Empowering resident voices at Abbeyfield
Justin O’Brien, Abbeyfield Living Society’s Resident Engagement Manager, has provided a run-down of the latest developments from our National Residents’ Panel and how we are supporting our residents to engage with us on how we work.
Digital training through Tpas
Abbeyfield Living Society (ALS) is now a member of Tpas, an advisory service for organisations like ours on engagement and participation, demonstrating our commitment to working collaboratively with residents to help drive improvements in our services.
This in turn means that every resident is now also a member and can access the benefits, including a variety of free and discounted training sessions, free regional resident events, and opportunities to network and share good practice. To register, please follow these steps:
- Visit www.tpas.org.uk/member-search
- Type ‘Abbeyfield’ in the search box and click ‘Search’
- Scroll down and click ‘Join as a tenant’
- Fill in your details and select a username and password
You can find more information about the membership benefits by visiting www.tpas.org.uk/membership-benefits.
If you have any questions about our Tpas membership, please contact Justin on 07553 424 356 or email resident.engagement@abbeyfield.com.
Abbeyfield Residents’ Network now available on WhatsApp
ALS residents can now join the Abbeyfield Residents’ Network on WhatsApp, which enables us to bring residents together from across the country to share experiences, support each other and maybe make some new friends.
WhatsApp is free to download and use on any smartphone.
You can access the Network by completing the online application form.
If you have any questions about the Abbeyfield Residents’ Network please email resident.engagement@abbeyfield.com.
Feedback from residents
We know that resident feedback is essential to helping us improve the services we provide. We value all types of feedback and have a responsive resident feedback process to ensure we can respond to all compliments, complaints and suggestions as quickly as possible.
Compliments
Compliments let us know where and how we are succeeding in providing good services, and give us examples of good practice that we are committed to sharing with our residents and throughout the organisation.
Please share your feedback with us by emailing compliments@abbeyfield.com or by calling us on 01727 857 536.
Complaints
We’d like to think that we get things right most of the time, but we know that occasionally things may go wrong. We operate a two-stage complaints process for these cases. As an organisation that is committed to listening to our residents and improving our service, we really do want to hear from you if you’ve had a problem.
If something goes wrong, your first course of action should be to raise the issue directly with the relevant manager or staff member concerned.
In many cases, they will be able to put things right very quickly and simply, and no further action will be required.
However, if you do not feel comfortable doing this, or if you are dissatisfied with the initial response, you can make a complaint. The simplest way is by contacting our Complaints Team at complaints@abbeyfield.com or call us on 01727 857 536, after which your complaint will be passed on to the Complaints Team.
The Complaints Team will acknowledge your complaint in writing within two working days of it being received, and the investigating officer will provide a full written response within 10 working days unless a later date is confirmed with you.
In late 2024, we launched our complaints lessons learnt approach to help to learn from complaints, help prevent future complaints and drive service improvements. We will regularly be sharing the outputs from this process, alongside other initiatives we are implementing to further enhance how we handle complaints, with the National Residents’ Panel and through the reports available on our website.
Resident Engagement at Abbeyfield
Abbeyfield has established several ways residents can get involved with us to help us continuously improve and ensure our residents have a voice.
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