East Region News
Wayne’s story
We recently paid a visit to St. Wilfrid’s Place, one of our homelessness schemes in Sheffield. We were lucky to meet one of our customers, Wayne, who recently took part in an art exhibition with Shelter.
Wayne is a talented artist, and when we first sat down with him and Andy, his Housing and Wellbeing Officer, he showed us a beautiful drawing of a bird he had done. One afternoon, Wayne was having a bad day, and so he took out some scrap paper and a pen and thought to himself: ‘how can I make this day beautiful? And how can I change something bad into something good?’ – and so he did!
This attitude reflects the rest of Wayne’s journey with his independence, and how far he has come whilst living at St Wilfrid’s. Originally from Rotherham, Wayne had worked hard as a chef, and also supported his father, who struggled with alcohol dependency. Eventually, this situation became unmanageable for Wayne, who had to leave the family home. This was the beginning of his struggle with homelessness.
Despite these challenges, Wayne always tried to use his skills for good. Since coming to Sheffield 25 years ago, he has been volunteering part time in the kitchens at the Archer Project, cooking meals for those facing homelessness, despite his own situation and in spite of the abuse he and other members of staff sometimes received.
Through the Archer Project, Wayne was referred to another organisation where, unfortunately, Wayne did not receive the support he needed. He didn't get on with other residents and on one occasion he ended up in hospital. This was terrible for his mental health, which spiralled as a result.
After a period in another temporary accommodation, Wayne was referred to St. Wilfrid’s Place in July 2023, where he found a familiar face in Andy, who had worked with him previously, and could see the change in him since before his situation worsened. Whilst it took Wayne a few weeks to settle in, he soon found his feet and has been thriving ever since. In just four months, Wayne secured another kitchen position at St Mary’s foodbank, where he also gives cooking classes. As Wayne said:
“I wanted to show that you can beat being homeless. It’s a way of saying ‘here I am, the same as you all, sharing my skills’.”
And Wayne has recently shared his other skill and passion for art! One day, he brought his drawings into the Archer Project to show his fellow volunteers. One of these volunteers worked for Shelter, and she persuaded Wayne to take part in an art exhibition with the homelessness charity at Crookes Community Centre. This took place in September 2024, and Wayne was delighted to share both his artwork and experiences with everyone there. Some of the team from St. Wilfrid’s were able to attend, and were incredibly proud of how far Wayne has come!
A Winter of Wellbeing with Wybourn Works
Wybourn is bustling at the moment with a wealth of activities going on at the Pat Midgley Community Hub, under the 'JobsPlus' programme, which we call ‘Wybourn Works’. This is one of ten pilots, launched across the country, funded by the DWP and Learning and Work Institute.
Our Employability Team have expanded the horizons of the project. Whilst still aimed at supporting Wybourn residents into work, training or volunteering, it’s also there to provide other areas of support, whether that’s with getting active or advice around finances and budgeting. All of this was incorporated into a wellbeing event back in the Autumn, and this went down so well, with such great feedback from residents who attended, that the team decided to host a bigger and better ‘Winter Wellbeing’ event!
This was held in November, and was initially aimed at over 50’s, to support eligible residents with claiming Pension Credit, following the recent cut to the Winter Fuel Allowance. From there, the plan developed to be a holistic physical, social and financial wellbeing event. Alongside plenty of tea, coffee, cakes and scones, the day offered…
- Energy-saving tips and tricks with our Financial Resilience Energy Advisor, Andy Wilson and Green Doctors who gave away very popular winter warmer packs;
- Financial MOT with representatives from DWP;
- ‘Chatty Café’ run by a local resident of Wybourn, who volunteers her time to run the sessions at the Pat Midgley Community Hub;
- Chair-obics with Community Wellness Services.
And to wrap it all up, attendees of the event took part in a raffle, with our lucky first prize winner taking home an air fryer, and a draw was also held for a £25 Iceland voucher for another lucky winner.
The event was really well attended and it was great to see the real difference it made to those who turned out.
