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Pictured:
Welcome.
Welcome to the summer 2024 edition of the Weaver Vale Housing Trust’s customer magazine.
Weaver Vale Housing Trust is 22 years old in July and as we, our services and the communities we work in continue to change, we knew the time was right to take a look at our vision and values. We wanted to make sure our vision and our values were right for us and more importantly for you, our customers. They really help us to focus on what we want to achieve.
We worked with our colleagues, board members and involved customers to create both, and here is our new vision and values:
You’ll notice CARE is also there… because that’s at the heart of Weaver Vale. You can find out more about this on our website www.wvht.co.uk.
At the same time, we also developed our new three year business plan, which sets out what we will be focusing on for the next three years through our five strategies: Our Customers, Our Homes and Places, Our People, Our Money, Our Environment.
The plan shows our commitment to putting you,
our customer, at the heart of everything we do at Weaver Vale. You can read the full plan on our website www.wvht.co.uk.
As you’ll read on page 11, our overall tenant satisfaction rate is 84%. We know there is always more we can do to improve, and we need you to help us so please read about how you can get involved.
We understand that getting repairs done quickly and to a high standard is important to you. That’s why we are committed to listening to you and acting on your views to improve our services. For example, we heard from 500 tenants and used their input to shape our new repairs policy. Find out more on page 6.
Our number one priority is always making sure you feel safe in your community and that your home is warm and well-maintained. Our updated anti-social behaviour and damp, mould and condensation policies are designed to help achieve this. Read more on page 10.
We understand that the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact many people in our communities, and we are here to do all we can to help. In the past year, the Rent Support and Money Matters team has supported customers to get income gains of over £4 million.
So, if you are worried about money or rent payments they can offer free confidential advice. Please call them on 0300 303 9848 and select option 1 or email rentfirst@wvht.co.uk.
We hope you enjoy reading all the latest updates. Your views matter, so if you have any suggestions for the magazine, please do get in touch by calling 0300 303 9848.
Wayne
Gales,
Chief Executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust.
www.wvht.co.uk
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Advice for carers in our communities.
Are you a carer for someone?
A carer is someone who provides support to someone who needs extra help to manage day-to-day life. This could be a partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour who could not manage without help due to age, physical or mental illness, addiction or disability.
If this sounds like you, are you aware of the help and support available for you in the local community?
Cheshire and Warrington Carers Trust are a local organisation that help ease the burden on carers. The Trust offers wellbeing support, grants, activities and training to help people in their caring role as well as giving carers a break to enjoy time for themselves.
A Weaver Vale tenant, who has benefited from the Cheshire and Warrington Carers Trust, recently got in touch with our team to tell us their experience.
Are you aware that some people are eligible for a carers allowance benefit? If you think this applies to you but are unsure of the next steps, please get in touch with our Rent Support team who will be able to help. If you are an unpaid carer, you may be eligible for an assessment of your own needs, please contact your local adult social care centre for more information.
Looking for additional support? Here are some numbers who are able to help.
Cheshire and Warrington Carers Trust 0300 102 0008, cheshireandwarringtoncarers.org
Carers Uk 020 7378 4999, www.carersuk.org
Cheshire West Carer Support 0300 102 008, cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
Cheshire East Carer Support 0300 123 5025, www.cheshireeast.gov.uk
Crossroads Together 0333 323 1990, www.crossroadstogether.org.uk
Mind 0300 123 3393, www.mind.org.uk
Find out more by visiting www.cheshireandwarringtoncarers.org
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Looking for financial advice? Our teams can help.
If you are worried about finances or paying your rent, get in touch with our team.
Our Rent Support team are here to help you to maximise your household incomes, to manage your rent and sustain your tenancies.
The team are happy to do home visits, chat over the phone, WhatsApp, via emails or meet at local job centres. They’re also happy to call later or earlier during the day if that suits you bestwhatever makes you most comfortable.
Our Rent Support team can help you:
Learn skills to manage your bills and money.
Increase your income. Get advice about energy costs.
Get the benefits you’re entitled to.
Reduce debt.
In the past year, the Rent Support and Money Matters team have:
Gained £4.2 million in additional income for customers.
Obtained almost 2,500 different outcomes for people, working with around 1,000 customers.
We assisted customers to gain over £100,000 of unclaimed carers support through Universal Credit and carers allowance.
