1662 Street by Street Autumn 2014

East Thames residents’ magazine

involved

THAMES

Issue 85 | AUTUMN 2014

by

street street

residents

Apprenticeships Work placements Volunteering

Training Mentoring Careers advice

East London’s working See pgs. 4-5 Read about our 2013-14 performance in our annual report to residents on pgs. 16-19

Become an IT whizz! See pg. 6 Help us shape our services. Find out more on pgs.10-11

www.east-thames.co.uk www.east-thames.co.uk

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Contents & welcome

Contents 2

Contents & welcome

3

East Thames catch up

4-5

Jobs & training

6-7

Money matters

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gory, of Mike Gre member d n a t n e panel mes resid nication East Tha u m m o c ents’ the resid

Welcome to the autumn 2014 edition of Street by Street.

As always we have lots of useful information for you to get your teeth into. For this edition we will be focusing on employment and training.

Online buzz

8-9

Your home

10-11

East Thames community

12

On the move

13

How we’re doing

14-15

Out & about

16

Contacts

In the summer edition we mentioned that many residents are being affected by the benefit changes currently taking place. Therefore it’s important for you to know that in addition to welfare benefit advice East Thames can support you even further through these difficult financial times, by providing you with employment and training opportunities if you’re out of work.

It’s great to have a landlord that not only provides a roof over our heads but one who also thinks about our whole wellbeing by providing these sorts of opportunities.

Recently, when visiting a foyer I saw how beneficial these employment and training programmes are, especially for young people who are trying to get their life back on track.

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6

No matter what age you are I would encourage you to enrol on one of East Thames’ many programmes, especially their new IT course (see more details on page 6). As we’re moving into a more digital world, in the long run it will benefit you. If I can navigate around the web then anybody can! Happy reading.

Street by Street keeps you informed about our services and community initiatives. If you have a story, any questions, feedback or want to shape the next issue of the magazine by joining the residents’ communications panel, email jade.bradford@eastthames.co.uk or call Jade on 020 8522 3204. The deadline for the next issue is Fri 10 October 2014.

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Street by Street is produced by the Marketing and Communications team, East Thames Group, 29-35 West Ham Lane, Stratford E15 4PH Editor: Samantha Cox Designer: Rably Malik Tel: 020 8522 2019 Email: marcoms@east-thames.co.uk

East Thames catch up

One to One with Shehla Kadri Employment and training co-ordinator, East Thames even help you change career if you’re already in a job, and we can tailor our support to your needs.

Welcome to the autumn edition of Street by Street.

On pages 4-5 you’ll find lots of information on our employment and training programmes including how to take part. We can help you decide the right career path for you, build the relevant skills and experience, then apply for jobs.

in any area that interests you, from IT or marketing to care and support.

I also run our mentoring programme with Barclays Bank: you can receive one-toone support from a mentor to develop your skills and goals, and even receive training at their offices in Canary Wharf.

Lots of our courses provide skills that can be used in your day to day life as well as at work, such as the IT courses we’re offering this autumn – read more on page 6.

I love the work that I do. A big part of my role is arranging work experience placements at East Thames’ offices or with other businesses. These can be

Our team welcomes residents of all ages and backgrounds.

We help young people but also lots of older people who want to develop their skills. We can

I’ve seen lots of people change their lives through our programmes, so give them a go and see what happens. You won’t be disappointed!

East Thames Snippets Bite sized updates to keep you in the know

r Insure you s belonging

New phone numb

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We’ve cha nged our p hone number to help keep your phone bills down: it’s n ow 0300 303 7 333.

Reclaime

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Jobs & training

Finding local jobs for residents Q&A with James Briggs, who provides a job brokerage service Q. What is the job brokerage service?

A. East Thames’ job brokerage team works with local employers, large and small to generate opportunities for our unemployed customers. We can then match you with suitable roles and help you apply!

If you’d like our help to gain experience in construction, contact us using the details below.

Q. Who can use the service?

A. We have programmes for jobseekers of all ages.

Confederation_

Congratulations to the latest graduates of our Construct your Career course! Eight people from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets took part and gained valuable skills which will help them find roles in construction.

Matthew, 20, said he has already secured a work experience placement at Morgan Sindall with East Thames’ help: “it was good to learn lots of new skills. The best thing about the course is the contacts you make, which helped me get my work experience.”

