Our Mission

“Provide cost effective, efficient and caring services that meet needs in new and existing areas of operation and enable people who require housing with support to live as normal a life as possible in the community”.

Our Values

The Association has adopted six Values which set out the ways tenants and service users can expect to be treated. Our Values have been arrived out after extensive consultation with tenants and our Board; and we seek to implement our Values in everything we do, especially the way in which we deliver services to our tenants.

Our Values are:

• Respect: To treat tenants with courtesy and respect even when the conduct and language of others is challenging or difficult.
• Understanding: To cooperate and empathise with tenants, in order to achieve cooperation and mutual understanding.
• Tolerance: To enable tenants to put forward their views, in order to achieve a better living environment for them and others.
• Equality: To have regard to the uniqueness of individuals including their abilities, their beliefs and their preferences, regardless of their race, gender, religion or religious belief, disability, age, sexual orientation and transgender.
• Privacy: To preserve people's rights to confidentiality; to exercise control over their own personal lives.
• Integrity: To act in a consistent and even-handed way in all our relationships and decision making.

Our Promise

We aim to get things right the first time and to respond to all feedback. We monitor the satisfaction of our tenants and use robust methods to check on the quality of services we deliver to them.

Year on year we aim to improve our overall performance in terms of standards and efficiency. In consultation with our tenants the Association has developed a promise which summarises the way in which we will be accountable to them.

Our promise is:

“We will consult and listen to you, giving you choice about the services that directly affect you; and ensure that you have the opportunity to become involved in the governance of the Association through the tenants’ Panel and the Board. We will also publish information on our performance to ensure that we are accountable to you and where we get things wrong we will work hard to get them right”.

Our Service Standards

The Association has a set of Service Standards, that were formed in conjunction with our Tenants, and which are surveyed annually and are below:-

Communicating with you

We will:-

Respond to your letters and emails within 3 working days of receipt

• Attempt to resolve your query the first time you contact us or at least put you in contact with the right person
• Ensure all staff carry identification when they visit your home
• Use plain English in all our written communications with you

Tenant Choice and Customer Service

We will:-

Consult with you to provide choice about the services that we offer

• Ensure that your feedback is sought to ensure that services meet your needs
• Consult with you about changes to services that directly affect you
• Have a tenant involvement group, which represents tenants views, providing you with information on how to get involved
• Send you a regular newsletter which will include an annual review on our performance

Quality of Accommodation

We will:-

Ensure that all our homes are maintained to a reasonable standard in line with government legislation

• Ensure that repairs are carried out within specified target times and provide an out of hours emergency service when our offices are closed

Estate Management

We will:-

Carry out an inspection of your scheme on a regular basis

• Ensure that our communal areas are safe and clean and well maintained

Tenant Empowerment

We will:-

Publish information on how we have performed against key housing indicators

• Ensure that tenants are properly represented on the Association’s Board
• Facilitate and support a Tenants Panel, made up of representatives from each scheme.

Complaints Compliments and Queries

We will:-

Acknowledge a complaint in writing within 3 working days and respond in full to a complaint within 10 working days

• Monitor all complaints to improve future service delivery
• Publish an annual report of all complaints to tenants which will include the number, nature and outcome of complaints
• Apologise when we get it wrong and work hard to ensure that mistakes do not happen again
• Make available our policy and procedures on complaints to all tenants

Support Services

We will:-

Offer a support service to all Sheltered Housing tenants

• Offer a support plan process which will be monitored on a regular six month basis
• Consult with tenants to ensure that the support process meets their needs