Lending a Helping Hand to Elderly Residents

ELDERLY residents in the east end of Newcastle now have access to a new handyman service after a local charity was awarded a £30,000 contract by Newcastle City Council.

Caring Hands, a charity supporting elderly people across Newcastle,attended Compete North East’s Policy Development workshop in December last year and attributes its successful contract application, in part, to the advice it received.

Based in Shieldfield and a registered charity since 1994, Caring Hands is run by just a few paid members of staff  and relies on over 25 volunteers to carry out its work. It provides a range of services including laundry, lunch club, counselling, benefits advice, aromatherapy and handyman services.

The £30,000 contract from Newcastle City Council will allow the charity to extend its handyman service to residents in the east end of the city for the next two years.

Handyman Ray Cushing, 53, said the jobs they carry out for elderly and disabled people ranged from just changing a light bulb to major decorating and gardening work.

“It is good to see what a difference doing a simple task for someone who can’t do it for themselves can make – from fitting a curtain pole to decorating a room.”

Caring Hands attended one of Compete North East’s series of Policy Development Workshops in December last year. Compete North East, a procurement support service, offers North East businesses advice, support and assistance to identify and win public and private sector contract opportunities.

The advice and information that Caring Hands received at the workshop enabled them to complete the pre-qualifying question section of the tender process, compiling and creating the policies they needed in place to fulfil the criteria.

Dawn Henderson, manager at Caring Hands said: “I was half way through completing the tendering process for the contract application when I attended the workshop. It became apparent that my existing policies needed to be refined and I put in to practice the advice I had received almost immediately.

“As a small charitable organisation we don’t have a lot of money to spend on this kind of thing but it really was brilliant, informative and great value for money.

“It’s fantastic that we have been awarded this contract and our handyman service can reach more elderly people. Now we have completed the PQQ tender process we have our foot in the door. Hopefully we can build on this success and win even more contracts to support our work.”

Paul Taylor, Compete North East adviser said: “Caring Hands is an excellent example of how working with us can improve a business or a charity’s chances of success. Compete North East is here to help the North East business community become more effective in competing for contract opportunities.”

“Since launching in 2009 we have helped the region’s businesses secure £40m of contracts. It’s a vital resource for the region and one that any business can access.”

As well as running an extensive programme of workshops, Compete North East sources private and public sector procurement opportunities from  the dedicated e-portal CompeteFor.

Publish by: amy.watson on May 19, 2011