Q. What kind of businesses do you have on board?

A. A variety including large retail chains and smaller businesses within the local community. We also partner with a law firm in the city that offers work placements to our residents.

Q. How can residents get involved?

A. Phone the team on 0208 522 2221 and book an appointment. You can come to see us at Starting Point in Barking, Winsor Park in Beckton or at our offices in Stratford.

Construct Your Career

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Option 1 Slogan Job specific usage

Finding the right programme for you East Thames offers a number of free courses to help you find a job or benefit from training.

ROUTES TO WORK is a work experience and business mentoring programme giving you valuable on-the-job experience to help you get full time work.

WORKWISE is a series of friendly group sessions to help you improve your chances of getting a job. The sessions include help to search for a job.

COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS is a volunteering programme centred around projects that will improve your local area. The programme helps you learn new skills and increases confidence in work situations.

WORKPLACE HUB is a drop in centre which provides support to Newham residents, matching skills and job aspirations with local vacancies.

FIND OUT MORE: visit www.east-thames.co.uk/ employment-training or talk to our employment and training team today about the service that’s right for you. sbs8522 www.east-thames.co.uk 2221 or email ete@east-thames.co.uk 4Call 020

It was good to learn lots of new skills

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Online buzz

Young people celebrate finding work Young people from Barking and Dagenham celebrated finding work at a special event at East Thames’ Starting Point centre in Barking.

The event showed how well the young people did with the support of East Thames’ employment advisors, James and Claudette, who are based at Starting Point. They explained that they had received help to rework their CVs, practice interview skills and find jobs which matched their experience and interests.

Orion, 24, had been unemployed for 10 months before he was referred by his support workers at Barking and Dagenham Foyer. He received help with his CV and is now working full time at a local school. “Thanks to you guys for everything you’ve done. It’s deeper than just a job search – it’s personal.”

online buzz

What’s g online happenin

See our football tournament photos

Residents from Focus E15 and Harlow foyers and our East Living Football Club took part in a charity football tournament which raised £1,700!

They played against local businesses including East Thames, a law firm and a radio station.

See the photos at www.facebook.com/ EastThames

Tell us about your events

Have you organised an event with your residents’ association, or do you have any other good news stories about residents you’d like to share online? Get in touch and we might be able to put it onto our Facebook page. Just go to www.facebook.com/EastThames and send us a message.

Claire appears on film Barking Foyer resident, Claire, has been filmed for a project called Real London Lives which tells the stories of Londoners living in affordable housing.

Watch the film at www. reallondonlives.co.uk/ story/claires-story.

For all the latest news and information visit: www.east-thames.co.uk

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Money matters

Budgeting and IT courses We will soon be offering budgeting courses to help you if you want to develop your money management skills or if you are finding it difficult to make ends meet.

You can also take part in digital training sessions which will help you build your skills if you don’t use computers or the internet regularly.

Both these courses are completely free. If you are interested in taking part, please call Hassina Parvin on 0208 522 2221 and we will contact you nearer the time to confirm the date and time of the sessions.

The courses will be held at 29-35 West Ham Lane, Stratford, London E15 4PH.

We can help - contact us

tively, speak to our welfare ast-thames.co.uk/benefits. Alterna w.e ww t visi , efits ben fare wel on to us about setting up For info ne on 020 8536 8797. You can talk Arle and 3 880 6 853 020 on Uyi s entitled to. You benefit adviser e you’re getting the benefits you’re sur king ma and ney mo r you ing a bank account, manag ts@east-thames.co.uk. can also email us on welfare.benefi

Have you received a sanction?

If your jobseeker’s allowance is suddenly stopped or reduced, you may have received a sanction. A sanction is when you have all (or part if it is a joint claim) of your benefit payments taken away by the job centre. This could be because you missed a meeting, or if they find out you are not available for work, not applying for jobs or not accepting a job offer.

Sanctions will happen straight away and the length of time your payments will be removed for will depend on your circumstances.

The length of time your benefits are stopped for will be longer each time you are sanctioned.

If you think you have received a sanction, please contact our welfare benefit advisors using the details above.

Rent and service charge arrears If you have rent or service charge arrears and are experiencing financial difficulties you can call us on 0300 303 7333 to speak to your customer accounts manager who will discuss a tailored payment plan with you.

