Having Your Say

How we keep you informed

- We will send our tenant newsletter Helena Headlines directly to your home at least three times a year.
- We provide information about how the company is performing in our annual report to tenants and on the Helena websites.
- You can access our homepage on Digi TV.

Getting involved

We will:

- Publicise a menu of opportunities which gives details of the different ways our tenants can get involved with Helena, through Helena Headlines and on the Helena website.
- Publicise information about how you can get involved with Helena's consultation and scrutiny structures and take a role in scrutinising our policies and performance.
- Consult you about changes that affect you.
- Set money aside each year to be spent on community engagement.
- Provide funding for resident groups recognised by us, and offer support at meetings.
- Offer support and training to all residents wishing to start a resident group including training around governance and equality and diversity.
- Support community and estate agreements and tenant management organisations.

Equality and Diversity

We want to make sure everyone is treated fairly and has the same opportunity to use our services. We want to make sure we treat everyone with dignity and respect.

We aim to:

- Make all of our printed information available, on request, in different formats such as different languages, Braille, large print and audio tape.
- Make sure that all of our tenants feel confident to live where they choose, free from harassment or prejudice.
- Make sure the homes we provide to tenants with diverse needs are of a suitable type and design and are in their preferred location.
- Let our homes in an open and accountable way and not discriminate against anyone.
- Promote participation and consultation with all sections of the community.
- Work with all sections of the community to understand their diverse needs, promote regeneration and tackle disadvantage.
- Treat any breach of our equality and diversity policy very seriously and investigate any breaches as soon as we know about them.
- Train our employees and our contractors in equality and diversity.
- Understand how our customers want us to communicate with them.

How you can help

You can help us by:

- Letting us know how you would prefer to be communicated with.
- Keeping us updated with changes in personal circumstances so that we can tailor services.
- Being supportive towards others who may need extra help.
- Letting us know if you do not feel you have been treated fairly or with respect.

Complaints

We will ensure we publicise information about how to make a complaint on the Helenawebsite and through leaflets in customer access areas.

To make a complaint:

- Call One Call on 01744 63 73 83
- Email: complaints@helenapartnerships.co.uk
- Write to Helena Partnerships, Alexandra Business Park, Prescot Road, St Helens,WA10 3TT. You can also hand in letters to any neighbourhood office or Helena staff member.

When making a comment or complaint we will:

- Listen to your concerns and write to tell you we have received your complaint or comments.
- Treat your complaint confidentially.
- Deal with your complaint as quickly and as efficiently as we can.
- Keep you informed about what is happening to your complaint and when you can expect a reply.

Once we receive your complaint we will:

- Let you know we have received it within 2 working days (or 4 working hours if you email your complaint to us).
- Send it on to the person who can deal with it, normally a manager responsible for the area of our business that is being complained about.
- Send you a full reply within 5 working days. Sometimes a complex complaint may takelonger to fully investigate, on these occasions if we need to increase the time taken to respond, we will discuss this with you, keep you updated and send you a full reply as soon as possible.
- Tell you what to do next if you are still unhappy.

How you can help

By knowing more about the circumstances that led to your complaint we are better able to deal with it. What we ask of you therefore is that you:

- Clearly state what you think that we have done wrong.
- Give us as much information as possible about your complaint.
- Let us know if you have a preferred method of contact or require documentation in an alternate format, such as large print, in another language, audio tape, etc.
- Tell us what you expect from us, in order for us to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction. We can't always promise to meet you expectations but if we can't we will tell you why.
- Give us your feedback. At the end of the complaint process we will send you a satisfaction survey. Please fill this in and return it.