“Seclusion in health settings refers to the supervised confinement and isolation of a patient or resident, away from other patients or residents, in an area from which the patient or resident is prevented from leaving, where it is of immediate necessity for the purpose of the containment of severe behavioural disturbance which is likely to cause harm to others. It does not matter whether the place of isolation is an enclosed room (rather than, for example, a part of a larger space), or whether the door to such a space is closed or open, locked or unlocked.” UK National Preventive Mechanism Guidance: Isolation in detention 2017 Acknowledgements We would like to thank the individuals and organisations who participated in the consultation event or sent comments and contributed their expertise, experience and views to the development of this guidance. Who is this guidance for? We have written this guidance for health and social care professionals working with people who are being treated for mental illness, dementia, learning disability or related conditions in health and social care settings. This guidance is for situations where those professions may be considering using seclusion. 4