Welcome to our July Calico Homes newsletter
Inside, you’ll find loads of inspirational stories and updates about what we’ve been getting up to over the last few months. From awarding a new round of Calico Community Choice winners to gathering customers stories and getting out and about in Brunshaw, we’ve been busy working with the community to make a real difference to people’s lives.
Community Choice: Your Voice, Your Budget
Since our last update, we’ve seen great updates from our Round One winners. Warm Hearts Coffee Morning, Burnley Wood Community Group Dance Lessons and Casual Minds Matter have all been working hard over the last few months putting their grants to good use in the community.
Round Two winners were also announced back in June. Outdoor 4alltogether: Campfire & Conversation and Rosegrove Youth & Community Hub are now busy working on their projects.
Not only that, we’re now accepting submissions for Round Three and will keep you updated along the journey.
To get involved in our communities, contact the Community Investment Team at Calico for more information: customers@calicohomes.org.uk
Learn more hereBringing help to your door in Brunshaw
Last month, the Tenancy Sustainment Team went over to Brunshaw to talk to customers about money issues.
As one of our ‘hot spot’ arrears areas, we headed door-to-door offering support and advice to our customers to pay their rent. One of our customers, who had been dealing with rent arrears before seeking the support of our team, told us this…
“Just want to say thank you so much for all support you gave to me and my family, you have been so good to us. Every time I struggled, I rang you and you were there to listen to me and advised me what to do. You even arranged a debt management team to come and see me to help me with my debts. Thank you so much for all support and compassion.”
Maximising your income: Barry's story
Barry, a rock and roll fan with a passion for gardening, visited Calico to review his pension claim during a drop-in session. Although he wasn’t entitled to pension credit, we still managed to support him in other ways to help maximise his income.
Joanne, one of our Tenancy Sustainment Officers, noticed Barry was paying full rent, so she submitted a claim to get help with rent and council tax. A couple of weeks later, Barry got a letter informing him of his additional Housing Benefit and Council Tax support.
Read Barry's full story
Helping customers get settled: Susan's story
Last year, Susan found herself seeking somewhere new to live, after her home in Oswaldtwistle became unliveable due to leaks, damp and mould.
Thankfully, Calico soon offered Susan a house and in February this year, she and her girls moved to the Stoops neighbourhood in Burnley.
After finding herself feeling socially isolated following the move, Susan sought Calico’s support. Since then, Joanne, one of our Tenancy Sustainment Officers, has helped Susan with everything from applying for furniture grants to maximising her benefits and introducing her to community services.
What have the Service Scrutiny Board (SSB) been up to?
Our Service Scrutiny Board (SSB) have been meeting over the past few weeks to conduct a service review of our repairs service.
The SSB is a group of Calico Homes customers who work with us to review our services, feedback from a customer perspective and provide recommendations on where they want us to focus our improvements. They have spent time with our Head of Repairs and our Head of Assets/Development to talk about their experiences as customers, to learn about how Calico Homes repairs service operates and to discuss how we can improve.
When they have finished the review, the Service Scrutiny Board will provide a report of their findings and recommendations. These will go to our Senior Leadership Team and the Calico Homes board. We’ll keep you updated on their progress.
Want to get involved?New approach for our annual Make it Happen Survey
Calico Homes is committed to continuously improving through action led change from customer feedback.
Following the successful Make it Happen (Tenant Satisfaction Measures) survey last year which is our annual approach to Tenancy Satisfaction Measures, we have opened more ways to get the customer voice into all the work we do at Calico Homes.
As we now continue to develop deeper customer engagement, we are partnering with a Research Agency (Acuity) to undertake the annual Make it Happen (Tenancy Satisfaction Measures) on our behalf.
This approach will see 800 customers approached for feedback each year. We will ensure customers that are selected are representative of the communities we serve.
If you are chosen to complete the Make it Happen Survey you will either, be contacted by telephone (however you can opt to receive the survey digitally) or you will receive the survey digitally to your email address.
All responses are anonymous. However if an issue is identified you have the option to provide your details so Calico Homes can make things right again.
All customers are always welcome to give us feedback and new 3C process is where you can feedback a compliment, concern or raise a complaint.