East Region News
Introducing Wybourn Works
It’s an exciting time to be living and working in Wybourn, with our Employability and Community Investment Team being busy with our new nine-month project, ‘Wybourn Works’.
This comes from the ‘Jobs Plus’ scheme by the Department for Work and Pensions to work in the community to support residents to gain skills and ultimately get into training, voluntary work or employment. They took inspiration from a model used in New York City, and are piloting it around the country in ten specific areas – and we successfully bid for Wybourn to be one of them. We’ve received a grant of £200,000 to implement this through our very own Training Academy, which, following a consultation with the community is locally known as ‘Wybourn Works’.
Since the project began in July, it’s safe to say the team have hit the ground running, working with our customers and getting them into work, and working with our partners in the area to provide training. It’s been a positive start, and our team are working hard to continue to build the project.
So far, Wybourn Works has offered person-centred employability coaching, as well as a variety of skills-based workshops run in the Pat Midgley Community Hub. It’s also used to cover the costs of childcare for customers who may need this in order to attend their training sessions.
Our academy is being delivered in partnership with Manor Castle Development Trust, who regularly run sessions at the centre; they have been subcontracted by us to help Wybourn Works reach its full potential. Alongside this, we’ve also been networking with other companies, including Sheffield Housing Company, who are providing talks and assisting with securing work experience for those interested in working in construction.
Our wide-ranging employability courses include a recent course on childcare, and other courses for autumn have included running a pop-up café in September, for those interested in catering and hospitality, and a customer service course in October. What’s more, our very own Financial Resilience Specialist has been attending the centre once a month to work face-to-face with our customers for advice on budgeting.
So far, the project has had a successful launch! In just the first few weeks, we signed up 42 customers to work with and three of our early customers are now already in work.
We’ll be following the project in more detail as it develops, and we’re excited to check in with the team and see what promises to be some fantastic outcomes for Wybourn!
RSAP Sheffield – behind the scenes
Chris Metcalfe is our Engagement Support Officer and lead for RSAP (Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme) in Sheffield, based at our scheme, St. Wilfrid’s Place. We caught up with him to get a sense of how RSAP works in Sheffield and the challenges that come with it.
Can you tell us a bit about RSAP, how it works in Sheffield and where Great Places fits in with this?
“RSAP Sheffield is part of the Government’s Rough Sleepers Initiative, involving a few organisations including Great Places. In 2022, we were awarded the tender from Sheffield Council to provide eight properties in the wider community to house and support those with a history of rough sleeping and who are currently living in emergency accommodation. Customers are referred to us through the Rough Sleepers Team at Sheffield City Council.”
What does our support look like and what sort of accommodation do we offer?
“We offer seven one-bed apartments and one one-bed bungalow across Sheffield, with customers receiving weekly contact from myself. I provide support with their tenancies, as well as with finances, physical and mental health issues, tackling isolation and also provide referrals to our Employability Coach for educational and work support. I also signpost customers to external agencies where necessary.”
How busy is it to work with RSAP and how reactive do you need to be?
“From the customer’s initial move-in and the process of building a relationship with them, contact is dictated by their individual needs; some require more hands-on support to begin with, with some liaising with external agencies where needed. Accurate recording of contacts is essential, as is maintaining good relations with neighbours in case of any issues.”
What are you the most proud of in your work with RSAP so far?
“So far, I’m most proud of being able to maintain relationships with customers despite issues they’re facing in their lives. This has been a challenge, and as you can imagine has been a process with its ups and downs. However, through being calm and patient, I’ve been able to build positive relationships with customers living in RSAP properties.”
The work done through RSAP is undoubtedly challenging, and it's good to hear about the holistic support offered to those we provide shelter to.
Building great communities in Burngreave
Earlier this year, we completed the building of 20 homes for affordable rent in Burngreave, Sheffield, and welcomed lots of new customers.
Our Neighbourhoods Service Manager, Anita, worked hard to allocate the properties to families in need, and provided fantastic support throughout the process:
"I know moving can be stressful and with paying for the costs of new accommodation, every little help is a bonus.”
On a recent sunny morning, we headed over to Fir View and met with Anita, who introduced us to some of our customers, having now settled in nicely.
First we met Mohammed, who had been on the housing waiting list for 12 years. Whilst renting a two-bedroom property nearby for his family of five, Mohammed knew they needed more space and had applied to the council many times, only to be told each time that it was oversubscribed. So, when he was successful with applying for the three-bedroom house at Fir View, Mohammed was understandably thrilled, particularly since this meant they could stay in the area where they were rooted in the community, whilst moving into a property that better met their needs as a family.
