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Three residents have helped their housing association to win national recognition for its services to older people.
Bill Haney, Alan Woodley and Prudence Collett-Jobey have collaborated with staff at Sarsen Housing Association to improve services and meet the standards expected by the Centre for Housing and Support (CHS), a national training and consultancy company.
The trio have spent 15 months with staff, preparing for the independent assessment to be awarded the CHS Code of Practice. Sarsen’s sister housing association Ridgeway has also achieved the standard.
Seventy-one-year-old Bill Haney, who lives in Bromham, said: “We looked at the way Sarsen and Ridgeway run their services and suggested ideas for improvement. One example is setting clear professional boundaries for staff. This means residents can be confident that staff will treat them with dignity and respect their privacy.
“We also helped produce a new handbook which gives residents all sorts of information about their home and the services they can expect.”
Sarsen and Ridgeway had to meet ten standards to earn the Code of Practice accreditation. This included providing good quality homes, promoting independence and training and supporting staff.
Retirement service manager Gill Boden said: “Working with residents on this project has been invaluable and I don’t think we’d have reached the standard without them. It’s really helped us understand what services they want and they’ve been able to have a say on what matters most to them”
Sarsen has 200 retirement homes in nine retirement housing schemes across Wiltshire, including Devizes, Marlborough, Burbage, Ludgershall and Tidworth. It also has 350 retirement flats and bungalows. Ridgeway runs four extra-care schemes in Plymouth and Wiltshire where older and disabled can live independently in the comfort of their own home with round-the-clock care staff on hand, if needed.
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