Our social commitment

We have always been committed to being more than just a landlord by focusing on community cohesion and helping to improve the environmental, social and economic outlook for the communities in which we work.

For the last four years we have maintained the highest expenditure in neighbourhood services again when compared to our peer group by the Housing Data Lab. This support includes our Be Kind Fund and communities work but also extends to our subsidy of our LifeLine and Care services which are delivered not for commercial benefit but to provide meaningful employment for around 130 people in our neighbourhoods and a service that is invaluable to residents wanting to maintain their independence and tenancies.

Below are just some examples of the work done under our Community Investment programme and you can find more examples of the activities that are currently running in our communities to support:

You can also find out more about the support we provided to people in 2024/25 in our Residents Report.

We produce a report to calculate the Social Return on Investment from our Community Investment activities, using the calculations provided by the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT). Overall it has been determined that our community investment activities in the financial year 2024/25 had the potential to achieve in the region of £17,052,835 in social value. We have calculated at least £85,072.60 has been spent by CKH to achieve these incomes, meaning a total social value return of £16,967,762.40.

This means, for every pound we invested we delivered a social return of £200.45.

Read our full Social Return on Investment report

Employability and training

We are passionate about supporting people into work. Our Careers Clubs run at various locations around the city and offer targeted support with CV writing, confidence building and interview skills.

In 2024/25 242 people attended our Careers Club. Of those 121 were confirmed as going into work, with 60 getting full time jobs and 42 getting part time roles.

We also delivered training courses as well as referring participants into external training courses including courses held at our community hubs. Our own training courses include health and safety at work, emergency first aid at work, manual handling and food hygiene – all designed to give people skills and qualifications to support the move into work. A total of 499 employability training outcomes were delivered across the financial year.

We provided targeted employability support for under 25’s and achieved 26 job outcomes for under 25’s in the financial year. We also provided targeted employability support for parents and achieved 9 job outcomes. Employability advice and guidance support was delivered in schools and education settings to 1,214 individual children.

We work hard to tackle digital exclusion and our Learn My Way programme supported 22 people to get online in 2024-25. We also supported 57 people with our general IT courses.

We also provide courses and support at our hubs for people to improve their functional skills including English and Maths with 30 individuals completing courses.

 

Two women laugh while looking at a laptop

Spotlight on... Making Space

Illustration of a spotlight and beam of light and the words spotlight on...It is estimated that hoarding behaviour affects between 2 and 6% of the population. Extreme hoarding leads to health and safety implications for the resident and their neighbours and can have significant impacts on the individual and their families, affecting their mental health and leading to increased social isolation.

CKH residents who display hoarding behaviour are supported by our own Tenancy Sustainment Team, who, through direct operational experience, training and further reading have an enhanced understanding of this behaviour and ways of trying to tackle the challenges it brings.  That said, hoarding is a very complex and comparatively under-researched area of work, and it was found that tools and other professionals’ confidences in dealing with this were either not available or inconsistently applied in the city, and therefore further approaches were required.

We decided we needed to offer our own support to those affected by hoarding and designed our Making Space group based around the evidence-based approach outlined in ‘Buried in Treasures’. The programme offers a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based step-by-step programme aimed at helping people overcome hoarding and compulsive acquiring. It aims for participants to understand the severity of hoarding, identify common pitfalls, challenge unhelpful beliefs and to support the identification of and use of organisational tools. It is delivered via two hour sessions over a 15-17 week period.

Three cohorts of residents have now completed the programme, with 14 individuals accessing support. On average, participants reported improvements in all measurable areas. Across the 24 data points [acquisition, difficulty discarding and clutter, for eight participants who completed the course], 80% saw a reduction; the remaining 20% remained the same. All participants saw a reduction in at least one of the data points.

But the real outcomes are not just about the numbers but the improvements in participants’ lives:

I would like to thank you very much. You have helped me a lot and I have learnt a lot about myself and my way of living.

 

I found this group very informative and helpful. It allowed me to gain more awareness of my hoarding.

 

I now not only have a better understanding of hoarding, but also know how to deal with it.

We have subsequently introduced our ‘Maintaining Space’ follow on group with a greater focus on peer support, enabling participants to continue their journey to a clutter free life.

Inspiring the next generation

One of the corner stones of our community investment strategy is inspiring the next generation – giving extra support to young people to give them the best  possible start in life.

This year, we once again supported 80 young people from eight schools around Peterborough to take part in the Tall Ships voyage where they spend a week crewing sailing boats, working together as a crew to grow their confidence and communication skills. 

Our Park Rangers work experience programme, delivered in partnership with Nene Park and Froglife, is a great opportunity for young people to try something new and think about how they can grow a career in the great outdoors. We also now have a programme of employment support just for young people and work closely with the Job Centre and other agencies to make sure we are getting our support to the right people.