Visit any mental health unit in the UK and you will no doubt see Britplas’s Safevent window has been installed. The first of its kind, this innovative product has been continuously developed over the last 14 years, addressing many of the key concerns around creating safe, secure, antiligature environments for people suffering from mental health conditions.

Available as a horizontal or vertical solution, the sliding double window system has a glazed area and a stainless steel mesh system, providing natural light and ventilation, but preventing contraband from being passed through and any harm coming to service users. Its initial development was the result of a chance conversation, and underpinned by company chairman, Kevin Gorman’s unrelenting desire to solve problems other manufacturers have failed to.

Problem solving

On leaving school, Kevin joined his uncle’s building firm, but unenamoured with making a living on construction sites, he changed direction and moved into the window industry. Several years later he started his own business, supplying windows and building plastics to the trade. Soon the business was turning over more than £2m a year and fast gaining a reputation for problem solving and innovation.

Kevin told hdm: “We launched Britplas in 2004 and were supplying to the trade. “A childhood friend who was project manager at Laing O’Rourke then contacted me. “He was working on the Rathbone low-secure mental health unit in Liverpool and was looking for a new type of window. “He had spoken to many different companies to try and find a solution and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, which had commissioned the facility, had seconded a charge nurse to the project team to sign off every detail of the scheme."

That nurse was Joe Forster, a now widely-respected and much-celebrated mental health service expert and chair emeritus of the Design in Mental Health Network.

A chance encounter

Kevin said: “The trust did not want to approve any products for the new facility which clinicians would later say did not work, so Joe was determined to make sure every product was suitable for the project. “My friend asked me to get involved and faxed over a long list of requirements, including good air flow, anti ligature, and a solution which would prevent drugs from being passed through. “I knew of flyscreens which were made of mesh, but which you could still see through, and I came up with the idea of putting mesh right across the opening section of the window. “I could find the mesh in aluminium, but I thought that if we could do it in stainless steel we could open the window wider than the 100mm restriction safely. “I looked around the world for somewhere I could source the material and found the only supplier in Birchwood, Cheshire, less than three miles from where we were based. “The company did a mesh punched with 2mm holes on a 3mm pitch. It was punched from the bottom and top and smooth on both sides, making it an extremely robust product. “They sold it in small pieces to the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries for filtration, so we spoke to them about sourcing larger sheets which could be used in the window.

“We put together a prototype and I was asked to drop it off at Ashworth Hospital where the Rathbone project team would look at it. “When I arrived, I met Joe and he asked me to take the window into the board meeting. “The team assessed the window against their initial list of requirements and were happy that it was the product they needed. We won a contract to supply windows to the Rathbone project and it became our first mental health project.”

Breaking down barriers

Since then, Britplas’s Safevent window has become the benchmark window product for mental health facilities in the UK and further afield and the company now works with 80% of NHS trusts in the UK, as well as private healthcare groups. It also supplies to healthcare operators in Europe, Ireland, the US, and Australia.

“In some areas the NHS is very, very slow at getting information out, but nurses know each other and when they see a solution they tend to tell people about it,” Kevin said. “When we did the project at Rathbone other trusts came to view the unit and word soon spread. “We did another two jobs the same year and 15 the year after that. We have now completed more than 2,000 hospital projects worldwide.” He adds: “When we started I knew very little about mental health or mental health products.

“There was very much a stigma around it and nothing like the awareness or openness that we are now

seeing. “It’s great to see such positive ongoing progress in society’s attitude towards mental health.”

As Britplas’ reputation for innovation spread further afield, clients started asking for solutions to other product design challenges within the mental health sector.

A sea change

One common problem was exterior fencing, which obviously had the same requirements around safety and security, but was often imposing and tended to detract from, rather than enhance, outdoor areas. To overcome this, Britplas developed the Fortress 80 Fencing system, which features an innovative cloaking system which makes the fencing anti-climb as well as preventing the passing of unauthorised items through the mesh. Artworks can also be applied to the cloaking to enhance the environment. “The Britplas business has been built on innovation and a can-do attitude” Kevin said. People like Joe Forster are working in the NHS and are not satisfied with the status quo and we have always relished a challenge. “If you solve one person’s problem, you can guarantee other hospitals will experience the same thing.”

Keep on moving

And, since the very-first Safevent window, the product has been developed and improved through multiple iterations, winning numerous design awards. “From the very-first Safevent window, to the very-different product we have today, we have been part of an absolute sea change,” said Kevin. “We have spend a lot of money as a company on research and development, and we don’t stand still. “In the future we will continue to innovate and to work with the health sector to produce new products and to create better environments for patients and staff.

www.britplas.com