How South Tyneside Homes Perform Thousands Of Daily Resident Wellbeing Checks 

Over the years, long-standing Voicescape client South Tyneside Homes (STH) has been exploring the use of technology to revolutionise its approach to daily tenant welfare checks. While undoubtedly challenging, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to trial a new automated tenant engagement solution to contact its residents and reduce social isolation.  

The award-winning solution has been in use since July 2020, and the results have been remarkably positive…  

The challenge 

STH’s Housing Plus service gives older and more vulnerable people the opportunity to live independently. As part of this service, Housing Plus officers provide advice and daily contact to ensure the experience is enjoyable, social, and supportive.  

 However, this method of manually contacting residents took up almost 200 hours of staff time per week. And, when COVID-19 hit and tenants became increasingly isolated and afraid, resources were stretched beyond capacity.  

The solution 

South Tyneside Council have a clear vision to deliver excellent services through empowered and motivated employees, STH didn’t want to reduce its staffing levels but recognised the pandemic brought particular challenges. The team was instead looking at innovative ways to better allocate its existing resources, freeing up officer time to focus on more critical tasks. The Voicescape Wellbeing solution proved useful here.   

How it works 

Voicescape Wellbeing is a cutting-edge platform that automates the daily process of calling sheltered accommodation residents to check in on their safety and wellbeing. Residents can self-report on their own wellbeing using the bespoke software, allowing your officers to spend more time providing manual care and attention to those who truly need it.  

 Ultimately, this tailored service allows for a resident-centric approach to wellbeing while putting the needs of your tenants first.  

The results  

As reported in the Local Government Chronicle, STH has seen a 26% increase in overall service participation since the project was launched . In total, 65% of tenants now engage with their wellbeing service – compared to 46% before the introduction of Voicescape’s technology.  

These ground-breaking results have enabled STH to prioritise its resources and reinvest into other areas of their service, such as enhanced tenant support and additional initiatives to reduce isolation.  

“Every morning we are able to respond in a measured and focussed way to those tenants who need us most . We are confident we are alerted to those who are relying on us first and we are enjoying the extra time elsewhere to engage with tenants.”

Jackie Baird | Assistant Area Manager at South Tyneside Homes

Start the conversation today! 

Want to see how Voicescape technology could help your housing association overcome the numerous challenges ahead? Get in touch below!