Winter mailing letter review - People Bank involvement

Overview

Every year we write to those receiving support at home and their carers to provide information and advice on staying safe and well over the winter. This year’s mailing covers staying well, financial support, and keeping connected. The draft letter was widely shared for comment to ensure the layout works well for people and the content is helpful. Two People Bank members provided feedback.

Our People Bank members said:

1. The winter letter is a great and useful idea and having all the information in one place would be good as a carer.
2. The letter was very clear and easy to understand.
3. The useful contacts were broken into small bite-size chunks with clear headings, so you don't need to read it all and can use it as a reference tool when needed.
4. Splitting it so rigidly into two sections makes it repetitive and sound a little condescending.
5. Makes it sound too much like taking responsibility for yourself.
6. It would be better to include the relevant contacts within the specific sections of the first part of the letter. The remaining additional contacts that might be helpful can then still be in the second part.

How we responded:

1. If there is a single contact point that we can offer people then we have included this in the letter.
2. We have included a website link and the phone number in the letter where both are available.
3. This change has seen details added to the letter for the Warm Home Check Service, cost of living webpages, libraries, equipment and adaptations, and the FlexiBus.

“The winter mailing goes out to around 17,000 people, so it is great to know that the letter is clear and easy to understand. The suggestion to include contact details in the letter or email was really helpful and will hopefully improve people’s experience of receiving the mailing. Thank you for your help with this important bit of work.” – Winter mailing coordinator