Compliments and complaints

We welcome your compliments and complaints.  In 2007/08 we received thirty written ‘thank yous’ from clients and agencies in Newcastle.  Such compliments are always welcome and are always appreciated by staff.  Also in 2007/08 we received no formal complaints.  Along with the rest of YHN we have recently introduced a ‘Complaints Learning Form’ to ensure that we can demonstrate that we learn from complaints and improve our services as a result of the complaints we receive.

If you are not happy with any part of our service, please let us know.  Click here to find out how you can make a compliment, complaint or comment.

Contract

The ASU delivers the service against a specification and we must report how well we have done.  This performance report has been completed regularly and shows a very good level of performance.  The areas we have to report on include:

• ensuring we accommodate people in set timescales
• ensuring the property is of a good standard
• ensuring we have met newly arrived households and they have been taken to their property and had the amenities explained to them.
• provide interpretation when required
• provide useful information on facilities in the locality
• register people with GPs and, if required, other health services
• register people with education services
• ensuring we provide people with the necessary emergency financial support when they arrive.

Service Standards and Service Plan

We produce Service Standards so that every service user is clear about the level of service they can expect to receive from us. We will review all service standards regularly, and we will involve service users in this process.  Click here to read more about our Service Standards.

Telephone answering

The Asylum Seekers Unit, along with other YHN services, aim to answer all telephone calls within five rings and to use the standard greeting when answering calls.

• in the period April to March 2006/07 we answered 94% of test calls within five rings
• in the period April to March 2006/07 we used the corporate greeting in 95% of test calls answered
• in the period April to March 2007/08 we answered 95% of test calls within five rings
• in the period April to March 2007/08 we used the corporate greeting in 97% of test calls answered.

Mystery shopping

In October and November 2005 a mystery shopping exercise was conducted to check how staff responded to phone calls requesting an Annual Report or Mythbuster leaflet.

This exercise concluded that 'the staff who answered the calls were all polite and gave the corporate greeting' and that the material requested was sent out quickly.  However some inconsistencies were highlighted e.g. some people got a letter, some a compliment slip, some got one copy of a document, and some got two.

To ensure a consistent approach in future we have decided that whilst any staff member can deal with a request for information, our Administration Section will deal with the information being sent out.  We devised systems to ensure a consistent response is received by all. 

As part of YHN’s mystery shopping exercise on all internal services in February and March 2008 the ASU received a mystery shopping call.  The caller was impressed by the efficiency and politeness of the staff member taking the call.

What our customers think of our service

From January to April 2007 we carried out an independently assessed Satisfaction Survey which showed that 92% of respondents were satisfied with the services of the ASU.  We feel this is a high level of satisfaction but we will strive to continually improve this figure.  We have set a target of maintaining at least 90% of customers satisfied with our overall service.

In addition to the consultation methods already spoken about we ask clients on a regular basis about our services and the area in which they live.  We are very interested in how our clients can inform us to help improve the service we provide to them.  To this end we asked if people would like to be involved in this process and if so how they would prefer to be consulted.  The Support Officers asked this during their monthly visits. The majority opinion was one to one consultation within their own home.

With this in mind we devised a questionnaire type of consultation. We aim to consult with clients in their first and sixth month following their dispersal to Newcastle.  There is also an exit questionnaire for when support is withdrawn following a decision on the application for asylum.  We began using this from the beginning of March 2005.

For 2007/08 we attained the following results:

2007/08 ASU survey results

We are delighted that our satisfaction rates remain high.  We do remain concerned that many of our clients continue to report that they have experienced racism whilst living in Newcastle.  We will continue to work with a variety of agencies to tackle this issue.

Grant aid

The ASU offers grant aid to community and voluntary organisations whose work benefits the settlement of people seeking asylum and/or refugees.  In 2007/08 we made £35 000 available for this purpose and the full amount was allocated.  During the year we awarded 21 grants to 16 different organisations.  The average grant was £1666.

General levels of activity

In 2007/08 we:

• undertook in excess of 7000 visits to our clients
• carried out in excess of 1200 property inspections through our maintenance surveyor
• attended in excess of 200 locally based drop ins in addition to over 50 city centre surgeries
• managed the arrival of 343 households and the move on of 368 households
• produced and distributed 3 newsletters to all clients
• delivered 17 awareness raising sessions and provided an information stall at 2 events.