Wales & West Housing's Spotlight on Wrexham Spring 2013

WREXHAMISSUE 5 | SPRING 2013

SPOTLIGHT ON

Welfare Reformweathering thestorm

Getting online thriving online

Our latest newdevelopments in your area

Connect24 telephone and telecare services

2 | Spotlight on WREXHAM | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

First of all I am very pleased to tell you that in ourmost recent Resident Satisfaction Survey 88% ofour residents told us that they were satisfied withthe overall service provided by WWH. This is a 2%increase compared to the survey we did in 2011,and, a significant increase of 7% on the results weachieved in 2007.

Another significant development since our lastSpotlight on Wrexham is the investment we havemade in seven new innovative Tenancy SupportOfficers posts. After a successful recruitment exercise our new TSOs are, as I write, starting theirnew roles across Wales and will be taking a proactive and handson approach to helping ourresidents to weather the welfare reform storm.

Across the business we are continuing to exploreand invest in new technology and our digital inclusion programme is continuing apace, in itselfplaying an increasingly important role in helpingour residents to deal with forthcoming welfare reform changes.

I am also very pleased to announce that, in recognition of our capacity as a developing association, we have been granted a substantialtranche of additional funds by the Welsh Government to help us build more much neededaffordable homes across Wales. When we sentyou our Business Plan last autumn we told you wewould deliver 800 new homes in the next fiveyears. Thanks to this new investment we are nowon course to deliver 1,000 new homes in the nextfour years.

However developingnew homes is just apart of what we do andso to ensure that we remain customerfocussed, and readilyaccountable, we are undergoing our regularselfassessmentprocess. I and my fellow directors have been conducting our annual staff roadshows and haveso far spoken to more than three quarters of allour staff across Wales, many of whom live in thecommunities in which they work, gaining invaluable insights and feedback from them.

Finally, it gives me great pleasure to tell you thatSunday Times Best Companies has ranked us thetop notforprofit organisation in Wales for the second year running – placing us 7th in the UKoverall. We not only moved one place up the ranking from our 2012 position in 8th place, butwe also retained our coveted gold standard ThreeStars rating. I’m sure you will agree that this is another very pleasing result and a testament tothe hard work and dedication of our fantastic staff. To conclude, I hope that this briefing will help tokeep you up to date with much of our grassrootswork in your area, as well as the bigger pictureabout WWH. Please don’t hesitate to get in touchat any time with your ideas and comments aboutany aspect of our work.

Yours Anne Hinchey, Chief Executive.

ANNE’S INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Spring 2013 edition of Spotlight on Wrexham,bringing you updates about Wales & West Housing initiatives inyour area. This edition features our usual mix of news aboutsome of our current countyspecific projects, plus relevant organisationwide updates.

3 | Spotlight on WREXHAM | LOCAL NEWS | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

Working efficiently with Wrexham HousingBenefit team we have been able to identify the111 WWH households in the county who willbe affected by the change.

Our staff have contacted all affected residentsto talk through the changes, discuss the potential impact on household budgets and towork with them to find affordable solutions.

To date, the vast majority of our residents havetold us that they intend to stay in their existinghomes although many may struggle to makeup the shortfall in their housing benefit.

In recognition that many of our residents willneed more help to sustain their tenancies, wehave also invested heavily in providing ongoing support through the creation ofseven entirely new Tenancy Support Officerposts.

Starting work with us now and based acrossWales – four (Natalie Davies, Amanda Collins,Stuart Lock and Sharon Jones) in the South,one (Donna Steven) in Mid Wales and two(William Brook and Jen Bailey) covering ourproperties in North Wales – they will workwith residents to help them deal with the impact of all forthcoming welfare reforms, including the introduction of Universal Credit,giving them the knowledge, choices, strengthand hope to weather the forthcoming storm.

Of course, one knockon effect of the bedroomtax is that we are now seeing some of ourlarger properties – especially three bedroomfamily homes – becoming available. Again weare working closely with all our local authoritypartners, and all other appropriate partners tomake sure that the right people in housingneed are able to access these affordablehomes.

WELFARE REFORMWEATHERING THE STORM Our agenda has been, and continues to be, dominated by welfare reform and in particular the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’which came into effect on April 1st.


JOIN THE CONVERSATION

We now have more than 1,300 followers on Twitter. Please jointhe conversation and follow us @wwha. We tweet daily aboutnews, jobs, forthcoming events, training opportunities, charityfundraising initiatives, photos and much more.

And you can watch us on our YouTube channel wwhahomesforwales.


Overall Satisfaction We are really pleased toreport that 88% (four out of five residents)were satisfied with the overall service provided by WWH. This is a 2% increase compared to 2011’s survey and a significantincrease of 7% on the results we achieved inour 2007 survey.

