Safeguarding vulnerable customers

Our vision We are dedicated to keeping our customers safe and warm by leading the way in energy delivery. So much so it’s embedded in our company vision. But one thing we have come to realise, is while we do a great job keeping the gas flowing to make sure our customers safe and warm in their homes, there are many groups of vulnerable customers out there who do need extra help to stay safe and warm. Safety is our number one priority and always will be. This winter is predicted to be the worst in 50 years, which if it happens will bring challenges for us all

Our safeguarding package What more are we doing? Our safeguarding package Of course there’s always more that can be done to help vulnerable people and this morning I’d like to touch on four key aspects of our safeguarding package - which we’ve put together with our partner organisations and particularly inspired by the charity “Dying to keep warm”

1. Dementia awareness training The first is dementia awareness training.   It wasn’t really that long ago when no one spoke about dementia and let’s be honest, none of us really knew how wide-spread an issue it was. So why are we getting involved in dementia awareness training? Our frontline staff are keen to understand what more they could do so after a bit of digging we discovered the Care Commission training package. It lasts about an hour but has gone a long way in helping our engineers understand the real issues people face and we are now equipped to look for the signs and adapt our actions and conversations.

2. Customer helpline We developed our customer helpline so we could highlight where a customer we’re visiting might need extra help. We’re trialling the service with Fife council who have a one-stop-shop for referrals which in turn, feeds into over 40 safeguarding organisations.   I would just like to tell you about one lady we helped. She reported a gas emergency and while chatting to her, our engineer found she had various medical conditions, lived alone and her husband was in a local care home with dementia. With her permission he referred her to our customer helpline and she now benefits from help through a local support group. On top of this we’ve now placed PSR information on our safety leaflets, taking referrals through our Customer Service team and passing them on to the relevant bodies.

3. Locking cooker valve Something we’re particularly proud of wasn’t a new idea in itself, it just had become a forgotten service through gas industry changes over the years. The locking cooker valve is something we want to deliver as an embedded service – This simple device allows a relative or carer to simply lock-off the gas supply to the cooker. I would just like to tell you a story about one customer Freda is 83 years old and lives with her daughter in a block of flats in Dundee. She has been diagnosed with dementia for some time now but her daughter has to work part-time to keep the family together. Freda is old-school and thinks it’s important she helps not only with household tasks, but the cooking as well. Freda had to be referred to the Occupational therapy service for assessment as unfortunately on several occasions she didn’t use the gas cooker safely, she really struggled to light the cooker, releasing gas into the kitchen and other times badly burnt pots. Up to then it was just luck she hadn’t been seriously injured. So a home safety visit was arranged by Scottish fire and Rescue, along with the occupational therapist and Freda’s daughter Everyone agreed that risks around Freda cooking needed to be addressed and so the locking cooker valve seemed an obvious solution. Still allowing Freda to cook on a familiar appliance but only when her daughter was there. It was a win-win – Freda’s daughter knows her mother is safe while she’s out and Freda still feels valued as she continues to cook for her and her daughter, and that’s just one example.

4. Training for care workers Finally our gas training package for care workers doesn’t need much further explanation from me as it does exactly what it says on the tin. What’s interesting however, it came about following feedback from our partner organisations that care workers needed more training to recognise unsafe gas situations.   These included assessing if a living room has to become a bedroom, is the gas appliance suitable. Recognising signs of appliance misuse and also looking for that silent killer by recognising signs of carbon monoxide. We’ve been developing training material in partnership with the care sector aimed at every level, from hospital discharge staff, social workers, occupational therapists right to front-line care workers. Our ambition, which we are confident is achievable, is for this training to become QCV accredited and a statutory element of care sector training across Scotland and the whole of the UK.

Thank you We hope our four initiatives can make a difference and we are looking for your support to roll them out across the whole of Scotland and in collaboration with our colleagues in the other gas networks across the UK.