Becca's Blog

Rebecca Barber, Wherry Apprentice Hi everybody, I'm Becca, currently doing an Apprenticeship with Wherry.

I'll be using this blog to tell you what I'm learning and how I'm getting on in the role, and hopefully to encourage young Wherry residents to apply for future apprentice positions at Wherry.

If anyone wants to ask me a question about my time at Wherry and my experiences then you can visit the Contact Us form and submit a message through there.

My time at Wherry so far...

Latest Update

All in all I think Wherry is a really good employer and what they do for the community is really beneficial to people in social housing. They are sympathetic to people's cases and do whatever they can to help and get a problem resolved as quickly as possible.

In the office everyone is really supportive, if I have something I would like to do in a certain department then my managers (Wendy White & Sue Lake from Customer Services) will do their best to arrange it for me.

If I ever have problems everyone is approachable and will do whatever they can to help.

I am also doing my NVQ in Business Administration which is really good as I am gaining a qualification on the job. I have to gather evidence to prove I can do certain things such as using specialised software, so I will have an NVQ at the end of my two years here, which will hopefully secure me a job at Wherry.

October, November & December

After spending September in the Income Team I came back to Customer Services to help out over the winter season.
As the weather gets worse we have more repairs to order for our tenants. During Winter the most common issues are no heating or hot water, burst water pipes, storage heaters not working effectively and drains becoming blocked due to freezing temperatures.
It can get very busy at times as we have so many people calling in trying to book repairs, we aim to answer every call as soon as possible but if we are really busy we now have a Voicemail Service which just requires you to leave your name, address, telephone number and a brief description of why your calling and we promise to call you back within an our of the voicemail being left.
So far I am really enjoying my time here at Wherry, I feel I have settled in and I have gained extensive knowledge of the services we provide to our tenants.
In the New Year I will be moving through to the Neighbourhood Team in the near future to help them with their Admin work.

September

Gillian McEwan, Former Tenant Arrears Officer During September I worked in the Income Team. I learnt about the rent process, including the different ways that residents can pay their rent, for example: over the phone, direct debit, coming into reception to pay by cash, cheque or card.
I did a lot of work with Gillian McEwan the Former Tenant Arrears Officer, hellping her to contact former tenants who had credit left over on their account so that we could re-imburse them.
This can be quite difficult as tenants don't always leave a forwarding address, in these cases Wherry will carry out a search through Experian to try and find out an up to date address where we could contact them to arrange their payment.
Where joint tenants had separated following the end of the tenancy we had to arrange to split the money between them, and if a tenant has passed away we had to arrange to see a copy of the death certificate and details of the executor of the estate in order to know where to make out the refund to.
I also went out to visit some tenants with the Income Officers and got to accompany them to court a few times when they were chasing rent arrears.
I learnt a lot about the legislation around rent and rent arrears, as well as the processes that are followed to deal with these issues.

July & August

Jo Coxford from the Resident Involvement Team Since the start of July I have been working in the Resident Involvement team.
I am really enjoying working in this department. I have been trusted with a lot of tasks such as organising the Community Hero Awards, sending out invites to meetings, booking rooms and food, booking taxi’s and also going along to these meetings, getting more involved with the tenants and helping them get their views across.

I took part in the second round of Neighbours' days in North Walsham, Sprowston, Ipswich, Cawston, Reepham and Peterborough. I really enjoyed it the second time round as I knew what to expect.
All the staff were fully prepared and residents were really pleased to see us, we were very happy with the feedback we received.

I have been really enjoying working in the Resident Involvement team as Jo Coxford and Sally Greetham are so friendly and helpful, I know that if I have any problems I can come to them for advice.
I am going to be disappointed to leave Resident Involvement but I hope that maybe in the future they will have me back.
In September I am going to be working with the Income Team which I am really looking forward to as I will find out all about the rent processes.

