Case Study: Furniture for Red Kite View CAMHS unit
Background
In January 2022, Red Kite View Children and Young People’s Mental Health Inpatient Unit first opened its doors. The 22-bed specialist unit is a breakthrough in providing children and young people with mental health care and support in the West Yorkshire region. The unit is located on-site at St Mary’s Hospital in Armley, Leeds and is the culmination of a five-year project led by NOE CPC’s host trust, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The Project
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) first approached NHS Supply Chain: Hotel Services for quotes for office and residential furniture that needed to provide a calming, safe and spacious environment. This included beds, sofas, chairs, dining and coffee tables. The furniture at Red Kite View CAMHS unit was required to be expertly designed for the unique needs of the environment. Furniture needed to be durable with safety features such as softly rounded edges on all corners, practical easy to clean surfaces, and the ability to be fixed in place.
The colours and furnishings needed to be calm and cool tones to create a sense of comfort and appeal to young service users as well as tying in with the surrounding woodland aesthetic. This was something suppliers had to consider when creating these products.
The project for furnishing Red Kite View was carried out as a further competition under the framework and all suppliers that could provide against the specification were invited to bid. The category team assisted LYPFT in providing a specification, images, and floorplan to share with suppliers to support them in building their submission.
Outcome
The project was carried out during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tender opportunity went out in January 2021 with suppliers appointed in February/March and the project was completed in April 2021.
Customer Testimonial
“We decided to use the NHS Supply Chain’s medical healthcare furniture framework as they offered a good and varied selection of suppliers, and we wanted to include our incumbent supplier bid.
The process of choosing a supplier was very straightforward. Each supplier was sent a spreadsheet with a detailed description of the type of furniture products we were seeking for our CAMHS unit. As Red Kite View is a Mental Health Service, we needed weighted furniture, but also wanted to ensure the design was modern to appeal to our young service user group.
We then narrowed the supplier choice down to the two best bids and we arranged a viewing week where staff, service users and the infection control team could come and view the products and give them an individual rating. The contract was awarded to Teal and not our incumbent supplier. Users and staff have been very happy with the items chosen and enjoyed being involved in helping choose the preferred style.
Throughout the whole process we received excellent support from NOE CPC, any questions we had were responded to swiftly and thoroughly”.
Kate Raistrick, Category Buyer (Estates and Facilities) at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Click here to find out how Red Kite View was built and see the furniture that was chosen.
Project Support
Our expert team have years of experience in purchasing healthcare furniture. Offering support and guidance to any size project they can provide a bespoke service to meet your specific requirements.
There is no minimum level of purchase needed to receive this support, and our team can add value to a trusts’ procurement exercise no matter the cost or volume and give support to buyers when placing large or complex orders. Freeing up valuable resource within your trust to work on other projects, or simply offering additional assistance and peace of mind that the process is being handled efficiently, to ensure you get the right product the first time.
As we did in this LYPFT project, trusts are able to carry out on-site evaluation days or trials (dependant on product), so that everyone has the chance to evaluate the products before the final decision to purchase is made.
If you would like support with an upcoming project or simply need advice visit www.supplychain.nhs.uk/categories/hotel-services/healthcare-furniture, or contact the NHS Supply Chain: Hotel Service helpdesk on hotelservicessupport@supplychain.nhs.uk.