Near Me Video Appointments in Housing

Posted Wednesday 12th May by Admin User

Near Me video appointments is a free service available to all social landlords, including local authorities, housing associations and co-operatives, regardless of the organisation’s size. In this article, we discuss the collaborative pilot and SFHA's recruitment opportunity for a 'Near Me in Housing' Project Lead. 

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Near Me video appointments is a free service available to all social landlords, including local authorities, housing associations and co-operatives, regardless of the organisation’s size. A public services license has been secured, and, as such, there will be no license costs to housing providers until at least 2023. You can use video appointments to connect with tenants to support the delivery of any of your services such as welfare benefits advice, care reviews, viewing/assessing reported repairs etc.  

What is Near Me? 
 
Near Me is a video appointments service that uses the Attend Anywhere platform. This is a web-based system the helps public and third sector providers offer video call access to their services as part of business-as-usual operations. 

How can Near Me benefit my organisation? 

  • Offer video appointments to tenants to discuss repairs, rent arrears, pre- and post-tenancy discussions, and advice services. 

  • Tenants and organisation staff can communicate visually from any location if they have a suitable device and a web browser. 

  • It has excellent call centre functionality – i.e., call hold, waiting areas and transfers to relevant departments can be managed from the platform.  

Near Me – Improvement Collaborative 

Several housing associations and co-operatives have already implemented Near Me in their organisation. They have joined together with the aim of developing a network of Near Me experts in the housing sector, gained though practical experience.  

The group explore the scope and functionality of Near Me and how it can be embedded in tenant services and processes by: 

  • Gathering data and evidence to demonstrate the impact, including feedback from tenants and staff. 

  • Developing guidance documents to support the acceleration of Near Me implementation in other housing associations and co-operatives.  

  • Developing local scale up and spread plans. 

Horizon Housing

SFHA member Horizon Housing has been involved in the collaborative pilot and are already seeing the benefits of using Near Me in its organisation.  They said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to be involved in the collaborative pilot with the SFHA and already see significant benefits to tenants and staff in using Near Me."

Applying for Near Me access 

Near Me is easy to set up within your organisation. In the first instance, please arrange a demonstration session with the National Near Me team. Please contact nss.nearme@nhs.scot to set up a session.  

When you are ready to set get started, you will find technical information, training videos and an application form here. Further information is available here: 

Recruitment Opportunity – ‘Near Me in Housing’ Project Lead 

SFHA is now recruiting for a project lead for ‘Near Me in Housing’ to support the development and roll-out of video appointment services across the housing sector, for both SFHA members and local authorities. The post has been funded by the Scottish Government for an initial period of 12 months.  

Reporting to the SFHA Innovation and Future Thinking Manager, the postholder will work flexibly with colleagues within SFHA, SFHA member associations, local authorities and the National Near Me team.  

To find out more, including how to apply, please visit the jobs section of our website.  

Near Me in Housing Series 

We will be launching further Near Me content and learning across a range of platforms in the coming weeks. To stay up to date with our Near Me content you can: