A day in the life of Moneyline Cymru

I’m afraid I am going to start with the C word. It is October, Christmas is fast approaching and Moneyline customers are getting ready for it. Quarterly savings account statements have just been sent out, so the Moneyline office is seeing a stream of customers coming in to withdraw their savings with most looking forward to starting their Christmas shopping.

People are also coming in to ask about how to get a loan. A loan is only approved after checking a customer’s identification and income & expenditure to see if a loan is affordable. It then takes 3-4 days for the money to reach their bank account. However, Moneyline doesn’t just offer loans and savings. When looking at an application, the loan officers also assess whether a Money Adviser could help. For example, they can see if benefits are not being paid that a customer may be entitled to, if they would be eligible for utility discount schemes or if they are making payments to creditors and have debts. For these and many other reasons, customers are referred to the in house Your Benefits Are Changing Money Adviser for free and independent money advice. This helps customers in so many ways.

One customer rang today to say thank you because a loan officer  spotted that she would be eligible for a discount on her water bill and that she wasn’t receiving Tax Credits. After talking to the Money Adviser it was confirmed that she was eligible and she was helped to apply.  She is now £60 per week better off by claiming Tax Credits, is saving on her water bills through Welsh Water Assist and will receive £135 via the Warm Home Discount in the New Year. This has made a massive difference to her and, through coming in for a loan, she has actually found herself financially better off.

Moneyline Cwmbran has been nominated for a ‘Torfaen’s Most Recommended’ award and customers are completing voting forms with lovely comments such as ‘friendly staff'; ‘non judgemental'; ‘love that you can get money advice as well’; ‘ you really help people’.

Our office is in the middle of the town centre, so customers can easily pop in to ask questions or just say hello, and this certainly adds to the good relationships we have with customers. Today one customer popped in to introduce us to her new baby – cue oohing and ahhing all round in an office of mums.

As the Money Adviser, my day today has included appointments for debt advice, a telephone enquiry for a benefit check, processing applications for Welsh Water Assist and Customer Assistance Fund, an application for Discretionary Housing Payment  for someone affected by the 'bedroom tax', talking to customers about Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment, and searching for grants (it’s amazing how excited I got at seeing ‘army pension’ on an income sheet at the thought of the grant options I could look into for this particular client). And, on a personal level, thinking about how unprepared I am for the C word compared to our customers.

Your Benefits Are Changing is a Community Housing Cymru project and is funded by the Big Lottery.

Kath Hopkins

Money Adviser

Innovate, collaborate or die

The Young Foundation have been in Llandrindod Wells at Community Housing Cymru's One Big Housing UnConference. Whilst we are only part way through the 2 day event, there are already some interesting, exciting and rather worrying topics being debated (or not). Tony Colville, Senior Associate at the Young Foundation and our current lead in Wales, presents his thoughts so far.

It’s fair to say that the last 6 months of the Young Foundation’s exploration of the work carried out by housing associations in Wales has only filled us with hope, excitement and a desire to show our English partners how innovative you can be if you just think differently!

Yesterday was the first opportunity we had to speak with, hear from and engage with a broader range of housing associations and issues from across the sector. Along with my two colleagues, I’ve held some great conversations around the challenges of affordable and accessible community credit, the scaling up of time-credit schemes (see Spice for more information), and how you make best use of an umbrella organisation like Community Housing Cymru to collectively challenge the policies of Westminster that simply don’t work for rural communities here in Wales. I’ve had 7 organisations instantly book in follow up meetings to turn these conversations into ideas we can act on. But for every great conversation, I’ve had either an equally bad conversation or a conversation where the desire to challenge or push for innovation was simply non-existent. This is something we should all be concerned about.

The most frustrating parts of the day for me have been occasions in the discussion rooms where statements made or questions asked have received either flat responses or no response at all. I know there are innovative people at this event with ideas, expertise and passion. I have heard and seen first-hand some of the great ideas being developed. So why so little push for innovation, collaboration or challenge throughout today? Are we just being over-polite and not wanting to talk about the elephant in the room or is there a much bigger problem on the horizon?

