93% of those surveyed in social housing have found Housing Proactive valuable during lockdown

Housing Proactive, Alertacall’s housing management system designed specifically for older residents and individuals with higher needs, has been viewed as extremely beneficial in helping providers operate their housing service and maintain contact with residents during the coronavirus outbreak.

Feedback from housing providers across the country was overwhelmingly positive, with 93% scoring the overall service 4 or 5 out of 5 in helping them maintain their services to residents during the pandemic. The results form part of a wider client satisfaction survey which took place in July 2020 – 48 organisations were contacted with data collected from 102 individual respondents.

Findings from the survey have been collated into a leaflet which outlines some of the key challenges social housing providers have faced during COVID-19 and how Housing Proactive has helped housing teams continue to successfully operate their housing service.

You can fill in a form to access and download the leaflet here.

Housing providers responsible for supported housing and sheltered accommodation have found themselves on the front line of providing services to those identified as being at a higher risk. Lockdown has also presented housing teams with many unique and difficult operational challenges to overcome, such as:

• residents shielding or self-isolating
• colleagues being absent and avoiding face-to-face contact
• major changes in working practices

Housing Proactive has proved an ‘invaluable’ system for many housing providers, especially those responsible for the housing of older people, learning disabled, people with physical or mental health challenges and those fleeing domestic violence. Residents are provided with a specially developed device (all of which have an unique OKEachDay button) and given the choice to establish contact and exchange information digitally, or can opt to receive a call from a friendly and knowledgeable adviser.

Housing Proactive has proved beneficial in many ways but four key areas in the survey have been highlighted:

• remote working and maintaining contact with residents – housing teams received daily updates of any issues relating to property and tenancy
• resident communication – how to get messages out quickly
• tackling social isolation during lockdown – particularly for those shielding
• occupancy tracking and reporting repairs – the online reporting platform could be accessed from home and in real-time, which gave housing officers full visibility on the status of properties

Fill in the form to access the Housing Proactive leaflet on ‘COVID-19: how enhanced housing management has been delivered during the pandemic’ where you will be given the option to download a PDF copy.

Alertacall also took on additional wellbeing projects for some housing providers during lockdown, where the team made extra reassurance calls to residents – you can read more about this here.

For more information on how Housing Proactive could benefit your organisation and for an online demo of the service, email Benjamin Lambert, Head of Client Relations, on contact@alertacall.com or call 0808 208 1234.