Group of staff in orange or grey FCHA tshirts with their arms in the air cheering. They're on a green field with a blue sky.

Our Social Responsibility

We recognise the impact that working across Wales and England has on the environment and the communities that we are a part of. As such, FCHA is committed to going the extra mile and continues to explore how we can do more to be a positive influence through other avenues as well as delivering on homes and accomplishing our goals.

Applying for a role at FCHA doesn't just mean delivering specialist accommodation for people with additional needs. You will have numerous opportunities to participate in activities that will benefit environmentally and socially to the communities we work within.

Community Benefits

Community Involvement Grant

In 2025/2026, FCHA awarded a total of £22,563.04 to 31 successful applicants to our Community Involvement Grant. This was joint-funded by FCHA and the LHC Procurement Group.

Our Community Involvement Grant supports activities, projects and initiatives which benefit community members who reflect the diversity of First Choice tenants. The application and monitoring form is in easy read format to encourage diverse applicants.

In 2025/2026, our Community Involvement Grant supported:

£1000 to Drive’s inclusive choir
£1000 to The Cardiff Players’ theatre group and gaming club
£500 to Mirus’ community family fun and wellbeing day
£250 to Walsingham’s conference supplies
£800 to Learning Disability Wales’ support of the RichieFest fundraiser
£300 to Community Lives Consortium for the Better Together choirs’ Tshirt printing
£980 to Community Lives Consortiums’ arts and crafts supplies and supporting the Thursday community coffee mornings
£650 to Community Lives Consortium’s “Boots and Barrels Bash” celebration
£1000 to InclusAbility Swansea & NPT’s coach trip to Folly Farm for families
£1000 to Rubiscon Dance’s ‘Movement to Music’ sessions in Ely
£960 to RCT Tigers for the purchasing of a mobile defibrillator
£1000 to AP Cymru – The Neurodiversity Charity’s pop-up neurodiversity hub
£300 to Mirus for sponsorship of the ‘empowerment’ Stars Award
£1000.38 to Royal Mencap Society’s Jan Kench sensory room
£500 to The Cardiff Players for storage, printer and ink
£800 to Dimensions Cymru’s Scrapbook Stories project on personal histories
£1000 to Rise’s specialist community sessions
£494 to Rubicon Dance’s ‘Movement to Music’ sessions in Adamsdown
£976.67 to Sense’s regular family sessions
£500 to Skills & Volunteering Cymru’s accessible choir
£1000 to Skills & Volunteering Cymru’s accessible club nights
£700 to Welsh Association of Intellectual Learning Disability Bowlers for the Cardiff Chameleons team kit
£350 to Walsingham’s Christmas card competition printing costs
£502.99 to Cartrefi’s Haverfordwest community hub cooking sessions
£1000 to Swansea Council for musician and performer fees at CREST FEST gig night/mini festival
£700 to Learning Disability Wales for their Gig Buddies speed dating social
£1000 to The Salvation Army for a pool table refurb
£400 to Swansea Council’s mini bus hire for FISH BYTES
£899 to Cartrefi Cymru for a mobile hoist
£1000 to Hijinx in support of Unity Festival and Comedy Night.

Financial Support and Wellbeing

After becoming a trusted referral partner with Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water, many FCHA staff can fast-track those who meet the eligibility criteria onto social tariffs. In 2025/2026, we enrolled 6 households onto a social tariff, saving them each an average of £500 a year for their water.

In supporting tenants hardest hit by the cost of living, we again asked FCHA’s generous contractors and consultants for donations to our festive gift card scheme. In December 2025, we distributed £3,500 worth of gift cards!

Social Value

Our Social Value work sees First Choice partner up with our contractors and suppliers in delivering wellbeing outcomes for tenants. This is integrated into our procurement process to make sure we are doing more to give back to the community. Our Social Value work provides additional opportunities for tenants to have more of what they need and to do more of what they love! Whether this is a garden project, providing furniture, spending time with others, or something completely new!

Digital Inclusion

FCHA invests heavily in improving Digital Inclusion amongst tenants. With more and more business relying heavily on technology, replacing pen and paper methods, a lot of tenants are being left behind. In partnership with Digital Communities Wales, 207 devices were provided to tenants with ongoing accessible support that helps them get up to speed with the modern world.

In partnership with Thomas Homes West Ltd, we delivered a Social Value project which provided gifted devices such as laptops and iPads. This benefited 17 tenants in Carmarthenshire.

After a successful joint application with Innovate Trust, we were awarded a Welsh Government Innovation Grant through the Digital Inclusion Wales Grant scheme in March 2026. The funding amount of £26,100 included £15,000 of the Welsh Government Grant, plus £11,100 match funding. This will be used to support a Digital Inclusion project called ‘Closing the Gap’. The project will pilot tailored devices with 10 FCHA tenants supported by Innovate Trust. ‘Closing the Gap’ aims to reach two groups of people with Learning Disabilities and support needs who are almost completely digitally excluded. The project is trialling Doro phones and simplified smart watches to reduce barriers, complemented by a series of face-to-face workshops taking place over several months to support the participants with set up, safety knowledge and ongoing tools for effective usage of the devices.