Customer Service Our scores for the standardof customer service when making contactwith us are very good. In particular more thanhalf of households (52%) gave us a perfectscore of 10 for the helpfulness of staff, withthe average overall score being 8.65 out of10. There has also been a significant increasein satisfaction levels for receiving a responsein a timely manner (7.99 average, up from7.70).

The Property On the whole, respondentswere satisfied with their property, with an average rating of 7.99 out of 10, including32% of the sample who scored 10. In general,average scores for each feature of the homewere equivalent to, and in most cases higherthan, those reported in 2011.

Wrexham specific People’s perceptions oftheir neighbourhood overall is typically an important factor in how satisfied or not theyare with their accommodation and landlord,so it is positive to see respondents in Wrexham scored their neighbourhood an average of 8.1 out of 10 which owes much tothe fact that 42% scored it 10. Determiningfactors include over a quarter of respondents(29%) stating that they have good neighbours, 25% reporting they live in a quietarea, and 19% rating access to amenities.

We also asked residents about our prioritiesfor improvement in a variety of areas of workover the coming years. The results clearlyshow that we are planning to improve areasof service provision that are relevant and valued to our residents.

The top three items identified by Wrexhamresidents are:

• to review how we deal with anti social behaviour

• make homes more energy efficient, and,• review the services to support older

residents to help them live independently in their homes.

So what next? We are now exploring in moredepth the results of this survey and the specific comments that residents have made.These will be invaluable to us in moving forward and further improving our services.

RESIDENT SATISFACTIONSURVEY (RSS) - WREXHAMWe carry out our annual Resident Satisfaction Survey of athird of households (approximately 2,700) every year. Weundertook our second annual, and most recent, survey in autumn 2012. Here are some headline results plus insightsinto what is important to our residents in Wrexham.


DEVELOPING NEW HOMES FOR WREXHAM

Planning permission for a further 20 homes onthe neighbouring Rivulet Road site has also recently been granted, taking the total provision of this landmark regeneration development by Anwyl Construction for us inpartnership with Wrexham County BoroughCouncil to 149 new affordable homes, plus thenew Community Resource Centre and MedicalFacility.

Libby Price has just been appointed our newCommunity Liaison Officer for this development and in the coming months shewill be working very closely with the local community over the development of the Community Centre.

The site has also been visited by Welsh Government Finance Minister Jane Hutt, andNorth Wales AM Aled Roberts. Both were particularly impressed with the way in whichthis development is supporting eight youngapprentices, as well as putting an estimated£50m back into the local economy thanks tothe use of local supply chains and local labour.

An Easter Egg hunt and community event attracted more than 100 people, kickstarting awhole programme of community activities forthe Spring.

To keep up to date with all that is going on inthis exciting new development please go towww.hightownflats.com – our communityblog for the area.

We have been successful in securing additionalfunding from the Welsh Government whichwill enable us to deliver more than 1,000 unitsduring the next four years across all areas inwhich we operate.

The supply of enough high quality, affordablehomes for Wales remains a pressing issue.However we remain confident of our ability tomeet a range of needs. We are in a strong position financially and thanks to this we areable to build not only more new homes, butmore of the right type and specification tomeet local demand. Providing homes at different prices provides not only us, but alsomore importantly, our current and potentialresidents, with real choices.

Work is continuing apace on our £17m development across thesetwo sites, with the first new homes on Kingsmills Road due to behanded over for occupancy by their first residents within just afew weeks.


MAJOR RENOVATIONIN CONSERVATION AREAElsewhere in Wrexham we are currently undertaking an £80,000 renovation project ofa Victorian villa in Wrexham’s conservationarea. The project will provide a suitable homefor clients of Hafal, Wales’ principal charity forpeople with serious mental illnesses, and theircarers. Our subsidiary contractor Cambria

Maintenance Services is carrying out the workand aims to retain as many original features aspossible to give the finished building a warmand homely feel. Works are on schedule withthe first Hafal residents due to start using thebuilding in May.

William will be helping our residents to dealwith the many challenges of welfare reform,as well as providing support and advice oneffective budgeting and providing information on employment and trainingopportunities.

William will initially be concentrating his efforts on helping those residents who wehave already identified as being at risk ofpotentially facing financial hardship, orfalling into arrears, due to changes broughtabout by the ‘bedroom tax’, and otherforthcoming welfare reform.

William will be working alongside Jen Bailey,our second TSO for the North Wales area,currently working as Digital Inclusion Project Coordinator for the Take Controlproject.

TENANCY SUPPORTWe are delighted to be able to introduce William Brook, ournew Tenancy Support Officer for the Wrexham area.


We are improving the energy efficiency of ourproperties beyond that required by the WelshGovernment, so that our residents savemoney, use less and are less likely to be in fuelpoverty. We have also invested £6m in the pastfive years to ease fuel poverty in our properties and will continue to invest in improvement measures.

