transforming lives together

Customer Report 2016-17

Transforming lives together


An easy-read guide

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May 2016 Mental Health Awareness Week July 2016

Won Supported H

ousing

Award

October 2016

Sian Lloyd cam

e to our

writing group

December 2016 Christmas gifts donated to the Haven

February 2017 1st birthday of our scheme in Kidderminster

March 2017 Exhibition at Hack

ney

Museum April 2017 Customer conference in Coventry

Rachel Fox is our new Customer Engagement Manager – she would love to hear about your achievements and celebrations so we can share them. To tell us your news, contact: [email protected] or go to www.advanceuk.org. If unsure always ask your support worker or a friend or family member to help you get online safely.

Advance: Customer Report 2016-17

Our vision and values Highlights of the year

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Contents

Review of the year 4

About money 6

Our plan for 2017-20 7

Your voice 8

Keeping you safe 9

Listening to you 10

Get involved 11

Operations Board 12

The Haven 13

The Environment 13 Housing 14

Support 16

Employment 18


P R I D EPartnership Respect Innovation Drive Efficiency

Our values

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2016/17 was a busy year for Advance.

Here are some of our highlights:

We have improved the quality of our services and managed to save money.

We spent more money on repairs to make homes better.

We also opened three new supported housing schemes.

We achieved good ratings for our support services and managed to provide support to more customers.

In employment, we have helped even more customers find and keep a job.

Our staff survey showed that 9 out of 10 of our staff feel proud to work for Advance.

Our customer survey showed that 9 out of 10 of our customers were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ happy with the service they get from Advance.

We will do our best to make all customers feel comfortable giving feedback and making a complaint.

We will also help customers get involved in activities they care about.

We are now a member of Learning Disability Voices, which help people with disabilities get their voice heard.

This year, we took part in Learning Disability Week, Mental Health Awareness Week, and Disabled Access Day.

We held events for our customers and helped raise awareness.

Finally, in April 2017 we created our Strategic Plan. This includes Advance’s aims for 2017-20.

I am very proud to lead an organisation that puts customers first.

I hope you enjoy reading about our achievements in the last year.

Julie LaytonChief Executive


Review of the year

—5—Advance: Customer Report 2016-17

Advance started in 1974

Main offices in Witney,Leicester, London, Solihull and Camborne

We work with 44 local authority areas in England

Every year we help 450 people get the skills they

need to get and keep a job

We provide homes for more than 2,500 people

Nearly 600 of our customers part own their

own home

2,200 people get supportfrom us

More than 650 people work at Advance

Our vision and values

—6——6—Advance: Customer Report 2016-17

At Advance, any money we make goes on developing our services, building houses and paying staff.

In 2016/17 we wanted to spend money on improving our services. We also managed to save £929,000. We did this by:

• Closing schemes which were losing money• Putting money into services that our customers wanted• Selling some buildings• Bargaining to get the best deal

New homes

In 2016/17 we spent £4.6 million on houses. Most of this was spent on our shared ownership scheme (more about this in the ‘Housing’ section).

Support

In 2016/17 we found it challenging to pay for our support services. This is because there is less money available from Local Authorities.

Employment

Our employment service has made more money in 2016/17.

Our Value for Money Strategy is available on our website at, www.advanceuk.org. The full report is also available in the ‘publications’ section of the website.

About money

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Our vision is to transform the lives of people with a learning disability or mental health condition by providing the best quality housing, support and employment services.

Our plan sets out 5 ways which will help us achieve our vision over the next 3 years.

We will focus on:

Excellent services

We want our customers to be safe and happy.

Workforce excellence

We want our staff to have good training so they know how to best help our customers.

Engaged customers

We will work with our customers and listen to what they say, so that Advance can give customers the kind of services they want.

Sustainable growth

We want to become bigger, so we can help more people.

Financially sound

We need to continue to save so we have enough money to help our customers.

To read the strategy in full and/or an easy read version go to the 'About us' page at: www.advanceuk.org


Our plan for 2017-20

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In April 2017, Advance customers were sent our annual customer survey.

