After an exhaustive competitive tender process involving ten different companies, seating and tables from Knightsbridge Furniture’s specialist Challenging Behaviour collection have been specified for the new medium-secure Tamarind Centre in Bordesley Green, Birmingham.
Run by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, the Tamarind Centre serves the population across central and north Birmingham.
Named after an African herb said to promote healing and recovery, the centre is an 89-bed unit providing assessment, treatment and rehabilitation for men requiring complex, challenging and long term psychiatric care. The first wards opened in December 2012 and the facility is due to be fully operational in the Autumn of 2013.
A key factor in the award of the contract to Knightsbridge was the company’s mobile show-room, which enabled examples of furniture to be taken to the Tamarind Centre during its construction and shown to members of the extended decision chain.
"The show truck was an excellent resource, allowing staff the opportunity to view and test a wide range of furniture," explains Service Development Manager Sarah Beasley. "And everyone at Knightsbridge was so helpful and friendly throughout the process - from the sales reps to the delivery guys."
The dining and activity rooms within the Tamarind Centre have been populated with the Knightsbridge Slide collection of armed and armless upright seating and matching tables. Contemporary in style and sturdy in construction, all Slide furniture is designed to facilitate stability and manoeuvrability, with skids incorporated into the reinforced frame in the place of legs.
Complementing the clean lines of the Slide range are smart upholstered chairs and settees from the domestic-style Lexie and modular Affinity collections. As requested by the Tamarind Centre, the seating has been manufactured to the Knightsbridge ‘Extreme’ specification: features include reinforced frames and feet, additional weighting, solid under-bottoms, non-retractable fixings and invisible stapling. The Knightsbridge QA team also ensured that all metal back-tacks were removed prior to despatch.
Completing the Knightsbridge line-up in the Tamarind Centre are Zouk beanbags – colourful, casual, comfortable and comforting.
"The Knightsbridge products are finished to a high standard, being robust and hard-wearing, and the option of extra weighting and infills has made the furniture safe for our service users and staff,’ concludes Sarah Beasley.
"Knightsbridge offered excellent value for money, were competitively priced against similar providers and the lead time was half that of other suppliers."
The Knightsbridge Challenging Behaviour Collection is manufactured at the company’s plant in West Yorkshire: Knightsbridge Furniture is an Approved Supplier to the NHS and carries NHS Mental Health Contract Number 2012/S 38-061381.
