EPIC Express - Summer 2025

Express EPIC

Summer 2025

All the news from EPIC Housing

A message from Tracey Welcome to the latest edition of EPIC Express. I hope you enjoy reading through and remember if something doesn’t make sense, or you just wanted to know more, reach out to any member of the Senior Leadership Team.

I wanted to thank you all again for your active participation in our recent away day. It felt like one of our best ones so far, with lots of great things to share, but also great to hear your feedback too. Rob Emery was very impressed, and I know he will be feeding this back to the wider Board in August.

I’m delighted with the progress we are making organisationally, but I always want us to do even more and even better, I’m really excited about the continued difference we can make to the lives of our tenants with the launch of our new relational culture programme (name yet to be determined), and how this aligns to ensuring that everyone’s experience of working at EPIC continues to remain positive and a place you want to be.

We’re making great strides with delivering on our Corporate Plan and now that Inspection is out of the way, you’ll start to see me out and about a bit more, starting with a programme of estate walkabouts with Cindy in August. I’ll be looking out to see how pro-active we are in things that we can sometimes become blind to, and how these are subsequently captured and actioned, so watch this space!

I’ll also be the proverbial ‘pain in ….’ until we get our telephony system working as it should be and everyone doing what they should be. If in doubt, please speak to Kelly.

You’ll see too that this year I’ve gone back to catching up with you all on an individual basis – no lunch this time – and look forward to those coming up in the next few weeks.

Enjoy the rest of this edition.

Tracey

EPIC News

News and updates from inside EPIC Housing.

Bentilee Volunteers We were delighted to announce that in collaboration with tenants and staff, Bentilee Volunteers has been chosen as our Charity of the Year for 2025-26. This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting local communities and enhancing the lives of families in need throughout Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding areas.

Bentilee Volunteers offer invaluable services to the residents of Bentilee and Stoke-on-Trent. Their overarching aim is to be at the heart of the community by providing vital support and services that help to raise aspirations, enable and empower local people, support the disadvantaged and improve overall quality of life. By partnering with Bentilee Volunteers, we aim to make a positive impact on local families.

Bentilee Volunteers’ clubs and services include the following: Charity Shop and The Shed which holds a range of furniture and large appliances. Both are open 10am to 3pm.

Seniors’ Lunch Club – every Tuesday & Thursday from 10:30am to 2pm, offering a space to chat and socialise while having a nutritious and delicious home cooked meal.

Rainbows Club – a social group for adults with learning disabilities, held on Wednesdays from 10am to 2pm.

Youthlink for children aged 7 to 17, held Monday to Thursday from 3:30pm to 6:30pm, offering somewhere for young people to meet new people and try new skills such as indoor sports.

Digital Support – IT suite is open Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 10am for support with things like applying for jobs or filling in online forms.

Recycling From April 2025, we had to change how we split our waste as Simpler Recycling meant we had to start recycling at work, and whilst you’d think it would be easy, we’ve had a few hiccups along the way! Who knew that you couldn’t recycle Costa cups – the lid is recyclable, but unfortunately the cup itself is made of cardboard and plastic, and whilst you can recycle them at Costa shops and home, they’re not recyclable at work, so put these in the General Waste bin please.

Glass products – thankfully, we don’t have many glass items, but if you do, can you please ensure you take it home and recycle them there, please.

Envelopes – these are recyclable, but if they’ve got an address printed on the front, then it will need to go into the confidential waste bin or rip off the address bit (and put it in confidential waste) and recycle the rest of the envelope.

Plastics – empty food containers and bottles need to be rinsed.

Cardboard – food packaging is allowed as long as it’s not contaminated with food.

Food – for the past few months, we haven’t been segregating our food waste due to the volume that we generate, but clarification has been provided on the legislation, and we now need to start.

Therefore, we will shortly be having small food waste bins in all the kitchens (inc. Meir). Look out for the updated guidance in the kitchens, but as a general rule, teabags, eggshells, fruit and vegetable peelings and bones are all classed as food waste but NOT liquids, such as milk, oils and liquid fats.