34% of customers responded - which was great! This means the results are more reliable.

Here are some headlines:

• 90% of customers told us that they were happy with the service they receive!• 87% of customers said that they would recommend Advance to others• 81% of customers felt that Advance staff do a good job

Here are the results from our Housing, Support and Employment services.

Housing

91% of Housing customers are happy with the quality of their home.

87% were happy with the help that they got from our Customer Services team.

38% of housing customers said that they ‘Never’ or only ‘Sometimes’ felt listened to.

Support

94% of Advance support customers told us that their support worker listens to them.

80% of support customers said they felt safe in their community all or most of the time.

People said they felt safer in their homes if they received both Housing and Support from Advance.

Employment

100% of Advance employment customers are happy with their service and would recommend Advance to other people.

88% of employment customers know how to make a complaint, but only 72% said they would feel comfortable making one.

43% were ‘really happy’ and 5% were ‘quite happy’ with the work placements Advance found them.


Your voice

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ActionsWe have looked closely at the results of the customer survey and have agreed on some actions to take.

We will:

Make our information easier to understand Help customers to feel more involved

in Advance

Make sure customers know how to complain and feel comfortable doing so

Support customers to get involved in things they care about in their community

Help customers feel safer in their homes and their communities Let customers know about other local

services

Focus on improving work placements for our Employment customers

Visit housing customers more and help them feel listened to

Talk more with our shared ownership customers Look at the complaints about repairs

and gardening


At Advance, we have a Safeguarding Panel. Their job is to make sure that customers are safe and protected from harm. The Panel:

• Trains our staff so they understand the importance of safeguarding

• Develops better policies and procedure• Improves how we collect information, so we can see

where we need to improve

Keeping you safe

We take safeguarding our customers very seriously. It helps us to see what we can do better.

We will let customers know how we are doing with these actions at National Forum meetings and in a new customer newsletter, which will be available next year.

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Your feedback is really important in telling us how we are doing. We like to hear when things are good, and when they should be better.

Our Complaints Panel look at the complaints we receive. We make sure that:

• You feel listened to • We reply quickly • We say sorry if something has gone

wrong • We do something about your

complaint • We let you know what we are doing

Our customer survey says that 81% of our customers know how to make a complaint, but only 63% feel comfortable making one.

In 2016/17 we had 140 complaints. This is less than last year which is good! We also responded to complaints quicker.

For Housing customers, the most common complaint in the summer was about gardening.

We have told gardeners your feedback so they can do what you need.

Heating and hot water problems was the biggest complaint in the winter.

For Support customers, most complaints were about Support Workers.

Don't be worried about making a complaint. Please remember that:

• It is OK to complain

• Complaints help us to make our services better

• We will listen to you and you will be taken seriously

• You will be treated fairly if you make a complaint and we will treat everyone involved fairly

• You will not lose your service if you make a complaint

• We will not tell anyone about your complaint unless we have to

To make a complaint or give feedback you can:

• Use the form on www.advanceuk.org • Call us on 0333 012 4307• Contact any member of staff• Ask a friend or family member to use

any of these options

Feedback


If you think we can make Advance better, or we could do things differently, please let us know how.

Listening to you

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Get involved

Customers can get involved in Advance locally, regionally or nationally. It can be as simple as having a regular house meeting, or meeting with other customers and staff.

The National Forum

The National Forum is where customers can meet to talk about how Advance is doing and how we can improve.

The National Forum is led by 2 Advance customers, Helen and Tom.

They hold meetings across England, to meet with other customers and talk about their local issues. Helen and Tom have already met with customers in London. The next meetings will be:

Plymouth- October 2017

Oxford – December 2017

Leicester- March 2018

Tom and Helen “I like being part of the National Forum because I feel privileged to be able to help others and improve their lives. It’s important that the meetings are fun and as interactive as possible.” Tom

Regional Forums

In regional forums customers can meet with local staff and other customers to ask questions and talk about local services. We have 2 regional forums (1 in Oxford and 1in Leicester).

