Working with our customers: engagement update April-June 2022

Engaging with our customers and listening to their views is very important to us. Customer feedback makes a difference to the way we deliver our services, drives improvements for everyone who lives in a First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) home and local communities, and helps us as we strive to be an excellent landlord.

On this page you can see all the ways we’ve worked with our customers to make positive changes from April-June 2022…

Our Customer Voice Panel (CVP) is made up of customers from across our neighbourhoods and has been set up to give a real voice to those who live in our homes, so they influence our services and bring about improvements.

• 87 customers now part of the CVP.
• 66 customers attended April’s CVP meeting.
• 13 CVP meetings and other engagement activities held this quarter.

CVP Members have also:

• Reviewed our Complaints procedure, to look at how we currently deal with complaints, what we learn from complaints and how to improve this process. Twelve customers attended the initial focus group meeting with our Contact Centre Manager and Head of Governance.
• Provided feedback on our text messaging process when booking repairs.
• Shared insight on our current disrepair communications.
• Told us what they think in a consultation about Regulator of Social Housing consumer standards.
• Participated in a joint consultation with Oldham Council to explore customers’ priorities in relation to the vision for Oldham including resident priorities and regeneration.
• Carried out a quarterly round of neighbourhood inspections.
• Took part in two focus groups: one to inform customers about Respect Our Communities Awards (ROCA) and funding opportunities, and another about voids inspections.

Customer void inspections

As part of our work to improve the standard that you can expect when you move into an FCHO home - from gardens to cleanliness as well as the general condition of your property – we have recruited volunteers from our CVP to be Customer Void Inspectors.

• 15 members of the CVP are now Customers Void Inspectors
• An in-person and virtual training session for customers was held in June to discuss priorities in respect of extra awarded budget and what customers felt this should be spent on to create the enhanced standard.
• Following this training session, the third phase of voids inspections took place on Saturday 11 June.
• 6 properties inspected that day against the Void Lettable Standard.
• 5 customers visited each property in person.
• 3 customers inspected the properties via video link, in real time specifically looking at the ‘enhanced standard’ against the current standard.
• Following this, we have analysed all the relevant data and reported recommendations back to our Voids team.

Our Neighbourhood Champions carry out quarterly neighbourhood inspections and report back on the condition of their neighbourhood including grounds maintenance, communal area cleaning, litter and flytipping.

• 44 customers took part in the May inspections
• We are now planning and delivering a scrutiny exercise with our Customer Voice Panel to review the last 12 months inspection results and identify further areas of improvement.

We support community and voluntary groups in Oldham with a number of funding streams.

ROCA (FCHO Funding)

ROCA (Respect Our Community Awards) is our grant scheme which offers funding to community and voluntary groups in Oldham.

• 5 grants totalling £3,675 are now being evaluated.
• 18 grants totalling £13,365 are currently being monitored.
• 2 grants totalling £2,240 are in the process of being awarded.

Funding & Partnership Development

• 3 applications/expressions of interest submitted for community projects to an equivalent value of £92,597. Includes support for financial literacy training, environmental improvements, and digital inclusion initiatives.
• 2 community partner applications supported for funding submission covering food education and digital inclusion.

Community/Place Based Research

Everyone has their own experience of the place where they live and work and we want to get conversations going with our customers about what matters to them in their neighbourhood. We are using the Place Standard questionnaire to do this.

• Alt and Barker Street neighbourhood Place Standard questionnaire work is now underway with face-to-face engagement with our Stronger Communities team.

Community Groups/Networks

We are involved in multiple community partnerships and networks. It supports community groups with activities like grant funding applications outside of ROCA and our Community Awards.

• Alt Café re-opened to the public at the beginning of May with a weekly coffee morning every Thursday.
• In May, Apfel Lane Community Centre hosted a series of cooking sessions ran by Cracking Good Food to help residents develop new skills.
• A Feminine Hygiene Bank, run by organisers, Girls with Pride & Dignity has launched at Apfel Lane Community Centre on Monday and Tuesdays.
• A community planting project run by Northern Lily is taking place at Ridgefield Street Community Centre June-July
• Nelson Way and Daisy Hill Court Community Centres hosted parties for residents to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.

West Vale is our project set to transform the area where tower blocks Crossbank House and Summervale House once stood. On the vacant site we are building 88 high quality, new homes to help meet local housing need. We are working with local people and organisations for the benefit of the community as the West Vale project progresses.

• Further consultations on environmental will take place with West Street neighbourhood residents in July and August 2022.

West Street Digital History Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund

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• Design of the place history platform is underway.
• Recruitment of people to sign up for the digital skills course is in progress.
• Artwork by Richmond Academy pupils which celebrates the history of the Coldhurst neighbourhood and Oldham's industrial past was produced at a session with Gallery Oldham in May. This fantastic work will be displayed on hoardings around the West Vale building site.

Here’s some of the things customers told us during this quarter …

Our Customer Void inspectors have told us they think improving the standard of decoration in void properties should be a priority. In response to this our Voids team is now implementing the ‘enhanced’ voids standard, designed to improve the quality that you can expect when you move into an FCHO home

Following the first phase of Customer Voids Inspections held in November, CVP members gave us feedback that holding inspections at weekends may increase availability of customers to take part. We took this onboard and continue to hold the inspections on Saturdays, with the June session taking place on Saturday 11 June.