Security Information

Visitors and family play an important role in the welfare of our patients, however, a visiting policy is essential to promote the health, safety, privacy and infection prevention and control, of our patients and our community.

All visitors to the Hatherton Centre, Ellesmere House and Clee will require collecting from reception and escorting to the area they are visiting.

We have provisions for child visiting. This requires to be agreed with the Multi-Disciplinary Team before these visits go ahead. Please contact the Ward Charge Nurse in the first instance.

Friends and Family Visitors

For visitors to the medium and low secure wards, photographic proof of identity will be required when you visit. There will be provision provided with lockers for valuables (including personal effects such as handbags etc) or items that are prohibited onto the ward areas.

Professional Visitors

All professional visitors must provide photographic identification or no access will be allowed. In instances where no photographic identification can be provided admission will only be authorised when verification is sought.

Parking is free, but there is an automatic number plate recognition system in use at this site. Therefore, you must register your car number plate (ask staff when you arrive) to avoid a fine. There is a 30-minute grace period, during which, no fine will be issued

Prohibited items are excluded because their makeup or properties could be hazardous. This may be because they could be used to harm others, because of their harmful properties (such as drugs or alcohol) or their illegality.
Restricted items may also be potentially hazardous. This may be because they could be used to cause distress, to self-harm or to harm others.

These items may be restricted but not excluded because they can be valuable tools in encouraging normalisation and resisting institutionalisation, providing rehabilitative, social, educational, recreational and diversionary value.

These items will be risk assessed.

Access to some restricted items is a necessary function of forensic inpatient services in order to facilitate aspects of patient treatment and rehabilitation. Patients will be preparing for safe transfer to care in the community; this requires increasing exposure to restricted items that may be freely available in the destination/setting. Individual risk assessments/mitigation plans will be completed.

Access to E-Cigarettes by inpatients will be permitted following a risk assessment and approval from the MDT and managed within the guidelines set out in “The use of e-cigarettes/vapes for inpatients to assist in the management of the Smokefree Policy”.

The use of mobile phones by inpatients within the secure areas will be permitted following risk assessment and approval from the MDT and managed within the guidelines outlined within the “Use of Mobile Phones by Patients on in-patient areas” SOP.

Please note that other than inpatients with access to mobile phones, no staff, visitors or professional visitors are permitted to enter the secure areas with a mobile phone.

Please see Contraband Items List (pdf) to download more information.

This training is a full days training which includes presentations from myself, Wayne Harvey; Forensic Security Manager & EPRR Officer along with the Forensic Psychology team and Andrew Copeland; Trust Health Safety and Security Manager. 

Security Training Includes:

Some areas of the training include:

• For staff to understand factors that influence the developments in security within our services.

• Appreciate the three main principles of security.
• “See Think Act” Relational security guidance: Effective relational security is critical to providing safe, purposeful and well-led services. See Think Act was first published by the Department of Health for medium secure care in 2010. In 2015, the Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health Services along with Elizabeth Allen, the original author of the work, undertook a review with high, medium and low secure providers, patients and their friends and family, of what we’ve learned since the first publication. The third edition has been published and more information can be found here.

• A patients perspective: Putting yourself into the shoes of a patient on a secure unit inpatient ward has proven highly beneficial to increase the awareness of how it must feel to be in the shoes of our patients in both low and medium secure services.

• Least restrictive practice: Least Restrictive Practice encompasses several approaches, including Positive Behaviour Support, Restriction Reduction, person-centred planning, communication, and effective recording and monitoring. Exploring some of the restrictive practices and interventions used within the directorate

• Social media safety awareness: In this section we look at how everyone can keep themselves safe, how to check security settings, some guidance on what to share and what not to share on all social media platforms. 

• The 7 warning signs of grooming: Grooming is a form of abuse that involves manipulating someone until they’re isolated, dependent, and more vulnerable to exploitation. This can include modern slavery, physical, sexual and financial abuse and can happen as a result of grooming. When most people think about grooming, they think about children. But adults are also vulnerable to grooming. In this training we’ll explore the issue of adult grooming, including the signs of grooming that you should look out for.

• Therapeutic Boundaries 
• Open discussions around security