Here are three big issues and my thoughts on how we ALL address them:

Challenge: How many statements have you heard today that you don’t agree with? How many questions have been asked that you think are just totally missing the point? Speak up, put your ideas and challenges out there. Through challenge we can start to innovate and build stronger alliances on issues we are passionate about. Use your umbrella body!

Personality: I’ve come across some fantastic personalities in my time here in Wales and the majority of them in the housing sector! If we are going to face a tough ride in the next few years then bring those personalities to the forefront of what you do and how you present it. Bring some energy to what you are doing and provoke, invite and engage us to agree, disagree and collaborate on the answers. I personally want to see more of the great private 1 to 1 conversations I’ve been having with you all shared in a bigger audience (you know who you are!)

Collaborate: The time of big building programmes is over. The time of large funds for social programmes is over. The time of not collaborating and working in silos is over. Start talking about your passions, your shared visions, your resource gaps, the things you have done that have worked, common geographies etc. and turn that talking into genuine collaboration. It shouldn’t be about competing for funding – it should be about maximising the resources, connections and expertise for the benefit of all your residents and communities.

The housing sector is in for a big fight over the next few years and it is inevitable that the landscape in 5 years’ time will be very different. Some of us won’t be here. Now is the opportunity to raise your voice, challenge yourself and challenge others. Innovate, collaborate or start getting ready to fail.

Tony Colville
Senior Associate, The Young Foundation

Living Longer, Ageing Well?

The fact that we have an ageing population has been well established and is rightly something we should be celebrating and embracing fully. The often uneasy elephant in the room is the simple truth that services aren’t geared up to serve an ageing population in the same way as they do at the moment. 

Information is readily available which reflects the increasing life expectancies people can expect to experience in the coming decades and beyond. Relating to Healthy Life Expectancy, the Office for National Statistics reports that boys born in Wales between 2008 and 2010, who are expected to live to the age of 77.5, are estimated to spend 63 years in good health. Similarly, girls born in Wales between 2008 and 2012 can expect to live 63 of their estimated 81.7 years of life in good health. So this should make up a key part of our thinking now as well as considering the impacts on future generations living well in to their 80s and 90s.

We’re left with a situation whereby an increasing amount of people will require care services of some sort. It is vital that we seize the opportunity (as many are already doing) to really listen to older people and work collaboratively to provide services that can serve a number of their central needs from health and housing to education and transport.

Working with this holistic mentality to provision will go some way towards creating the opportunity for the latter years of a person’s lifetime to be some of the most rewarding, fulfilling and enriching.  

Matt Kennedy
Policy Officer: Care, Support and Community Health
CHC Group

Linc participates in new Welsh Housing Finance Grant Scheme

Bronte House on Newport Road and Gwaun Helyg, Ebbw Vale are anticipated to be the first affordable housing projects to start on site and to be funded under the Welsh Government’s innovative Welsh Housing Finance Grant Scheme.


Bronte House, Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 1DJ

Linc acquired the Bronte site on the open market in May 2012 and proceeded to demolish the rather old and tired buildings and secure planning consent for a new affordable housing scheme in an area of very high demand. Bronte House will consist of 38 apartments with a mix of 16 one bed and 22 two bed units. The apartments will be targeted at people currently living in housing association and local authority accommodation who wish to downsize from accommodation that might now be too large for their needs. Rents will be set at intermediate rent levels. The total capital cost of the Bronte House scheme is £4.0 million. The contribution from the Welsh Housing Finance Grant is agreed at just under £1.0 million. The scheme will be developed to code level 3+ and the apartments will benefit from the latest efficient gas boilers which will result in very low running costs for tenants.

The project is ready to start on site with a contractor approved by the Linc Board. The Welsh Government has confirmed formal stage 3 approval and Linc has signed up for the collective private finance product. The Welsh Government has advised Linc that their revenue grant is likely to be available in November but is not yet in a position to confirm this. When confirmation is received, Linc will enter into a formal contract with the building contractor. Based on a December 2013 start on site, the scheme will be available for letting in the spring of 2015.



