Access control solution for Queen’s Award homeless charity

NiskhamSWAT, a leading charity that provides hot meals and everyday essentials to homeless people in the UK, has partnered with Videx Security to overcome their access control and entry challenges.

The charity, which was established in 2009 in West London, now serves disadvantaged communities in Oxford, Reading, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Slough, Windsor and Lancashire as well as London. It’s ran by volunteers and the charity currently has 1,300 volunteers across the country, serving those who need it most.

Randeep S. Lall, Global Operations Director at the charity, said: “We provide 3,000 meals per week to those in need which means our main warehouse in London is extremely busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Security and appropriate access and entry are so important. Although we have a secured electric gate that drivers have to report to in order to gain entry, it meant someone had to permanently stay at the warehouse to grant delivery and collection vans access. This wasn’t sustainable given we are a completely volunteer led organisation. We needed a more flexible and convenient access control solution that still provided a high level of security too.”

NiskhamSWAT, who have recently won a Queen’s Award for voluntary service, worked with access control and door entry distributor, ADI to overcome their entry challenges.

Joseph Davies at ADI explained: “We recommended a GSM access control system to NiskhamSWAT to help solve their entry issues. After researching which solution would work best, we advised that the charity used a Videx two-way GSM audio kit with code lock and proximity access control in a 4000 series style panel.”

Neil Thomas, National Sales Manager at Videx, continued: “When ADI contacted us we were more than happy to help provide a system that could solve NiskhamSWAT’s access problem. The GSM system we’ve donated to them enables people to answer calls to their front door or gate from their mobile phone or landline, so they never have to miss that important visitor and are made aware of who has visited even when they are not there.”

For NiskhamSWAT this means that no one is required to remain at the warehouse 24/7 to authorise access. If a van arrives for a collection or delivery and no one is there, the system will call the designated number for access and has the facility to divert to another number if the first call is not answered, with a maximum of up to four numbers per button. Programming the entrance panel can easily be carried out either by SMS or dialling into the system using a telephone without a keypad.

Randeep at NiskhamSWAT added: “Huge thanks to ADI and Videx for the donation and free installation from Image Security too. It’s helped us out massively as it’s meant no one has to stay at the warehouse, freeing up precious volunteering time that can be put to better use elsewhere. It’s so much more convenient to receive a call when someone is asking for access. I can verify the caller and swiftly authorise or deny access.”