Tenant Satisfaction Measure 08: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: ‘My landlord treats me fairly and with respect’?
Great Places is proud of the increasingly diverse communities in which we work, and is committed to doing all we can to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in all our services.
We understand that each of our customers is unique. We recognise that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to delivering our services. Our aim is to understand our customers, their needs and their preferences, so we can personalise our services whenever possible while treating everyone fairly and respectfully.
Over the past year, we have revamped our strategy for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), with a stronger emphasis on including our customers. We are focused on better understanding customer needs, enhancing our data and reporting processes, and redesigning our equality impact assessment process (how we understand the impact of decisions and changes on different people and communities) to ensure that our services are fair and just. This has led to the creation of our ‘Every Customer Counts’ group and a revamp of our translation and interpretation service.
Another aspect of our EDI strategy involves empowering our colleagues with the skills needed to address any issues or enquiries our customers might have. We have launched ‘Great Conversations’ training, which will improve the quality of interactions with customers and colleagues. We have also introduced various training sessions on handling damp and mould issues, particularly concerning vulnerable customers. Plus, we are developing a program called ‘Inclusive Thinking’, which will be rolled out later this year.
In 2022 we officially became a member of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower network. The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower encourages inclusivity, acceptance and understanding around hidden disabilities.
The membership provides training and insight to help us shape support for customers and colleagues living with hidden disabilities.
We are really proud to have become a member of the network and we have an ongoing commitment to support all of our customers in a fair and equal way.
Our ‘Every Customer Counts’ group is essential for amplifying the voices of diverse customers. Working with ‘Rainbow Roofs’, a customer group representing LGBTQIA+ social housing residents in the north-west, is a great example of how customer voices shape our practices.
Kevin, a Great Places customer and member of the ‘Rainbow Roofs Sofa’ and ‘Every Customer Counts’ group, recently raised concerns about succession rights for LGBTQIA+ customers. This matter was discussed at our annual meeting, and a sub-group was formed to review guidelines and ensure cohabiting individuals are aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding succession.
"I definitely feel that Pomona Gardens has had a hugely positive impact on my life, especially with the independence it has helped me grow and the resilience it has helped me build up. It's been wonderful."
Toby - a Pomona Gardens customer
Here Toby shares his experience of living at Pomona Gardens and how our colleagues support the needs of customers.
Understanding our customers is a top priority for us. Supporting our customers in the right way, at the right time, across all our services, is paramount. To be able to do this effectively we need to know our customers, and understand their changing needs. We do this through our customer profiling.
Our customer profiling information allows us to also consider the diverse needs of all of our customers, and regularly monitoring and refreshing this information supports us to consider where we need to make changes to the services we offer.
This information is obviously not static but the stats for September 2022 are shown below.
We recognise that there are still gaps within this data, and some of our data is now more than five years old. Although some of this information will always stay the same, like date of birth or ethnicity, we recognise that other aspects can change, such as health conditions and support needs.
In the coming months, we’ll be actively engaging with customers to ensure the information we have is correct, and to gather more information from individuals about their unique circumstances. The data we collect will help us create services and support tailored to their specific needs. This is called our You Share, We Shape campaign.
We are also updating our customer interpretation and translation policies to make these services as accessible as possible.
Additionally, we are setting up a customer diversity panel to guide our efforts in this area and encourage customer involvement in shaping our services moving forward.
The data we hold here tells us that the majority of our customers are aged between 25 and 64, while almost 10% of our customer base is aged 65-74.
Having this information helps us tailor our services to overcome potential language or cultural barriers. Currently we do not hold ethnicity data for over a quarter of our customer base.
If customers tell us that they have a disability this can inform their service offer, from home adaptations to support from our partner agencies. Currently, 11.5% of our customers have told us they consider themselves to have a long-term health condition or disability.
At present, the data tells us that we have slightly more female customers than male. Over 99% of customers are cisgender, meaning gender identity corresponds with the sex registered for them at birth.
Transgender 0.1% and Cisgender 99.8%
This is the largest ‘unknown’ within our customer data, currently at over 90%.
We recognise that there are still gaps within this data, and some of our data is now more than five years old. Although some of this information will always stay the same, like date of birth or ethnicity, we recognise that other aspects can change, such as health conditions and support needs.
In the coming months, we’ll be actively engaging with customers to ensure the information we have is correct, and to gather more information from individuals about their unique circumstances. The data we collect will help us create services and support tailored to their specific needs. This is called our You Share, We Shape campaign.
We are also updating our customer interpretation and translation policies to make these services as accessible as possible.
Additionally, we are setting up a customer diversity panel to guide our efforts in this area and encourage customer involvement in shaping our services moving forward.
Lizi Marsden, our Strategic EDI Lead, and Rachel Mills, our Director of Customer Experience, shows what we are doing to ensure customer inclusion. They explain why it matters and how we ensure we truly understand our customers so we can adapt our services to make a positive impact.
30/08/2022
Article by:
Great Places is beyond delighted to announce that we have won, alongside our fellow Houseproud North-West members, Best Parade Entry Overall at this year's Manchester Pride. We were proud to be a part of this weekend of celebrations and show our unequivocal support for the LGTB+ community.
24/03/2023
Article by: jwalding
Great Places has been announced as the preferred provider to design, build and manage the UK’s first purpose built LGBTQ+ majority older person’s housing scheme in Whalley Range, south Manchester. The innovative project will deliver more than 100 apartments for people aged 55 or over, with a mix of affordable homes that are as accessible […]
01/10/2023
Article by: lgregory
Customers at Great Places’ Cornish Close scheme in Manchester are benefiting from an additional £32k worth of improvement works that will help make the scheme more accessible and allow vulnerable customers to remain in their homes for longer. The scheme is owned by Great Places with on-site support provided by our Partner Agency “Turning Point”, […]