We provided almost £50,000 in emergency fuel top ups.
Find out how the team can help you by calling 0300 303 9848 and selecting option 1.
You can also email rentfirst@wvht.co.uk.
For more information visit www.wvht.co.uk/your-rent for more information.
Find out more by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/rent-information
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Paying your rent.
You can pay your rent in many different ways to make it as easy as possible for you.
Direct Debit - Direct Debit is a cost effective and trouble free way of paying rent from your bank account making rent payments more convenient for you.
For weekly, fortnightly or four week payments you will pay on a Friday. For monthly payments you will pay on a date set by you. You can set up Direct Debit payments by calling 0300 303 9848 or through the My Account app.
My Account App - You can pay your rent anytime and anywhere via our app.
24 Hour Automated Payment Line - Call us at anytime to make a payment.
Rent Payment Card - You can pay with cash, debit card or cheque at any Payzone or Post Office using your rent payment card.
Benefits & Universal Credit
Universal Credit is rolling out to further customers throughout 2024/25. The Department of Work and Pensions will write to you to let you know when this is happening. To continue receiving financial support you must claim Universal Credit by the deadline date given in your letter. This is 3 months from the date the letter was sent.
If you cannot claim Universal Credit by the deadline date, you should contact the Universal Credit Migration Notice helpline on 0800 169 0328. They can only give you more time to make a claim if you have a good reason. You must request this before the deadline date on your letter. For more info visit www.gov.uk.
We know that from time to time you may struggle to make a rent payment. As part of our text messaging system, if your payment is late or less than expected, we will send automatic text messages, emails and letters to you, to remind you to make a payment.
So that our automatic system doesn’t send you reminders when you don’t need them, it’s important to tell us what dates you will be paying your rent. That means you’ll only get a reminder if you don’t make a payment.
You can see an example of the text messages we send below. These are automatic and only sent if the payment is not recieved or is less than we expected.
It’s important that if you receive any texts, emails, or letters from us, that you contact us straight away so that we can support you to stay on top of your rent payments.
Our teams are here to help you. Get in touch today! You can contact the team by calling 0300 303 9848 and selecting option 1, emailing rentfirst@wvht.co.uk or visiting www.wvht.co.uk/rent-information.
Learn more by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/rent-information Page 5
We’ve made changes to our repairs service.
Last year, we launched a survey to get feedback about our repairs services. We heard from over 500 customers (and our staff) about your views on our repairs services and what changes you felt needed making. We are pleased to have launched our brand new repairs policy thanks to all your feedback.
You can view the full policy, and find out more about reporting repairs by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/repairs. You can report all repairs Monday to Friday by calling our Customer Hub on 0300 303 9848 or by downloading the free My Account app.
If you have an emergency repair please call us on 0300 303 9848. We aim to fix emergency repairs within 24 hours. Emergency Repairs can be reported 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including all bank holidays. You can find more information about what an emergency repair is by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/repairs.
For more information please visit www.wvht.co.uk/repairs
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Have you checked out My Account?
Did you know there’s an even easier way to manage your tenancy straight from your phone?
My Account is a FREE service for Weaver Vale customers. It allows you to:
Pay your rent and set up direct debit options online (secured by Barclaycard)
Check your rent balance
See your scheduled home improvements*
Book and reschedule repairs without having to call us
New for 2024 - Home improvement data!
Update your contact details
If you look at the My Home section on My Account, you will see what area of your home is due an upgrade (for example new bathroom/kitchen) within the next five years. *Home improvement data is provided when the upgrade is within a five year period, so you will only see the upgrades within this timescale.
This newly added feature is part of our commitment to listen to customers and make improvements that will help you. Please note, the screenshot provided is an example of what you might see under the My Home section. If you do not see an area for improvement, this is because your home is not due any of these works.
You can check out the new feature, as well as manage your tenancy, by setting up an account. You can do this by visiting myaccount.wvht.co.uk or by scanning the QR code below.
Scan the QR code to get started
To download My Account visit myaccount.wvht.co.uk
How are we doing?
