Housing Proactive Case Study – Places for People

As the UK’s leading Social Enterprise, Places for People brings together over 20 specialist organisations, all working as one to achieve a single mission – to build, manage and support thriving Communities.

The Challenge

Places for People has around 50,000 customers over the age of 65, and many of these are living in general needs housing. With an ageing population nationally, recognising that these customers may be more vulnerable and have increasing support and housing needs, is an important part of the organisation’s focus on ensuring that these needs are catered for. Many older people are looking to stay in their homes as they age and with limited availability of specialised facilities, Places for People strives to find ways of helping these customers stay in their current homes for longer.

Places for People is deeply committed to ensuring that its customers have all the necessary resources, tools, and support to effectively manage their homes and tenancies. This means both addressing immediate needs and also empowering people to take control of their living situations with confidence. It is a goal to provide an environment where individuals and families have the stability and security to remain in their homes for as long as they choose while feeling safe, comfortable, and supported in their decisions.

Places for People recognises the importance of embracing technology and innovation to enhance the way they support customers. By exploring cutting-edge solutions and adopting creative approaches, there is an aim to address challenges more effectively, improve the customer experience, and provide tailored assistance that meets the evolving needs of communities.

Places for People wanted to:

• Increase customer engagement
• Reduce digital exclusion
• Identify the changing needs of ageing residents

It was also important to be able to measure the impact of the solution, so that Places for People could understand how customers want to engage with them, the frequency of engagement and the aspects of the service they want to communicate about. The solution also needed to offer the ability to develop alongside the changing needs of customers using the service, and be future-proof with the ability to add on further options and services over time.

The Solution

Places for People commissioned Alertacall to carry out a pilot of its Housing Proactive service across 1000 properties evenly split between Huntingdon and Derby, covering a range of different property types, including General Needs, Leaseholder, Retirement Living and Supported Homeless. This was delivered via an intuitive, portable touchscreen offering the single-minded solution that Places for People required.

Places for People, recognised the significant potential of Alertacall’s product in further improving how they interact with their customers, particularly those who are older, have greater difficulty sustaining their tenancy or who are at increased risk for some other reason. By leveraging the features and capabilities of this tried and trusted solution, they envision a more proactive and efficient communication process that ensures customers feel supported and valued.

As part of the project implementation, the Alertacall team invited every customer to attend presentations in all of the pilot schemes’ communal areas, offering them the opportunity to see the touchscreen in action, ask questions and find out more about the service. The touchscreen doesn’t require any hard-wiring, simply plugging into an existing socket, so it was easy to install and Alertacall’s team ensured the installations were completed in just a few short weeks across the different types of properties. This meant that every customer received a personalised demonstration of how the service works as part of the installation programme.

Achieving a Successful Outcome

The biggest factor in making this project a success was getting the right stakeholders involved with the project from the very beginning. This created a strong starting point and set the pilot up for success. A key part of this selection process was including team members who work directly with customers because their insights and first-hand experience with customer needs helped shape communications, the offer, and the logistics. This approach helped decisions about the pilot to be made quickly.

By bringing these team members in from the start, they were able to ask the tough questions, clarify goals, spot potential issues, and make sure the offer stayed aligned with what customers actually needed. This early involvement also helped everyone fully understand what was trying to be accomplished, which meant they were ready to guide customers through the changes at the right time.

In addition, having them on the team helped build trust with customers as they helped to provide a personalised approach and make the transition to the new technology and processes as smooth as possible. This customer-focused collaboration was a significant factor in the project performing so well and delivering outstanding results.

The teamwork throughout the project was exemplary. Right from the beginning, everyone approached the work with a “we’re in this together” attitude. Instead of sticking to individual roles or organisations, the team worked as one unit, tackling every challenge and task together. The shared purpose and pilot objectives enabled the team to openly exchange ideas, work closely on solutions, and stay focused on ensuring the project’s success.

Happy Customers

Feedback from customers has been amazing – they’ve really taken to the service well, engaging with the various digital channels available to them, however, the most valued feature was the reassurance of the OKEachDay® for Housing button – highlighting the positive shift in giving customers control of how much contact they receive.

The OKEachDay® for Housing functionality allows customers to control levels of housing-related contact. A customer presses OKEachDay® for Housing to signify that everything is okay at a property and there aren’t any issues to report like repairs or ASB. They can also pick up any messages that may have been sent to them. If this is not pressed, contact from a specially trained team is made with the customer to exchange information.

Next Steps

The pilot’s success and the lessons learned through both the team and customer feedback have enabled Places for People to deliver a wider expansion of the service. The pilot demonstrated that installing simple-to-use touchscreen devices increases customer confidence in using technology and enables them to receive communication more easily.

In Spring 2025, Places for People rolled out the Alertacall technology to over 100 Retirement Living schemes across the whole country, ensuring that around 3500 customers, aged 55 or older, are now able to feel safe, connected and informed through combining technology and human contact. These customers have greater instances of digital exclusion and are more likely to have changing or higher needs. This technology will enable Places for People to improve the efficiency of their services, detect those changing needs and help their customers and communities thrive. A further project is underway to determine how the product can be used with a wide range of people in general needs properties.

Click here to read the full case study, including quotes from Places for People.

You can meet both Alertacall and Places for People at the upcoming Housing Community Summit in Liverpool from 8-9th September as Alertacall’s CEO and Founder, James Batchelor MBE and Places for People’s Group Managing Director, Communities, Rachel Crownshaw will be taking part in a panel session on the Tuesday at 10am to discuss ‘Preventing Undiscovered Deaths and Increasing Customer Contact’ alongside sector leaders from Sanctuary Group and Your Housing.

To book a demo of Housing Proactive during the 2-day event or any other time, get in touch here.