A North East organisation has invested a
pot of money in a bid to change doorstep assessments forever. GoWarm
Assessors have trialled hand held computers, which will now replace the
traditional paper-based assessment method. The assessors are visiting
households across the region to establish if there are any measures that
can be introduced into the home to ensure that it is as energy efficient
and comfortable as possible. Once a property has its measures installed,
the project team then help residents with a free benefits check.
Assessors
will now be able to input the assessment results directly into the hand
held terminal so the information is sent straight from people’s homes to
the GoWarm database. GoWarm appointed Universal Systems Solutions (USS),
a North Eastern IT company which installs and supports IT
infrastructures, to develop the software and the interface of the hand
held computers.
Stephanie Hansell, Assessing Manager,
GoWarm said: “Whilst there was a lot of work involved in ensuring that
the hand held’s captured the correct information and that they would
perform as we wanted, the training was in fact quite simple. The hand
held’s are so user friendly, the Assessors were comfortable using them
after a very short time!”
Karen Hindhaugh, Director, GoWarm, said:
“The main benefit of using the new hand held computer is that it is a
live system, which not only keeps us up-to-date with technology, but
also cuts out hours of data processing by our admin staff. Money
previously spent on data processing can now be redirected towards
ensuring that there are plenty of Assessors visiting households within
our designated areas.”
As well as speeding up the assessment
process, the terminals also act as safety devices for the Assessors who
are inputting household data live and on-site, and therefore, can be
exactly located by the GoWarm headquarters. GoWarm is an organisation
focusing on delivering insulation and heating measures, benefits
assistance and energy advice to home owners in communities across the
North East that so far have missed out on schemes offered by other
organisations.
Currently working in Chester Le Street,
Middlesbrough, Sedgefield, Stockton, City of Durham, Wear Valley,
Derwentside and Easington, GoWarm has just started in Redcar and
Teesdale.
Since the start of the year over 58,000
homes have been visited by GoWarm, who so far have installed measures in
13,000 homes. The benefits advice team has unlocked £300,000 for home
owners, and is on target to hit a total of £800,000 by the end of 2008.
GoWarm was launched with support from
DEFRA’s Community Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF) and has funding from
National Grid and ScottishPower.