Delivering our services throughout 2020 has been extremely challenging in light of the changes to our working practices due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In response to the national lockdown initiated in March 2020 we provided our staff with appropriate PPE equipment and developed robust risk assessments to assist us in delivering critical services as best as we could.
Following national guidelines we were able to continue to deliver a repairs and maintenance service – initially for emergency and urgent requests and later in the year a full repairs service subject to appropriate household medical screening and social distancing measures.
Throughout the pandemic a number of services had to be curtailed. This included – estate inspection walkabouts, resident panel meetings as well as all activities delivered from the Primrose and Crossley Community Centres.
We recognise the importance of these activities in our neighbourhoods and have been working to support wider partnerships in Oldham to help those in most need at this unprecedented time – we made significant contributions to the crisis response hubs as well as supporting local groups who provide such important services to local residents.
During the pandemic our town centre based office on Union Street has been closed to the public and access for staff has been restricted in line with the government guidance. A known total of 5 staff members contracted the virus out of a total of 18 (as of Dec 20).
Despite these challenges we have remained focused on providing the best service that we can, and we are proud to have achieved an overall satisfaction figure of 92%, which is only 1% lower than the previous year.
The cleaning of communal areas is an area of focus for us given this years feedback. We recognise that the reduction in this service due to the implications of the pandemic was likely to impact satisfaction levels.
