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Newlon Housing Trust

Accessing our services

Assistance and support with accessing our services

As your housing provider it is very important that residents are able to access services easily and effectively and that we can take into account people’s diverse needs. How we do this can take many different forms. Some of the most common ways we can provide assistance are listed below.

For people with sight loss we can provide documents and information in alternative formats including:
• Braille.
• Large print.
• Audio.
• In most instances we can also provide documents with varying contrast colours if this is helpful.

Easy Read versions – to make information easier to understand we can provide Easy Read documents which include simplified text and often use more pictures to help show what something is about.

Assistance for people with hearing loss or tinnitus:
Relay UK – you can use Relay UK to contact us. This is a service which helps deaf, speech-impaired and hearing people talk to each other over the phone using the relay service. You can find more information at www.relayuk.bt.com. This service is provided 24/7 and can be used to contact us for out of hours emergencies.
Sign language interpreters – in cases where people with hearing loss require more support we can arrange for an approved sign language interpreter to assist. Please note this will always require some notice to arrange. We can also work with your own sign language provider but for any complex or formal issues they would need to be NRCPD registered.

Making reasonable adjustments
As part of our commitments under the Equality Act 2010 we are required to make reasonable adjustments to assist residents with disabilities to access our services. These can range from providing wheelchair access to our offices to installing aids and adaptions in people’s homes, such as grab rails to assist with mobility issues or vibrating doorbells for people with hearing loss. Follow the link to find more detail on our approach to reasonable adjustments and on our approach to aids and adaptations.

Disabilities and diverse needs can often mean that people are more vulnerable and we follow a combined approach to recognising and supporting people with vulnerabilities and making reasonable adjustments where required. In some instances we provide enhanced service standards for vulnerable residents and in all cases we should be taking people’s specific needs into account when providing services.

Please let us know if you need additional support
If we do not know that you have a vulnerability or additional needs we will not be able to provide the services you need. Everyone’s circumstance are different and can change over time. If your circumstances change or you need additional support please tell us so we can update the information we hold about you. You can let us know about this in a number of ways:

By emailing customerservice@newlon.org.uk.
By calling our Service Centre on 020 7613 8080.
If you need documents in another format you can call us on 020 7613 8091.
If you need support with accessing services, reasonable adjustments or aids and adaptations please call our Service Centre or email customerservice@newlon.org.uk.
If you need urgent support please always call us in the first instance.

Assistance with contacting us
If you need additional support and assistance to help when contacting us we can agree for an advocate to do this on your behalf. 

Someone to speak up for you – advocacy
Did you know that if you find it hard to speak up, you can nominate someone to be an advocate for you and they can discuss matters on your behalf?

For example, they can:
• Discuss matters on your behalf.
• Write letters and emails for you.
• Attend meetings with you.
In order for an advocate to discuss matters on your behalf we would need to have a signed permission letter on record. An email giving permission for someone to be an advocate is not sufficient. The reason we ask for signed consent is to provide some protection for our residents and for ourselves.

We may discuss all areas of the resident’s files with the nominated advocate but we would not disclose their bank details.

Where the advocate is not acting in the best interests of the resident, the staff member with concerns will discuss this with their manager and the lead safeguarding officer. If you would like someone to be your advocate and to discuss matters on your behalf please contact us by emailing customerservice@newlon.org.uk or call our Service Centre on 020 7613 8080.