We’re supporting several environmental projects in this area from the very small, to thenotsosmall. One example is the new community area on Barter Road – a jointWWH and Barracksfield Tenants' Associationinitiative – which opened its gates in January2013. Its aim is to help bridge the generationgap between younger and older people inHightown, by encouraging learning across theages and bringing people of all abilities together for their mutual benefit.

The ‘Hightown Intergenerational Play PlantProject’ is home to a toddler play park andraised beds section for planting vegetables.

Older residents will educate the younger generation about gardening/recycling andhome grown food to promote healthy livingand reduce social isolation. Everything grown,from vegetables, salads, fruit and herbs will beshared among the gardeners and Barracksfield’s Sylvester Court Luncheon Club.

This £43,000 project is supported by volunteers and funding from our Make it Happen Grant and Environmental Fund as wellas Mike Wellock, several partners includingWREN, Offa Community Council, Associationof Voluntary Organisations Wrexham, HSS ToolHire and Anwyl Construction. Very manythanks to all.

For more details about our Planned Maintenance Programme please contactCommercial Manager Mike Wellock.

And to find out more about our Environmentalworks; including our Environment Fund, pleasecontact Owen Jones, our Environment andSustainability Officer.

LOOKING AFTER THE ENVIRONMENT IN WREXHAMIt is a corporate priority for us to minimise the impact we haveon the environment, and that of our residents too.

So they are now operating from our Customer Service Centre in our Head Officein Cardiff on an experimental basis. Theservice went live in February and the threestrong team are currently taking overflow calls from existing MoneylineCymru branches.

MONEYLINE CYMRUNOW OPERATING FROM OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE Moneyline Cymru is currently operating out of a number ofbranches primarily in South Wales and want to offer a telephoneservice to people from other areas of Wales and to people whocannot get to their offices.


10 | Spotlight on WREXHAM | THE BIGGER PICTURE | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

Mindful of the need for many residents todownsize as a result of the ‘bedroom tax’we have joined forces with Cadwyn and LincHousing Associations to back the creationof the House Swap Wales project on Facebook. Essentially a series of countybycounty Facebook groups – eg:House Swap Cardiff, House Swap Wrexhametc – House Swap Wales is aimed at social housing tenants who need to move due towelfare reforms including the bedroom tax,or who simply want to move for other

reasons. It provides a simple and readily accessible online platform for residents toadvertise their own properties free ofcharge, find out about potential propertiesthey could move to, and facilitate the movesthemselves. Find out more at

www.facebook.com/HouseSwapWales and follow us on Twitter @HouseSwapWales

SUPPORTING HOUSE SWAP WALES


So we’re continuing to support our residentsto get online, and make the most of being online, through a range of digital inclusion initiatives across Wales.

Our aims are: • to help people maximise their incomes and

deal with welfare reform in particular the introduction of Universal Credit

• to combat social isolation by enabling residents to be better connected within, and beyond, their communities

• to assist residents to get better value by accessing information and purchases online

• to support residents to take advantage of all the educational – and fun – benefits that being online brings.

In South Wales our affordable broadband WiFi access pilot scheme at Ty Pontrhun in

Merthyr Tydfil is providing us with a greatfoundation from which we can roll out this initiative, where possible, across Wales.

And in North Wales we have also recently WiFi enabled a communal lounge at Nant yMôr, our extra care scheme in Prestatyn, Denbighshire. Work is now ongoing to WiFienable communal lounges in a number of ourretirement schemes in both North and SouthWales.

We are also running ‘how to’ sessions with residents, as part of the ‘Take Ctrl’ project,which we host on behalf of the North Wales Financial Capability Forum. To date Take Ctrlhas helped more than 500 residents get online, with the support of 48 volunteers. JenBailey, one of our Tenancy Support Officers, isconcentrating in particular on this area of demand.

GETTING ONLINETHRIVING ONLINETechnology liberates, empowers and enables. More and moreservices, including access to benefits, are becoming availableonly via the internet and yet the majority of our residents arenot connected.


CONNECT24 TELEPHONEAND TELECARE SERVICES AT WWH

Why Connect? Because it’s all about connecting people with the services theyneed to enable them to live independentlyand safely in their homes.

And 24? Because we are available 24 hours aday, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Currently we provide Connect24 emergencyalarm and telecare services to more than 4,000households across Wales and have contractswith:

• Valleys to Coast Housing in Bridgend• Pennaf Housing Group in North and Mid

Wales• Newydd Housing Association in South and

Mid Wales

We also monitor alarms for individuals inrented accommodation as well as owneroccupiers. A simple alarm monitoringservice, including the equipment, costs as little as £2.50 per week. This helps to giveolder and vulnerable people the reassurancethey need to continue living independently intheir own home, and their families somepeace of mind, and all at an affordable price.

