14 March 2007
Baroness Andrews, Minister for Housing at Communities and Local Government is visiting Eastbourne Care & Repair, the local Home Improvement Agency, on Friday 16 March 2007. She will be meeting members of staff and some clients who have been helped by them. Afterwards Baroness Andrews will be presenting the Agency with the National Quality Mark Award Certificate.
Baroness Andrews says, “In presenting the Quality Mark Award to Eastbourne Care and Repair, I would like to congratulate you all – you should be rightfully proud of your achievement. The Quality Mark recognises Eastbourne Care and Repair’s commitment to providing high quality, client-focused services; and it is a badge of confidence in the all-round excellence of those services for your clients and stakeholders. I would like to wish you all the best of luck in building on this for the future.”
Eastbourne Care & Repair is a charitable organisation and plays a crucial role in helping the Borough Council to deliver its housing renewal programme in the private sector. In a partnership arrangement the Agency works with Eastbourne Borough Council and Eastbourne Disability Team in acting for older and disabled homeowners. It helps them through the process of accessing such assistance as Disabled Facilities Grants and Housing Renewal Assistance.
The technical and casework service will prepare schedules of work, arrange for estimates and help with all the form filling and letter writing. Welfare benefits and other financial advice is offered to ensure that clients receive any help to which they are entitled. A locally agreed joint working protocol has received national recognition for helping to speed up the time taken to process some of the grants.
Stephen Will, Director of Eastbourne Care & Repair says, “We are delighted that Baroness Andrews is visiting us to see the work we do and especially pleased that she will be presenting us with the National Quality Mark Award. This is something that we have been working towards for a while now and this is a wonderful recognition of the hard work we do in helping our clients to remain living in their homes in greater comfort and security.”
In the last 12 months the Agency has dealt with over 500 enquiries with more than 200 jobs being completed totalling over £600,000. Work undertaken can vary from a small handyperson repair costing £20 to extensive renovation or adaptations costing over £30,000.
