I'm Robert, a Shared Ownership leaseholder living in Lambeth. I've been a resident at Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) for 15 years.
What can a typical day(s) look like?
I’m an NHS commissioner overseeing over 40 children’s services in Wandsworth. Often I’m doing a mixture of designing and setting up a new services for children with disabilities or complex health needs. I often visit schools and local authority offices to meet with staff and parents/ carers to check that our services are getting it right for families.
Sometimes I offer support if a service is going through difficulties or if an individual parent/carer has had a particularly negative experience; I believe in a no blame learning culture to improving services. We are currently preparing for a likely Ofsted inspection, so we are working with families and services to gather data and patient experiences of our services.
Why did you join the Resident Forum?
Change comes about through work of individual residents, groups of residents (associations) and via strategic forums. As a successful school leader and NHS commissioner I thought that I could bring some of my professional experience and skills to NHG, to support it to identify areas for improvement, to stop patterns and issues and to be more resident facing. Residents have an important role in helping NHG maintain high standards across our estates and communities.
What do you love about being a Notting Hill Genesis resident?
I love my seventh floor apartment with views across South London and the friendly community we have worked hard to build, of tenants and leaseholders. My life long friends have come from neighbours on my estate, some of whom have now moved abroad to the South of France, Mexico, Scotland, Portugal and Australia, or out of London. I have stayed in touch and had numerous holidays abroad with friends and neighbours.
What’s one thing you’d like to see Notting Hill Genesis improve?
NHG’s corporate strategy is inspiring in its commitment to resident ownership and the empowerment. However, this isn’t always reflected on the ground, where housing officers sometimes tell residents we have unrealistic expectations. Residents’ high standards must drive improvement.
What do you do in your spare time?
I have elderly parents/ carers who I visit each week and support on visits to the doctor and hospital. I also have a neice and nephew who I see regularly and take out to playgrounds around Lambeth. They particularly like the playground in Vauxhall Park.
My partner and I live together. He is Filipino and is a hairdresser and biomedical scientist. I usually work early and he works late, so we try to find precious time together in the evening to catch up and watch TV together. We go to the Philippines in January each year to visit our extended families.
