Welcome to the summer edition of our ezine with news and updates from Cottsway’s Communities Team. The evenings are lighter, the weather is warmer and there’s plenty going on.
Law experience for young Cottsway customers Do you know a young person aged 16-18 living in a Cottsway home who would like to find out more about a career in law?
We’re thrilled to be working with Oxford-based law firm Blake Morgan to offer two places for their Growing Ambitions scheme, from Monday 29 July-Friday 2 August.
Attendees will get the chance to: - Experience ‘a day in the life’ of a lawyer.
- Meet some of the company’s trainees and learn how they started their careers in law.
- Learn about the various routes into law, including Cilex, vocational training contracts and solicitor apprenticeships.
- Hear about a range of careers, with talks from a barrister, the marketing department and Thames Valley Police (subject to availability).
- Meet with the human resources team for advice on CVs, interview techniques and completing application forms
We're offering this to our customers who have signed up to this ezine first so if you know a young Cottsway customer who is interested in applying, please email us by next Thursday, 6 June: FREE annual Play & Activity Days for families We’re pleased to help Oxfordshire Play Association (OPA) with a grant from our Community Fund to support them in providing FREE play days* for families in West Oxfordshire over the summer. We’ll be at some of these events with craft activities, so please come and see us!
Dates for your diaries - Eynsham Play & Activity Day - Friday 26 July, 11am-3pm, Oxford Road Playing Field (pavilion side), Eynsham OX29 4HG
- RAF Brize Norton/Carterton Play & Activity Day – Saturday 27July, 11am-3pm, Alvescot Road Recreation Ground, Carterton, OX18 3BS
- Witney Play & Activity Day - Thursday 1 August,11am-3pm, West Witney Sports Ground, Witney, OX28 0NB
*Please note that no childcare is provided and events may be photographed. Food and refreshments can be purchased, or you’re welcome to bring your own picnic. Community clear-up days - Cirencester and Witney We were joined by residents at Shepherds Way, Cirencester, in April and more recently on the Witney Mills estate, in Witney, to help clear unwanted household items and discarded rubbish from the local areas.
Four skips were filled in Cirencester and two at Witney Mills leaving both neighbourhoods tidier and helping residents who would otherwise struggle to dispose of bulky items.
We’re working on our schedule for the rest of the year: Patch changes for Neighbourhood Housing Officers Following some staff changes, we’ve recently reshuffled the areas that our Neighbourhood Housing Officers (NHOs) look after so you may have a new NHO in your neighbourhood. Help us improve communication about service charges We are still recruiting customers to a small working group to help look at how we can better communicate with you about service charges. The group will be online so if you are interested in finding out more about service charges and improving our approach please get in touch. Be prepared for the digital phone switchover Between now and 2025, most telephone providers will be moving their customers from old analogue landlines over to new upgraded landline services using digital technology.
For the majority of households, this change will be straightforward, and your phone company should contact you directly about this. However, you should get in touch with your provider for advice now if you: - Have a telecare device such as a fall monitor, lifeline or personal alarm.
- Don’t have a mobile phone and rely on your analogue phoneline in an emergency – as the new digital service won’t work if there is a power cut.
How are we performing? We recently completed our first full year of customer surveys using the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) introduced last year. We’re pleased to report an overall satisfaction rate of 87%.
Our annual results will be submitted to the Regulator for Social Housing for comparison against the results of other social landlords and they will publish these later this year. We publish our quarterly results and other performance information, including customer feedback, on our website. Food bank referrals
Since our last ezine in March, we have made over 80 referrals to local food banks. If you need a referral, please contact us and we will do our best to help. Pay-per-use electric vehicle hire trial Oxfordshire residents can hire an electric vehicle from just £5 per hour plus a per-mile charge (typically 13p per mile) as part of a trial being held by local councils.
The EV car club pilot scheme offers shared use of electric vehicles to residents across Oxfordshire, with pay-per-use vehicles available from an hour to a few days. The vehicles are based at various locations across the county including in Eynsham and Witney. The pilot is running until September and if successful, could be rolled out further. FREE mental health and suicide prevention training If you work as a volunteer in Oxfordshire, you may be able to benefit from FREE Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training being run by Oxfordshire Mind. Training is being provided for volunteers and professionals at locations across the county as part of the scheme, commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council. Increasing biodiversity We are keen to work with customers to increase the biodiversity in neighbourhoods through work such as wildflower planting and installing bird boxes. Please get in touch if you have an idea and would like to get involved. And finally, a few quick links if you’re interested: | 
