Working with our customers: engagement update July-September 2024

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 July to September 2024…

Customer Voice Panel

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.

• CVP membership has 256 actively engaged members.
• 14 CVP meetings and other engagement activities held this quarter.
• CVP members have reviewed our Fire Safety Policy, the way we communicate our Need a Hand cost-of-living campaign to customers and our Together with Tenants Charter.
• Eight customers participated in a scrutiny activity of our Neighbourhood Care services specifically focusing on the grounds maintenance and cleaning services carried out across the borough.

Together with Tenants Charter review

As part of our work to improve the standard of service you receive, we have adopted the Together with Tenants (TWT) Charter. This sets out what customers can and should expect from their landlord – and how customers can hold them to account on this.

• 11 CVP members participated providing feedback about the charter.
• CVP members gave feedback around the new commitment added to the charter around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The CVP also reviewed our current position on the current commitments within the charter.

Performance Challenge

• 10 customers took part in the quarterly Performance Challenge meeting.
• This meeting focused on our current performance and customer satisfaction results across all services. CVP members discussed the grounds maintenance and caretaking scores. In addition, reviewing how we collect data and compile statistics on fire safety compliance.
• Customers also requested to see information on the number of residents who complete the touchpoint surveys and the Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) survey and asked for clarification on how we measure customer satisfaction.

Neighbourhood Champions

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 fly tipping.

• 33 customers took part in the August Neighbourhood Champion inspections.
• Neighbourhood Champions gave positive feedback around garden maintenance however highlighted a few inconsistencies with internal block cleaning across the borough. The CVP group is now undertaking a scrutiny exercise of the Neighbourhood Care Service to identify where and how improvements can be made.

Funding

FCHO Community Grants and Contributions Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE)

Our support programme offers funding to community and voluntary groups in/ or delivering for FCHO neighbourhoods.

• Grants and contributions made by FCHO for Quarter 2 amount to £7,160, with £4,910 paid.
• This equates to two significant grants/contributions made and includes support for a community-led land redevelopment project in the Failsworth area.

Other Contributions (non-VCSE)

• A donation was made to the Tensing Street residents group for a Macmillan Coffee morning.

National/Regional Community Funding 

• We are awaiting the results of £125,000 worth of funding from national community funders that we have supported local partners to apply for e.g. funding for digital inclusion projects.

Social Value Contributions and Activity

• Through social value contribution from our supply chain, equipment to support the Oldham Digital Lending Library was purchased. This is to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning for young people in educationally/economically disadvantaged areas.
• Further contributions have been made from two supply chain contractors to support a range of community/poverty action initiatives, including the FCHO-supported school uniform campaign.
• In partnership with community group Altogether, we and our contractors have carried out improvements at the Alt Community Centre e.g. setting up a new computer suite and also supported a litterpick of the local area.

Community Investment Calendar (Quarter 3 2024 2025)

Through our community investment and through our supply chain, social value will be supporting community partners with activities and support relating to:

• Recycle Week - ‘Rescue Me’
• Get Online Week (digital inclusion and literacy)
• Winter Giving (includes a range of poverty action initiatives)

Community Centre Updates

• At Barker Street Community Centre, toilet facilities have been adapted to improve access for people with disabilities.
• At Alt Community Centre, Neighbourhood Co-ordinator advice sessions are soon to start running. The Neighbourhood Co-ordinator is Kelsey Warwick and can be contacted on kelsey.warwick@fcho.co.uk or call 0161 393 7117.
• At Ridgefield Street Community Centre, improvements to decor have been made. These have been jointly funded through Oldham Council and FCHO in preparation of new bereavement support services to run from the centre.
• At Ridgefield Street Community Centre, a new social enterprise, Your Right Hand, is to start delivering parenting support sessions, including education and training on domestic violence.

For further information about our community centres, please contact Ghazalla Iqbal from our Stronger Communities team. Please email ghazalla.iqbal@fcho.co.uk or call 0161 393 7117.

Other Community Projects and Activities

• OL1 Oldham is working with us to engage with residents on the Eden Street community planting project. Work is underway and residents and volunteers were invited to two community barbecues with 20+ people attending.
  OL1 Oldham provided attendees with an update on plans for the area and the project update report has been submitted to Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF). Plans include a dead hedge wildflower turf, a handrail to improve disability access, sensory plants and a herb garden.
• More good news for Barker Street customers. A number of our families were winners at the National Trust awards ceremony and well done to everyone who entered the Sky Garden pilot in Barker Street and Eldon Street neighbourhoods.
• Funded through an FCHO Community Development Grant, the Virtual Walking project was launched at Ridgefield Community Centre by Failsworth Walking Group (FWG). Local residents and Live Well customers were invited to attend. A series of further engagement events are planned to raise awareness and FWG has been invited to meet with The Stroke Association which runs sessions from our Barker Street Community Centre.