Legal Ombudsman: Birmingham

The Legal Ombudsman is a new organisation established by the Government to provide users of legal services with an independent means of resolving disputes with lawyers. Claremont Group Interiors successfully tendered  to provide a wide range of services at Baskerville House in central Birmingham, including interior design, fit-out, furniture and audio-visual packages and delivered an inspirational working environment to the organisation’s 380 staff and visitors.

Location: Birmingham
Sector: Public Sector
Project Size: 44,000 sq ft
Scope of Works: Design > Fit-out > Furniture > Audio-visual

The Brief
After a formal tender process conducted through OJEU, Claremont were appointed to provide design and fit-out services for the  new offices of The Legal Ombudsman at Baskerville House.  The brief was to create an open plan working environment for the ombudsman, the assessment teams and the investigators,  to work together to deal with customer complaints in an effective and prompt manner.  As the organisation is being established with a culture of openness and transparency it was essential that the new facility reflected this approach. It was a key requirement that the environment  was designed to be flexible and  to encourage teamwork, the learning of new skills, problem solving and collaboration with colleagues.  Supporting the new technology systems designed specifically for the organisation  was  also a critical requirement of the brief .

The Solution
The 5th and 6th floors of Baskerville House are flooded with natural light from full height windows on all sides and two internal atria. The meeting rooms were positioned around the atria to retain the views across the city into the office. The teams are 8 or 10 in number and white Staverton Lite  benching was specified with monitor arms to take the 2 screens which are used by all staff.   All customer enquiries are dealt with on-screen which means that there is a minimum requirement for file storage with storage wall units around the core areas provided for cloaks and general items. On the 5th floor there were two areas with limited headroom and these areas were brought back into  play by creating an internal garden area with built in seating and a jungle-style city skyline graphic.  A number of large plasma screens  have been situated throughout the office in order to display current and important information to all staff. 

The Result
The space has been designed so that the training programmes, which form an intrinsic part of the business plan can be delivered across the office spaces during the next nine months, before the recruitment plan is complete in April 2011.  There are a variety of meeting and training facilities, in the nine rooms on the 5th floor, the manifestations on the glass denote famous landmarks in Birmingham and those on the 6th floor depict images of famous Birmingham characters.  The environment combines the neutral palette of the working areas with colourful spaces for people to come together in a variety of informal settings.  As a new organisation, having a strong business personality reflected within the environment was a key requirement of the brief.  The feedback from the staff has been very positive and Adam Sampson ,the Chief Ombudsman is delighted that his vision for the new organisation has been realised so effectively.