Please don’t mix your recyclables in your desk bin unless you’re willing to go through it yourself.

If your bin does have mixed recyclables in it, then it will not be emptied – it is your responsibility to recycle, not Lucy G’s.

EPIC News

News and updates from inside EPIC Housing.

Resources (IT, People & Change, Finance and Governance & Compliance) Finance It’s all things Year End in finance with the final audit starting on 23 June, and as the audit is not just about the numbers don’t be surprised if you get a request from the auditors to meet or provide additional information to them – the Year End audit is a big team effort to showcase what we’ve achieved in the year. The audit is a key part of our annual statutory accounts which will be approved

by Board in September.

Governance & Compliance The Governance & Compliance team are working on some new software to change the way we manage our Document Control Framework so watch this space – this is another spreadsheet that will be disappearing. Our Document Control Framework details all those strategies, policies and guidelines that govern the way in which we operate, detailing when documents are due for review and their approval route.

Gender Neutral Toilets at Meir and Bentilee As part of our ongoing commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), we’re pleased to share an important update regarding some of our facilities.

ICT Work has begun on the ‘Cyber Essentials’ project.

Cyber Essentials is an accreditation which demonstrates our commitment to cyber security by certifying that we have the correct equipment, training, software, policies, and procedures in place to minimise the risk of a cyber-attack. Of course, the risk is ever present, especially in the current climate with the recent high-profile cyberattacks, so we must remain vigilant at all times and tell ICT about anything we are not sure about or seems suspicious.

Change and Processes We’ve been holding more sessions with Civica to understand our core systems and what we could be using these for to reduce reliance on spreadsheets and gain efficiencies with automation, better analytics and so on. We’ve recently had training on arrears, arrears payment plans and allocations functionality and are hopeful there are opportunities to improve our processes and get the most out of our systems over the coming months and years.

We’re also compiling a master list of all processes and communication templates in the organisation so that we can start ensuring they’re all reviewed, standardised and optimised going forward as we look to continuously improve how we work.

The toilets at our Meir office, along with the accessible toilet at Bentilee, are now designated as gender neutral. This change reflects our dedication to creating an inclusive and welcoming Business Intelligence environment for everyone – tenants, visitors, and Work is ongoing to move all our key performance staff alike. data into a centralised database and dashboard and to automate as much of this as possible to We continue to value your feedback and remain create more time for deeper analysis and checking. committed to staying informed on best practices and developments in employment law. Should We successfully migrated over 30,000 lines of data there be any further updates at either Meir or from the stock condition spreadsheet into Civica Bentilee, we’ll be sure to keep you informed.

CX, ensuring all our stock data is now held centrally Thank you for supporting a workplace where for ease of reporting, visibility, and audit. More info everyone feels respected and included. on this soon!

Human Resources Over in HR the salary exchange scheme has been really popular with 20 of you taking up the benefit in May. For those of you who haven’t, don’t forget you can join at any time, just fill in the form and return it to Oliver.

EPIC News

News and updates from inside EPIC Housing.

Housing Management Compliments During 2024-25 we received 30 compliments from tenants and applicants for our staff and contractors. Compliments are reported to the staff involved and their line manager and go monthly to SLT and to Board every 6 months too. We also go back to tenants who have made a compliment to say thank you.

Recent Successes We’ve had some really good successes lately – Community Voice is gathering pace, we’ve recruited some extra Tenant Ambassadors, we had over 90 people at the apprenticeship event, Stop Loan Shark partner status, estate walks are up and running again, we’re taking tenants to conferences, change log is online, complaints are on Civica – all of this is great work and fits our corporate plan commitments to connecting our tenants to opportunities and getting EPIC recognised out in the community. Thank you to everyone who has helped out at these, promoted them to tenants, and been involved in planning.

Upcoming Events We also have lots coming up – plenty of policy reviews, projects, a few more events, meetings with partner agencies to explore further support available for staff and tenants, on top of the BAU stuff like community voice and tenant ambassadors, morning café, community lounges – so thank you in advance to everyone involved.

