Dear Customer of Greatwell Homes,
I wanted to reach out to you again in these strange and difficult times to update you on what we are doing to support you and to do our upmost to keep everyone safe.
These are challenging times for you our customers, our staff and us as a business.
Our main priority is to deliver our essential services such as emergency repairs and help our most vulnerable customers and of course to follow the Government advice and Stay home, Protect the NHS and Save lives.
To enable us to do so, we have:
- Contacted over 750 older and vulnerable customers to see whether they have a support system of their own or if they need additional help. If they do we have been signposting them to organisations who can assist.. We will continue to undertake welfare checks on those who are most vulnerable during this time.
- Been in contact with our customers in Independent Living schemes at least three times a week to ensure they are well and offer additional support.
- Liaised closely with partners (including local councils) and offered the assistance of staff and supplies where possible.
- Created a section on our website for customers to access updates to our services, financial support and other help for the elderly and vulnerable.
- Made customers aware that no one will face eviction due to financial hardship caused by the coronavirus.
- Reviewed all aspects of the services we provide and put plans in place to ensure our most critical services can continue throughout this pandemic.
- Provided ways for our customers to access online training courses to enhance their online abilities, as well as access to courses on wellbeing and improving mental health in an uncertain world.
Essential services such as emergency repairs, gas servicing and cleaning in our Independent Living schemes will continue, whilst taking into consideration the social distancing rules put in place by the Government and of course ensuring these staff members have sufficient PPE. We will continue to review the services we provide on a regular basis.
Many of our staff are working from home to ensure that services such as enquiries, giving benefit advice and taking rent payments still remain accessible to you, even though we are not able to do this face to face.
As you know, we have temporarily stopped certain services in the best interests of our customers and staff. This means that some members of staff are unable to do their usual work in the current circumstance, so we’ve made the difficult decision to use the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and furlough these employees for a minimum of three weeks. We will still be able to continue with our essential services outlined above but we do ask for your understanding throughout this time. Thank you.
I know these are difficult times and we have had to make difficult decisions, but I am immensely proud of the Greatwell Homes team and the way they have all dealt with the current circumstances and adapted to their new way of working.
As I’ve said before, these are really difficult and unprecedented times in which we should be supporting each other. We have seen that unfortunately there has been a rise in anti-social behaviour within our communities and I ask you to please be considerate to those living around you and always follow the Government advice of social distancing and staying at home. Even during this time, we are still able to take action on those who are causing disruption in their neighbourhoods, but we really hope we do not have to do this.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who are abiding by the Government advice, who are supporting us and our staff and to those who have taken the time to give us positive feedback on how we, and our staff members, are handling this situation. It really does mean a lot to us.
From the bottom of my heart, I really do hope you and your families are well and safe. We are here for you and the wider community, and together we will get through this.
Best wishes,
Jo
You can find all of our information around coronavirus here.