Thursday 20 November 2014

Winter is coming...

Jon Snow knew much of the perils that lurked in the coming winter. With his battle-hardened peers in the Night’s Watch, he could see from the wall, and through forays beyond, the danger that made its home in the cold and ice. But, apart from a bad case of frostbite, what did Jon Snow and those around him suffer as a result of? Well, a lack of shared ownership of the problem, poor collaboration and, as the issues intensified, a failure to use dwindling resources in a different, more efficient way.

You wouldn’t find many of us looking pensively into the distance, muttering 'winter is coming' during August. But, let’s face it, he had the right idea. We should have a joint sense of urgency, readiness and understanding of the challenges unique to this time of year.

Outside the world of  'Game of Thrones', the statistics around fuel poverty and winter deaths are sobering. In 2012, 30% of households in Wales (386,000 households) were estimated to be in fuel poverty. This is the equivalent to 54,000 more households than in 2008. Rising fuel prices have largely been counteracted by the increases in income and energy efficiency savings in the housing stock, and this has led to the increase in the number of fuel poor households.

Fuel poverty is a significant cause of excess winter deaths and, in 2012/13, there were 1,900 excess winter deaths in Wales. This was a 32% fall from the previous winter, which had seen the highest number since 1999/2000, but still above the 10 year average. 89% of these deaths involved people aged 65 or over, with the highest rate amongst those over 85 who constituted nearly 60% of the total.

There is much being done in an attempt to reduce these figures. For example, Care & Repair Cymru works with older people across Wales to support them to live in warm, safe and secure homes. This work is continued throughout the year; however, it is particularly pertinent heading toward the winter months. This year, Care & Repair agencies are offering free winter warm packs, containing a blanket and hot water bottle. These packs help to promote Care & Repair agencies as a service to help older people prepare for and manage safely through the winter.

Housing associations are doing much to offset the impact of fuel poverty, including:
  • Improving the energy efficiency of homes through the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and energy programmes such as Arbed
  • Helping tenants maximise their income through projects such as the Your Benefits are Changing (YBAC) campaign. YBAC helps tenants to claim benefits they are entitled to. One area of success has been the identification of the Warm Home Discount - YBAC last year successfully assisted over 914 people to claim a rebate which equates to an annual sum of £127,960. 
  • Helping to try to negate energy price increases through such actions as behavioural change for energy use. 

Across public services, the impacts of winter are likely to be felt more profoundly in the Welsh NHS. Winter preparedness is a key task for Health Boards, and a hot topic within the media and public sphere. But it’s important, particularly now in the context of prudent healthcare, that we all take responsibility as individuals and organisations to meeting the winter challenge.

In terms of working with housing associations:
  • Creating capacity for step down accommodation in Extra Care and Sheltered Housing
  • Placing housing professionals within hospital discharge teams to decrease delayed transfer of care
  • Working with housing associations to facilitate and coordinate community activity during the winter months
  • Partnering to ensure that advice and information is accessible in a range of community settings and media formats. 

Of course, this should all rightly go beyond what we plan as organisations and a mix of services. Last year, Public Health England called for 100,000 people to check on neighbours over the winter months.

We should be using this time to reignite our sense of community, decrease loneliness and isolation during months when these may be felt more profoundly and together contribute to managing the demand on GP or A&E service during these months. Everyone can help, from championing local services, clearing roads, communal snowman building, committing your long term future to the Night’s Watch – it’s the small gestures that will truly make a difference this Christmas. It could put a smile on someone’s face, it could save a life.

Matthew Kennedy
Policy Officer: Care, Support and Health

Wednesday 12 November 2014

#HousingDay - Tanya's story

In 2001, Tanya MacGregor was a domestic abuse victim and homeless mother-of three. However, today, she is living proof of how the social housing sector can transform lives for the better.

Tanya has gone full circle from being homeless and in the depths of domestic abuse despair to gaining a degree and winning numerous awards. She is now giving back and providing life-changing help to others via the Your Benefits Are Changing (YBAC) campaign run by Community Housing Cymru (CHC).

She said: “It’s amazing the opportunities that social housing has provided for me and my family. I went from being homeless with a young family to finding my way to getting a home, which in turn allowed me to access services, health, a degree, a job. None of this would have been possible without social housing.

“The effect on my family has been transformational. I now work full time helping others to get their houses in order as a money adviser with YBAC. My eldest son completed a degree, my daughter went to college and now works full time, and my youngest is now doing his GCSEs. I couldn’t have even imagined all this a decade ago.

“Without a home, you can’t get access to anything - you don’t exist. Social housing has given me and my family the chance to lay down roots and better ourselves.

“Social housing is a comfort blanket – it allows people access to affordable rents and the chance to re-train and go out to work. We would not have achieved what we have as a family without social housing; we would have been pushed from pillar to post. Social housing has been our safety net and I hope as many people can benefit from it in the same ways that my family and I have.”

More than a decade ago, the married mother became homeless after deciding she could no longer put up with the beatings she was enduring from her then husband.

Overnight, she went from being a homeowner to homeless, with nothing more than a full carrier bag to her name. With her three young children - aged nine, six and five-months old - she took refuge in a women’s hostel.