If anyone wants to join any tenant engagement opportunities, shadow a meeting or an estate walk, visit a community voice to see what goes on, join a Meir Morning Cafe – all are welcome to, just speak to Mark.

Annual Tenant Engagement Survey (TSMs) TSMs are going out to all tenants throughout June and July. Please be aware that Acuity are doing this on our behalf so if you get any queries from tenants, you know its genuine and can advise as such – and be prepped for plenty of follow-up work afterwards when the results and raw data come through and we have a bunch of stuff to chase up.

Notice Board Annual Leave As we’ve now reached the midpoint of the year, you should have used approximately 50% of your annual leave entitlement. We kindly remind you to regularly review your remaining leave balance to prevent any accumulation towards the year's end and to ensure you are taking adequate time off for your wellbeing.

Salary Exchange If you’d like to join the Salary Exchange Scheme, make sure you opt in. For more information, head to The Hub here or reach out to Oliver.

Salary exchange (also called ‘salary sacrifice’) means giving up part of your salary in return for a non-cash benefit — in this case, pension contributions. Most people will see a small boost in take-home pay thanks to lower National Insurance contributions. It also helps EPIC save on employer NIC’s, which supports the delivery of our Corporate Plan.

EPIC News

News and updates from inside EPIC Housing.

Asset Management & Building Compliance Stock Condition Surveys We’re continuing to utilise our ‘make every contact count’ approach to Stock Condition Surveys. For the previous financial year (April 2024 – March 2025) we completed 552 Surveys (40.2%) with 90% of properties being surveyed in the last 5 years. We also carried out our annual internal peer review on stock condition, as well as third party validation, both with positive results.

Damp, Mould & Condensation An additional 25% of homes had humidistat fans installed last financial year, through proactive, reactive and preventative workstreams. AICO Smart Link environmental sensors are being trialled in some homes, supporting long term data collection of humidity, carbon monoxide and temperature. This has highlighted where there is an increased likelihood of damp and mould being present, which can help inform interventions, such as support with fuel poverty or financial distress support through tenancy sustainment.

Preparations continue for Awaab’s Law with implementation of additional measures and changes which will impact all…. watch this space.

Networking In a sector with continued fast paced change, it’s important to learn from others and share good practice. As an example, EPIC are part of AICO Social Housing Professionals Network, where likeminded local and regional associations and professionals share valuable insight – and it’s free!

Some team members also attended CHIC’s Annual Conference, with Jon being asked to speak about EPIC’s Tenant First approach to building safety.

Fire Safety Some refreshed fire risk assessments have been carried out, with all actions now complete.

Interestingly, approximately 70% of the actions were in relation to tenants’ belongings in communal spaces – a reminder has gone out to tenants, but if you spot anything while you’re out and about let our housing colleagues know.

P&S Lite Phase one of this project is entering its final stages, with stock condition information inputted into the system; final testing is being carried out before progressing to phase two – a massive thank you for all involved, lots of hard work has gone into this.

Staff Focus Group

Thank you for continuing to share your feedback with your Staff Focus Group representative. The Focus Group continues to meet on a monthly basis to discuss your input, and please keep an eye out for a survey regarding the reintroduction of wellbeing events.

Meir Office Just a reminder that there is a lockdown procedure for the Meir office, which includes ensuring all the blinds are closed downstairs, especially now we’ve got the new screen on the wall in the main room. ALL the doors need to be closed, please do not prop open the kitchen door upstairs. The lockable door to the offices and upstairs needs to be locked; the key is on the same keyring as the alarm fob.

Also, if there is a meeting and the tables are moved they will need to put back to their original position after the meeting.

OUR PEOPLE Work Anniversaries

Birthdays

JUNE

JUNE

Cindy Gleghorn Lucy Grocott Meryl Caine Natalia Chmielewicz Rob Locker Sally Hunter Vicki Lewis

Dan Glass (21 Years)

JULY

Meryl Caine (1 Year) Nicola Keates (15 Years) Tracey Johnson (3 Years)

AUGUST

JULY

Cindy Gleghorn (3 Years) Kelly Heath (3 Years) Laura Bowling-Wootton (1 Year) Lucy Heath (6 Years) Sharon Shaw (1 Year)

Dan Glass Lucy Walker Paul Carey

AUGUST

Adrian Milward Clair Woolrich Laura Bowling-Wootton Polly Wragg

New Starters Ronny Pople started with us on 16 June – please help us give her a big EPIC welcome!