If you live near Oxford or Leicester and would like to come to a regional forum meeting, please contact:

([email protected]) (Oxford - Witney)or Lizzie Lavender ([email protected]) (Oxford - Witney)Gus Tomas ([email protected]) (Leicester)

If you don’t have a regional forum near you, and would like to get involved, please ask: your Support contact, Housing Officer or Employment Advisor. They will be happy to organise something locally and/or regionally.


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Operations Board

Who is it?

There are 4 customers and 3 Advance board members on the Operations Board. The customers are Sal, Jim, Helen and Tom.

What is it?

The Operations Board started in 2016. It makes sure that customers are involved in how Advance is run. They meet 4 times a year.

The customers there can ask questions and give their views. Helen and Tom also give feedback from the National Forum meetings.

In 2016/17 the Operations Board:

Melba Wilson “The Operations Board gives customers a say in how Advance is run. It takes into account the opinions and experiences of people who use Advance services”

Jim (pictured left)“The Ops Board is ace! It’s really nice as a customer to be involved.

It’s a brilliant thing. It’s nice to meet people high up in the organisation.”


• Looked at the results of the customer survey and made some suggestions for improvements

• Helped to create Advance's vision of 'transforming lives together'

• Found out how customers can use technology to access information online

If you would like to tell the Operations Board about something, please email:[email protected]

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The Haven provides safe, temporary housing for women and their children who are escaping domestic abuse.

Women from all over the UK can stay here. Its location is secret and visitors aren’t allowed.

The women aren’t here long; the average stay is 6 months. It’s a place for people to sort out their immediate needs, and move on.

• Putting in 36 boilers which use less energy• Putting in new doors and windows into 29 homes, so less heating gets out• Putting new facilities in 11 bathrooms, so less water is used

In 2017, we re-started our Environmental Action Group. The group aims to reduce Advance’s impact on the environment. It involves both customers and staff.

The Environment

The Haven was given a bubble tube, which has made the playroom into a relaxing space.

We provide low-level support, so unfortunately we cannot take people with drug or alco-hol problems or a high level of mental health need. Many women arrive with children, so we have a Child Worker, to help support them.

If you want to refer someone from anywhere in the country call: 07866 55 63 98.


We all have a responsibility to care for and protect the environment. At Advance, we aim to limit our damage to the environment.

We would like our customers to do the same.

In 2016/17 we made our houses more environmentally friendly by:

The Haven

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What we do

We believe that everyone has the right to a safe and happy home. That is why we provide different housing options.

We also provide support services, so we can create a personal housing and support service that suits you.

Highlights of the year

In 2016/17 we spent £4.6 million on new homes.

These graphs show how we spent the money you paid us:

How we spend each £1 of rent

How we spend each £1 service charge

We have spent more money on making our homes safer.

We have made some savings. This means that some customers will pay less service charges.

17p staff, council tax and insurance

30p gas servicing, day-to-day repairs 18p major

repairs, planned maintenance

10p wear and tear

25p loan interest, legal fees and property lease charges

9p fire safety

10p cleaning

34p furniture

7p gardening

24p electricity/gas

6p water

10p communal facilities


Housing

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New houses

During 2016/17 we opened 3 new supported housing schemes in Oxford (Hope House), Luton (Bowls Court) and St Austell (Albi Court).

Shared ownership

Shared ownership means you partly own your home. Advance owns the other part and you pay us rent for this.

It can be a very good way of helping people with support needs be more independent.

In 2016/17 we added 25 new homes to the scheme. We now have about 600 shared owners across the country.

If you are interested in becoming a

Hope House A modern building with 10 flats for people with learning disabilities. There are 15 people living here.

Sarah's storySarah has a mild learning disability and Asperger’s syndrome. She lives in her own house which she part owns. She says “Since I’ve been in my own home, I feel I’ve achieved so much. I’m confident enough to travel to nearby places on my own.”