Paying the difference

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If your housing benefit no longer covers the full cost of your rent, you can pay the difference over the phone with a credit or debit card, by direct debit or using a swipe card. Simply call us on 0300 303 7333. If you are struggling to pay the extra costs please get in touch as soon as possible.

Money matters

tips

Housing benefit

If your circumstances have changed

If your claim has been suspended

If you have had a change in your circumstances, for example if you or your partner have recently become employed or your working hours have increased, make sure you contact your housing benefit office immediately.

If you do not inform them and you receive more money than you are entitled to, your housing benefit may be reduced to recover the overpayment.

If your housing benefit is suspended, make sure you provide all the information the benefit office asks for as soon as possible. Delays could mean your claim is cancelled, and you may not be able to claim back the benefit you missed.

If your housing benefit has been cut If your housing benefit has been cut because you have a spare bedroom, you may be eligible for

a discretionary housing payment (DHP) from your local authority to help you pay.

• You have partial custody of a child who occasionally stays in the property

You could be eligible if: • You need an overnight carer • You cannot share a bed due to a disability • Your home has undergone extensive adaptations for a disability • The spare room measures less than 70 square feet • The spare room has not been used as a bedroom (or furnished as a bedroom)

If you’ve already had DHP but it has run out, you can contact your local authority again and complete a new application form.

If you need help applying for housing benefit or for DHP, contact our welfare benefits advisors on 0208 536 8803 or 0208 536 8797.

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Your home

The repairs service…

Introducing Dave Matts

Interserve’s new account director for the East Thames repairs service

You will know from your own experiences, and from reading Street by Street, that the repairs service still isn’t meeting the needs of our residents and isn’t where we want it to be. This is partly because we didn’t leave ourselves enough time between appointing Interserve and the start of their contract.

So far this year, we have carried out a lot of work to find out what’s going wrong and how we can fix it. We spoke to residents at the start of the year centre and the about their experiences which confirmed that we needed to improve the customer contact way we keep your home safe by carrying out gas and electrical safety checks. in Dave We have made big improvements in these areas but there is still a lot to do, so we’ve brought services repairs and Matts as the new account director. Dave has 25 years’ experience of social housing deliver, because and will oversee our programme of improvement. This programme may take some time to of steps number a are there , however term, we want to make sure we get it right this time. In the shorter these. of some we are taking that will lead to an improved service. Here Dave talks us through I want to start “As the new account director of Interserve’s repairs partnership with East Thames, need and they service the by apologising to any East Thames residents who haven’t received rs. My first expect. I am determined to resolve the problems experienced by many of our custome continue priority will be to get the day to day repairs service back to the levels you expect. We we will be ments improve of me to listen to your feedback and as part of a wide ranging program putting the three steps below in place as soon as possible.”

1.More tradespeople You told us that when you report a repair, it takes a long time for Interserve to send a tradesperson. You also said that sometimes, the person who attends doesn’t have the right skills to complete the job. To address this, we’ve recruited an additional 20 tradespeople and made sure they are multi-skilled where possible. We hope this means that next time you report a repair, we can complete it within the proper timescales.

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Your home

2. Summer boiler servicing

3. Planned maintenance

August might seem like a strange time of year to carry out boiler servicing, but we want to make sure your boiler is working before the weather turns colder. Every winter we receive lots of calls about faulty boilers, which may have failed over the summer months, so please check your boiler now and report any problems to us.

We are currently reviewing the planned maintenance we provide (such as painting work) to make sure we can address our highest priorities, such as health and safety and ensuring homes meet the Decent Homes Standard. We have had to suspend painting works while this review takes place, but the programme will start again this autumn. We would like to apologise to anyone who has been affected by this delay.

We’re bringing forward lots of gas servicing appointments so we can get as much done as possible while the weather is still good. Gas servicing involves us visiting your home once a year to check the condition of your boiler. These checks are a legal requirement, as faulty boilers can be dangerous. We will write to you when your boiler check is due to arrange a suitable time to visit.

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Our performance over the last three months You can see how we’ve performed since the last edition of Street by Street came out on page 13. This includes the percentage of residents satisfied with repairs and the percentage of repairs completed on the day of the first appointment.

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East Thames community Resident involvement:

Whatnext?

In 2011 we launched our resident involvement strategy. We spoke to lots of residents and you told us you wanted more transparency and accountability for our performance and the quality of our services.

You also said you wanted more opportunities to give your feedback and influence decisions about how we manage your home and neighbourhood.

