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About us and Accessibility

Home » About us and Accessibility » About us and Accessibility

[Image: What we do]

What we do

[Image: Where we operate]

Where we operate

[Image: Vision, Values & Priorities]

Purpose, Objectives and Principles

[Image: Group Business Plan 2005-2008]

Group Business Plan 2009-2012

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Accessibility

The Group is led by Arcadia Housing Limited, which provides strategic direction and offers central/business support services to companies within the Group.

Knightstone Housing Association is the main subsidiary. Knightstone is a Registered Social Landlord and one of the largest independent providers of affordable homes in the south and west of England.

It has made a major contribution to meeting housing needs in the region for 35 years. In partnership with the local authorities in the region, Knightstone is a leader in:

• developing and managing affordable homes for rent,
• providing supported housing services,
• sheltered housing for the elderly,
• services to leaseholders and
• running Government-funded schemes, such as HomeBuy, to help first-time buyers buy their own homes.

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You can find out more about Knightstone, its services and access resident services for all the companies within the Group at www.knightstone.co.uk. For job opportunities within any of our Group companies, you'll need to visit our specialist recruitment site.

Other companies within the Group include:

• Knightstone Community Homes, also a Registered Social Landlord
• Knightstone Charitable, a fund raising and grant body
• Great Western Assured Growth, a Plc, and
• Arc Developments South West, another Plc, which is a new commercial development company.

Our commitment and success in delivering housing, property and support services to our customers means that the Group now manages over 11,000 homes in the region.

At the heart of our approach is our main aim of delivering better quality, better value services to all of our 24,000 residents, our local authority partners and our other customers. Allied to that is a desire to keep our rents at affordable levels, reinvest in the long-term maintenance of our homes and, above all, deliver excellent customer service.

We try to understand and meet the diverse needs of all our customers. We are also committed to equality of opportunity in access to those services and to looking after the well-being of our more vulnerable and disadvantaged residents.

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 What we do

We are a dynamic group and have been involved in most housing initiatives over the last 35 years. We employ around 440 staff in our central offices, our local offices and in the many sheltered and supported housing schemes throughout the region. In total, we have homes in, and provide services to, 38 Local Authorities across the south and west as well as to 47 social landlords, health authorities and other agencies.

Altogether, the Group’s companies provide housing management and support services to our 24,000 residents and homeowners.

The majority of our properties are family accommodation for rent, but we are also a major developer of shared ownership schemes (part buy/part rent) and other home ownership initiatives and we provide sheltered accommodation for the elderly.

We have a substantial supported housing portfolio, including:

• Floating support services
• Two Foyers providing support for young people
• A women's refuge
• Rough sleepers' hostels.

In addition, we have over 60 tenancy support workers who work with our residents and others to help them maintain their tenancies with us or other landlords.

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Where we operate

The Group operates across the south and west, working in partnership with 38 Local Authorities from Worcester to Weymouth, and from Minehead to Marlborough. Click here for a map of our area.

The Group's Central Office (Corporate Services, Finance, Housing/Supported Housing central support, Development and Homeownership) is in Worle, Weston-super-Mare. A location map can be found at the foot of this page.

Knightstone Housing staff operate from a network of offices. These are in:

  • Bristol
  • Taunton
  • Chippenham
  • Poole

    Click here for contact details.

    In addition, staff work in our many supported housing and sheltered housing schemes and in our larger neighbourhoods throughout the region.

  •  Purpose, Objectives and Principles

    ONE PURPOSE:

    To give our customers a great service.

    THREE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

    1. Doing what matters most to customers.
    2. Investing in homes and communities.
    3. Making our business stronger for the future.

    NINE OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES:

    1. Understanding our customers.
    2. Doing the basics really well.
    3. Making our services accessible.
    4. Investing in neighbourhoods.
    5. Improving existing homes.
    6. Building new homes.
    7. Creating financial capacity.
    8. Investing in our people.
    9. Promoting what we do well.

    FOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

    1. Putting customers first.
    2. Getting it right first time.
    3. Working together and valuing each other.
    4. A ‘can do’ approach.

    Group Business Plan 2009-2012

    The Arcadia Housing Group's Business Plan for the period 2009-2012 Giving great service was launched in July 2009. To view or download a copy, please click on the link at the end of this page.

    Accessibility Making sure our information is accessible to all

    Introduction

    Arcadia Housing is committed to a policy of equal access to information. 

    We are trying to ensure that our website is as accessible to people as possible.

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organisations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards.

    Our website has achieved W3C's Web accessibility standards.

    Contents

    You can find out on this page how we are making our information and website easier for everyone to use.

    Languages

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    We use Language Line to meet the needs of our customers whose first language is not English. This is a telephone interpreting service so you can speak to someone with the help of an interpreter.

    We can provide our leaflets in Chinese, Gujarati, Somali, Polish, Potuguese or Arabic. If you would like to have a leaflet translated into one of these languages please let us know.

    We have also a link on each page to Altavista’s Babelfish translation services – this will translate the website into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Potuguese, Russian and Spanish.

    To translate Arcadia's website into one of these languages click on the Babelfish link and type www.arcadiahousing.co.uk into the box, then choose your language from the drop down menu. The translation service will automatically convert the Arcadia website into that language.

    This type of automatic translation should be understandable but we cannot guarantee that the translation of our site is completely accurate.

    Braille

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    We are able to provide information in Braille where needed.

     

     

    Large print

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    If you would like information in large print please ask your housing officer or scheme manager.

    If you would like our web-pages to be in larger print you can change the size of the text by clicking on the magnifying glass where it says ‘Change font size’.

    Audio

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    If you would like information on audio tape or CD please ask your housing officer or scheme manager.

     

    Browsealoud

  • We have added software to our website called Browsealoud. When you activate it, it will read out the web pages for you. You will need speakers in or on your computer to be able to hear it.

    It is FREE for residents and other people to use. It also lets you listen to other websites which use Browsealoud as well - look out for the Browsealoud logo which is at the bottom of this page.

    Using Browsealoud is particularly useful for people with low literacy skills; dyslexia; mild visual impairment and for those people whose first language is not English.

    Please click on this link to go to the Browsealoud website to download the FREE software and get further advice.

  • View the document: Location map
    Download the document: Location map


    View the document: Arcadia Housing Group Business Plan 2009-2012
    Download the document: Arcadia Housing Group Business Plan 2009-2012



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