Specialist older people’s housing has been developed over the years through a mix of registered providers and charitable organisations of various sizes.
For small charities and almshouses such as ourselves the need for authoritative and comprehensive sources of information to assist us in providing an effective housing support service is paramount. Erosh membership enables us at a senior management level to access up to date research from leading commentators in the sector covering a range of customer relevant subject areas from Safeguarding to Mobility Vehicles to Fire Safety. The briefings from erosh provide us with valuable guidance to help us to create and implement our own policies and procedures and keep abreast of changing legislation and Government policy as our size prohibits us from having the specialist staff to source this information within the organisation. We also have the opportunity to feed into the charity’s submissions to government inquiries as part of a sector wide response and have our voice heard despite our size.
For our small number of scheme staff working often in isolation the erosh discussion pages give them an opportunity to harness the knowledge and experience from colleagues working in larger organisations and bring their solutions and good practice into their work.
For our Trust our erosh membership also provides us with access to relevant training courses and conferences for staff of all levels which we would not be able to access otherwise. These courses assist staff to not only to gain valuable current knowledge and practice but also network with colleagues from other providers developing relationships.
The regional network meetings provide us with further opportunities to meet other providers and gain information from guest speakers, visit other schemes and discuss current issues with other front line staff and managers.
Our membership is excellent value for money for our small Trust to enable it to continue to provide effective housing support to our residents.
