Extra support at Eden Park

On Monday 13 May, Eden Park worked together with the PA's very own Income and Tenancy Sustainment Teams (TST) to host a drop-in session for all residents at the service.

Zoe Barfield and Samantha Holman from the team were due to attend to support with benefits, rent accounts, funding sources, and lots more., but there was so much interest in the event that we decided to operate an appointment system! Zoe and Sam had back-to-back appointments all day, seeing 11 of our 13 residents. This was an amazing outcome and very beneficial to PA, Eden Park, and our residents.

Feedback was very positive and engagement in the meetings showed that residents were interested in benefitting from Zoe and Sam's expertise. 10 of the 11 clients set up direct debits in line with their benefit pay days to ensure consistent rent payments on a monthly basis. They also agreed to a check of their entitlements and those struggling financially were allocated food vouchers as well as utility support. Any residents not signed up to My PA were also supported to do so and the benefits of Lightning Reach were reiterated to all.

It was a great opportunity for Eden Park staff and TST to meet face to face and share best practice moving forward. Having a named person as our go-to for future queries and issues that arise will be very helpful too.