We also offer a full 24/7 outofhours serviceand currently have contracts with the following housing associations, seeing us deliver out of hours services to 27,000 households across Wales:

• Hafan Cymru across Wales• Grwp Gwalia across Wales• Bron Afon Community Housing in Torfaen

For more information about Connect24 pleasevisit our website www.connect24.co.uk orcontact Jackie Edwards, Customer ServiceCentre Manager or Cate Dooher, Head of Support Services on 0800 052 2526.

We have been delivering telephone and telecare services formore than 10 years and such is the significance of this area ofour business that we have recently given it its own brand identity, Connect24.


Adopted by staff as our main charity partnerthis January we have already raised morethan £10,000 for Stroke. Events include regular dressdown days for staff, participation in the St David’s Day Fun Run,and most recently a sponsored skydive.

WWH charity team leader Di Barnes wasjoined by admin officer Verity Kimpton andChief Executive Anne Hinchey for the jump,from 13,000 feet over Swansea Airfield, onSaturday April 6th. Huge thanks to everyone who supported them in this hairraising enterprise. More details about

CHARITY UDPATEAfter a terrific two years during which staff and residentsraised £25,000 for Help for Heroes, our new corporate charitypartner for the January 2013 to December 2015 period isStroke Association Cymru.

forthcoming charity events and fundraisingon our website and on Twitter @wwha.

Other charities to benefit from stafffundraising include Comic Relief Red NoseDay, and Trusell Trust Foodbanks in Cardiff,Merthyr Tydfil, Wrexham, Vale and Bridgend.

Di Barnes, Verity Kimpton and Anne Hinchey WWH’s crack skydive team.


TPAS Cymru Participation Awards 2013:

Les Cooper has been posthumously shortlistedfor the Inspirational Colleague Award. Les, formerly our Money Advice Officer based atour Flint office in North Wales, sadly passedaway unexpectedly last month. An activemember of the North Wales Financial Capability Forum, Les was enormously influential and respected in the sector and hada hugely positive impact on the lives of allthose with whom he came into contact.

Greenfingered gardeners, aka ‘Western CourtEcoWarriors’ from our retirement schemeWestern Court in Bridgend, have been shortlisted for the Improving the EnvironmentAward.

CIH Housing Heroes Awards:

Scheme Manager Helen Jones from Llandudno, Conwy, has been shortlisted in theintensely competitive Inspirational Colleaguecategory.

HR Excellence Awards:

Anne Hinchey, Chief Executive, has been shortlisted for the Most People Focussed CEOAward in the Charity/ NotforProfit sector. Thisis the third consecutive year that Anne hasbeen shortlisted for this award.

AWARDS ROUND-UPAt the time of going to print we have a number of staff and residents shortlisted for major awards. They are as follows:

Les Cooper Helen Jones Anne Hinchey

Western Court gardeners

15 | Spotlight on WREXHAM | LOCAL STAFF | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

All areas: LR Tony Wilson (Finance Director), Shayne Hembrow (Deputy Chief Executive/Commercial Director), Anne Hinchey (Chief Executive), Steve Porter (Operations Director)

All areas: Lynnette Glover, Head of Housing Nikki Cole, Head of DevelopmentAlex Stephenson, Head of Property Services

Wrexham

Housing Manager: Cate Porter (General Needs)Housing Manager: Anne Caloe (Retirement Housing)Commercial Manager: Andrew Richards (Repairs)Commercial Manager: Mike Wellock (Planned Maintenance)Development Manager: Craig Sparrow

Housing Officers: General Needs Retirement

Tanya Bell Rhian MarshJill WilcoxDonna Sutton

Neighbourhood Initiatives: Bridget GarrodVy Cochran (Community Development Project Officer)Claire Hammond (Resident Participation Strategy Officer)

Asset Management Officers: Darrell SmithAnnerley Brown

Neighbourhood Initiatives: Bridget GarrodAlison Chaplin (Community Development Project Officer)Claire Hammond (Resident Participation Strategy Officer)

Asset Management Officers: Andrew LesterVacant (to be appointed)

Environment: Owen Jones

Tenancy Support Officer: William Brook / Jen Bailey

Telephone: 0800 052 2526Email: [email protected] Website: www.wwha.co.uk

LOCAL STAFF

Wales & West Housing3 Alexandra Gate, Ffordd Pengam, Tremorfa, Cardiff CF24 2UD

andUnit 2, Acorn Business Park, Aber Road, Flint CH6 5YN.

Telephone: 0800 052 2526 Minicom: 0800 052 5205Email: [email protected] Website: www.wwha.co.uk

@wwhawwhahomesforwales

Published April 2013

Documents

Wales & West Housing's Spotlight on Wrexham Spring 2013