Gwaun Helyg, Ebbw Vale

Linc acquired this site from Corus in 2009. The Welsh Housing Finance Grant will fund the first phase of a larger planned affordable housing scheme. This first phase will consist of 13 family houses with a mix of 8 two bed and 5 three bed properties. The properties are to be let at social housing benchmark rents in partnership with Blaenau Gwent Council. The total capital cost of the Gwaun Helyg scheme is £2.0 million. The contribution from the Welsh Housing Finance Grant is agreed at £1.14 million. The scheme will be developed to code level 3+ and the properties will again benefit from the latest efficient gas boilers. The project is ready to start on site with a contractor approved by the Linc Board. The Welsh Government has confirmed formal stage 3 approval and Linc has signed up for the collective private finance product. Again, the Welsh Government has advised Linc that their revenue grant is likely to be available in November.

 

Did you attend the launch of the Welsh Housing Finance Grant last week? Do you have any thoughts on the new scheme?

Trevor Saunders
Executive Director, Linc Homes

Why we need to make every visit count

During such difficult economic times, with public service budgets under severe pressure, there are many reasons why we must make every visit count. First and foremost, for our clients. Care & Repair in Wales visit around 30,000 clients every year and this is the opportunity for our caseworkers and technical officers to discuss what their concerns are and take action, either directly through Care & Repair’s services or in partnership with others who can help. We need to make visits count by comprehensively tackling the range of problems and concerns identified. These include: 'I’m worried about paying my gas and electricity bill'; 'what will I do this winter when it’s freezing again?'; 'how am I going to get my leaking roof seen to?'; 'I can’t use my bath anymore' and 'who can help me repair my broken steps?' For the sake of our clients, we aim to efficiently resolve as many of these problems as we can, either directly or making sure that we refer to other third sector organisations, local authority and health professionals if we can't.

Making every visit count is also about making it count in financial terms. Our services prevent or reduce admissions to hospital and residential care by making the home environment accessible, warm, safe and secure. What counts here is the way in which helping older people to live independently in their own homes can take pressure off Health and Social Care services by preventing falls, preventing cold-related respiratory and circulatory illness, or by preventing the need for residential care by making the home safe and accessible. This makes every visit count for public finances.

Making every visit count is about providing comprehensive solutions to older people who need our help. It’s about being efficient and about working in partnership with others. And finally, it’s about providing solutions to help older people to live independently and reduce demand for Health and Social Services who find themselves under increasing pressure.


Chris Jones
Chief Executive, Care & Repair Cymru

Care & Repair Cymru's conference, Every Visit Counts, took place on 18/19 September in Wrexham. Did you attend? Look out for a blog post on issues discussed at the conference!

Hospital to Home

Living independently is a reality if homes are secure, safe and warm and people over 60 have enough resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle. While in hospital, it seems issues of concern surrounding housing are magnified.

With this in mind, the purpose of our Hospital to Home scheme is to ensure that Care & Repair services are targeted at the most vulnerable in our society, especially those who are high on the falls agenda.

The scheme is aimed at not only clients but the professionals working with the most vulnerable and those at risk of falls such as Nursing staff, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Hospital Social Workers. The scheme enables these professionals to understand the services the agency can offer to clients to assist them with ensuring that a safe discharge is paramount.

On wards that cater for the over 60s, our caseworkers undertake monthly 'ward Rounds' during visiting periods, enabling engagement with patients and their families to introduce them to the services of Care & Repair.

The ‘Hospital to Home’ scheme is limited in its current form and funding is required to sustain the scheme further. The scheme is not just the 'packs' that are distributed containing information on housing options but the whole 'package' of Care & Repair, encompassing the ability of the staff delivering the scheme, the Caseworker service offered to patients in hospital to discuss concerns regarding housing and the network of organisations supporting the agency to deliver a holistic service post hospital discharge.

