Corporate Team Brief October 2007

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Branding updateThe first re-branding of a Midland Heart office

has just been completed.The Wolverhampton office (previously

Touchstone) was the first to be transformed under

the programme to change all parts of the business

to Midland Heart.

Catherine Horn, who

is leading this

programme for the

Communications

Department, said that

all signage on offices

and vehicles would be

changed by the

beginning of

December.

“We are still collecting the needs of every scheme

across the organisation, with the aim of

completing the re-branding by the end of next

March. If your scheme has not been addressed

yet please bare with us as we are working as

quickly as possible,” she said.

The next phase of work will cover the branding of

the supported housing schemes (currently Focus

Futures).

“We know that some staff have queries regarding

who they say they work for during external meetings,

on email signatures and when answering telephone

calls. We are awaiting a Board decision on this and

will advise you as soon as possible. In the

meantime, continue as at present,” Catherine said.

If you have any further concerns, or know of something that needs re-branding which you think mayhave been overlooked, please contact Catherine Horn on 0121 666 5246 or another memberof the communications team.

Staff Christmas PartyThe staff Christmas party will be on

Friday 7th December 2007 at SecondCity Suite in Birmingham. Further

details will follow very soon and we dohope you will be able to join us.

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Continue to use current stocks of branded items

and when you reorder in the usual way you will

automatically receive the updated version when it

is ready.

Instructions explaining how email signatures can

be updated will be issued in December.

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The team deals with corporate tasks such as

organising events, managing communications with

councillors and MPs, branding, developing the web

site, producing the annual report and getting

Midland Heart’s name into the press.

In addition, they also support day-to-day

communications across the business, including

customer magazines, leaflets, staff communications,

managing our relationship with the media and

providing promotional gifts.

Sarah Bannister Head of Marketing and

Communications, said: “In the six months I have

been with Midland Heart I have had the opportunity

to work with teams in different areas of the business.

“Without exception, people want to deliver the very

best they can to our customers and they have been

doing a great job. They want to work together to

improve things even further and they often have

ideas they just need our support with.

“The job for my team is to listen, understand what

needs to be done, use their knowledge to advise on

the best way of achieving this and then help to

deliver the solution.

“Staff have found that the earlier they make contact

with the communications team, the greater the

assistance we can be.

“If you contact us at the planning stage, you will

often find that we have examples that can save you

from starting from scratch and where we do not, we

will develop something for you - be that a customer

leaflet or a formal strategy to form part of a new

business bid,” she explained.

The team have introduced new systems to make it

easier for you to contact them.

If you have a job that you would like help with or simply want some advice you can call0121 666 5253 or email communications@midlandheart.org.uk and speak to a member of the team.

The Communications team is pictured above. L/R:Sarah Bannister – Head of Marketing andCommunications, Lucy Taylor – Marketing andCommunications Officer, Katie Hunt – Web andIntranet Project Manager, Lloyd Constable -Marketing and Communications Officer, Simi Chopra Marketing and CommunicationsAssistant, Catherine Horn – Branding ProjectManager.

THE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

What can they do for you?Midland Heart’s communications team has been reorganised to ensurethat it can offer the best advice and support across the organisation.

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Housing winners and losersDetails of the Government’s ComprehensiveSpending Review - its cost commitmentsover the next three years - have beenannounced. They show a number of keyareas affecting the housing sector, including:

On the up

� New build social housing

� Infrastructure

� Growth area funding

� Community cohesion funding

� Planning tariff

Losing out

� Market Renewal Pathfinders

� Supporting People

� Private sector decent homes

� Respect Task Force

� Planning Gains Supplement.

As part of the review, 30 Public Service Agreements

have been set, of which the three key ones are:

� Increase the proportion of socially excluded

adults in settled accommodation and

employment, education and training

� Increase long-term housing supply and affordability

� Tackle poverty and promote greater independence

and well being in later life.

For more details please contact Midland Heart’s

Corporate Strategy team - corporatestrategy@midlandheart.org.uk - or go to the link below to

find chapters 1 and 6 and annexes D5 and D19.

http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/pbr_csr/report/pbr_csr07_repindex.cfm

New regulator

The government has announced that a new

independent regulatory body is to be created for the

social housing sector. Landlords will be scored on

their housing standards, rent levels and tenant

satisfaction rates, with the results being published.

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��

Do you want to sharpen up yourreading, writing

or maths?Or would you like to develop your

ability in a specialist area, such as carework or administration?

If so, then Midland Heart can help.

The group has signed up to a new government scheme called

Skills PledgeThis means that we will be helping

staff to improve their basic skills and work towards recognised qualifications.

If you do not have a NVQ level 2 qualification (equivalent to

five GCSE grade A – C) and are interested in getting training please contact Ayas Miah on

0121 666 5399 or email:ayas.miah@midlandheart.org.uk.

The Gas procurement project is progressingwell. PH Jones and E.ON are due to takeover work from existing contractors onMonday 5th November.

If you have any questions please contactstuart.edwards@midlandheart.org.uk

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ChristmasArrangements

Office Based Staff

Where teams wish to hold departmental or

team events then your proposals to your

Head of Department should fit with the

following, general guidelines:

� customer considerations and business

needs have been covered

� lunchtime meals will span no more

than 2.30 hours

� evening meals will not begin more than

1 hour before the normal finishing time

Office closing times

As the main offices will be closed between

24th December and 1st January due to Bank

holidays and the allocation of concessionary

days, offices will maintain normal closing

times on the last day before closure.

How are we doing?The Executive Board are currently

carrying out a stock take ofhow we are performing againstour key Corporate Plan priorities

for this year and planning forfuture demands.

Whilst our overall objectives and strategy is

not up for debate the review may require us to

modify some of our expectations of what we

can achieve because of external factors over

which we have no control – the changes in the

housing market for example.

We are aiming to complete the review by the

end of December and to help us get there we

will be taking a steer from the Board of

Management at the end of November.

Our preliminary work has identified some

internal priorities that we need to attend to to

help move us onto our agenda to transform our

services. These priorities include such things as

the quality of our data, consistency of service

and removing the confusions around our

various brands.

We have therefore decided to target some

additional resources to work on these issues

through our Passion8 programme so that we

can deliver solutions that will benefit us and

our customers more quickly.