Since then we have: • Set up a resident housing scrutiny panel, which monitors our services and makes recommendations to improve our performance.

• Created a customer experience committee, which gives a voice to residents at board level.

• Developed local offers with residents to improve services within each neighbourhood. You can read more about these at www.east-thames.co.uk/localoffers.

• Used more ways to collect your feedback including online and telephone surveys.

We are now taking another look at our strategy and want to improve the opportunities we offer residents to shape our services.

We are looking for residents who can help us develop a new vision for resident involvement. This will involve reviewing our current strategy, researching what other housing associations are doing, talking to other residents and sharing views on how to put our

residents at the heart of what East Thames does.

If you would like to take part, contact the resident involvement team on 0300 303 7333 or email residentinvolvementteam@eastthames.co.uk.

Shape our care and support services We are looking for care and support residents who would like to review the services we provide in other schemes.

This would be a great opportunity to get to know other residents as it would involve meeting people from different schemes to discuss their experiences of our services.

To take part, you will need to attend two training days in September, at East Thames’ office in Stratford.

If you’re interested you can speak to a member of staff at your scheme. You can also email your name and address to Louise Joseph, service manager at louise.joseph@eastthames.co.uk or call her on 020 8522 2650.

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East Thames community

New opportunities to get involved!

We believe our residents are the best people to test how we perform and help us improve what we do.

If you want to see improvements at East Thames and would like to make a difference, there are lots of ways to get involved.

We’re looking for: • Mystery shoppers Call, email or visit our offices to test the quality of our customer services • Estate inspectors Monitor the quality of grounds maintenance, communal cleaning and estate services in your area • Policy panel members Help us review our policies and procedures

• Communications panel members Work with us to produce resident information such as newsletters and fact sheets • Resident involvement working group Develop our vision for resident involvement You won’t have to attend lots of meetings as we can help you decide the best way to take part.

You may be able to get involved online or by text and we will provide training and reimburse reasonable expenses.

This is a great opportunity to learn new skills, meet new people and make a real difference.

To find out more contact the resident involvement team on 020 8536 3957 or email residentinvolvementteam@eastthames.co.uk.

e t a d p u l e n a p y n i Housing scrut t housing eeks the residen w w fe t as p e th Over staff from across ith w et m s ha el on over scrutiny pan e what to focus id ec d to es am East Th ths. es’ the coming mon look at East Tham to ed id ec d ve es voids They ha and how it manag e ic rv se ts in la w p com kes to let out a ne ta it e tim of nt (the amou property). onitor the so continue to m al ill w el an p e and Th Thames’ repairs t as E of ce an perform r updates on Street. ice. Look out fo rv se ce an sue of Street by en is nt xt mai ne e th in mmendations the panel’s reco at: e scrutiny panel th om fr s ew vi re vious You can find pre /scrutiny-panel. uk o. .c es am th twww.eas

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On the move

hot properties King’s Park, Harold Wood We have a limited number of homes still available in the latest launch of properties in our stunning development in Harold Wood, Havering. The homes are surrounded by woodland, offering the peace and quiet of the countryside, but are only a short commute from London. Homes are available from £54,000 for a 30% share in a one bedroom apartment or £61,500 for a 30% share in a two bedroom apartment. To find out more information or to book a viewing visit www.east-thames.co.uk/property/kings-park.

Casa, Queen’s Road, Brentwood We will be launching the last five homes in our Casa development in Queen’s Road, Brentwood, on 21 August. The launch will include one, two and three bedroom homes. Casa is just half a mile from Brentwood station, all homes have either a garden or a private terrace, and the majority of homes have off-street parking. To be eligible for these properties you will need to live or work in Brentwood. Details will be available closer to the launch so look out for more information at www.east-thames.co.uk/property/casa.

Contact details Visit: www.east-thames.co.uk/buy-or-rent-a-home or www.eastthames.co.uk/moving-home Call: 0300 303 7333 (9am-5pm) Email: properties@east-thames.co.uk (for sales) or lettingsteam@east-thames.co.uk (for lettings)

Insure your home Do you have home contents insurance? East Thames insures the bricks and mortar of your home, but it’s important that you insure your belongings. If you don’t, and something happens like a burglary, fire or flood, you will have to pay to replace or repair your personal belongings which could be very expensive.

