During our 2016 Care and Support Customer Involvement Day, customers were given the chance to ask questions. Here are our answers.
In supported accommodation why are rent charges so high if you don’t receive Housing Benefit? This is not encouraging people to get a job.
Supported accommodation rents are set to a level so Riverside can provide the housing service required, which can be more expensive in supported housing due to the turnover of customers and associated cost of maintenance. Our rents are regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency. Service charges sometimes include costs for staff required, such as a night worker, which may be an eligible Housing Benefit charge. We support customers to find employment and making the most of their income. Support workers will work with customers who have gained employment to help them find more appropriate independent accommodation.
My scheme is a listed building so repairs and upgrades are often refused. Why is this? What are future plans to renovate old buildings?
Our operations and asset management teams have been working closer over the last couple of years to ensure we have information about our buildings. Some listed buildings require planning permission so it can take a bit longer to carry out work. When this is the case our asset management teams keep customers informed with regular updates.
Why is Riverside placing people in need of supported housing into Retirement Living accommodation?
Housing-related support within our Retirement Living schemes supports vulnerable older people to develop and maintain independence in their own home. We have to ensure fair access to our support service for those assessed as most in need of this service. In Merseyside, for example, potential customers are assessed through a central-based lettings system, administered by the local authority. If clients meet the criteria, they are allowed to join the waiting list for a particular scheme.
How do we know if we are doing Customer Involvement in the right way? We don’t get enough feedback.
Riverside and the Tenants and Residents Federation executive recognise that feedback is a problem and we
are trying to establish better lines of communication. As well as publishing information in customer newsletters,
Riverside is:
• putting the minutes of the Federation and the National Scrutiny Committee on its website
• circulating a core brief to customers and staff, outlining discussions and decisions from Tenant Federation meetings
• producing a tenant inspector bulletin and DVDs
• feeding back information to local customer meetings and forums
• circulating email bulletins to involved customers.
The Federation Executive has:
• bought a mini bus for customers to spread the word about involvement activities
• set up a Facebook page to get messages out quickly
• produced an annual report containing information about resident involvement
• launched a campaign of contact cards to gather details from customers so it can contact them directly.
Was the agenda for the Customer Involvement Day set by customers themselves? What was Riverside hoping to get out of the day?
The Involvement Day was organised by a group including committed and involved customers who had input from the start – agreeing a theme, venue and the running of the day. We hoped to see an increase in customer participation and for those new to involvement to be made aware of opportunities like training courses, or scrutineer and inspector roles. Our customers, Richard, Dawn, Ray and Stephen, who were willing to share their personal journeys inspired others, talking about why they got involved and where they are today.
Can the distribution of Your Voice newsletter be reviewed? Some receive copies and training information while others don’t.
When customers move into a scheme, they are given a number of forms to fill in, including one called Your
Services, Your Way, which asks how you would like to receive information from us. You may have asked us not to
send you newsletters, currently we have more than 1,000 customers who have requested this. If you would like to receive future newsletters, let staff at your scheme know.
Why has the £27 million (asset investment programme over five years) been allocated to some schemes and not others? What was the process to distribute this?
We have carried out an objective evaluation of all schemes, looking at factors including building quality,
locality, customer profiles and the financial viability of investment. This has helped us to 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 of our 212 schemes nationwide and bring them up to the aspirational standard we are seeking. Our evaluation is a fair and consistent process to determine where to focus investment