Tanya spent a year classed as homeless in the hostel run by Cardiff Women’s Aid and owned by United Welsh. During this time she was able to re-build her confidence and take stock of her situation, all the while making friends with fellow victims of domestic abuse staying at the hostel.

Tanya's time in the hostel also started her journey into adult learning with her undertaking a basic skills and IT course along with a Maths course, initially so that she ‘could help her young son with his homework’.

Shortly afterwards, she joined the Board of Management as a committee member/service user and got involved in a Tenant Empowerment Grant scheme. In doing this, Tanya began her ‘giving back’ - using her own experiences to help others suffering as a result of pre or post domestic abuse issues. The tenant service user group offered friendship, craft and DIY classes. It also gave women mental support and well as technical and practical skills, advice, help and, just like Tanya - hope for the future.

Tanya remained a board member for four years, her own experience being a remedy to help others and herself on the road to recovery.

Tanya and the group’s efforts were praised and the model won an award for Good Practice by the Welsh Assembly.

Around this time, Tanya’s confidence and circumstances had improved greatly. She and her young family were rehoused by Cardiff Council and she enrolled on a Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Policy Degree at UWIC. During her first day she spotted two other familiar faces in the class. Recalling that time, she said: “Two of my classmates were ladies from the refuge and now they both work in the housing sector, like me.”

On the back of her adult learning success, Tanya won the All Wales Housing Manager Local Council Academic Achievement Award, the 2008 CIH Welsh Student of the Year and the 2008 CIH National Student of the Year Award, which lead to her taking part in the prestigious Tri-Countries Conference in Canada.

In 2008-2009, Tanya worked at Rhondda Housing Association as Tenancy Support Officer. Her housing degree dissertation was about Older People in Extra Care which she did for another housing association - Linc Cymru. The subject theme became particularly poignant in 2009 when Tanya decided to take a break from work to care for her parents who were both suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tanya aged 48, said: “It was a difficult time, but as my dissertation was about the same issues I felt I was equipped to fight for the rights of my parents and sort everything out. I was juggling the care of my parents and the care of my young family.”

In 2010 Tanya decided she wanted to get back into work on a part time basis and gained a six month position with Cadwyn Housing through the job centre scheme, Go Wales, doing admin for the HA Tenant Participation and Financial Inclusion arm.

Tanya said: “I was feeling down about my circumstances with my parents’ illness and going back to work gave me renewed confidence. This was down to the organisation's managers and staff and support for my situation. They had fundraising events for Alzheimer’s society.”

From 2011 until today, Tanya has been employed as one of the YBAC Money Advisors at CHC, set up to help distribute information about Welfare Reform.

Courtesy of CHC, she gained a MA qualification from Staffordshire University.

Tanya completed an evaluation for Rhondda Housing Association on the Financial Inclusion project. Also, as part of YBAC, Tanya has provided advice sessions for a number of housing associations and attended CHC’s YBAC campaigning events on behalf of tenants.

Tanya said: “Housing Associations are not in the business of evicting people so the work I do is helping people to get their house/home finances in order. I know only too well how hard it can be. I’ve been there and the advice I was given was invaluable, so I hope I can repay the favour by helping others.”


Tanya MacGregor
Money Adviser, CHC

#HousingDay - Jemma's story

My name is Jemma Bere and I am a tenant and tenant board member of Wales & West Housing. I work for CREW Regeneration Wales, part of the CHC Group.

In 2001, my mother died in a car accident whilst in Andalucia, Spain. After the funeral in the UK, my brother and sister returned to Spain with their father where they began school. However, their father turned to drink and eventually became unable to care for them and in 2005, I was told that the children had been taken into the care of social services in Almeria. I went to Spain immediately to see them but there was very little I could do. After a couple of months, I received a phone call from the Spanish authorities who told me that unless someone in the family could take on the children, they would have to be put into foster care. They could give me no guarantees that they would be kept together or that I could visit them so I made the decision right there that I would look after them. I was 24 and had just graduated from university.

It took me two years to navigate the bureaucracy and go through the adoption process to get the children to the UK but I was determined and a few key friends and organisations took sympathy to my cause. On the 15th July 2008, I brought the children back to the UK and they were reunited with their nan and brother who they hadn't seen in 7 years. I had no house and no capital, just the conviction that it was the best decision I had ever made. We were given emergency housing at first but were offered a permanent house by Wales & West after a couple of months. I can't describe the feeling of security that that brought to us. Used to being shuffled around, the children only believed that they were here to stay when we got the house and the change in them from that point was amazing to see.

The children spoke little English at first and we lived on benefits whilst we were finding our feet. The rarity of the situation made the application process difficult and we lived on £90 a week child tax credit for the initial 6 months. I learnt to make everything from scratch, even shampoo! It was a hard time but the safety nets afforded to us through social housing and welfare gave us enough security to start to build a life together.

I'm very proud to be living in social housing and a tenant board member of my housing association. I am delighted at the opportunity to give back and help to make a difference in the sector.

I'm supporting Housing Day because it offered me a lifeline when I thought I had none. I don't want to think about where the children and I would have been without the opportunity for a affordable home. As a social housing tenant, I know my rent money goes toward others in need and providing them with the opportunity to build their lives just like it did with me. 


Jemma Bere
Regeneration Officer (CREW Regeneration Wales) and Wales & West Housing tenant


Read more about Jemma's story here.