Home contents insurance could protect everything in your home, from big electrical appliances like your

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fridge or television down to your clothes, DVDs and even your sheets. Many companies offer home contents insurance. Learn more at the Money Advice Service: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/ categories/insurance. As an East Thames resident you can also get insurance at a discounted rate from Arthur J. Gallagher. To find out more call them on 01245 341 234 or visit www.east-thames.co.uk/ insurance.

How we’re doing

Quarterly performance April - June 2014

Repairs and maintenance

(this does not incude repairs performance)

92% of telephone calls into our customer contact centre were dealt with on the first enquiry.

Target: 80% Result: 92% Breakdown: 28,860 out of 31,347 calls.

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91% of calls to the customer contact centre were answered within 20 seconds.

Target: 90% Result: 91% Breakdown: 28,669 out of 31,347 calls.

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Target: 91% Result: 65% Breakdown: 387 out of 597 residents surveyed.

58% of repairs were completed on the day of the first appointment.

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Target: 83% Result: 58% Breakdown: 288 out of 501 residents surveyed

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We’ve met our target

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We’re close to meeting our target

X

65% of customers were satisfied with works carried out to their property.

X Customer service standards

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See page 8 for more information on how the repairs partnership is progressing.

Community programmes

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Between April and June, we delivered 176 employment and training sessions.

Target: 100 Result: 176 Breakdown: with a total of 176 delivered so far this year, we have exceeded our quarterly target of 100. This included 48 residents and 124 people from local communities.

We’ve missed our target

Development and property

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Between April and June we finished work on 5 new homes.

Target: to be set by the Greater London Authority (GLA) Result: 5 Breakdown: We have completed homes in Harold Wood Hospital, Havering. We plan to build 1,100 homes over the next 3 years and expect 400 of these to be completed this financial year (before April 2015).

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) 35% of residents were satisfied with the way their ASB complaint was handled.

Target: 50% Result: 35% Breakdown: 8 out of 23 residents surveyed.

X

Note: All figures have been rounded to nearest whole number.

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Out & about

HARLOW Harlow Foyer residents work with Essex Police and Harlow Council on a graffiti artwork project to combat anti-social behaviour.

NEWHAM East Living World Cup! East Thames residents and staff raise ÂŁ1,700 for our homeless young people and residents living with mental health needs.

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Barking and Dagenham Young people celebrate finding work with their employm advisors, at Starting Point in Barking

NEWHAM Focus E15 residents Alisha and John and trainer Stephenie celebrate the successful launch of their website East London Know How.

Out & about

ment

Barking and Dagenham Claire, a Barking Foyer resident, does a video interview for www. reallondonlives.co.uk.

NEWHAM Mentors from Barclays visit East Thames to meet potential mentees who are interested in joining their training programme.

Want to see your community, scheme or estate represented? Send your photos to marcoms@eastthames.co.uk. You could be featured in the next issue!

Newham Residents at Ambrose Close and Bedalls Farm Court are treated to a garden makeover

by City bankers and lawyers.

TOWER HAMLETS Graduates collect their Construct Your Career certificates at a ceremony in the City of London.

For further details on these stories visit the news section of our website on www.eastthames.co.uk/news

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Report to residents

Report to

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We’ve met our target

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We’re close to meeting our target

X

We’ve missed our target

Residents 2013-14 Message from Olu Olanrewaju, Director of Communities and Neighbourhoods Welcome to our report to residents for 2013-14, which covers the period between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014.

We know we haven’t always provided an excellent service this year. We’re determined to put this right and committed to being honest with you about our performance. In this report you can read about the challenges we’ve faced, areas where we haven’t met our targets, and what we’re doing resolve these issues.

What went well

• In 2013-14 our welfare benefits advisors gave advice to 1,360 residents and helped them access £580,000 in additional funding and grants.

• We kept rent arrears low, which will help us deliver extra services such as our community projects.

• Our employment team helped 221 people find work.

• We completed 500 new homes.

• We exceeded our target for resident satisfaction with care and support services.

What didn’t go so well

• We know our repairs service is still a big concern for many residents. In 2013-14 we focused on health and safety priorities such as gas servicing, fire risk assessments and reducing call waiting times, but there are still lots of areas to improve including missed appointments and long waiting times for repairs.

• A lot of residents are dissatisfied with how quickly we respond to and resolve complaints. This is another area where our performance is below expectations.

