environments. Our maintenance package is based on the BM Trada door maintenance scheme, of which Kingsway Group is a qualified member, and is designed to reassure hospital operators that their chosen product has been maintained correctly, and should perform as intended.” Based around each hospital’s requirements, the ‘package’ includes: l An annual inspection of every Kingsway- supplied doorset, with 10-point ‘health checks’ for fire door safety compliance, function, and anti-barricade operation.
l Visual checks and photographic records held on the Kingsway Group system.
l A full report, with a green/yellow/red traffic light coding, to show which doors have passed/any potential non- compliance.
l A list of ‘action items’ to bring doors back into compliance, with costs against each item; customers with a maintenance package receive preferential parts pricing.
l Any new door systems supplied during the contract period are added to the revised maintenance contract.
occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. The new building is based on the site of the former Rufus Lodge – an unused building, no longer appropriate for clinical use. Originally it had been located elsewhere on the Tatchbury Mount site.
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