Upcoming Training Title

Type

Audience

Deadline

Business Continuity Plan (v2.0)

Attestation

All Staff

04/07/25

Health, Safety & Wellbeing Policy (v2.0)

Virtual College

All Staff

11/07/25

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Virtual College

All Staff

18/07/25

Workplace Sexual Harassment

Virtual College

All Staff

Issue - July

Anti-Money Laundering

Virtual College

All Staff

Issue - August

YOU SAID...WE DID Can we please have a template created for meeting minutes that anyone can use for any of the meetings?

Certainly – this has now been added to The Hub here.

The locks on the kitchen hatch doors at Meir are too high for some people to reach – is there anything that can be done?

Thanks for highlighting this – it is important to lock these doors, in accordance with the locking-up procedure. We will look into a possible alternative solution.

Is there anything that can be done about the pigeons nesting under the solar panels at the Bentilee office, as they are making so much mess?

We agree that this is becoming an issue, but we can’t do anything to disturb the nests during nesting season. Our colleagues in Assets will work with our contractors to come up with a solution, such as bird mesh, and we’ll look to get this installed before nesting season starts again later in the year.

Meet the team Vicky Scott - Housing Office

Stoke City fan Vicky is one of our longest standing employees - read on to find out about Vicky and her role at EPIC! What does your role involve?

After starting at EPIC way back on the 17 October 2006 when I was an admin assistant on the Community Empowerment Network Programme. This does feel like such a long time ago now, I’ve have seen so many changes over the years and must admit, the office is a much nicer and at times calmer place to work in these days. Since 2020, I have taken on the Housing Officer role where my main role is ensuring that tenants are paying their rent; giving advice where needed about benefits and what they could be entitled to; when they fall behind making agreements for the arrears to be cleared and if needed take legal action to the point of attending court and evictions. I also help out with the team carrying out telephone appointments with new applicants, attend viewings and signing applicants up to tenancies, and part of the team that cover the out of hours calls so my general week can be quite varied!

What was your first mobile phone?

From memory, it was a Nokia 3310 which I had back in 2002.

Oh I had so much fun spending hours playing snake or tetris while my boys were sleeping. To look back at this phone now, it seems like such a basic one compared to the Iphone I now have.

What’s your favourite bad joke?

I usually struggle to remember jokes but after a lot of thought, here we go …….. Did you hear about the first restaurant to open on the moon? It had great food, but no atmosphere.

If you weren’t in this career, what could you see yourself doing?

I guess this has changed so much over the years. Back at school, I wanted to be a dentist but that idea soon got changed as I was no good at science. I think now my ideal career would be a theatre reviewer (not even sure that this is a job) but I just love going to the theatre and watching shows so to get paid for this would just be perfect.

Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?

While having a drink in a pub down in London around 10 years ago after watching Stoke play football at Arsenal, I saw and had a drink with the lovely Su Pollard from Hi-De-Hi. Yes she is just as colourful and lovely as she comes across on screen.

What's your favourite food?

This is a tough one as I just love food but if I had to choose just one, it would have to be Chinese.

I do enjoy prawn toast for starters followed by a nice sweet and sour chicken Cantonese style with egg fried rice and prawn crackers.

Where did you go on your last holiday?

My last main holiday that I went on with my son was in May to Santa Suzanna which is just outside Barcelona. We had an amazing time, the buildings in Barcelona are just amazing especially the “Basílica de la Sagrada Família” which is still being built even though the project started in 1882. The hotel was good, all inclusive, no kids around as it was an adults only hotel and the weather was just lovely (except for the last day).

Although I must admit, my favourite holiday was to Tenerife last year as it was my very first time on a plane.