What comes next

We have a lot of work to do. We are prioritising improvements to services that our residents have told us are important to them, so most of our work will go into improving the repairs service. We know that both Interserve (our repairs partner) and East Thames have a role to play in this. We are committed to better management of the partnership to ensure our residents’ needs are prioritised.

This will help to improve the way we deal with complaints. We are also developing new processes to improve communication at every step of the way.

We want residents to be involved as much as possible. In 2013-14 we worked with the resident housing scrutiny panel and held resident focus groups to get feedback on our performance. We’re looking for residents to help shape our services in 2014-15: call us on 020 8536 3957 or email residentinvolvementteam@east-thames. co.uk.

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Report to residents

Homes & maintenance Residents satisfied with responsive repairs after completion

X

100

90%

80 60 40

68%

63%

20 0

2013/14

Target

2012/13

We know the quality of our repairs has not been consistent enough. We now have an in-house team focusing on improving consistency and making it easier for residents to report repairs.

You can find out more about how we’re improving the repairs service on pages 8-9.

Homes with a valid gas certificate

100 80

X 99.7% 100% 99.9%

600 500 400 300 200 100 0

2.5 2.0 1.0

20

0.5 2012/13

Checking gas appliances helps keep your home safe and prevent boilers from breaking down. We are legally required to do this once a year.

We fell behind on this in early 201314, but we prioritised the issue and now we are just below average among London housing associations. We are now making changes to the way the programme is run including servicing more appliances in summer to make repairs easier in winter.

2013/14

Target

2012/13

Val, who took part in a focus group on our repairs and maintenance service

Defects per unit

40

Target

462

576

This year we completed our part in the regeneration of the Ocean Estate in Stepney which created 591 new homes over a number of years (including 296 affordable homes) and Grove Farm in Redbridge which included 112 affordable homes and a care scheme.

1.5

2013/14

500

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Housing is in short supply in east London and Essex so it’s really important to keep building affordable homes.

60

0

“

Number of new homes built

0.0

X 2.5 1 2013/14

Target

Before Christmas everybody that lived here felt out on a limb but now we feel a little bit more in the loop about East Thames and Interserve. Waiting times are a lot shorter than they were and the staff are more caring and polite. I think the individual tenants’ problems like heating or plumbing have been the main focus. The next place they need to focus is the communal areas.

1.1 2012/13

Defects are repairs that occur soon after a property has been built.

These are the responsibility of our development partners until a certain timeframe has passed (this can be up to two years).

We are developing our design guide and requirements for developers which we hope will decrease the number of defects. We are also reviewing the processes we use to ensure defects are repaired quickly.

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Report to residents

Landlord services Residents satisfied with the service from the lettings team

X

~ 100 80 60

79%

85%

78%

40 20 0

2013/14

Target

2012/13

Your most common reasons for dissatisfaction with our lettings service were how we deal with outstanding repairs, the knowledge and helpfulness of staff and the quality of the home.

The lettings team are now working closely with Interserve to report problems, inspecting every property before it’s passed onto new tenants and receiving inductions on new developments to build their knowledge.

Resident rent arrears

P

5

4.6%

4 3 2

3.4%

2013/14

Target

25%

20% 2013/14

Target

2012/13

Kenneth, East Thames resident

(This doesn’t include repairs performance)

I am a disabled tenant.

Due to the recent government changes in benefits, I have needed a lot of help. Arlene [a welfare benefits adviser] has helped me through stressful times with all the mountains of forms and paperwork. If there were more people in the world like her, it would be a better place.

We didn’t receive a large number of complaints about East Thames’ services in 2013-14 but satisfaction was unacceptably low. We know many of you are dissatisfied with the solution proposed and the communication received throughout the process.

We aim to increase satisfaction by the end of 2014-15 by improving communication and the solutions offered, and ensuring we are consistent across all areas including repairs.

Tenants who received a welcome visit within 8 weeks

~ 100 60

88%

90%

91%

2013/14

Target

2012/13

40

sbs

0

2012/13

Recent changes to welfare reform have made it harder for our residents to make ends meet. Despite this, we’re really happy that we’ve been able to keep arrears low this year because it means we’ve helped lots of residents access additional funding or benefits, or find other ways to manage their finances.

Read more on pages 6-7.

18

80%

20

1 0

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

80

3.5%

“

Residents satisfied with complaints handling

Welcome visits help us make sure new residents are comfortable in their home.

