People First is in business to deliver services that will improve the lives of as many people as possible. We own and manage high quality housing in Hulme, Manchester and provide community support services across North-West England.
new out-of-hours contractor
DKJ Building Services have kindly offered to carry out People First's emergency out-of-hours repairs service.
Residents will have grown accustomed to seeing Holly Tree's vans around Hulme at night time, but they have decided that they can no longer run the service (though they will continue to attend heating repairs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year)
We are very grateful to DKJ for stepping into the breach at such short notice. If you are one of our tenants and have a repair, please call us on 0161 235 6900. Out of hours, your call will be handled by Astraline.
operation audacious
Our Housing Officer, Adrene Lewis was recently invited to be a VIP at 'Operation Audacious'The GMP operation led to 72 arrests and the seizure of thousands of pounds in cash, a substantial amount of narcotics including £2,000 worth of class A drugs, 15 blocks of cannabis, 20 bags of cannabis, a cannabis farm, stolen jewellery and a batch of stolen meat.
You can read her report here
scrutiny panel
Staff at People First are working hard to make local offers a reality. Currently, our rent arrears and maintenance policies are being reviewed to make sure they reflect the services you want.To help us do this, a scrutiny panel of tenants will be meeting on
1 September 2011. The panel will be asked if they think the policies reflect what people want. In other words, do they accurately reflect the local offers and People First's values?
We hope the panel can develop into something bigger. It would be great to see tenants taking a lead in service reviews. If you would like to come to the Scrutiny Panel, please contact Melanie Merchant on
0161 235 6904. Refreshments will be provided on the day.
tenant barbecue
Staff and tenants came together at one of our schemes recently to look at the play area shared by a block of houses and flatsWe invited tenants to a barbecue and asked them about their thoughts on the area. Altogether, around thirty people turned up - including many of the children that use the area.
The cherry trees seem to be the main bone of contention. On the one hand, there are free cherries in the summer and a better environment. On the other, its roots are causing a trip hazard for some of our older residents (and children too!)
The one thing all were agreed on was that the play area needed to be level - and there needs to be somewhere for the kids to sit and chill. We'll be developing the ideas over the coming weeks and months with residents.
mobility scooters
People First's Board of Management recently approved a new policy on mobility scooters.People First recognises that tenants are increasingly making use of mobility scooters to increase their independence. The vehicles allow people to travel further from home without over-exerting themselves.
For tenants who live in blocks of flats, this can cause a problem. If you live upstairs, where do you keep your scooter? And, if you find a convenient place, how do you charge it?
To try to overcome these issues, People First has developed a policy on mobility scooters. The policy requires tenants to seek permission to store their scooter in a communal ares. Once approved, we will carry out a PAT (portable applicance testing) test to ensure the scooter is safe to be stored.
Owners are also required to tax their vehicle (for free) and have adequate insurance. Once approval has been gained, tenants must pay £75 per year. The fee covers the cost of the PAT test and use of communal electricity for charging.
A copy of the full policy can be found here. If you have any comments or queries, please contact our offices on 0161 235 6900.
ten years service
People First would like to thank our Housing Officer, Adrene Evans for ten years' service.A small presentation was made by Chief Executive Kulbinder Kang at the recent staff Away Day. We know from the feedback we received at the Open House event and through the Big Question survey that our tenants have a soft spot for Adrene, which is no mean feat when part of your job entails being tough on neighbour nuisance and collecting arrears.
I'm sure our tenants would join us in congratulating her on a decade's service and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we can hold onto her for another ten years.
local offers published
Following an Open House event on 24 March, People First has now published a set of local offers for tenants.The offers set out the standards of service tenants can expect to receive. They have been developed in partnership with tenants to ensure they reflect the standards people want.
We monitor our services against these local offers constantly, reporting to Board quarterly and to tenants through the tenants annual report. You can find the local offers (and the results of our Big Question tenant survey) here.
We are currently recruiting tenants for a scrutiny panel, which will review our performance before the next tenants' annual report is published. If you are a tenant and would be interested in joining the panel, please contact Melanie Merchant on (0161) 235 6904.
learning together partnership
The learning together partnership has published its annual programme of training events for tenants.Six sessions will be held during 2011. They are:
- Financial Inclusion
- The Big Society
- Tenant Scrutiny
- Value for Money
- Community Safety
- Repairs
residents open day
People First were delighted to welcome residents to an Open House event at their new offices on 24 March. It was great to see so many residents turning up.Residents turned up throughout the day, with a particularly strong crowd at lunch time. As well as enjoying a hot buffet lunch, residents had the opportunity to visit our Big Brother room, play computer games on a large screen television and enter our helium balloon prize draw.
The day also gave us the opportunity to seek people's views on the way we run their estate. Those that turned up had the chance to catch up with staff and let them know what would most improve their neighbourhood. Keep your eye on the website for further updates from the day.
find a job through People First
People First is working in partnership with other landlords, Manchester City Council and Jobcentre Plus to help people back into work. Find out about the latest opportunities through the new job zone section of our website.
Don't forget to keep coming back to find out the latest news.fair services for all
Do you care about the services we provide? Do you think we should treat everyone equally? Well, why not join our Equality & Diversity Review Group? Every six months, a small group of Board members and frontline staff meet up to review what we do to make our services better for everyone. In the past, the group has discussed:
- whether our staff and contractors are representative of our tenants
- how easy it is for people to get into and around our offices
- if our leaflets and newsletters are easy top understand or not
- whether any of our policies could discriminate against people
- whether people are getting the same services regardless of their background
The meetings usually take place at our head office around 5.30 in the evening and food is provided. If you think you might be interested, please contact David Nugent at our head office.
