Viewpoint launches 3-year Business Plan
I hope this finds you and your family well and that you have been enjoying the longer days and warmer weather albeit scattered with heavy showers, a true Scottish summer! Since March 2020, we have experienced one of the most difficult periods of our lives. Of course, we do not lose sight of Covid-19 and remember all those who have suffered loss. As an organisation, we remain committed to keeping our residents, tenants and staff safe. Unfortunately, this pandemic is not over and I know that many of you are still coping with the longer-term impact of Covid as well as trying to get your everyday lives back to normal. However currently normal is not what we are experiencing as the cost of living has become a challenge for so many people.
Over the past few months, we have focussed on completing our new Business Plan. This sets out the vision for Viewpoint for the 3-year period from April 2022 through to March 2025. Over the life of this Business Plan there are very clear objectives linked to each area of our business. A couple of our key aims include
- reviewing our current stock to determine the suitability and financial sustainability of our current buildings
- providing our customers with excellent customer service looking in particular at how we improve engagement and communication
- we remain committed to continuing in care, however our existing care homes are old and the buildings are not fit for purpose and have become more challenging to maintain, therefore we will be considering the development of a new purpose built care home.
That is just a flavour of our strategic direction and I would recommend that you take time to read our Business Plan which can be accessed here, or if you’d prefer a hard copy then please contact us on 0131 668 4247.
However, with the challenges we faced during the pandemic, it is fair to say that Viewpoint is still on a journey to consolidate present changes. There are increasing challenges from the external political environment, new and existing legislation and the advent of a National Care Service. At the moment our main concern is recruitment and retention of staff across the whole organisation although particularly concerning in our care homes. This is a national crisis and needs national intervention. However in the meantime we are doing all we can within the organisation to learn why staff are moving on; to consider what we can do to retain them and where we can focus our attention to attract new people.
As many of you will be aware there are also challenges within the construction industry. I am pleased to advise that we have managed to minimise the impact on service delivery and we will continue to monitor and discuss these issues with our contractors at their monthly meetings. The Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) remains a political priority however the Scottish Government has agreed to pause the implementation of EESSH2 until there has been a full review of the previous standard. More to come on that in the future linked to the Zero Carbon Agenda.
Finally we are focussing on the outcomes of our recent Tenant Satisfaction Survey and Residents Surveys. This will provide us with up-to-date information on how we can continue to improve our services.
We will continue to update our progress through newsletters and on our website. If you have any questions then please feel free to contact us on 0131 668 4247.
Jean