Press and media

03 September 2019, Bracknell. Silva Homes' extra support independent living scheme hosted a garden party last month (Saturday August 24) to celebrate winning a national award.

Broadway House in Sandhurst invited residents and their friends and family to an afternoon of fun to celebrate winning two Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC) awards in May this year. The scheme, run by Silva, was awarded Gold in the regional awards for care schemes under 41 units and Bronze in the national awards of the same category.

Each year the EAC recognises and celebrates the best specialist housing for elderly people with the aim to help improve peoples lives.

The afternoon was filled with live music and good old fashioned sing-alongs with celebratory cake. Laura Johnson, executive director for Assets and Growth, also gave a congratulatory speech.

Scheme manager of Broadway House, Karen Thomas, said: "I was absolutely delighted when Broadway House won these EAC awards. Every day our team goes beyond the call of duty to help our residents feel independent and part of a vibrant social community. Working alongside such wonderful people and in so lovely a setting is a real privilege and these celebrations are thoroughly deserved."

Since 2013, Broadway House has received 5 housing awards from the EAC.

Ben Shephard even commented on the celebrations on Twitter after being tagged in Silva's post.

This year, Liscombe House, another of Silva's independent living schemes, also won a Silver Award for Best Retirement Housing schemes, in the 31 – 36 units category.

Winners are chosen in a vote, which is open to all residents of all housing for later life schemes in the UK, as well as visitors and staff.

These awards are becoming increasingly competitive and this year a record 18990 votes were cast, nominating 1220 schemes managed by 190 organisations.

Last week, local housing association, Silva Homes, held the latest of its regular customer partnership events at the Hilton Hotel in Bracknell. The evening event featured a series of business updates, a Q&A session and presentations from executives and senior managers, an update from the chair of the customer partnership board, a talk by an award-winning wildlife documentary producer, and a quiz and raffle.

Silva’s chief executive, Alan Ward, who introduced the event before joining the Q&A panel, commented at the end of the evening: “Thank you to all our customers who attended this event. It has been fantastic to see so many people taking an interest in our activities and the changes we are undertaking to improve our services and deliver more affordable homes. We have exciting plans for the coming months and look forward to providing another update at the next event in March.”

Customers were particularly interested in the prospect of a new pet policy, which currently limits the ownership of certain pets, including dogs. The association has announced that, based on the results of a series of customer surveys, it has reassessed its existing policy and from January 2020 it aims to improve flexibility and equality for its customers who own or wish to own a pet.

Naheed Ejaz, chair of Silva’s customer partnership board, updated customers on the work they have been doing to influence the association’s customer-facing business decisions, making sure that customer views are taken into account.

Finally, guest speaker Dr Chadden Hunter, encouraged audience members to follow their dreams, by outlining his successful career as a wildlife documentary producer and director, a passion for which began as a child. His thought-provoking talk, with amazing film clips, prompted an emotional response from many audience members expressing an interest in doing more to protect the environment.

The evening ended with the team quiz with prizes for the winning teams plus a raffle for customers present who had registered for the association’s new customer portal, My Silva.

Silva’s next customer partnership event will take place on 8 March 2020.

Notes

About the customer partnership event

Silva hosts a customer partnership event twice each year, to thank its customers for their involvement and to provide an update on Silva’s services and business plans, in addition to enabling customers to provide feedback.

About the customer partnership board

The customer partnership board brings together Silva customers from across the association’s properties and has a significant influence over decision-making within the business. This includes working closely with Silva’s leadership team on the key issues that affect strategic direction and directing the business’ approach towards customer engagement, as well as informing decisions that affect Silva customers, their homes and communities.

About My Silva

My Silva is a self-service portal that Silva customers can use to quickly and easily request services and change their account details online. This was released in August, along with Silva’s new website, as part of the association’s business-wide transformation, ST21.

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A quality new housing development in Hook, Hampshire, will provide 87 affordable new homes. Local housebuilder Barratt Homes and Silva Homes have partnered to deliver the stylish new homes at the popular Oakwood Grange development on Griffin Way North.  

The brand new affordable homes will include one and two-bedroom apartments, and one, two, three and four-bedroom houses. The properties will be available for rental and Shared Ownership, with the first customers expected to move in over summer.

Lynnette St-Quintin (photographed left), Sales Director for Barratt Southern Counties, commented: “Oakwood Grange is an exciting new development of quality homes in Hook, and it is fantastic that we are able to work with Silva Homes to help deliver affordable housing for local buyers. In addition to Help to Buy, Shared Ownership is another great way to help buyers onto the property ladder, while rental options are ideal for tenants seeking a brand new home. We encourage potential homebuyers or renters to come and find out more about the various routes to homeownership and tenancy available to them.”

Laura Johnson (photographed centre), Executive Director of Investment & Growth for Silva Homes, said: “We are delighted to be working with Barratt David Wilson on this scheme, providing 87 high quality and much-needed homes for affordable rent and shared ownership to local people in Hart District.”

To find out more about Shared Ownership with Silva Homes, please email sales@silvahomes.co.uk or call 01344 382838.

For rental properties, residents should first register on Hart District Council’s choice based lettings system at www.hart.gov.uk/housing, then once registered and eligible, bid for the properties available.

For more information on all other properties, including those available with Help to Buy, contact Barratt Homes on 0333 355 8498 or visit www.barratthomes.co.uk

Kirsty, our Health and Safety Compliance Coordinator, is an avid rower and aspiring Paralympian. After an arm amputation in 2008, Kirsty struggled with body image-related anxiety, but since finding a passion in sports she has turned her life around.

Kirsty started rowing in April 2019 after participating in an advert for Parasports UK, sponsored by Toyota. This ad, which aired on Channel 4, promoted local activities for people with differences. Inspired, Kirsty joined Marlow Rowing Club’s (MRC) para-team and took to it like a duck to water. Kirsty has since won her first regatta at Marlow and is now hoping to try out for Team GB for the 2024 Paralympics.

When she isn’t on the river or in the gym, Kirsty can be found managing Silva’s Health & Safety schemes. She joined us in this role after experiencing supported living, where she learned to overcome the negative outlook of risk-assessments that were caused by her amputation.

Kirsty commented on her role at Silva: “It is so important that our customers feel safe in their homes. I enjoy using my own experience of self-risk assessment to support a diverse range of people every day and am so pleased to be able to pursue my passion for rowing around this work. I am excited to see what the future brings.”

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