Trafford Housing Trust's Caretaking Team are made up of mobile
caretakers, block caretakers, estate caretakers and our very own 'a
team' (who deal with bulk refuse). Here we have a snap-shot of what
a day is like for a caretaker working in Trafford.
Time for us Mobile Caretakers to make sure we
have got plenty of water in the van for today's work!
We are off to the first block of walk up flats now, where we
start dusting and mopping. We find two large
wardrobes that have been left in the hallway. That's a fire hazard
and dangerous to other residents so we make a quick call to our
Neighbourhood Partner who arranges a notice to go out to all
residents warning them that the wardrobes will be disposed of if
they are not removed from the communal area.
Okay, that's the first block done and now it's time to go and do
some deck scrubbing at a block that needs some
extra attention. These decks haven't been cleaned for a while so we
give them a good clean. One of the windows is cracked at this block
so we call the Customer Hub who log a repair for it to be fixed as
soon as possible.
We have a short break at 10am and meet with the nearest
high-rise block Caretaker in his office. After cleaning the lift
and foyer this morning, he went to do his block inspection and
found a homeless person sleeping in one of the communal
hallways.
He phoned the office and one of the team have arranged for a
Housing Options Officer to come out and have a chat with him to see
whether there is any support we can offer. The Caretaker checked
the communal entry doors to find out how the gentleman got into the
block. No doors appear broken so he asks his Neighbourhood Partner
for a polite reminder to go out to all residents to be careful who
they let in.
At the next block as we are cleaning, the A
Team pull up outside. They are delivering grit bins to some of the
areas and re-stocking some of the empty ones after this year's snow
hit again. You just never know with the weather these days! The
Neighbourhood Partner rings again and asks for us to come in the
office for a last minute briefing this afternoon. We wrap up at
this block and go for lunch.
The briefing is to advise us of some of the things happening at
Trafford Housing Trust. On Friday, there is a dress down day for
charity. Caretakers always wear their uniform, especially boots for
safety, but we are happy to pitch in raising money.
After lunch, we are off to one of our estates following a
request from local residents to have a communal site improved with
some plants and a garden feature. Sometimes we get
time at the end of the week to do project work to improve the
community where we work. This site looks like the perfect area to
be improved so we contact the Neighbourhood Partner to discuss
implementing the project.
There are two more blocks on the list which we have to ensure
are cleaned today so that the two-weekly service level is achieved
for our customers. When we arrive at the last block, we realise
that the bin chute is blocked. After 20 minutes of trying to
unblock the chute, we call to ask the Estate Caretaker to help us
out so that we don't fall behind. With three of us on the job, the
chute is unblocked in no time and once we have
finished cleaning the block we return the favour by helping the
Estate Caretaker finish the fence he was painting when we
called.
Last block now and a resident asks us for some help. She is
elderly and can't move her old TV down the stairs. We oblige and
then arrange for the A Team to pick it up. We aren't contracted to
deal with individual removals but when a tenant is vulnerable, we
will make the odd exception to go the extra mile. The resident also
told us that her neighbour is letting her dog urinate in the
stairway. We inspected the area and removed the mess. We also
advised the Home Living Advisor of the complaint so that they can
take the necessary action. The elderly lady tells us that she had a
fall recently which has knocked her confidence. We talk to her
about our Support Services, make a note to refer
her to our Telecare Officer who will visit to see what can be
fitted in her home to reduce the risk of her falling again and talk
about a pendant alarm which would mean she can send out a distress
signal if she falls again so we can get help out to her quickly.
She hadn't realised we could offer this service and she
seems really happy that we might be able to help in this
way.
We finish the block and its 4pm. Time to go home for a
hard-earned rest before we start again tomorrow!
We hope you enjoyed this snap-shot of a day with the
caretakers.