As a result of a positive re-accreditation assessment taking place on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th October, we are pleased to advise that our Customer Service Excellence assessor, Hugh Keachie, has confirmed that the Brothers of Charity Services in Merseyside and Greater Manchester has maintained full compliance with the Customer Service Excellence Accreditation.
Following a comprehensive desk tp review and meeting a selection of staff, customers and partners over the two days, High was incredibly complementary about how everyone at The Brothers of Charity Services had come together in challenging circumstances to keep everyone safe and improve our services. These achievements will be celebrated and promoted across our services in recognition of the amazing contribution from front line staff throughout lockdown.
Hugh has also advised are our Merseyside and Greater Manchester services are have reecieved a further six Compliance Plus accreditations in the following areas.
Compliance Plus Submissions
1.1.2 We have developed customer insight about our customer groups to better understand their needs and preferences.
Each location nominated a link person and the community engagement team would ensure contact and liaise with to offer additional support to people we support in increased detail (and staff) about how they can maintain their emotional wellbeing, share ideas around positive activities, ask about what technology they have access to and gain ideas that can be shared service wide to bring customers together and meet their needs. This level of engagement went above and beyond normal practice of understanding the needs and preferences of the people we support in these exceptional circumstances in a person centred way. This is in response to the impact of social distancing measures and the benefit ensured the person centred approach of the Service continued to be delivered in line with its ethos vision and values.
1.1.3 We make particular efforts to identify hard to reach and disadvantaged groups and individuals and have developed our services in response to their specific needs.
Due to lockdown restrictions the people we support were at risk of being isolated and their health and wellbeing needs impacted. All staff teams have worked tirelessly, remaining committed to ensuring positive engagement with the people we support, and particularly tackling social isolation for customers. Each location nominated a link person and the advocacy & community engagement team would ensure contact and liaise with to offer additional support to our customers (& staff) about how they can maintain their emotional and social wellbeing, share ideas around positive activities that the people we support can take part in. We have also ensured that clients can access technology they have in the location/home and gain ideas changing the way we deliver services to customers across all areas. This is innovative for the Service in this unique situation as we have never utilised technology to this extent in terms of customer engagement. The benefits were the excellent variety of virtual activity for clients using zoom and this incredible positive response generated in an incredibly challenging situation allowed us a good reach to our customers to make a positive impact. The GM team worked with the advocacy team to win a bid for funding which resulted in obtaining 7 new electronic tablets for clients which will tackle isolation. The teams put the needs of the clients first to ensure that positive engagement remained high in light of the global pandemic.
1.3.5 We have made positive changes to services as a result of analysing customer experience, including improved customer journeys.
The necessity of increased access to technology generated by lockdown restrictions has actually opened up a whole new level of positive engagement for the service. As lockdown measures evolve on a local and national level people have been very well supported to access zoom and by using that and other technology it has filled a gap in day services caused by social distancing requirements. We feel this is compliance plus because this takes service delivery to a new innovative level and ensures that client needs remain at the focus of activity and we remain responsive to needs and preferences in a person centred way. It’s also provided great skills development and increased confidence for many people both staff and the people we support and brought so much joy to everyone. This is continuing to occur and adds value to the Services that we deliver on a daily basis, enhancing people’s lives and building community.
2.2.5 We value the contribution our staff make to delivering customer focused services, and leaders, managers and staff demonstrate these behaviours.
The contribution our workforce has made during the global pandemic has been exceptional. Whilst each individual will undoubtedly have had their own challenges to face they have continued to deliver amazing services to the people we support under unprecedented challenges. The positive engagement & innovation has been ongoing across the Services and recognised in a variety of ways including pay uplifts, thank you messages and gift bags, thank you videos from clients and a special edition newsletter celebrating extra mile stories. The videos created by the people we support thanking their staff colleagues and loved ones are incredibly moving and demonstrate the activity and feeling of positive engagement that went on during lockdown. They speak volumes about the excellent service levels delivered by our front line workforce in circumstances that changed the world. They bring to life the ethos, vision and values of the service, reinforcing and reminding everyone of the positive culture that is embedded in our values and should be continuously celebrated as an example to all.
3.2.1 We provide our customers with the information they need in ways which meet their needs and preferences, using a variety of appropriate channels.
Our advocacy team and SelectionBOCS staff collaborated to produce a video demonstrating the PPE that paramedics will be wearing when they attend patients. This is a responsive and effective way to help stop people being afraid when paramedics attend. It is innovative for BOCS as this method of delivery is new and impressive due to the visual delivery of key messages and the ease of circulation and access. The North West Ambulance Service were so impressed by the video they identified a gap in their own resources and produced their own version based on the video produced by BOCS
Click here to view the video:
3.4.1 We have made arrangements with other providers and partners to offer and supply co-ordinated services, and these arrangements have demonstrable benefits for our customers.
At BOCS we have many people who are in both supported living and attend day services provided by BOCS. When these services were cancelled we raised the fact that the people we support would need additional hours of support to maintain safe services due to them now needing to be at home when they would normally be supported by a day service. Heads of Service worked closely with Merseyside local authorities resulting in agreement to leave the funding for day services in place to ensure providers could utilise the commissioned support and hours to support the people who attend day services in other ways to ensure they still had the support they needed at this time of need. This was an exceptional innovative piece of work that resulted in ensuring service levels remained high under extraordinary & challenging circumstances
Many thanks to our staff colleagues from across our Merseyside and Greater Manchester Services for your support with this process and achievement of the accreditation. The positive contribution in maintaining high levels of quality care and compliance for the people we support is greatly appreciated.