During the second half of 2023, Fairoak undertook an exercise to re-define our core purpose, the reason why we exist as an organisation and the purpose for all our activities.
An instigation for us doing this was the Better Social Housing Review, commissioned jointly by the National Housing Federation and Chartered Institute of Housing to respond to widespread concerns about poor practice in the social housing sector.
At this point, we’ll borrow a few words from their report:
“All social housing should feel like a home for those who live there, a place for people to feel comfortable and safe, to live well and thrive.”
The statement that we at Fairoak arrived at, in consultation with our tenants, staff and Board, and which we believe best describes our core purpose and are all fully committed to, is: ‘Providing the Keys to Happy, Healthy Homes’.
It may be short and succinct but delve a little deeper and these words take on new resonance.
‘Providing the Keys’ relates to promoting the independence of our tenants, all of whom have a learning disability and/or autism. Their homes are just that: their own homes, where they can live independently, with the support they need, in their local communities.
It may sound much of a given but it wasn’t too long ago that many people with learning disabilities or autism didn’t enjoy such freedom. On the contrary, many of those who were not living at home with their families were in secure accommodation with little or no choice in where or how they lived their lives.
Even in our lifetime, a significant number of people with learning disabilities were consigned to specialist residential institutions and segregated from their communities.
Sadly, this continues to be the case for some people even today, and at Fairoak we strongly believe that these initial three words carry great gravitas and are the foundation for everything we strive to achieve.
The second part of the statement, ‘Happy, Healthy Homes’, may sound rather light-hearted but it is also grounded in firm beliefs and principles.
We want all our tenants to be happy where they live, to feel safe in their homes and have as much choice as possible in the type, location and tenure of their property.
This starts with their application when we ask where they would like to live, if they would like to live by themselves or in a shared property, whether they would prefer to own or rent and any particular requirements they would need in their home.
Where requested, we will also work with families, carers and other professionals who know the person best to make sure that we meet individual needs.
Healthy homes is such a crucial element of our core purpose and one needs only to be reminded of Awaab’s Law to appreciate the responsibility of landlords to ensure our properties are well maintained and free of hazards.
Ensuring that our homes are in good condition, well maintained and safe is where Fairoak goes above and beyond, and something we take great pride in.
Having a home where we feel safe is something that most of us take for granted and at Fairoak we witness time and again how the right physical environment can positively impact both people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
We appreciate that ours is a relatively small specialist housing association with an equally small team (certainly when compared to regional and national social housing providers).
We have ambition to continue to develop new homes, but never at the expense of our existing tenants and in the past two years we have invested in new roles of Customer Engagement Officer, Asset & Compliance Manager and more recently a Repairs & Maintenance Operative to ensure that we continue to meet our core purpose.
To conclude this piece, and thank you for taking the time to read, we hope you can appreciate why these words are more than just a clever strapline and, genuinely, reflect Fairoak’s culture, values and beliefs.
Article references and further reading:
The Better Social Housing Review
Government to Deliver Awaab’s Law (Gov.uk/government/news)
History of Learning Disability Nursing (Royal College of Nursing, 2022)
Timeline of Learning Disability History (The Open University)
Social History of Learning Disability (Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability)