How Pickering & Ferens met the Consumer Standards with the help of Alertacall

24-11-2025General

Pickering & Ferens Homes has a proud history dating back to the early 1900s, when philanthropists Christopher Pickering and Thomas Ferens gifted housing to improve living conditions for Hull’s poorest residents.

Today, the organisation manages over 1,400 homes in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, providing high-quality accommodation for older people, including five PFH+ schemes and a range of general needs homes.

The Challenge: Meeting the Regulator’s Consumer Standards in the right way for residents

To meet the Social Housing Regulator’s Consumer Standards, particularly the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the Safety & Quality Standard, Pickering & Ferens recognised that it needed to take a more structured and regular approach to resident engagement and communication. They wanted to upgrade to a consistent, reliable and secure solution for all, which would enable increased two-way engagement and confirm everything is OK at their customers’ properties on a daily basis.

The organisation identified several critical priorities:

Maintain consistent, reliable, and two-way communication with residents.
Demonstrate that residents are listened to and their views are acted upon.
Provide clear, accessible information on services and repairs.
Gather and act on Tenant Satisfaction Measures effectively.

The Solution: Housing Proactive from Alertacall

Pickering & Ferens had already seen the benefits of property checks with Alertacall’s
OKEachDay® for Housing service and decided to roll out the full Housing Proactive
solution across all of their properties, which they have renamed ‘PFH Connect’.

Delivered via a portable touchscreen device, PFH Connect allows residents to:

Touchscreen

Receive instant updates on services, resident programmes, and safety information.
Respond to surveys and provide feedback easily, helping to provide insight on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures.
Report repairs or issues directly, reducing barriers to communication.
Report Anti-social behaviour from the safety of their own homes.
Access to OKEachDay® for Housing with regular housing-related contact through Remote Housing Officers.

Richard Walker, Home Services Director at Pickering & Ferens commented:

“We thought – here is a long-term solution that addresses communication, tenant voice, and safety in one
place. It helps us meet regulatory expectations while improving the quality of life for residents, especially as
more and more want to remain independent within their own homes.”

The Results: Supporting Pickering & Ferens’ journey to a C1 rating

The rollout of the touchscreens began with resident consultation events in early 2024, followed by installations completed by July 2024. Within the first ten months, the impact was significant:

Transparency, Influence and Accountability
• 92% of residents say they are listened to and their views acted upon (up from 79%).
• 90% feel informed about things that matter (up from 85%).
• 645 residents responded to surveys, and 2,475 messages/voice notes were received, strengthening two-way engagement.

Safety & Quality
• OKEachDay® for Housing provides daily contact, identifying issues quickly.
• Residents can easily report repairs, helping maintain homes to a high standard.
• Safety incidents were detected promptly, ensuring rapid support.
• Enables the housing provider to proactively communicate service standards and prompt residents on what to do if they have an emergency repair or damp and mould.

Tenancy Standard
• Equity of offer: all residents now receive the same service, regardless of location.
• Clear communication about rights, responsibilities, and services.
• Cost-effective and transparent messaging replaced expensive mailouts.

Neighbourhood and Community Standard
• Attendance at resident activities rose from 28,500 to over 30,000, due to the awareness via the touchscreen messaging.
• Consultation events engaged residents in shaping the service delivery.
• Future development aims to create a “connected community” with peer-to-peer support and integration with local services.

Highlights from the first year: September 2024 to August 2025

Over 108,000 individual messages sent, saving over £94,000 in postage.* There were 353,774 OKEachDay® button presses, which if compared to a 1-minute morning call from a housing officer, saved 5896 hours of staff time, freeing them to focus on being more proactive in other elements of their service delivery.

These outcomes were an important factor in the Regulator’s assessment of Pickering & Ferens. Residents spoke positively about Housing Proactive during inspections, with regulators noting the strength of two-way engagement. Pickering & Ferens’ innovative use of the Alertacall system directly contributed to achieving a C1 grading.

Richard Walker highlights:

“The regulator gave us really positive feedback on the service. They loved the direct messages and that the tool enables us to share information such as the standards of service that a resident can expect and hold us to account for. It allows us to achieve exactly what the regulator expects – delivering information clearly, showing that we listen, and act quickly. And we can do it all at the touch of a button.”