We launched our new Sheltered Housing Forum this year, giving any customers living in our sheltered housing schemes the opportunity to voice issues, check and challenge how we are performing and shape the future of our service going forward.
The group will allow customers to have one to one conversations with Karbon colleagues, helping us understand and explore any issues and work together to make things better.
The forum members met for their second meeting of the year in April, and our first held in person, with one group for schemes located North of the Tyne and one for those located South of the Tyne.
The meetings took place at our sheltered schemes at Park View, Lynemouth and Lynwood House, Durham with some members joining us in person and others logging in remotely via Teams with our Scheme Coordinators and Housing Officers on standby to help overcome any challenges the technology presented.
We keep the forums relaxed and friendly, with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits available throughout and and all discussions being open so everyone can talk freely.
The forum were joined by our Product and Innovations Manager Diane Dakers and Product and Innovations Specialist Graeme Tuckwell who were there to have a brain storm around the Telecare service we use.
Telecare is a monitoring service that offers remote support to people who live alone in their own homes and means they can call for support should they need it. Diane and Graeme worked with the group to try to understand what they valued about the service, what they would change, what new features they would like to see and how confident they are using digital services.
The forum also had the opportunity to discuss what they valued about living in sheltered housing and to scrutinise the sheltered housing customer promises to see if they are still fit for purpose, whether we are still delivering the promises and and what improvements they would suggest.
One of our customers who sits on the Sheltered Housing South Forum, said:
“The forum gives you insight into the housing association and gives ordinary people the opportunity to express their views about matters on where they live. The housing association gets to hear both positive and negative feedback and can learn a lot if they listen to customer views.
“It’s a two-way positive thing and a great way forward for everyone involved if housing is to become better.”
Jon McDonald, our Head of Supported Housing said:
“We feel passionately about our customers having a voice and the opportunity to help shape the way our services are delivered. Our Sheltered Housing Forum can only help to us to get better at what we do. We want to listen to our customers in these schemes, hear what they have to say and make improvements to make our schemes the best.”
Any customer living in one of our sheltered accommodation schemes is eligible to join the group. There is a relatively low commitment for the group with them meeting once every quarter.
We aim to have a hybrid approach with a mixture of online and face-to-face meetings where possible.
If you would like to find out more about our Sheltered Housing Forum, please contact our Customer Engagement Team by emailing Lewis Rimington or Sandy Swinhoe.
The Sheltered Housing Forum forms part of our Resident Involvement framework which looks to ensure that your voice is part of our decision making process and that customer complaints are dealt with promptly and fairly. The Framework has lots of different ways you can get involved depending on where your interests lie, this ranges from a complaints review panel and local area forums, to a scrutiny bank and environmental panel.
If you are interested in finding out more about our customer groups and how you can get involved, please drop us an e-mail at connectwithkarbon@karbonhomes.co.uk.
We launched our new Sheltered Housing Forum this year, giving any customers living in our sheltered housing schemes the opportunity to voice issues, check and challenge how we are performing and shape the future of our service going forward.
The group will allow customers to have one to one conversations with Karbon colleagues, helping us understand and explore any issues and work together to make things better.
The forum members met for their second meeting of the year in April, and our first held in person, with one group for schemes located North of the Tyne and one for those located South of the Tyne.
The meetings took place at our sheltered schemes at Park View, Lynemouth and Lynwood House, Durham with some members joining us in person and others logging in remotely via Teams with our Scheme Coordinators and Housing Officers on standby to help overcome any challenges the technology presented.
We keep the forums relaxed and friendly, with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits available throughout and and all discussions being open so everyone can talk freely.
The forum were joined by our Product and Innovations Manager Diane Dakers and Product and Innovations Specialist Graeme Tuckwell who were there to have a brain storm around the Telecare service we use.
Telecare is a monitoring service that offers remote support to people who live alone in their own homes and means they can call for support should they need it. Diane and Graeme worked with the group to try to understand what they valued about the service, what they would change, what new features they would like to see and how confident they are using digital services.
The forum also had the opportunity to discuss what they valued about living in sheltered housing and to scrutinise the sheltered housing customer promises to see if they are still fit for purpose, whether we are still delivering the promises and and what improvements they would suggest.
One of our customers who sits on the Sheltered Housing South Forum, said:
“The forum gives you insight into the housing association and gives ordinary people the opportunity to express their views about matters on where they live. The housing association gets to hear both positive and negative feedback and can learn a lot if they listen to customer views.
“It’s a two-way positive thing and a great way forward for everyone involved if housing is to become better.”
Jon McDonald, our Head of Supported Housing said:
“We feel passionately about our customers having a voice and the opportunity to help shape the way our services are delivered. Our Sheltered Housing Forum can only help to us to get better at what we do. We want to listen to our customers in these schemes, hear what they have to say and make improvements to make our schemes the best.”
Any customer living in one of our sheltered accommodation schemes is eligible to join the group. There is a relatively low commitment for the group with them meeting once every quarter.
We aim to have a hybrid approach with a mixture of online and face-to-face meetings where possible.
If you would like to find out more about our Sheltered Housing Forum, please contact our Customer Engagement Team by emailing Lewis Rimington or Sandy Swinhoe.
The Sheltered Housing Forum forms part of our Resident Involvement framework which looks to ensure that your voice is part of our decision making process and that customer complaints are dealt with promptly and fairly. The Framework has lots of different ways you can get involved depending on where your interests lie, this ranges from a complaints review panel and local area forums, to a scrutiny bank and environmental panel.
If you are interested in finding out more about our customer groups and how you can get involved, please drop us an e-mail at connectwithkarbon@karbonhomes.co.uk.
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