It was great to meet so many of you at our Customer Involvement Day, and to hear the inspiring stories of Dawn, Stephen, Richard and Ray and how their involvement with Riverside has given them opportunities as volunteers.

Our customers are at the heart of what we do. We focus on people, while improving the quality of our services. Being an efficient business means we mix the range of supported housing and retirement living services as part of our offer to you.

Our Retirement Living investment programme is well underway, with objective evaluations on allschemes, looking at the quality of buildings, locality, customer profiles and the financial viability of investment. This has helped us build a business case for or against investment in a particular scheme. While £27 million is a lot of money, it is not sufficient to future-proof all our schemes and bring them up to the aspirational standard we’d like. Our evaluation is fair and consistent to help focus investment. 

We are also transforming many supported housing services, like Willow Walk in Cambridge and The Powerhouse in Liverpool, to become ‘psychologically informed’ – where settings encourage self-worth, esteem, belief and hope, as well as you telling us how to tailor your support. Additionally, our Programmes of Support continue to be rolled out. 

Léann Hearne was proud to present many  customers with Involvement Awards. We’d like to thank the nominees and the winners for being so committed to the improvement of our services.

John Glenton, Executive Director Riverside Care and Support