North Region News
Great Places makes £2,000 donation to Burnley foodbank
Great Places has donated £2,000 to the Burnley FC in the Community Foodbank to help meet its ever-increasing demands.
The foodbank is part of the Burnley Together Down Town facility based in Market Square, which helps hundreds of people across Burnley and Padiham each week.
Also in the facility is the Down Town café and kitchen which helps to show children how to cook nutritious meals on a budget; a school uniform shop and a subsidised food market.
This support is in the face of a 98% drop in funding and the rise in demand, due in part to the cost-of-living crisis.
Nathan Norris, foodbank manager, said: “We are very grateful to Great Places for their generous donation, which will enable us to support some of the most vulnerable people in the borough.
“We are assisting an increasing number of individuals, many of whom have very little, to combat the current economic climate with nutritious food, but it is becoming increasingly challenging.
“We aid those who have nothing, and we have also partnered with the RSPCA to provide pet food, as some of the people we assist have pets. We are immensely thankful to Great Places for their support, as it will benefit those who need it the most.”
Great Places helps Fleetwood Pantry
Great Places has helped Fleetwood’s foodbank to access additional funding to improve its facilities.
The Pantry foodbank, part of the Faith in the Community (FiTC) operation, in Pharos Street has been helping the people of Fleetwood since opening in 2019, providing free food and essentials for more than 200 people a week.
Great Places’ Funding Partnership Lead, Daniel Mountford, and Trustees of FiTC worked to successfully bid for £39,000 funding from the government’s Community Organisation Cost of Living Fund.
The money will be used to improve facilities with an improved client waiting area, a confidential interview space, new shelving and the purchase of commercial fridges and freezers.
Daniel said: “We were delighted to be able to help The Pantry to continue its excellent work in the town as it supports people who need it during this cost-of-living crisis.
“The Pantry does fantastic work in the community and will be able to continue to help people for the foreseeable future in what is one of the country’s most deprived wards.”
Sharon Jones from FiTC added: “We are immensely grateful to Great Places and Daniel Mountford for his expertise and fundraising advice throughout the bid process.
“The Pantry has become a lifeline for many families over the past couple of years and the additional funding has allowed FiTC to move forward with confidence in their mission to support those in need.”
Keeping money in mind
Great Places has given more than £4,500 to a mental health charity to help Blackburn customers to manage their money better before any issues escalate.
Lancashire Mind will work with 50 people, on a one-to-one basis, in community settings with a Health Care Coordinator and 30 people will access four one-hour group sessions to understand how money worries impact their mental health.
Research shows that people with poor mental health are not getting help for financial difficulties early enough, causing both to escalate, which is why they designed Money & Me, a unique service which gives people with poor mental health the tools and support to be financially resilient during the cost-of-living crisis, improving their wellbeing in the process.
Money & Me is a flexible programme for individuals or groups. Beneficiaries explore their relationship with money, identify goals, look at budgeting and debt management, examine therapeutic spending and access data and training. They will build a toolkit of strategies to manage their money and mental health.
Blackburn with Darwen has high levels of economic hardship. It is in the most deprived 10 per cent of local authorities in England on average, and average weekly earnings (£465.60) are well below the England average (£536.60). The percentage of people aged 16 to 64 classified as economically inactive is 29.2%, much higher than across the north-west and the UK (21.6%).
Aateeka Bashir, Community Partnership Manager, said: “We are delighted to be able to support Lancashire Mind, who do such valuable work across the county.
“This award will allow them to help people manage their money better, which will help them improve their mental health and wellbeing of themselves and their families.
“Mental health is every bit as important as physical health and we hope this has a real impact on the people who receive support.”
Sarah Seed, Project Co-ordinator at Lancashire Mind, added: “Financial troubles can affect your mental health and vice versa so the Money & Me programme can help in so many ways.
“It digs down into the issues and provides practical help and tips to help people regain control of their finances and repairs their mental health.
“And it’s not just for people on low incomes as given the cost-of-living crisis, it has affected people in so many ways, so we hope to be able to make real changes to people’s lives and wellbeing.”
Litter-ally thinking
Neighbourhoods in East Lancashire got a spring clean after Great Places helped customers to clear up the area.
Colleagues helped to clean Lincoln Road and Ripon Street in Blackburn and Spindleberry Court in Accrington as part of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.
