Working with our customers: engagement update October-December 2023

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 October to December 2023…

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 now stands at 186 engaged customers.
• 12 CVP meetings and other engagement activities held this quarter.
• 16 customers attended the Responsive Repairs Focus Group.
• 14 customers attended the newly formed Tenancy and Neighbourhood Working Group.
• 108 customer interactions through engagement activities in the period October – December 2023.

Performance Challenge

• 7 customers took part in October’s Performance Challenge Meeting.
• Our Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Manager attended as requested by customers who wanted more information on how FCHO plan to become more sustainable and what we are already doing to protect the environment.

Customer Sustainability Champions

Our Customer Sustainability Champions are helping us on our journey to make our customers’ homes and communities, and our business, more sustainable and fit for the future.

• Following the Customer Sustainability Champions’ successful first 12 months, we began recruitment for more customers to join the group.
• Our Champions have reflected on the the initial 12 month period and provided feedback on what went well, such as discussion about the cost of living and how to effectively communicate with customers regarding sustainability projects, and where they would like to see us make improvements, for example strengthening sustainability information on our website.

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/contributions scheme which offers funding to community and voluntary groups in Oldham.

• Grants and contributions made between October and December 2023 totalled £3,847
• These grants and contributions covering a range of community impact projects from support for disengaged young people through to debt advice initiatives.
• Assistance was provided by FCHO to three community organisations to enable £11,450 of external funding to be secured for community projects in Oldham. This includes a significant grant amount for an older people’s health and wellbeing project.

Funding & Partnership Development

• Currently we are awaiting decision on a total £250k of funding from an external funder for a large, Oldham wide community engagement project.

Community Groups/Networks

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

• Move and Heal have extended the delivery of armchair yoga having successfully been awarded National Lottery funding. These sessions will be rolled out at our Nelson Way and Ridgefield community centres.
• The “Reclaim your Life” course which is structured around health and wellbeing has now been delivered successfully by REEL and we are awaiting the evaluation. This is an accredited course which was rolled out at one of our community centres. We are looking to continue this, if REEL is successful in obtaining further funding.
• We have carried out planning with Active Travel (TFGM) and all our centres to encourage walking and cycling groups. Starting soon the residents will be invited to our Barker Street community centre to drop in and discuss how they can get involved in active travel in and around Oldham.
• We are supporting a Failsworth walking group to meet at our Ridgefield community centre to coordinate their walks and use the centre as a hub.
• Supporting our Barker Street community centre residents with a neighbourhood surgery once a month.