Many patients admitted to hospital are there due to falls within the home. The agency services such as the ‘Healthy Homes Check’ and Benefit Checks offered as standard can address housing issues that are of concern to clients and could be preventing a safe discharge from hospital. These can be undertaken whilst the patient is in hospital, thus cutting down time spent in hospital and consequently bed blocking.

Health needs to recognise the scheme’s benefits and allocate sufficient funding to support it. The scheme needs a dedicated Hospital Caseworker who will work alongside a multi disciplinary team of health staff and other organisations to ensure that housing is placed on the safe discharge agenda.

If this is facilitated by a strong financial commitment by government and rolled out throughout Wales, results would be a drastic cut in the amount of re-admissions to hospital and making an impact on reducing over-stretched Health Board budgets.


Nicola Eccles
Agency Manager
Conwy Care & Repair

Facebook: The good, the bad and the ugly!

I am writing this blog just after running a competition on our Facebook page, and it was quite successful on one hand and a bit of a hassle on the other!

Our Facebook page started back in 2011. I was incredibly lucky to be able to push it forward with supportive senior management who love social media, use it regularly and wanted the organisation to embrace it. Our information services and human resources departments were concerned but after ironing out the lumps and bumps we were all of a sudden pushed into the world of social media. It wasn’t just new for the organisation but new for me too. I hadn’t done this before, what if my confidence backfired and something really really bad happened?

Helen Reynolds from Monmouthshire Council came to the rescue. I met her at CHC’s PR Network. She filled me with confidence and advice and her success spurred me on to think that I could do it too.

The first step was to ensure that all our staff had access to social media. Our remote workers enjoy keeping up with daily happenings as do staff that are on maternity leave, sabbaticals or maybe those that have left for pastures new. It also meant there were more people to help me!

Tenants can ask us anything and everything on Facebook. I sometimes find that I am a housing officer, maintenance officer, police officer, community worker and any other officer you can think of all in one! This means that staff across the whole organisation need to be involved or at least aware of queries coming through Facebook just like any other letter, email or phone call.

Staff across each department have been trained on the use of Facebook. Although we may need to increase their confidence, they are very much aware of its importance as a communication tool and the need to combine it with other methods of communication. This hasn’t been a quick process as it does take time to get political buy-in.

Up until this year, I hadn’t had a real problem on Facebook. I hadn’t had foul language posted, hadn’t really had abusive comments directed at staff and hadn’t had a persistent barrage of messages demanding a reply a second after posting it. However, we have this year. This means that you have to be on the ball. When a message is posted, check it, do something about it and reply in a timely manner suitable to the query. And if you have to delete it, make sure you explain why. Perhaps it’s because of the recession or because people aren’t hibernating this summer, or perhaps because more people are aware of our page, but this year not all our messages have been 100% positive. BUT we have also had lovely comments. At the end of the day, Facebook is a public method of voicing an opinion. It isn’t plain sailing and you need to spend time on it. However, it has benefited us greatly.

Tenants on Facebook helped us to choose our new logo. Tenants from Newtown have socialised with tenants from Pontypridd but have never met. Tenants have helped fight crime by reporting information to the police after seeing our Facebook page. Young tenants tag themselves in hundreds of pictures where they are abseiling, climbing and canoeing. Facebook has enabled us to access those who are isolated. Perhaps that is the main reason for being on social media, to help those that are isolated to feel part of a community.

Back to our competition... we ran a competition asking tenants to ‘like’ our Facebook page and write ‘I want to win’ on our ‘wall’ to win an overnight stay at a hotel. Although it was a popular competition, it took quite a while to get a competition winner that was actually free on the night! The tenants that finally stayed at the hotel had a wonderful evening and their reaction when they found out was priceless. The massive increase of traffic to our page and quite a few extra ‘likes’ helped too. We may not choose an overnight stay as a prize again, or maybe simply getting them to choose the date and location of the stay could have been easier!

www.facebook.com/newydd


Mared Elenid Williams
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Newydd Housing Association