Episodes

  • Episode 34 - High-impact interactions: how do we recover? With Andy Langford and Chris Fitch

    Episode 34 - High-impact interactions: how do we recover? With Andy Langford and Chris Fitch
    Jan 22 2025
    Drawing on his experience of supporting people involved in the Grenfell Tower fire, Manchester Arena bombing, and other national emergencies, Andy Langford talks to Chris Fitch about the key steps that we can take during and after such high-impact events to restore safety and diminish distress, and what essential services can learn from this. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-langford-548979204/
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    25 mins
  • Episode 33 - So…what does 2025 hold for consumer vulnerability? With Grace Brownfield and Phil King

    Episode 33 - So…what does 2025 hold for consumer vulnerability? With Grace Brownfield and Phil King
    Jan 8 2025
    Grace and Phil draw on new consumer and survey data to identify the major vulnerability trends, policy launches, and practical impacts that we’ll see in 2025, and explain to Chris Fitch just what the key events of 2024 were that got us here. https://www.moneyadvicetrust.org/vulnerability
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    24 mins
  • Episode 32 -“The Experiment We Never Knew We Needed” with Katie Orme, Octopus Energy

    Episode 32 -“The Experiment We Never Knew We Needed” with Katie Orme, Octopus Energy
    Dec 11 2024
    Katie Orme talks to Chris Fitch about Octopus Energy’s decision to employ a team of eight in-house social workers for its customers. Katie shares what a typical day involves as Head of Service for Social Work, the types of customer cases she is helping, and the impact her team of eight are having for Octopus Energy and the customers they serve. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-orme-764b41282/
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    25 mins
  • Episode 31 - ‘ Digital poverty’ doesn’t mean what you think with Elizabeth Anderson

    Episode 31 - ‘ Digital poverty’ doesn’t mean what you think with Elizabeth Anderson
    Nov 27 2024
    Elizabeth Anderson talks to Chris Fitch about what ‘digital poverty’ actually is. Cutting through the most common myths, Elizabeth explains what living in a ‘digital first’ world looks like to the 11 million UK adults who lack the skills to navigate it, or who cannot afford the costs of online life, and what essential services can do for digitally vulnerable consumers. https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-poverty-alliance https://digitalpovertyalliance.org/
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    23 mins
  • Episode 13 - Lived experience with Dan Holloway and Chris Fitch

    Episode 13 - Lived experience with Dan Holloway and Chris Fitch
    Nov 18 2024
    Everyone is talking about the importance of ‘lived experience’ and ‘experts by experience’, but what exactly do these phrases mean? Just how do we practically involve people with this experience in our work? And what difference does it all make anyway? Answering these questions is researcher, writer, and lived experience expert Dan Holloway (from Oxford University spin-out Rogue Interrobang), and asking them is our host Chris Fitch.
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    22 mins
  • Episode 30 - There’s more to blind customers than Braille with Holly Tuke

    Episode 30 - There’s more to blind customers than Braille with Holly Tuke
    Nov 13 2024
    Holly Tuke explains to Chris Fitch how understanding the everyday joys of cooking chips, make-up tips, and going to gigs as a blind person, can help essential services tackle the challenges that their blind customers and colleagues face in a majority-sighted world. Holly also schools Chris on visual language, self-descriptions, and why Braille isn’t everything. https://lifeofablindgirl.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollytuke/
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    23 mins
  • Episode 29 - How do I get a customer to disclose? With Alexis Stevens from Money and Mental Health.

    Episode 29 - How do I get a customer to disclose? With Alexis Stevens from Money and Mental Health.
    Oct 30 2024
    Just 11-14% of UK adults in a vulnerable situation have ever disclosed this to an essential service firm, despite the help it might lead to. So why are consumers staying quiet? And how can firms get them to disclose their situation and needs? Alexis Stevens explains what firms can do, and shares her mixed experiences of disclosing her bipolar disorder to get help. www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-stevens-ab6192157/ www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/disclosure
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    23 mins
  • Episode 28 - How do 999 staff talk to vulnerable callers? With Mike Modder-Fitch and Chris Fitch

    Episode 28 - How do 999 staff talk to vulnerable callers? With Mike Modder-Fitch and Chris Fitch
    Oct 16 2024
    Just how are 999 staff trained to talk, listen, and remain calm as vulnerable callers seek urgent help? In this episode, Mike Modder-Fitch shares his experience of running Police Force Control Rooms and NHS Integrated Care Contact Centres, and explains just what essential service staff can learn from their counter-parts in 999 settings. Mike also explains what his journey from previously running energy and financial service telephone contact centres, to now being Head of Service (IUC) at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, has taught him about the meaning of ‘vulnerability’. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-modder-fitch-6b318229
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    27 mins