TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT:
Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust Board Charlton Lane Centre “Enhancing the Healing Environment” Team 13th September 2004 Presentation by the Charlton Lane Centre “Enhancing the Healing Environment” Project Team of their plans to redevelop a garden area within the Charlton Lane Centre Site
1. 1.1
PURPOSE It is a requirement of the King’s Fund agreement that the Trust Board approves the Project Team’s plans before the proposal can be taken to the King’s Fund for final approval. The Team are scheduled to make the presentation to the King’s Fund on 2 November 2004 in London. The Team request that the Trust Board approve the proposal. BACKGROUND The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment programme has been running very successfully in London since 2001. NHS Estates have commissioned the King’s Fund to extend the programme in England. Under this national extension, all 23 Strategic Health Authorities outside London were asked to nominate one acute, mental health or primary care trust to take part in the programme. It is hoped that these trusts will act as exemplars for others in their area to make improvements to their healing environments. A team from Charlton Lane, led by Denise Hall, submitted a successful bid based around the re-development of the area beside Hidcote Ward. This would create a new entrance into the Quiet Room, so allowing access outside normal hours and changing the Barnsley Ward Recreation Area into a more “user friendly” area. DISCUSSION The nursing staff at the Charlton Lane Centre have long since recognised the therapeutic value of gardens – the existing courtyard garden is an oasis of peace in the centre of the unit. As a consequence, during 2003 the Ward Manager of Hidcote Ward extended their patio area to include flower borders and an increased paved area. Patients helped with the changes and now help with the maintenance. This area has now become very popular with users and their visitors. It was for this reason that when the Charlton Lane Centre was invited to bid for a King’s Fund Award, those involved felt any project should be centred on improving the grounds. Since being successful, the team has gone to great lengths to involve service users, carers, staff and visitors generally on what they would like to see. This was carried out using questionnaires and displays with “tick boxes”. The first consultation was centred on what everyone would like in the garden – water; wood; somewhere to sit; grass; and the second was based around what type of plants everyone would like to see. 1
1.2 2. 2.1
3. 3.1
3.2
The results of the questionnaires indicated that users, carers and staff were looking for a garden that was tranquil, created from natural materials and somewhere clients would feel safe and secure. The proposed layout has been arrived at with these criteria in mind although significant consideration has been given to the maintenance of the garden in the future. At this stage of the project, the team require the approval of the Trust Board in order for the proposal to be taken forward to the King’s Fund for ultimate approval. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS The funding from the King’s Fund is £30K provided they approve the team’s proposal. This is made in two staged payments of £15K and provided all criteria has been met as per the King’s Fund “Timetable – National Extension”. See appendix one. A condition of being part of the “Enhancing the Healing Environment” programme is that the Trust contributes a further £5K to the £30K being awarded by the King’s Fund. A Minor Capital Bid has been submitted and approved for £7.5k to cover the costs of altering the entrance to the Quiet Room – the new entrance will give direct access to the Quiet Room from the proposed new garden. When the bid was made the cost of the modification was based on an estimation, unfortunately, when the actual quotes were obtained it was discovered that the cost of the alteration would be £11.5K. The Partnership Trust Capital Control Group has since approved the increase. In addition to the £35K that will come from the King’s Fund and the Trust, a further £5K has been pledged by the Strategic Health Authority. From our investigations and enquiries we believe that the garden to the side of Hidcote Ward is going to cost in the region of £40K. It is our hope that we will be able to negotiate discount from local suppliers to reduce the overall cost. The Team’s original plan had been to look at a number of areas within the Charlton Lane Site – one of the priorities being the outside recreation area on Barnsley Ward. However, due to the cost implications and following consultation with service users and staff it was decided to concentrate initially on the Hidcote site. On a parallel track, however, the team is also looking at options and proposals for Barnsley Ward – any funding for this would then become the subject of a further minor capital bid. Any savings made from the Hidcote Garden project would then be added to this secondary funding – this proposal is seen as the second phase to the overall “Enhancing the Healing Environment” project. FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS The team has to-date found the experience of being involved with the “King’s Fund” project extremely beneficial. Within the normal working environment 2
3.3
3.4
4. 4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
5. 5.1
there is little opportunity of working at length with colleagues from other disciplines – the Charlton Lane team has brought together colleagues from estates, administration, nursing and service user experience. The team have worked well together and as the project continues it is hoped that the team will strengthen even more. We are of the opinion, therefore, that similar opportunities should be made available to other colleagues who are prepared to work together and improve some part of the “Healing Environment” within the Trust. 6. 6.1 RECOMMENDATION The team requests that the Board approves its proposals for the Garden Project so that can they can take the “Trust Approved” proposal forward to the King’s Fund for their final approval. The team would also like to recommend that the Board gives consideration to making an annual “fund” available to teams of staff with similar expertise as ours so that other colleagues may benefit from the experience of project management.
6.2
3