Success at Kent Housing Group Excellence Awards

We're proud to announce that Donna Crust, Home Services Manager, has won Excellent Housing Professional of the Year at the Kent Housing Group Excellence Awards.

Donna was nominated for the award by her manager, June Heslop, for the impact she’s made since taking on the Home Services Manager role in October 2016.

Donna puts her success down to the support and teamwork of her colleagues:

“I was shocked and surprised to win the award. Although I always knew I had the customer service skills to do the job, I couldn’t have got this far without the help and support of the Ashford office team who have always been there for guidance and support.

Their knowledge, experience and patience has been invaluable and I couldn’t have got this far without them – especially as I have probably driven them mad with questions sometimes. Other departments have been just as helpful and particularly Sarah Dorrington and Van in the Customer Accounts and Payments Team which I think goes to show great team working within the Group.”

Some of the teamwork that helped Donna get recognised includes:

• Working with our Employment Skills Team to help a vulnerable and isolated customer back into work.
• Working with a customer who was unable to work following an industrial accident. The customer was £2,700 in arrears and hadn’t engaged with the Group. Donna referred the customer to Sarah Hampton, Employment Skills Officer, who helped him get an award to reduce the arrears to £500, and put in a benefits claim to get assistance with his rent.
• Working with the Financial Skills Team to help a customer in his probationary period maintain his tenancy. The customer had got into arrears due to an ongoing illness. Donna worked with the FSO to get a discretionary housing payment to clear the arrears.

Donna was presented with her award at a ceremony on 13 September.