North Region News
Putting mental health first
Counselling services will be made available to Great Places customers who need it at the Counselling in the Community (CitC) centres.
CitC has counselling centres in Blackpool, Fleetwood and a dedicated Children’s Centre in Bispham and offer counselling to clients from the age of four years old and there is no age limit on the people we will help. Children will be offered sessions with a counsellor with the appropriate skills to help them explore their feelings.
If you are unable to attend session in person, we can offer counselling by telephone or online via video call.
Founder Stuart Hutton-Brown said: “We have had a long and frutiful relationship with Great Places and we are delighted to be working with them to help customers who need our services.
“We have grown a lot over the past seven years as the need for mental health services has exploded and we are delighted to have partners like Great Places as we are totally reliant on funding as we don’t receive money from commissioners, despite being Lancashire’s largest independent mental health service provider.
“We have grown a lot over the past seven years as the need for mental health services has exploded and we are delighted to have partners like Great Places as we are totally reliant on funding as we don’t receive money from commissioners, despite being Lancashire’s largest independent mental health service provider.
For Great Places customers, please speak to your Neighbourhood Services Manager about the referral process.
Great Places helps customers dress to impress
Great Places will be launching Blackburn’s first Working Wardrobe – aimed at helping people who can’t afford interview clothes get dressed to impress.
Bowland House, on Primrose Bank, is converting an unused room on the ground floor into the Working Wardrobe – which will house interview clothes in all shapes and sizes donated by Great Places and other outlets.
The Wardrobe will be accessed by Great Places customers from across Lancashire and by people referred into the job centre, with colleagues also providing CV writing tips and interview techniques.
For GP customers who can’t get to Bowland House, colleagues will provide a virtual service where customers can have a video call with a colleague in which they can discuss the interview, choose some clothes and have them delivered.
Victoria’s story
To mark Starts at Home Day on 30 August, we looked at the importance of Supported Housing and how it helps some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
We spoke to Victoria, who has accessed the In Partnership (IPP) service after a relationship breakdown left her homeless.
IPP provides support and accommodation for women aged 16 – 55 who are homeless and who also need help with drug or alcohol issues.
The support promotes independence, recovery and we help customers to move on into their own accommodation.
Victoria was referred to IPP when life took a turn for the worse.
Victoria had her own business, but the death of her partner saw everything fall apart and she found herself homeless and gripped by an alcohol problem.
She bounced around a few hostels before she was referred to Great Places' IPP centre in Blackburn where Victoria has used her love of music to not only help her navigate her recovery journey, but also others in IPP and in the community.
She said: “I had a business, about four or five years ago with my partner. We used to sell vinyl records, musical instruments and record players and things like that.
“My partner suddenly died and as we weren’t married, nothing was in my name so I couldn’t live in our house anymore. I went to live with my friend, and we fell out, so I ended up homeless.
“I’ve been in various hostels and then I had an interview at IPP with Jake (key worker) and I came into IPP last January.
“I was a bit of a mess when I came. I was drinking a lot; my flat was a mess, and I wasn’t really doing very much.
“Now, I’m out every day. I have a little routine. I go and do Clean Up Blackburn, and there’s a little gardening project I take part in. And there’s a music group I do in Darwen, like the one I do here.
“The In Partnership people have really helped me. I’ve got myself into a good routine and I know I can speak to people if I need anything.”
High Sherriff of Lancashire Helen Bingley (centre left) and Mayor of Pendle Cllr Mohammad Aslam with guests at the opening of the Elisha House gym
Elisha House
High Sherriff of Lancashire Helen Bingley OBE helped to officially open a new £343,000 community gym in Colne – thanks to a little help from Great Places.
Elisha House, on Burnley Road in Colne, helps people with a history of substance misuse and features supported accommodation, a community café and now a community gym to help people navigate their recovery journey.
The money has come from £320,000 pledged to it via Sport England and the National Lottery with Great Places Housing Group helping the charity access various funding streams, with the rest being gathered from a crowdfunder.
Great Places has also funded two people who stayed at Elisha House to become CrossFit Instructors at the new gym.
Carl Molyneux, Project Manager, said: “The aim of the hub is to take some the of strain off society by providing help with mental and physical health and employability whilst decreasing the risk of repeat criminal activity and addiction.
“We provide a supportive and non-judgemental community of peers that have the skills and lived experience needed to navigate their issues.
“The hub will offer voluntary and educational opportunities for everyone who wants or needs to access it without prejudice and in a way that is accessible for all.
“The community gym will be open to the local community and aims to bring people together while giving people the skills to address their health concerns and goals.”
GP donates to Morecambe foodbank
A Morecambe Community Centre has been given a £5,000 donation from Great Places Housing Group to help with the running of the centre – which welcomes more than 500 visitors a week.
The Stanleys Community Centre, on Stanley Road, provides a range of services for the local community including a food club, free breakfast and lunch for those attending support sessions.
They also help people with forms, CV writing, job seeking, housing and council forms and more.
The money will help go towards helping:
- 90 people to access the food club
- 100 people to access free breakfast lunch and tea per week
Saving for the Seasons session
Great Places is helping people save money and become more energy-efficient, to help them navigate the cost-of-living crisis.
Great Places is supporting the Saving for the Seasons project, based at the Claremont Park Community Centre. The project is aimed at helping people to save money throughout the year, providing tips and advice on budgeting and keeping energy costs down, among other things.
Great Places' Financial Resilience Energy Advisor Andy Wilson and Employability Coach Stacey Fletcher were on hand with other organisations to offer advice to make every penny count for customers.
The Big Food Truck is also often present to register people and help them save money on their weekly food shop.
To learn more about the schemes on offer, contact Amanda on 07586 956282, email amanda@ourclaremont.org.uk or search Facebook for Claremont Warm Welcome.
North Repairs Update
Your latest repairs update from your Head of Property Services.
In quarter one, the Great Places North Repairs Team has seen an increase in demand with some trades which we are continuing to review. We have had a few large scale projects that are being worked through with our project managers.
We are continuing to review damp and disrepair and following up on previous cases. We now have some support on cyclical gutter cleans through our facilities management team and work has started in Morecambe.
How we’re doing at a glance in quarter one:
- Customer satisfaction: The average customer satisfaction rating for the North region was 8.9 out of 10.
- Repairs completed: 4,613 repairs were completed to enhance customers’ homes
- Timeliness: 89% of repairs were completed within target time frames.
- First-visit fixes: 78% of all repairs were successfully completed during the first visit.
- Empty properties: 73 empty properties were prepared for new customers, with an average turnaround time of 15.4 days.
- Disrepair cases: At the end of the quarter, 15 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.
Louise Smith, Head of Property Services, North Region