Providing high quality accommodation for tenants is an important part of any ALMO’s role but Colchester Borough Homes has taken that service to the next level with its award-winning palliative care scheme

The scheme, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the country, started last year and has just been awarded a “most innovative project award” from the National Federation of ALMOs.

It allows people with a terminal illness to move into a special form of sheltered housing and can take all of their belongings with them, so that they can effectively be in their own home.

The scheme came about after a community matron, Jan Secretan, approached Colchester Borough Homes about accommodating a man with a terminal illness within one of its two Extra Care schemes.

Jacqui Tavner, sheltered housing manager for Colchester BoroughHomes says: “We work closely with the community matrons at our Extra Care schemes and one of the matrons came to me about a person who was terminally ill and she asked if we could perhaps help to accommodate him within the Extra Care scheme. “Out of the 500,000 people who die each year, most of them want to die at home but in reality only 20 per cent of them are able to do so for one reason or another.

“We had a look at our availability and we were able to do so and it worked very well. The chap came in and we provided accommodation and the community matrons and their team provided the care and medical equipment.

“His quality of life was very much better than it could have been in a hospital, it was a homely environment and his family and friends could visit whenever they wanted and even stay in the guest room on site. It was an environment that he wanted to be in and the response from the man’s family following his death was how fantastic that they thought this system was.”

Tavner believes that the scheme is also an excellent example of joint working between Colchester Borough Homes, the NHS, the PCT, the community matrons and the Extra Care staff.

She added: “There is a financial gain for the NHS from this scheme as it costs them £400 to £500 a week to keep somebody in hospital or residential care and it helps to relieve the bed blocking situation but most of all it gives that person a quality end of life in surroundings they are happy with.”

After the positive response from the family of the first service-user Colchester Borough Homes decided to look into ways that they could extend the scheme and the service has since been made available to another resident but a major issue will be finding available properties.

“One of the issues is the vacancies coming along when we need them, ideally we would like to identify a property that we could use on a permanent basis”, says Tavner.

All of the parties involved in this innovative scheme are keen to see it extended and were pleased to receive the NFA accolade. “It was a huge surprise to get the NFA award because this is something very new”, says Tavner.

While there is no doubt that the palliative care scheme is innovative and a valid achievement let’s not forget that Colchester Borough Homes is an ALMO, responsible for the management of more than 7,000 properties across Colchester, including 23 sheltered housing schemes.

And, it is of course, working towards, implementing the Government’s Decent Homes Standard by 2010.

So far Colchester Borough Homes is bang on target to meet the deadline and its tenants have shown a high level of satisfaction in response to the work that has been completed.

Karen Loweman, director of housing management says: “At Colchester Borough Homes we are committed to delivering high quality housing management services to our residents. Having nearly completed our programme to improve homes to the Decent Homes Standard, we are listening to our residents and working with partner agencies so that we can plan further investment to improve local neighbourhoods.”

Within the Decent Homes programme, young people from the borough are being offered the chance to sign up to apprenticeship schemes, allowing them to learn a trade from the highly skilled workers in Colchester Borough Homes’ repairs and maintenance service.
“We think its crucial that people in our area are given these kinds of opportunities”, says Loweman.

Of course the work doesn’t end with creating Decent Homes and Colchester Borough Homes is also doing its bit to create decent communities for its tenants.

“It is really important to get behind community projects”, says Gill Thomson, community involvement manager.

And one such scheme, supported by Colchester Borough Homes is a vegetable garden in Magnolia Drive.

Residents approached the ALMO about an existing communal garden, which was becoming a haven for anti-social behaviour and drug use, and asked for help to landscape the area.

Thomson says: “The change was incredible, the residents love the vegetable garden and the anti-social behaviour problem has disappeared.” Another successful community scheme was an art programme aimed at young people, which took place in Penrice Close, an area with a history of nuisance and anti-social behaviour problems.

“We have been working with them to design a special road sign”, says Thomson. “It shows that we can use art as a way of reaching people who would otherwise not be interested.”

An awards scheme is being run for residents to nominate good neighbours and a best-kept garden competition is being held at the end of July.

Colchester Borough Homes also offers grants to local residents groups and to projects nominated by tenants for community improvement. These can range from relatively small schemes such as improving the road signage or purchasing a bicycle for a local policeman, to more substantial projects such as improving car parking facilities, fencing and security at blocks of flats, where residents have been involved in the design and project management of the works.

And it is doing its bit to reduce its impact on the wider environment. In 2007 Colchester Borough Homes signed up to the Nottingham declaration on reducing the impact of climate change.

Thomson, says: “We are looking at every possible way to reduce our carbon footprint, including a boiler insulation project which will cut the council’s carbon footprint by up to two and a half per cent, which is a massive figure. And we have recently installed a solar panel for a family to trial for a 12 month monitored period so that we can see how it benefits them and whether this is something we could consider for other residents in the future.”

Tenants and leaseholders really are at the heart of Colchester Borough Homes’ agenda and the two areas where they have a massive impact are in cutting anti-social behaviour and environmental improvement projects.

“Here they make the decisions on what projects we should fund and they are in control of a £40,000 budget”, says Thomson. “The sole aim is to improve people’s lives and the people best placed to tell us what we should do are the tenants and leaseholders themselves”.

For example, as part of an initiative to reduce anti-social behaviour, money was recently given to the Stanway Youth Forum to put on a skating event to ascertain if there was a need for a permanent skate park in the area.

And there are plenty of ways for tenants to make their voices heard, with a whole host of forums for them to get involved in.

Tenants can agree to be involved in responding to surveys by letter or email, or take part in service improvement panels, focus groups and local meetings. There is also the opportunity for tenants to participate in decision-making through the Association of Tenants and Leaseholders and as Board members - there are five tenant board members and the vice chair of the board is a leaseholder.

Tim Young, chair of the Board says: “We say that tenant involvement is at the heart of our business and we work hard to ensure that it stays there. We offer a range of opportunities for tenants and leaseholders to get involved and help them with skills and confidence so that they can have their say and be heard.”

There is no doubt that there is plenty of activity at Colchester Borough Homes but what is it that really makes it stand out from other similar organisations?

“What sets us apart is our staff” says Young. “They have a good local knowledge and strongly believe in providing high standards of customer service. This gives us good insight in to local people and communities and an understanding of issues that matter to them.”

Moving forward one of Colchester Borough Homes’ major aims is to develop new affordable housing for the area.

Chief executive, Greg Falvey, says: “We are exploring becoming part of a development consortium and we think this is an area where we can contribute a great deal.

“In the future we are keen to use our experience of delivery of improvements to seek opportunity to develop new homes in Colchester and manage housing stock for other RSLs who may not have a local base. Our past performance and local knowledge means that we could offer a whole management service or offer local services for example using our own housing officers as first point of contact in cases of nuisance, or providing office accommodation or resources for RSLs with limited resources locally.

“We are also keen to ensure that services for our own tenants continue to meet their needs, so have established partnerships to offer money and welfare advice, low cost loans and savings plans to help beat the credit crunch.”

Colchester Borough Homes is so much more than just a provider of housing and with big plans for the future, this is definitely one organisation to watch out for.