The Difference You’ve Made

• Made sure we achieve the regulatory requirements and have evidence to show that we are respectful to customers and work in partnership.
• Reviewed the home improvements policy and requested changes to make it clearer for customers.
• Approved community grants, including the school uniform re-use project, and Groundwork community organisation. 
• Amended the expenses and rewards scheme for involved customers to make sure customers are rewarded in a way they value. 

Please contact Nikki Glazebrook – nikki.glazebrook@greatwellhomes.org.uk – about the Customer Assembly.

For organisations interested in applying for a community grant, please see these guidelines and contact Nikki: Greatwell Homes Community Grants Application and Guidance 2024_25

• Aids and Adaptations Policy with the Customer Assembly
• The yearly review of the Get Involved pages on the website
• Mythbusters facts to dispell myths or assumptions that are not correct
• ‘Inclusive’ meetings to make it easier to people to get involved – including a picnic meeting in the park with the kids

Please contact Lorraine Gibson – lorraine.gibson@greatwellhomes.org.uk – about Together Greatwell.

In 2023, our customers scrutinised two separate services: the way we communicated and consulted with customers in our Independent Living schemes, and our shared ownership service. Here are the recommendations from these scrutiny reviews:

Communication and Consultation in Independent Living:

• Create a project consultation guide with customers with specific focus on Independent Living. 
• Support Services manager to attend residents meetings or consultation meetings.   
• Carry out an audit on communication preferences.  
• Consultation responses to be submitted privately and securely. 
• Provide videos on how-to guides for reporting repairs, complaints, anti-social behaviour etc.

Shared Ownership:

• Service charge letter to include cover page over the top of the mandatory information to make sure information is understandable.
• Add Rent setting and Other Property Charges Policy to the website.
• Welcome pack uploaded to customer portal. Customers to be consulted on contents.
• Put all services available to Shared Ownership customers on the customer portal.
• Add Shared Ownership customers to the customer newsletter distribution list.
• Neighbourhood Housing Officer to complete a 6 week visit with each new Shared Ownership customer.

Please contact Gemma Ager – gemma.ager@greatwellhomes.org.uk – about scrutiny.

We’ve carried out surveys with our informally involved customers this year, using their feedback to advise us on:

• What you want to see in the community involvement newsletter – updates on scrutiny and the Customer Assembly, what community grants were awarded, the impact of customer assistance schemes.
• The communal cleaning in blocks of flats – is window cleaning included? Can we provide it?
• What you think our our new in-house gas servicing team 
• How the Get Involved web pages can be improved – more photos, more customer stories, more detail on the ‘Difference You’ve Made page’

If you would like to receive surveys from us, we give shopping vouchers for your contribution – please contact nikki.glazebrook@greatwellhomes.org.uk

We get feedback from customers in a variety of ways on how we work and interact with you. Here are some of the changes we have made this year as a result of customer feedback: 

• We have introduced a customer voice report to track what customers are saying to us across various channels such as complaints and compliments, neighbourhood walkabouts, customer involvement groups, satisfaction surveys, and feedback from events.
• We invited suggestions from customers for involvement projects for the upcoming year, and customers help select which suggestions to put into action – you chose anti-social behaviour, gardens, repairs and the environment.
• Following the survey about the Get Involved web pages we held a focus group for customers to help us make the changes.
• We asked customers about the help they received from the customer assistance pot – customers were really happy, and we have recommended closer monitoring and more understanding of they types of financial difficulties customers have.
• We asked residents of Burns Road what they would like for the green space that is currently unused. 
• We asked customers that had made complaints about their experiences and how we could make the process better.