Tonnes of rubbish, litter and refuse was removed from the sites to ensure the communities looked spick and span, with wire mesh being placed on gates and fences on the homes in Blackburn to keep litter out when being blown in the wind.
Bay 6 hits landmark birthday
The Bay 6 Project in Leyland will turn 20 this summer – marking two decades of supporting 16 to 24-year-olds.
The project is a partnership, managed by Barnardo’s in conjunction with Great Places, and comprises of six bedrooms within a communal building and five one-bed self-contained flats for young people who are homeless or who are at risk of becoming homeless.
Barnardo’s and Great Places have worked together over the last 20 years to develop the service and one of the highlights was the work to design and build the fabulous garden which has been awarded first place at the Leyland in Bloom awards twice over the last few years.
This fantastic space was co-produced with the young people, with Barnardo’s continuing to improve it every year with input from residents.
Jenny Ashcroft, Children Services Manager, said: “From day one we have worked closely with Great Places to ensure we have a building that is fit for purpose, has high standards and shows we care.
“We have an excellent working relationship with Great Places, they are always there to support us, and we wouldn’t be able to offer the service we do to our young people without them.”
She added: “Young people find themselves with us for many different reasons. They could be leaving care, a looked after child or a child in need, and they come to us directly from Children’s Homes, foster care or due to relationship breakdowns within the family home. We are clear with our boundaries and staff are always consistent, supporting each other in the work we do.
“The voice of the young person is at the heart of all we do, and our young people are involved in many aspects of the project from appraising staff, inducting new residents, interviewing for prospective new staff, involvement with policy and procedure and evaluating the project at lots of stages throughout their stay.
“Staff work with the young people based on their individual support needs and develop a support plan focusing on realistic achievable goals, from budgeting and cooking to self-esteem and confidence, aspirations and tenancy-related issues.
“Many of the young people walk through our doors with little or no self-esteem or confidence but leave with a belief they can achieve their dreams.”
One of the young people who has stayed at Bay 6 said: “I was 17 when I moved in, and my life has changed so much. I went for my interview at Bay 6 and straight away things started looking up!
“Bay 6 has given me the space to think and become a better person, to get away from the gangs, the drugs and the negatives in my life, my confidence has grown, and I have started to regularly attend college and my grades are improving.
“I have learned to be independent I have a great support team behind me in the staff at Bay 6 and I no longer feel I am on my own. I feel safe for the first time in years, and I like who I am.”
North Repairs update
Your latest repairs update from your Head of Property Services.
Your repairs service has been busy over the last year delivering 12,231 repairs to help maintain your homes.
One big area of ongoing development this year has been in relation to addressing concerns around damp, mould and condensation for our customers. This has included creating a separate policy, alongside improved communications and support around managing moisture levels within your home.
We have also invested in additional resources to deal with any appearance of damp and mould within a property to provide peace of mind and to address any underlying property issues which may be contributing to the issue.
In addition, all your local managers and supervisors have received further training in relation to identification of underlying causes and all our operatives have received specific awareness training to provide further support to our customers whilst they are undertaking general repairs.
We have also been improving our service offer with operatives now able to book convenient follow up appointments directly with the customer whilst they are at the property. In addition, customers are now able to book appointments 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the customer portal. Both of these initiatives have been delivered to enhance the service for you, our customers.
These service improvements have been supported by the further development of your localised resource planning team to ensure that customers receive the best possible experience when a repair is being undertaken in their home, even when it can sometimes be quite complicated.
We have also been working closely with our Assets Team to identify local areas that require planned investment.
As a developing organisation we have a continual challenge to ensure we have sufficient resources to meet the increasing demands and we continue to invest in our award winning apprenticeship programme to ensure we continue to build for the future and have employed a number of local people to meet this aim.
These ongoing improvements have led to the team receiving 244 compliments and 96 five star Trust Pilot reviews during the year which have been gratefully received.
As your local team, we are committed to reducing our wait time for our customers, and reviewing our productivity for our team of operatives to ensure customers get the best possible service. We are dedicated to delivering excellent customer service, and always looking for further ways to improve.
How we’re doing at a glance
During the financial year 2023/24, the North Repairs Team additionally achieved the following:
- Customer satisfaction: The average customer satisfaction rating for the North region was 8 out of 10.
- Timeliness: 82% of repairs were completed within target time frames.
- First-visit fixes: 84% of all repairs were successfully completed during the first visit.
- Empty properties: 276 empty homes were prepared for new customers, with an average turnaround time of 24 days.