Happy Hallowybourn!
The Pat Midgley Community Hub can always be relied upon in Wybourn to mark occasions with family-friendly parties for the community, and this year they did not disappoint to put on a spooktacular show for parents and kids alike.
Our Centre Co-ordinator, Christina Grant and Community Partnership Manager, Melanie King got together with the help of two of our newly recruited Community Champion Officers, Reimana John and Daine Laycock-Khan, both residents of Wybourn, to organise a Halloween party complete with spooky decorations and food for everyone to enjoy.
Twenty children and fifteen parents attended, dressed in their best costumes and taking part in the games. These were run by local entertainer Barney Maloney, making his return to the centre, having delivered a great show for the kids last year. He treated everyone to his fantastic ventriloquism and got everyone to take part.
It was a great evening, and a big thank you to Christina, Melanie, Reimana and Daine for making it happen!
Inspiring young people with Sheffield Wednesday Community Partnership
Sheffield Wednesday FC Community Programme (SWFCCP) is the charitable arm of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, which serves to give something back to local communities around the city.
Over in Richmond Park, the organisation has been making use of our £8,000 Greater Together Foundation Resilience Funding to provide weekly activities and workshops at the Richmond Park and Birklands Community Centre.
SWFCCP had benefitted from the fund in 2023 as well, running the popular ‘kicks’ sessions each week at the community centre, which worked in partnership with the schools in the area to get young people more physically active. On the back of this successful project, the organisation applied again for 2024 with a new project, with the aim of reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in the area, through engaging, empowering and inspiring young people at their weekly sessions.
The organisation now runs a mixture of indoor and outdoor sport sessions, as well as workshops that raise awareness on topics and issues that matter to the community, for instance around health and wellbeing, and support with increasing confidence in social and leadership skills. At the heart of it all is inspiring children and young people to build life skills, broaden their horizons and focus on positive opportunities.
The sessions have around 30 regular attendees, and are partially run by the young people themselves, with an emphasis on youth voice. One young person, Jamie, has thrived, as Jacob Walkland, Coordinator of the sessions for SWCCP explained:
Jamie has been attending the sessions since the very beginning and is yet to miss a session. Jamie, 11 years old, is a polite and fantastic young person who is always the first to arrive and last to leave. His respect for the staff that run the youth club is clear to see always asking to help and support when he can. Jamie has developed skills over time such as confidence, resilience and will positively engage in all activities, workshops and discussions with trust adults and other peers. His attitude and respect for his peers and adults has positively affected others that he is a great role model around other participants.
East Repairs Update
Your latest repairs update from your Head of Property Services.
The East Region Repairs Team continues to see an increase in demand in quarter two. While maximising resources we have managed to improve the percentage of repairs completed within target. First time fix rates have also increased this quarter.
Customers transactional satisfaction scores have slightly decreased. As a team we always strive to understand our customers and where dissatisfaction has been expressed, we will endeavour to make contact with customers to understand why.
As we move into quarters three and four we continue to monitor demand and capacity to ensure we can continue to deliver a quality service.
How we’re doing at a glance in quarter two:
- Customer satisfaction: The average customer satisfaction rating for the East region was 8.7 out of 10.
- Repairs completed: 1,776 repairs were completed to enhance customers’ homes.
- Timeliness: 88% of repairs were completed within target time frames.
- First-visit fixes: 87% of all repairs were successfully completed during the first visit.
- Empty properties: 37 empty properties were prepared for new customers, with an average turnaround time of 23 days.
- Disrepair cases: At the end of the quarter, 3 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 also working on reviewing our overall Repairs Service as part of our Corporate Plan priorities, to ensure we have the best model for our repairs service.
We have been working towards a new communications platform which offers more streamlined routing of calls, and a single platform for web chat, emails, and social media.
Our enhancements to simplify the way repairs are reported and logged through our Hub are now live, which aims to reduce call handling times for customers.
We are continuing to work with our customer service teams actively seek your feedback to improve our services and to 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