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 October to December 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.

• Our CVP has 247 actively engaged members.
• 15 CVP meetings and other engagement activities took place this quarter.
• CVP members reviewed policies and took part in activities like neighbourhood checks, looking at the aids and adaptations report, and reviewing our fire safety policy.
• This quarter we also established a panel of 10 core CVP members who will be working with us on all strategic and regulatory matters going forward. They will meet quarterly to provide essential feedback and insights from a customer perspective. Read more about our CVP structure.

Neighbourhood Care reviews

Over several sessions, CVP members looked at the service standards and performance of our Neighbourhood Care service. This was based on feedback from the Neighbourhood Champions survey, Performance Challenge meetings, and customer complaints.

The customers shared their findings and suggestions with the Head of Neighbourhood Care. Below is a summary of their report:

To improve service standards, we will carry out regular checks, provide better training, and improve communication. Service guidelines will be updated with clear details and pictures. We will also review products and equipment to help both customers and colleagues.

Checks will be done on time, and the results will be shared on noticeboards and online, so everyone can see them. Regular training sessions will help colleagues keep their skills up to date.

Performance Challenge

• 8 customers took part in the quarterly Performance Challenge meeting to talk about important updates and how we are doing as a landlord.
• Our CVP members discussed:

  • Fire safety measures: How fire safety checks are carried out regularly in all FCHO properties, and our responsibilities for high-risk buildings. Customers are involved during inspections to help them understand Fire Safety Legislation.

  • Performance Metrics: We collect performance data through Tenant Satisfaction Measures and Touchpoint surveys. FCHO has promised to give CVP members detailed information about survey results. This will help them understand performance trends each quarter.
    

    Quarter two (July-September 2024) highlights included:
    

    • 100% of emergency repairs were completed on time and all safety checks for gas, lifts, asbestos, and water were done.
    • Areas for improvement include non-emergency repair timescales, communication, and how complaints are handled.
    • More focus is needed on fixing disrepair issues and improving communal cleaning.

Community Support Success

Financial and community support programmes have helped customers by increasing income, reducing debt, and finding employment.

Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion

We are improving our CVP induction process to make it more welcoming and accessible for everyone. Our goal is to ensure that all new members feel supported, understand their roles, and are encouraged to get involved.

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.

This quarter we have been working with our Neighbourhood Champions on how we can improve the whole neighbourhood survey experience, make the survey more engaging, inclusive and useful, ensuring it better represents the needs of our communities.

We will simplify the survey to focus on clear and practical feedback that supports community improvement. We are also exploring ways to improve teamwork between customers, FCHO in-house services, the community and partner organisations to help solve key issues like fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour, and waste management.

To show how your feedback leads to real changes, we will provide regular updates on the improvements we make.

Funding

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

Our support programme offers funding to community and voluntary groups that work in or support FCHO neighbourhoods.

• This quarter FCHO awarded £3,008 in grants and contributions.
• This funding supported numerous community events, including Recycle Week, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and Get Online Week in Oldham.

National/Regional Community Funding 

• We are waiting for the results of £80,000 in funding applications from national community funders. As part of this, we have supported partners to apply for funding to help deliver key community projects in our neighbourhoods.

  These include projects which:

  • Support digital inclusion
  • Create local job opportunities
  • Provide important community services.

Social Value Contributions and Activity

• Our Winter Giving appeal received fantastic support from our partners, who donated more than £4,000 to help customers facing financial difficulties this winter. A huge thank you to all our suppliers for their commitment to supporting our communities.

In the next three months, through our community investment work and supply chain social value activity, FCHO will support community partners with activities and initiatives linked to:

• National Storytelling Week – ‘Re-imagine Your World’
• Great British Spring Clean
• International Women’s Day – ‘Accelerate Action’
• National Careers Week
• British Science Week

We look forward to working with our partners to deliver these events and make a positive impact in our communities.

Community Engagement and Neighbourhood Support

As part of our commitment to being active in communities and expanding services to benefit local people, we support community-led groups with guidance and funding.

Every quarter, FCHO community centre volunteers are invited to discuss upcoming events, future plans, and available funding opportunities. They also receive support to connect with Action Together, charitable organisations, Oldham Council and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) to strengthen community services.

Highlights from across our community centres this quarter include:

Barker Street Community Centre 

• Community group OL1 and FCHO Neighbourhood Co-ordinator Clive Hill continues to host a monthly drop-in coffee morning/neighbourhood surgery, creating a welcoming space for people to meet, get advice, and build friendships. Our new CEO, Mark Gifford visited to meet customers, listen to their feedback and discuss community initiatives
• OL1 has planted 1,500 bulbs at Barker Street Community centre as part of the Eden St Project supported by Greater Manchester Green Spaces.
• A new interactive screen has been installed at the centre, with support from Inclusive Bytes CIC, to help improve digital inclusion locally.
• The centre hosted a festive celebration in December, where over 70 customers enjoyed carols from Brian Clarke Academy students and festivities.
• To mark the International 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence in November/December, OL1 and REEL CIC, with Oldham Women’s Network, organised an awareness walk with 18 community members taking part.
• The centre held its Annual General Meeting (AGM), welcoming organisations and making new connections with FCHO advisors offering community support.

Apfel Lane Community Centre 

• The Family Peer Support for Autism community group now hosts supportive sessions every Tuesday morning.

Ridgefield Street Community Centre 

• Our Winter Giving Appeal donated toys to the Bereavement Peer Support community group, which organises activities to support children and their families who have lost loved ones.

Tensing Street Community Centre 

• On Christmas Day, volunteers welcomed members of the local community who would otherwise have been alone and created a warm and festive space for them to enjoy. Customers also benefitted from gifts from our Winter Giving appeal.

Nelson Way Community Centre 

• Community needs-led organisation, Real Education Empowering Lives (REEL) CIC has delivered Women’s Enrichment Sessions, designed to support mental health and wellbeing.
• We introduced the Place Standard Survey to gather valuable insights on how customers and the wider community feel about their area and better understand the community's needs.
• We also delivered Carbon Literacy training to a group of customers to increase awareness of climate change and empower them to make a positive difference in tackling climate change.

Alt Community Cafe

• Community group, Altogether, and FCHO Neighbourhood Co-ordinator Kelsey Warwick now run a weekly surgery, bringing customers together as a community and enabling them to ask questions and get advice.
• Customers benefitted from gifts from our Winter Giving appeal plus a £150 donation to hold a festive party for local children. We were delighted that 28 children attended and enjoyed the celebrations.

You Said, We Did

Here’s some of the things customers told us during this quarter and how we responded to these...

During our Neighbourhood Care review, customers told us that some service standards need to be improved as they are outdated and need to be clearer so that customers can easily access them.

As a result, our service standards will be reviewed and enhanced by including more detailed descriptions and images to make them clearer and easier to understand. After this has been done, we will arrange a phase two meeting to discuss the changes and review customer feedback. 

Customers told us they would like to understand our work to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB) in greater depth. 

In response to this, we have collaborated with our ASB team to set up a review activity for customers to understand more about the service. This will take place throughout the end of 2024 going into 2025.

Customers told us that there was no disabled access at our Tensing Street Community Centre, which was preventing some customers from attending community events.

We have listened and collaborated with Oldham Council to install a dropped curb outside the centre, to help make sure that the building is accessible for everyone.

Customers said they would like to see an increased police presence in some neighbourhoods to help them report incidents of anti social behaviour.

We took this onboard and arranged police surgeries at Alt Community Centre and Barker Street Community Centre. These gave customers the opportunity to meet members of our ASB team and local police officers and discuss and report any issues that they have.