Environmental Impact

There are a number of home improvements that FCHA implements on both new and refurbished properties that contribute to FCHA's goal of achieving net zero by 2030. Features like solar panels and batteries, upgraded insultation, new heating systems and low energy lighting.

We have continued to be part of a pilot with the National Trust, which provides us with a ‘Wellbeing Access Pass’ for tenants and their support networks to visit sites in Wales for free. In 2025/2026, the pass was used 69 times. This was mainly by ex-Armed Forces tenants in North Wales.

FCHA’s collaboration with Keep Wales Tidy has remained strong. As part of the ‘Local Places for Nature’ scheme, we have delivered 7 fully funded garden projects in 2025/2026. These garden projects took place in the following Local Authority areas, alongside support provider staff and tenants: Denbighshire, Wrexham, Neath Port Talbot, Cardiff, Bridgend, and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

In addition, we have delivered 2 more garden projects that were not eligible via Keep Wales Tidy. This has been achieved through our Social Value work utilising some of our Welsh Procurement Alliance (WPA) rebate. One garden project was delivered in Flintshire, providing a tenant and her son with raised beds so they can grow their own fruit and vegetables. The other project was for an outside sensory and wellbeing space for a tenant in Shropshire.

FCHA offers Water Butts to anybody who is interested. Water Butts collect rainwater to use in gardens instead of running a tap, saving on both Water and the Environment.

FCHA donates money to plant trees across Wales each year to off-set out net-zero targets

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

For the Tenants

FCHA brings the tenant’s voice into the board room with the formation of the Tenant Advisory Group. This group meets regularly to talk about what is important to tenants when it comes to their community and their homes. These comments are then sent to board and are used to impact decisions. Most notably, the Tenant Advisory's opinions on FCHA's Mission, Vision and Values was at the core of the decision making process when creating the new ones. TAG has 9 members and has been running since March 2024. TAG has been influential in ensuring policies and practices are accessible and that documentation is available in easy read format. They have been consulted on WHQS policies and procedures and passed feedback onto board and staff.

An Annual Tenant Satisfaction & Wellbeing Survey gathers feedback from First Choice tenants to get an idea of how tenants are feeling about their homes and communities and help create new projects in the future.

All documentation that goes out to tenants is available in an easy-read format to make it easier to understand complex information that may impact their home or wellbeing. These range from the decisions made at board to how to identify bullying and harassment.

FCHA is part of the Wales REACH Project alongside the Open University. The REACH project encourages local residents to engage in Arts, Culture and Heritage. From events such as visiting St Fagans on a tour, to doing a walk and talk about the experience of LGBT people in Cardiff.

FCHA reimburse payment for travel to tenants attending tenant events or the tenant advisory group. Tenants can complete a tenant's expense form to claim expenses for using their own car, taxi or public transport.

In 2026 we started a Tenant Quality Checker Role pilot. The purpose of this role is for a tenant to complete quality visits alongside First Choice Housing Association. This is to improve housing and development services and ensure we continue to meet our tenants’ needs.

For the Staff

The health and happiness of First Choice staff is crucial. We continue to promote a positive workplace culture whereby employees feel listened to and appreciated. Our generous staff benefits reflect the value we place on employees and their wellness.

Staff health and wellbeing initiatives in 2025/2026 include:

The continuation of the monthly office lunch, arranged by a different staff member each time. For North Wales colleagues, they have a separate budget to meet quarterly for food together.
To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week in May 2025, we had massage and reflexology treatments take place in the privacy of the office Wellbeing Room. North Wales colleagues received gifts to their home addresses. We are now welcoming the massage therapist to the office on a quarterly basis.
We hosted our annual Stress Down Afternoon to mark World Mental Health Day in October 2025. South Wales colleagues enjoyed woodfired pizzas followed by a pottery painting workshop, whilst North Wales colleagues went foraging.
Each year FCHA selects a Chosen Charity, this years is Lighthouse. Staff take part in fundraising activities throughout the year to support this cause including sponsored walks & cake sales.
Inviting all staff to take part in tenant health and wellbeing initiatives. This is meaningful as involvement at tenant-facing activities and events has been highlighted as being important to First Choice employees, associated with increased job satisfaction and feeling seen or valued.
Ongoing Staff Forum meetings with representation from different FCHA departments. The Staff Forum is a platform for employees to bring their own ideas to the forefront and have their suggestions considered by FCHA’s Executive Team on a regular basis. Here are just some examples of 2025/2026 changes:
Personalising the FCHA vans with names chosen by tenants.
Better recycling at the office, including batteries.
Regular car washing service available at the office.
Broadening of the £35 gym membership payment to be more inclusive of other forms of physical exercise memberships (for example, climbing, boxing etc.)
Installation of more office Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers.

For additional information and to see the jobs we have available you can visit the rest of our website!

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