We track and monitor a wide range of performance measures to ensure that services are delivered in line with customers’ expectations and our Corporate Plan. We monitor performance at all levels of the Trust and that performance is scrutinised by our Customer Assurance Team. They make recommendations for areas of improvement or further scrutiny to make sure our services reflect the needs of our customers and that we constantly improve.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures show how we are performing on areas such as repairs, safety checks and complaints. We report these to the Regulator of Social Housing, which is the Government department that regulates all social housing providers, which is what Weaver Vale Housing Trust is. We measure these through our twice a year customer survey (STAR survey) which you may have been asked to complete. You can see the full results of our 2023/2024 reporting year by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/performance-
To find out more visit www.wvht.co.uk/performance-
What you told us, and what we’ve done.
We don’t just measure performance we also listen to what you are telling us, and we use that feedback to improve our service. Here’s a summary of what you’ve told us and what we’re doing with that feedback. All of the changes below are as a result of your feedback. We do listen and we’re improving services thanks to your feedback.
Customers would like improvements in how the Trust handles reports of anti-social behaviour.
The Trust has reviewed our current ASB Policy and we are implementing learning from cases to evolve our processes to ensure that the most serious cases are responded to within a specific timeframe and reporters receive a clear action plan about what actions we will undertake. Our new policy also provides clarity about the types of issues that will be investigated as anti-social behaviour.
Customers want to know about outstanding repairs before completing a mutual exchange. From later on this year we will provide people participating in a mutual exchange a clear list of all outstanding repairs.
Customers want repairs to be completed in a timely manner and non-emergency repairs to be categorised differently to ensure urgent repairs are responded to faster. We have introduced a new ‘urgent’ category so that we can respond faster to those things that are not an emergency but can’t wait too long to be made right. We’ve reduced the timescales for completing major works to 6 months (down from 12). We’ve increased the repairs and maintenance budgets to invest more in our homes through our largest ever investment programme.
Customers would like to see improvements in how the Trust communicates repair appointments – particularly through SMS Text messaging.
The Trust has now introduced a new and improved SMS text messaging service to enable customers to be provided with more information about a repair in the text message. You’ll receive appointment reminders and updates when an operative is on the way to your home.
Customers want more information about their home (eg bathroom/kitchen renewals) and to be able to manage their tenancies more effectively through My Account. We now provide information about kitchen and bathroom renewal timescales in the My Account App along with more information about your rent accounts. We are going to expand the number of repairs that can be booked through My Account and enable you to raise complaints, request permission to improve your home, and carry out other actions to help you manage your tenancy in a more convenient way.
We have also completed over 148 actions as a result of customer complaints which have included changes to our procedures and providing colleague training to prevent complaints happening and improve how we work day to day.
How to make a complaint.
If you feel you need to complain to us, we are sorry something has gone wrong and welcome complaints so that we can learn from them.
We always aim to get everything right the first time, but sometimes we get things wrong and if we do, we want you to tell us. We aim to ensure that customer complaints are dealt with in a consistently fair, person-centred way and resolved at the earliest possible opportunity. We also aim to promptly put matters right (where required) and to ensure that any lessons learnt from complaints are used to improve our service delivery to customers.
How to make a complaint to us.
You can phone us, email us, visit our office at Gadbrook Point or use the form on our website. We would advise you to read the customer complaints information leaflet and policy if you’re making a complaint, just so you know how we will handle your complaint.
You can read all of this info on our website www.wvht.co.uk. If you don’t have internet access please call us and we will post all the information to you.
• Email your complaint to complaints@wvht.co.uk.
• Phone us on 0300 303 9848.
• Visit our office at Gadbrook Point, Rudheath Way, Northwich, CW9 7LL. You don’t need an appointment.
Customer Voice & Influence Policy –
Customers are at the heart of everything we do at Weaver Vale and we are fully committed to listening to and acting upon your views in order to shape and influence the services we provide.
The Trust’s Customer Voice and Influence Policy shows how we collect, listen to and use customers’ voices to influence decisions that improve services. It also shows our commitment to hearing from and listening to a full range of customers that reflects the diverse nature of our customer base. It ensures you can help to determine and shape our service offers.
To do this we provide a range of opportunities for you to get involved and/or have your voice heard. Some of the ways you can get involved include joining our Customer Assurance Team, looking at complaints, filling in customer satisfaction surveys, joining neighbourhood walkabouts, filling in surveys, attending Joint Board and Engaged Customer meetings, plus more.
We know we can always improve and we would like to hear your views and opinions on how we can listen to you. We want to hear your ideas on how we can provide more opportunities for you to get involved at the Trust and have your say. Scan the QR code below to complete a quick survey about how we can improve.
