Young Innovators Council (YIC) is the voice of young people at Northern Gas Networks. Its aim is to provide young people’s perspectives and help ensure young people’s thoughts and opinions are put at the heart of our decision making through meaningful and relevant engagement with our future customers.
During this session, we wanted to understand what ‘vulnerability’ and ‘most at risk’ means for future customers. We also wanted to understand what ‘being a customer in a vulnerable situation’ looks like, and to identify what future areas of vulnerability might look like for this generation of consumers. The session also provided an opportunity to test our vulnerability strategy and highlight where we need to amend or adapt our thinking to reflect future customers’ expectations and needs.
Demographic Change
You explained that we have an ageing population and so this group, who already have a range of vulnerabilities, is only going to get bigger and NGN need to be prepared for that.
We have now extended our VCMA collaborative Age UK project until the end of GD2, and will be supporting phase 2 of The Carents Room collaborative VCMA project to the end of GD2. We will also be learning more on the subject of an ‘ageing population’ from lived experts at a session by Three Hands in late September.
Political Change
You said that government policy can impact the levels of vulnerability people might face.
We have looked at how we can support partners such as Age UK and Citizens Advice to raise awareness of changes to eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment, and have included signposting to support for benefits checks in our own recent comms campaigns, for those who may be at risk of missing out.
Use of language
You felt that the word “vulnerability” was too broad not only made it difficult for people to identify themselves as ‘vulnerable’ but also risked people mis-using the benefits available to them.
In our new draft strategy, we have continued to use the term ‘vulnerability’, but have been specific about who we will support, and have clearly defined who we believe to be ‘most at risk’. We will also continue to use a 3-tier model to describe the various levels of support offered through our social strategy work to make our commitments more transparent for customers.
Connecting with Customers
You said that having a more direct line of communication with the business would be useful, rather than having to be passed from caller to caller or waiting for a return call. YIC also thought that anonymity was important for individuals to feel confident to come forward in times of need.
We continue to map out further locations to expand our ‘Centres for Warmth’ programme within the most deprived communities in our network. This way, we know that customers have a route to seek support and reach us via trusted local services. We have also included Community Support in our plans for GD3, in the form of dedicated mobile NGN resources (community vans) based in communities to provide direct, on hand advice and information to those who need it.