June

Young Residents Enjoying A Fun Day At the beginning of June I took part in the Wherry Neighbours Days, attending events in Thorpe Marriot, Horsham St Faiths, Cambridge and Kings Lynn.
I had a number of different roles over the week, including setting up any activities, surveying residents, face painting and serving drinks.
It was really nice to go around all the different areas that we have properties in and meet the tenants.

For the rest of June I covered Customer Services, booking peoples repairs and dealing with any day to day enquiries. I feel I have gained a lot of knowledge from working in the Customer Services Team.
I now have a good understanding of what tenants are calling about compared to before when I always had to ask a colleague if they knew what the repair was, now I feel I have the confidence to ask questions and research a little more to diagnose the problem.

May

During May I worked in the Property Team.

I went out to do some inspections with the surveyors, whose role is to go out and assess potential repairs. They visit residents' homes and inspect repairs, suggest ways to resolve repair issues and raise repairs if necessary.

It was really interesting to work in this department as I learnt a lot about what is done to maintain the properties, such as regular gas and electrical safety checks.

I also spent some time assisting the Neighbourhood Team in Terrington St Clement, particularly with the Neighbourhood Warden, to attend estate inspections, litter picks and residents meetings to suggest ways to improve the area.
We have been working closely with other landlords in the village, such as Freebridge Community Housing, Flagship - Peddars Way and Cotman Housing Association, to lead a piece of multi-agency work to create a Neighbourhood Charter for the area.
I believe that by all working together we can get deliver bigger results for the residents of Terrington.

April

I am now working in the Customer Service department for three days a week and the Neighbourhood department for the other two days, until the end of April.

My Managers, Wendy White & Sue Lake from Customer Services I really enjoy the mix fo the two, as I get to deal with the tenants and the repairs, and then in Neighbourhood I get to go out and do estate inspections, patch panels, tenancy health checks and fun days, and meet residents in person.

I have also been having days in reception and I have been really enjoying it, you have to take rent payments, control the switchboard, and help tenants and vistors when they come in.

In May I will be going to work in the Property team, which deals with the repairs and the upgrades process. I don't know what to expect at the moment, but I am looking forward to learning about another area.

I like doing a month in each department, it's helping me get a real overview of what Wherry is all about and what they do to help our tenants.

March

In late February and March I spent 4 weeks working with the Neighbourhood Team. I have really loved being in this department because you get to find out a lot about what happens on estates and with anti social behaviour cases.

Wherry's Community Wardens I have been out and about with a lot of the Neighbourhood Officers and Neighbourhood Wardens, getting to see a lot of properties that have problems of some sort in their area.

I have also been out to Terrington St Clement, near King's Lynn, a lot in the last few months, which i think is quite a nice area. A lot of work has been done there in the last 6 months and you can see a real improvement.

I was really surprised as to how seriously the anti social behaviour cases are dealt with. There is no messing about; it is dealt with as soon as possible, no matter how minor an incident might seem.

February

Danielle Thorne, Continuous Improvement Manager
In February I spent 3 weeks working with the Continuous Improvement department, which manages complaints, compliments and the performance information. I managed the complaints inbox and made sure they were assigned to the relevant people for responses.
I liked being in this department because I learnt a lot about the types of complaints that Wherry gets and really enjoyed working with Danielle Thorne & Mike Walker who taught me a lot.

January

In January I spent a lot of time working in Customer Services, buddied up with one of the Customer Services Advisors, Caroline Prosser.
Caroline Prosser, my buddy in Customer Services

In Customer Services I did a lot of different things including, listening into calls, updating spreadsheets, stuffing envelopes and I even got to spend a little bit of time on reception helping to run the switchboard and greet tenants.

I really enjyoed being on reception because you actually got to meet the tenants and put faces to some of the properties and areaas you hear about on the phone.

I also liked listening in to the calls, I have learnt so much about the repairs that take place in a home as I didn't realise there were so many different types of heating systems and showers!

Did you find what you were looking for? Please click here to give us your feedback.

Last modified 13/04/12