To complete the survey by phone, please call us on 0300 303 9848.
For information about our support team visit www.wvht.co.uk/getinvolved
Weaver Vale policies and what they mean to you.
We have a wide range of policies that cover all of our service areas. Our policies are written guidelines that outline our services and processes in our business across all key service areas.
They set expectations for what you, our customers, can expect from our services. Our policies outline service detail, timescales and any legal or regulatory requirements of service areas. Our policies also help you hold us to account for that service delivery.
We have a policy update timetable which ensures our policies are reviewed regularly and reflect any legal or legislative changes that have taken place. You can read our policies on our website www.wvht.co.uk. On this page you will find information about two policies that have recently been updated.
Damp, mould and condensation policy (DMC)
We are responsible for the maintenance and repairs of our homes and communal areas and will ensure that we keep the property and communal areas in repair and fit for habitation at the start of the tenancy and throughout. We will also meet all the statutory and contractual obligations in relation to damp, mould and condensation.
We have a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould within homes and communal areas we are responsible for. We will act on this in accordance with the details outlined within this policy. We will ensure that customers who report cases of DMC are treated with respect and empathy, that any vulnerabilities are taken into consideration, and that a customer’s lifestyle is not deemed the sole reason for any cases of DMC.
We will provide support to customers with vulnerabilities in addressing the resolution to DMC-related issues and will seek the support of any relevant third-party agencies/organisations in doing so. We will work with customers to ensure a
suitable solution is found that considers individual circumstances, especially relating to disability, financial hardship, and health conditions. You can read our full policy and policy implementation plan by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/a-z-of-policies.
Anti-social
behaviour policy (ASB)
The aims of the policy are:
To prevent, reduce and stop the occurrence of ASB and to reduce its impact within our neighbourhoods.
To ensure that a fair and consistent approach is operated.
To provide relevant support for both reporters and subjects of ASB to ensure ASB is resolved effectively.
To provide a service which leads to a high level of customer satisfaction.
To ensure that the Trust meets its statutory and regulatory responsibilities.
To meet the aims of the Trust’s Homes and Places strategy by ensuring customers are safe and feel positive about their home and neighbourhood.
This policy applies to any ASB which impacts our services as a Registered Provider of Social Housing. This includes ASB which is caused by Trust customers (including shared owners), their households or their visitors, and which is capable of affecting Trust customers, members of their households, or Trust colleagues from executing their role.
You can read our full policies on www.wvht.co.uk.
Changes in your household.
Changes in a household can impact your rent, so it’s important to let us know.
If any of the below changes have happened in your household, please get in touch. It’s also important to contact other agencies such as the Department for Work and Pensions and your local council if these changes impact any of your benefits.
Children have started school
Children have finished full time education
Someone in your home has turned 18
Changes to who lives in your home
If declaring these changes has changed your household income, please get in touch with our Rent Support team who will look at your money and try to help. You can contact the team by calling 0300 303 9848 or email rentfirst@wvht.co.uk. You can let our team know of any changes in the home by contacting your Rent Support officer, or calling our Customer Hub team on 0300 303 9848.
Find out more by visiting www.wvht.co.uk/employment-support
Here are some support numbers from across the Trust and external agencies for help with your household and mental health. Please check your tenancy/lease agreement for Weaver Vale service eligibility.
Show domestic abuse the red card.
Help is available if you are at risk of domestic abuse. Please reach out to the numbers below.
In an emergency, ring 999. If you can’t use a voice phone, you can text REGISTER to 999 and you will receive a text which tells you what to do next. If you are unable to speak - dial 999 from your mobile then press 55 when prompted and a police response will be alerted. This is called the silent solution system.
Cheshire West Domestic Abuse Intervention and Prevention Service – 0300 123 7047 option 2
Cheshire East Domestic Abuse Hub - 0300 123 5101
Warrington Domestic Abuse Support - 01925 443124
Cheshire Without Abuse - 01270 250390
FREE 24 hour National Domestic Abuse helpline - 0808 200 0247
For the National LGBTQ+ Domestic Abuse helpline - 0800 999 5428
Mankind Initiative for male victims - 01823 334244
Respect for if you feel you are worried about your behaviour in your relationships - 0808 802 4040
If you believe there is immediate domestic abuse danger to an adult or child, please call the police.
For information about our support team visit www.wvht.co.uk/domestic-abuse
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