A week in the life of… a neighbourhood officer

Wednesday

I got the chance to get out and about today to carry out a neighbourhood inspection at one of our estates, making sure areas are safe and reporting any repairs that need work.

It was a really nice day so my husband kept me company on the inspection. The fresh air helps to keep his spirits up while he’s on furlough.

At midday I joined a multi-agency meeting, arranged due to concerns of self-neglect combined with the condition of the home. We talked about risks and agreed an action plan to address all the concerns identified. It’s essential that in these cases I consider individual vulnerabilities but also any risks posed to neighbours, especially as the customer lives in a scheme.

Thursday

This morning I have a catch up planned with the anti-social behaviour officer to go through ongoing cases in the area I manage. This is really useful as it means I’m aware of any issues, and we work together to agree actions when necessary.

“The tasks we can assist with to sustain tenancies can be anything from issuing decorating packs for customers on low incomes, to garden work and decluttering homes”

Now that many of our service delivery partners are back in business, it’s time to start getting projects that were put on hold up and running again. I spent time phoning our customers to arrange times for work to be carried out and checked whether we needed to make special arrangements for any vulnerable customers who were shielding.

The tasks we can assist with to sustain tenancies can be anything from issuing decorating packs for customers on low incomes, to garden work, decluttering homes and, when possible, buying essential items from our local volunteer charity shop for those that need support. A really rewarding and fulfilling part of the job.

Friday

Thank goodness it’s Friday! This was a challenging but rewarding week.

I carried out telephone reviews today for some of our temporary accommodation tenants to check if they had any issues to raise and offered help and advice where needed. I prefer to do these interviews face to face but of course that’s not possible at the moment.

I had a heart-warming end to the week delivering flowers and presents to a colleague – socially distanced of course. They are taking their career in a new direction and moving into a different team at Aster. We used Microsoft Teams to film the surprise so everyone in the team could be a part of it. This was a really fun and uplifting way to end the week.