Five questions with … Phoenix Community Housing
Can you tell us briefly about Phoenix Community Housing?
Phoenix is a housing association with a difference. We were created in 2007 as the first community gateway in London and one of just four in the UK. It means we're owned by residents – we have more than 2,500 shareholding residents from our 6,500 homes – and we're also led by our residents – the chair and vice chair of our board are both tenants. Some housing associations talk about resident involvement. We live and breathe it every day.
We're also unusual in that all of our stock is located together in the Downham, Bellingham and Whitefoot areas of south Lewisham. There are some real issues with economic deprivation and educational attainment in our area. We believe that by pooling together the local knowledge and expertise of Phoenix residents and staff, we can build a better future for the Phoenix community.
Could you tell me a bit more about the customer services department?
It's a new department aimed at raising the bar for customer care. We're bringing together all of our main customer-facing teams so that it will be easier for staff to share experiences and best practice. There will also be more focus on using insight from consultation and complaints to drive our efforts to improve our customer service.
The department will include our home ownership services along with three new teams: customer experience, community regeneration and gateway local.
Can you explain gateway local?
Our gateway local team covers income collection, estates management and caretaking, plus a type of extended housing management role. Our advisors will build in-depth knowledge of their individual patches and the residents who live there, so that they are best placed to make a real difference on the ground.
They'll also help to administer our new approach to resident engagement. We want as many people as possible to get involved in Phoenix, and earlier this year residents voted for a new engagement model called community links and community chest. The community links will be informal gatherings covering three Phoenix zones, where residents can discuss issues, learn more about what's happening in their area, and agree priorities for their community link. Residents' groups and other organisations will also be able to tap into up to £100,000 community chest funding each year for projects that will make a real difference to the lives of Phoenix residents.
What kind of people are you after for these roles?
Working for any team in Phoenix requires more than just a simple commitment to excellent customer service. The people we're looking for must believe in collaborating with residents to improve our services. That requires good communications skills, the ability to think creatively and lots of energy. We'd describe ourselves as a good organisation, with high resident satisfaction, but we're now looking to move from good to great. We want people who are excited about helping us make that journey.
What are the opportunities over the next few years for Phoenix Community Housing?
We've made huge strides over the past six years. Finessing the gateway model has been hard work at times, and a real learning experience for both our residents and our staff. We feel we have matured as an organisation and are providing a quality of service comparable to the leaders in our field. So it's a good time for us to look at how we can further improve our services and resident engagement.
All of this is coming together at a time when we're moving to new headquarters – the Green Man – at the heart of the Phoenix area. But the Green Man will be much more than our offices. The entire ground floor will be filled with facilities for the community – a café, a training kitchen, credit union offices, areas for start-up businesses and more. Our move later this year will signal both a coming of age for Phoenix Community Housing and a new start for the Phoenix area. It's a hugely exciting time to join us.
Phoenix will be recruiting for new roles over the coming months to support us in our new customer access strategy. To see the current roles we are looking to fill, please visit our recruitment page.
David Westworth is director of customer services at Phoenix Community Housing
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