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Adapting to lockdown

Bron Afon Community Housing, based in Torfaen, has around 420 staff and its own in-house trades team. Catherine Love explains how staff quickly got up and running in new ways of working.

Our teams have responded superbly to the amount of change, actively adapting and embracing  new ways of working to an extent and at a pace that is beyond anyone’s imagination. I am incredibly grateful to everyone. Our teams have supported each other to make sure we sustain services that our customers trust and rely on. This, combined with such care and understanding as we all get used to a very different way of life.

Many of our team live in the community, are tenants or live next door to tenants and care about providing the best possible services.

Working together

Now more than ever  we see the importance of working together, and the power of community organisations joining together to respond to the daily challenges is already in evidence. As well as sustaining essential services, we have partnered with Torfaen Council and a number of community groups to provide help and support wherever we have resources, skills and capacity

Our teams have been involved in delivering free school meals, securing supplies and packing food parcels and supporting the development of the Torfaen’s shielding scheme. And as this fast moving situation develops we are ready to adapt and help to whatever the community challenges are.

Where some of our teams can’t do their usual work they have either volunteered to help in the community or joined colleagues delivering other services where we have high demand. There has been a genuine team effort, and a willingness to experiment at a time when we’re all learning in this new world.

The power of video

Video chats are essential and once you get over the laughs involved in the first few minutes they are a brilliant business tool. Our meetings have been joined by children and pets, sometimes both, and each moment has given us some light relief during these challenging times. We have seen colleagues help communicate our messages by filming short-videos at home on their mobile phones for our social media channels. It’s helping us be visible to our colleagues and customers.

Staying safe and well comes first

We are all coming to terms with a very different way of life, everyone is affected and our entire lives have had to change. Whilst practically that means different things to different people, what unites us is the fact that this is a very worrying time for families and loved ones.

Keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe and well during this time comes first. I’m a mum first with two teenagers, a husband and a dog now all based at home – and all having to adjust. I know about the time and attention that needs. I also know that the work always gets done somehow, and the team spirit I see across our organisation daily gives me great confidence.

Health and wellbeing

We are conscious of how this situation could be affecting people. Working from home has challenges, boundaries can be blurred, people can overwork, it can be isolating or difficult to manage if you have a house full. Throw into the mix that some of our work has had to stop during this ‘lockdown’ period and it’s a difficult picture.

We have recognised the importance of making sure that no matter where you are in the organisation, you need access to help, support and advice that will help us all settle into different ways of working.

There are some fantastic examples of how managers and teams are staying connected and finding ways to work collaboratively at the moment. We want to build on that whilst making sure we have the right help and support in place for all our teams to create a very different ‘Business as Usual’. The priority has to be on keeping our teams safe and well.

A ‘thank you’ to our tenants

The way we deliver services across the organisation has obviously had to change dramatically and quickly, whether it’s moving tenants to do more with us digitally rather than over the phone, or switching to phone calls rather than home visits. It’s not just a big change for our teams but for our tenants also, and I am very grateful to them for their patience and willingness to adapt with us right now and be patient when services aren’t quite as ‘seamless’ as we would like them to be.

We have to make sure that we have the capacity and resources to sustain services to the most vulnerable in our community and it’s been incredible to see how our tenants are helping us do just that.

My favourite example so far has been the lady in her 80s that we helped repressurise her boiler over the phone to restore her heating and hot water. I think we took as much delight from how pleased she was with her achievement and new skills as she did.

Catherine Love is director of customer experience at Bron Afon Community Housing


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