YOURAREA NEWSLETTER Oldham Issue 04

YOURAREA NEWSLETTER

WHAT’S ON

Events in your area

Food Club

Every Wednesday

10.30am – 12.30pm

Drop-in to register

Family Action, Fir Tree Avenue, Oldham, OL8 2QN

It costs just £1 a year for a family to become a member. Once you’ve joined, you can purchase a bag of food items every week worth £15 for just £4. To become a member you must live or work within 15 minutes of the club.

The Brew Youth Club

Every Tuesday

5pm – 7pm

Free to join, come along to register

The Brew, Fir Tree Avenue, Fitton Hill, OL8 2QN

A safe space where young people aged 11 to 16 can chat with friends or join in a variety of themed activities.

The Place to Bee Day Centre

Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

5pm – 7pm

Drop-in to register

Bulldogs Club House, St Martin’s Road, Fitton Hill, OL8 2PZ

Family run day centre offering support to adults with learning disabilities and autism.

To see what other community events are available click here.

www.forhousing.co.uk/my-area-oldham/

TENANCY FRAUD

Did you know tenancy fraud happens when someone isn’t telling the truth about their circumstances to get a housing association home? If you think someone is committing tenancy fraud, it’s important you report it to us so we can look into this.

To find out more about tenancy fraud, click here to visit our website www.forhousing.co.uk/tenancy-fraud/

SERVICE STANDARDS

We worked closely with a group of tenants and listened to what matters most to you, to create seven promises from us, around how we will deliver all our services to you.

OUR PROMISES – WE WILL:

Be polite and helpful

Respect you and your home

Respect your right to privacy

Give you direct information

Take responsibility

Get things done on time

Understand and respond to the different needs of you as an individual

To find out more click here to visit our website www.forhousing.co.uk/service-standards

Customer Connect Hub

Last year, we invested and launched our Customer Connect Hub to improve your experience to make sure you are satisfied with the service we provide. It’s important to us that we get it right. Here’s how we have listened, learned and acted upon your feedback.

You said…

You weren’t satisfied with the service we were providing to you.

We listened and...

Launched our new and improved Customer Connect Hub in October 2023 to offer you the best possible customer service experience. Satisfaction with the service provided is now 99.1%.

You said…

We weren’t answering your calls quickly enough.

We listened and...

Made our team larger so that we could answer your calls quicker. The average speed of answering your calls has gone from 6 minutes, 1 second (May 2023) to 30 seconds.

You said… You said…

You would like to get your enquiry answered when you first call.

We listened and...

We’ve invested in a system that lets us manage your enquiries all in one place, across the different ways you can communicate with us, offering you a streamlined service.

You are not happy that sometimes you need to contact us to report unresolved repairs, to ask for an update or to rebook follow-on repairs.

We listened and...

Made 870 proactive calls to reduce this. We plan to make even more calls as we learn and start to understand more ways in which we can make your experience better.

We are making contact with every tenant to ask you questions about your household. We will also ask you questions relating to how we can best communicate with you for example, if you have sight differences and need a letter in large print, or if you have mobility issues that visitors to your home need to be aware of as it may take you longer to get to the door.

Delivering better services suited to your needs

YOURAREA NEWSLETTER

By asking you these questions we can help to check that our services are fair and equal. If you don’t want to answer a particular question you don’t have to.

Congratulations to Mr John Boulton from Eccles who took part in the survey and won a £50 Love to Shop voucher in last month’s draw. Find out more here www.forhousing.co.uk/getting-to-know-you/

Take part for a chance to WIN a £50 Love to Shop voucher*

*T&Cs apply and are on our website

LISTENING AND ACTING ON YOUR VIEWS COMPLAINTS

Support Spotlight

What’s available to you?

You told us that when you made a complaint you wanted us to act quickly and to keep you informed. We’ve changed the way our complaints team works and created some new job roles to make sure we have the resources to respond to your complaint quickly and keep you updated on progress.

HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

When it comes to making a complaint there are lots of ways you can do this:

• On our website by completing an online form

• You may ask for an in-person appointment. This may be at your home or in one of our offices

• Over the phone, contact us on 0300 123 55 22

• By letter, addressed to ForHousing, 52 Regent Street, Eccles, M30 0BP

You can find out more about how to make a complaint by clicking here www.forhousing.co.uk/complaintsand-feedback-2/

Your feedback matters

Whenever you’ve received a service from us, we will be asking for your views with a quick survey, so we can improve our service to meet your needs. Give your honest feedback so we can learn from your views, so if you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received, let us know so we can put things right quickly.

Free tenant discount app

Free counselling wellbeing sessions

Money available to help you in the short-term

Swap your home with another tenant using HomeSwapper

Funding available for community groups

Tenant app to help you manage your home

Click on any image above to find out more.

RETURNING SOON

Make a note in your diary so you can nominate and recognise the truly amazing people within your communities. More information available soon.

charter hasQuarter4performance nowbeenpublished

Our performance is on or above our targets

Our performance is heading in the right direction to reach our targets

We still have lots to do, and our teams are working hard to reach our targets

We’re focusing on what matters and working towards delivering the promises we set out in our Together with Tenants Charter which was co-created with tenants just like you. We want to share our latest performance so you know we’re doing all we can to deliver on the things that matter to you. You can see that we’re on track in some areas and we haven’t got it quite right in others. We’ll continue to work hard with you.

COMMUNICATION & VISIBILITY

69.5% of tenants are satisfied that we listen to your views and act upon them

76.4% of tenants are satisfied that we keep you informed about the things that matter to you

82.6% of tenants agree that we treat you fairly and with respect

27 seconds is the current average speed of answering your enquiries

ENVIRONMENT & NEIGHBOURHOOD

72.2% of tenants are satisfied that we keep communal areas clean and well maintained

73.8% of tenants are satisfied that we make a positive contribution to neighbourhoods

REPAIRS & ASSET MANAGEMENT

57.5% of damp repairs completed year to date within target

96.2% of repairs completed on the first visit

70.4% of tenants are satisfied with repairs

INFLUENCE & ACCOUNTABILITY

95.6% is the proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code timescales

99% is the proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code timescales

33.8% of tenants are satisfied with our approach to handling complaints

44.4% of tenants are satisfied with our complaints service

SAFETY

99.9% of homes have completed gas safety checks

99.8% of homes have had electrical installations

100% of homes have had asbestos management surveys carried out

100% of homes have had a valid fire risk assessment

100% of homes have a valid legionella risk assessment

78.5% of tenants are satisfied that their home is safe

74.3% of tenants are satisfied with our approach to handling anti-social behaviour

100% of lift inspections carried out within statutory timescales

73.6% of tenants are satisfied that their home is well maintained

www.forhousing.co.uk/how-we-are-performing/