In 2013-14, we weren’t always able to meet residents at times convenient for them so this year we are arranging more evening visits. We are also planning visits when residents first sign up so they know about them well in advance.

www.east-thames.co.uk

”

Report to residents

Your community Number of people on our employment programmes who gained jobs

P

250 200 150

221

180

60

100

40

50

20

0

2013/14

Target

2012/13

It was great to help so many people find jobs last year in the communities we work in.

This year we want to focus on helping our residents build their skills and find work. Find out more about our employment and training programmes on pages 6-7.

Resident satisfaction with care and support services

P

100

40

83.4% 80.0% 82.5%

80%

83%

2013/14

Target

2012/13

Hina, Routes to Work participant East Thames arranged two weeks’ work experience with their marketing and communications team – I was really sad when the placement ended! They then matched me with a mentor at Barclays who is helping me develop my career plans. I hope to work in PR in the future.

Estate inspections enable neighbourhood managers to meet residents and spot any potential problems.

Results were lower at the beginning of 2013-14 as the new maintenance partnership began. They rapidly improved and in the month of March 2014 we were above target.

73.8% of estate inspections this year involved residents (the target was 65%).

Residents satisfied with the way their ASB report was handled 50 30 20

41%

31%

10

20 0

0

76%

40

80 60

X

100 80

223

“

Estates rated silver or gold in inspections

2013/14

Target

2012/13

0

2013/14

Target

2012/13

We’re really happy that residents are satisfied with our care and support services. This includes foyers for young people, care schemes and sheltered housing for older people.

Residents have told us the main problems with our ASB service have been our communication and the process we use to deal with ASB cases.

This result doesn’t include face to face surveys for residents with learning difficulties. Their satisfaction was higher (97.4%), possibly because they have a closer relationship with their support worker.

A new system will help us make regular contact with residents throughout their case and we aim to be clearer about actions and responsibilities for everyone involved. We had no target for ASB in 2013-14 but our target is 50% satisfaction for 2014-15 and will be higher in 2015-16.

”

www.east-thames.co.uk

sbs

19

Contacts East Thames

Local Councils:

Address: 29-35 West Ham Lane, Stratford, London E15 4PH (open Mon-Fri, 8.30am-6pm)

Barking & Dagenham: E: 3000direct@lbbd.gov.uk T: 020 8215 3000 W: www.lbbd.gov.uk

Newham: T: 020 8430 2000 W: www.newham.gov.uk

Customer contact centre: Customer Contact Centre: 0300 303 7333 (Mon-Fri 8.30am-8.30pm)

Essex: W: www.essex.gov.uk

includes links to all

district councils

Redbridge: E: customer.cc@ redbridge.gov.uk T: 020 8554 5000 W: www.redbridge.gov.uk

Email: info@east-thames.co.uk Repairs email: EastThames.Repairs@ interserve.com Web: www.east-thames.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/EastThames

Harlow: E: contact@harlow.gov.uk T: 01279 446655 W: www.harlow.gov.uk Havering: E: info@havering.gov.uk T: 01708 434343 W: www.havering.gov.uk

Tower Hamlets: E: generalenquiries@ towerhamlets.gov.uk T: 020 7364 5020 W: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk Waltham Forest: E: wfdirect@walthamforest.gov.uk T: 020 8496 3000 W: www.walthamforest.gov.uk

about us East Thames is a registered social landlord and social regeneration charity with over 30 years’ experience of providing affordable homes.

Our mission is to make a positive and lasting contribution to the neighbourhoods in which we work which we do through different parts of our business.

We manage and/or own more than 13,500 affordable homes.

We give people a chance to succeed through community programmes that include: employment and training, art and culture, sustainable living, and health and wellbeing.

We provide support and accommodation in over 80 schemes for people with a wide range of needs, including: older people, younger people at risk of becoming homeless, people with a learning disability or mental health needs, and women escaping violence.

For free translation of this magazine for East Thames residents, call:

New contact number 0300 303 7333

Our contact centre number has changed! You now only have one number to remember. If you have an enquiry or need to report a repair, dial 0300 303 7333. You can save it to your contacts and start using it right away.

Dialling our new number won’t cost you any more - in fact it could save you money. 03 numbers should cost no more than a normal local rate call from your landline, and should be included in your minutes allowance on your mobile phone.

THAMES THAMES

www.east-thames.co.uk

THAMES

0800 952 0119

296847