Sarah’s Mum, Jackie, is very pleased with her progress. She says “Shared ownership brings people into the community and their support needs may not be so high because they’re happier in their own space.”

shared owner, please fill in the ‘Shared Ownership Enquiry Form’ on our website www.advanceuk.org or you can call 0333 012 4307 to find out more.


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Now Brett likes to cook roast dinners for his housemates.

He has lots of friends nearby and enjoys visiting another local Advance property. On Thursdays the customers there cook a communal lunch with the staff and everyone from Advance’s nearby services is invited.

Brett is really happy with his Support Workers. He says ‘the work Advance do is absolutely essential for people like me. There is a feel-good factor at Advance because staff are always willing to lend a hand. No job is too small’.

What we do

Our support is flexible, and meets each customer’s needs and aspirations. We offer a personal service by working with our customers, their family and their friends.

Our Support Workers are passionate and have up to date training in care. From support in the home or in the community, to 24 hour care, our team delivers support in the way that is right for each customer.


• We continued to improve the quality of our services • We improved the ratings for our services • We have made our support services bigger • We have saved money • We have more schemes that provide both Support and Housing. We think this is

better for the customer.


Brett, who has bipolar disorder, lives in supported accommodation with two other people in Canvey Island, Essex. After moving out of his mum’s house, Support Workers helped Brett to settle in whilst he got used to living more independently.

Brett's story

Support

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Fareham Our service in Fareham, Hampshire, was one of the seven which achieved a ‘Good’ CQC rating. Their success made it into the local newspaper!

Customers here enjoy lots of activities as a group. Everyone looks forward to the summer BBQ.

Quality services

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors our services to check that they are of high quality.

In 2016/17 the CQC visited 7 of our schemes. They spoke to staff, customers and their relatives to see how our services were. 6 of the 7 received a ‘Good’ rating.

This shows that our services are mostly effective, safe, responsive, caring and well-led. Next year we aim to receive a ‘Good’ CQC rating for all of our services.

All of our CQC inspection reports are available to read on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk


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• Our new office has better facilities and is more accessible for our customers

• We saved some money

• Our current contract ends in October 2017, so we are looking for new ways to provide our employment services

• Since 2017 we have been able to deliver apprenticeships to customers. In the future,

we want to offer specialist apprenticeships to disabled customers

What we do

We work with people with learning disabilities or mental health conditions to help them get the skills they need to get and keep a job.

We find paid jobs for our employment customers. The jobs are for 16 hours a week and last 4- 6 months. Hopefully this leads to a more permanent job.

We currently provide this service in Birmingham, but we hope to work in more places in the future.

We are happy to provide advice to any Housing or Support customers who are looking for work.


• In 2016/17 we supported 239 customers to get a job. We also helped 260 customers keep their jobs.

Twiddle Mitts Employment customers came up with the idea of making `Twiddle Mitts’ for people with Alzheimer's or dementia. Twiddle Mitts are a band, pocket, or glove with attachments that people can twiddle and fiddle with.


Employment

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Jordan's story Jordan is autistic and has a passion for gardening. When he turned 22, he felt that the time was right to find work, although he knew his low confidence would make this hard.

An Employment Advisor at Advance found a 6 month paid gardening placement for Jordan where he looked after communal spaces. Jordan says “my job involves doing things that benefit local residents, such as cutting back trees, planting flowers, and litter picking. I’ve also learnt new skills such as laying cement, and putting up fence posts.”

Since starting work, Jordan has more confidence. Now he is earning money, he has started planning for the future. He says “in the future I would like to become a full time permanent gardener or tree surgeon”.


www.advanceuk.org @Advancetweets @AdvanceUK.org 0333 012 4307Advance is the trading name of Advance Housing and Support Ltd. Registered Office: 2, Witan Way, Witney, Oxon, OX28 6FH.

Registered under the Industrial & Provident Societies Act 1965, Reg. No. 21143R. Advance is registered with the Homes and Communities Agency No. LH0280 VAT. Registration No. 902936329


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