Shaping inclusive services for our customers
The Inclusive Services Team (IST) was formed in March 2024 to help us better understand our customers, making sure we tailor our approach and services to meet their needs.
The team has now been established for nearly a whole year, and many of our customers will already have spoken to them by now. The IST Administrators initially ask questions linked to our ‘You Share, We Shape’ campaign, gathering key information about everybody living in our homes, to understand where customers may have certain support needs either for themselves or for those living with them. Where the Administrators identify that a customer has certain support requirements, such as communication barriers or health conditions which impact their ability to receive a service from Great Places, they can refer the customer to our IST Specialists for a more detailed conversation around how these things impact them and how we can help to remove some of those barriers.
The IST Specialists – who are skilled with handling sensitive information – offer support through tailored services directly from Great Places, such as longer wait times at the door due to mobility conditions or ensuring that we communicate with customers in a household in a certain way to meet their neurodivergence needs. The Specialists can also refer our customers into additional support services offered by Great Places where appropriate, or by signposting to relevant services externally that may be able to support further, such as their local council or support groups.
Since March 2024, the team has made huge progress and managed to speak to over 3,000 customers to shape our services and meet their needs.
The team is continuing to make calls to customers, which take around 10 to 15 minutes on the phone, however customers can also complete the initial questionnaire themselves within the MyPlace portal, which may lead to a follow-up call from one of the team.
Complete your personal information today by clicking the button:
If our Inclusive Services Team get in touch with you, please share your information if you’re happy to do so. This will allow us to properly understand your circumstances so that we can make sure you get the right support from us as your landlord.
How is the team having an impact so far?
Back in 2024, the Inclusive Services team spoke to Sean who is one of our customers living in Sheffield, to understand his needs and how we could tailor our services to meet them. Sean told us about his health conditions which impact his mobility, and that he can only manage to walk short distances. Whilst we offered a number of tailored services options, Sean felt as though these weren’t required and that he had a good support network around him to handle his conditions. However, Sean was interested in knowing more about the process for requesting adaptations due to struggling to get in and out of the bath and felt that he would benefit from either an adapted shower or a wet room. The Team explained the process for requesting both minor and major adaptations and sent him information on how to begin the process with the Local Authority.
Later in the week, Sean called the team back to inform us that he had a fall in the shower and would like to request grab rails in the bathroom. The team raised the repair job promptly with the Property Services Manager (PSM) and Neighbourhood Services Manager (NSM) to advise them of the works required. After the adaptations to Sean’s home had been completed and a visit from the NSM and a Tenancy Coach, the customer called back into Inclusive Services to thank us for the help we’d given him, and to let us know that the installation of the minor adaptations had made a huge difference to his quality of life.
Sean is just one of many customers that the team has supported over the last year, they are also working with other services across Great Places to ensure customers are able to live the best lives possible, even if they don’t need direct support from them.
Transforming our communal spaces with our customers
Earlier last year, the Inclusive Services Team spoke to Steve, one of our customers from Blackpool, to collect information about him and understand if there was anything that Great Places could do to tailor our services to meet his needs. Steve told us that he doesn’t need any individual support, however as a Great Places customer he had concerns regarding the local environment, as he was passionate about creating wildflower gardens and planting areas to spruce up the area for the community. Steve is a professional landscaper and has built close relationships with Blackpool and Fylde councils to support other initiatives such as Blackpool Carers Centre.
After speaking to the Inclusive Services Team, we referred Steve across to our Community Investment Team to explore how we could work together to improve our communal spaces. A member of the team visited Steve to discuss a project in Blackburn, called the Celestial Garden. Steve had loads of great ideas to share and his passion for wildflowers and community spaces was clear from the outset. Fast-forward a few months later, and the project has been completed! The community, especially members of the local mosque, who have built a very close relationship with Steve, have given great feedback about the improved space. We are now looking at further projects that we can work together on in other areas.
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