Then we met Iona. She and her daughter had been living in a small flat for four years. She too was on the council list, and had been regularly applying all year, with not much success. Finding her home at Fir View was a perfect turnaround; whilst she had been paying quite a high rent previously with a private landlord, Iona now pays £300 less a month, and gets a lot more! Her daughter now has a big room and can also play outside in the garden and shared outdoor space. Iona remarked how the community is really nice, and it’s a real plus that there are more children her daughter’s age.
And finally, we met Saiqa, who had been on the waiting list with Sheffield Council for 12 years, living in a privately-rented property in the meantime with her school-aged son and daughter. Fir View offered them the space for a “better quality of life”, as the family are able to fill their home with the things that they like, as well as enjoy the greenery and trees of the quiet cul-de-sac, much different to the busy main road they had been used to. Saiqa also greatly appreciated the smooth transition made possible by Anita, who she ‘felt easy to talk to’, and who 'never made me feel like we were meeting for the first time'.
Mohammed
Iona
Breaking down language barriers with SAVTE
SAVTE is the Sheffield Association for the Voluntary Teaching of English. They run friendly and informal sessions for speakers of other languages to begin to learn English, and become more active and empowered within their communities.
We’ve worked with SAVTE in the past, delivering a language and cooking class on the Wybourn estate before the pandemic, when unfortunately this came to an end. Our Community Investment Team reached out to SAVTE once again in October 2023, as the team had identified a growing number of our customers in Wybourn who spoke no or little English and needed support to break down this barrier.
Sessions with SAVTE have now been running at the Pat Midgley Community Hub since March 2024, and one Tuesday morning in July, we got to chat with some of the attendees and volunteers, and see for ourselves the teaching in action.
Volunteers Lesley and Asma ran the session, and the discussion-based activities began with day-to-day picture cards being shared out, with attendees using them to describe the pictures in English, and discuss where similar words could be used. The sessions had a friendly and relaxed approach, and for Lesley, who had become involved through her other volunteering networks, the experience has been highly rewarding:
“Where else would I meet so many people from different backgrounds?”
As a volunteering opportunity, for Asma the experience is a great way to meet new people and share her own experiences. Asma had worked in community development and poverty reduction projects in her home country, Pakistan, before moving to the UK three years ago. This volunteering experience was a great way to build up UK-based experience to help her apply for more permanent jobs in this field over here.
One of our customers who regularly attends, Jifare, came from Ethiopia, and found the sessions through the advertisements in the centre. After getting in touch with the centre co-ordinator Christina Grant, she started to attend the sessions in their early days – and has barely missed one since. In fact, she encouraged many of the other regulars to attend, and has made some great progress herself; she is now a confident speaker – the next challenge is to crack writing and grammar.
After a summer break, sessions began again in September and the group is continuing to make some great progress.
East Repairs Update
Your latest repairs update from your Head of Property Services.
East Region's repairs team has faced an increase in demand of 16% compared to the same quarter in 2023. We have also seen over a 100% increase in the amount of damp related works in the same quarter.
It is pleasing to see that our customers are starting to use the self-serve portal with an amazing 125 jobs raised. Our customers' transactional feedback has remained strong with an impressive 9.1 out ten being scored.
We continue to manage our open orders and resources to enable us to provide the best service we can to our customers and their homes.
How we’re doing at a glance in quarter one:
- Customer satisfaction: The average customer satisfaction rating for the East region was 9.1 out of 10.
- Repairs completed: 1,776 repairs were completed to enhance customers’ homes.
- Timeliness: 80.2% of repairs were completed within target time frames.
- First-visit fixes: 81.5% of all repairs were successfully completed during the first visit.
- Empty properties: 36 empty properties were prepared for new customers, with an average turnaround time of 18 days.
- Disrepair cases: At the end of the quarter, 6 disrepair cases were still active.
These surveys are in real time – upon completion of repairs – and different to the TSM surveys.
Continuous improvement
At Great Places, we’re dedicated to continuing to enhance our performance and services for our customers. Here’s how we’re making a difference:
Ongoing improvements
We are launching a new communications platform in our Customer Hub which offers more streamlined routing of calls and a single platform for web chat, emails and social media.
We are also working towards system enhancements to simplify the way repairs are reported through to our Hub, which will hopefully reduce the call handling time.
We are continuing to work with our customer service teams to actively seek your feedback to improve our services and help us introduce new measures to continue to provide you with the best experience.
Thanks for your continued support and remember if you have any questions or need any further support you can contact us via Chatbot on our website or email: customerhub@greatplaces.org.uk.
Adam Littlewood Head of Property Services, East Team