Green Doctor
Energy costs are still high, causing many people stress and unnecessary suffering. We help households through various services:
Green Doctor
Everyone should be able to be warm, healthy and comfortable in their own home. With high energy prices, many are having to make impossible decisions, sometimes between heating and eating.
We help you to save money, use energy efficiently, and access any further support you may need – from debt advice to emergency fuel and food.
The Green Doctor is a free charity service for households anywhere in the East Midlands.
Damp & Disrepair
We also support social housing landlords to provide safe, warm, and healthy homes for all tenants. We help identify issues in the homes, from damp and mould to urgent repairs.
Our bespoke service bridges the gap between landlord and tenant – resolving issues quickly and amicably.
We are currently running a free trial for social housing providers in the East Midlands.
Green Doctor
Green Doctors are trained energy-efficiency experts that help people stay warm and healthy at home.
We offer free, impartial advice to help you take control of bills and use your energy more efficiently by easy-to-follow advice and behavioural changes that work for you. The advice we give to you is always bespoke to your situation. We are also able to give you further help, for instance with debt, accessing mental health support, emergency food or fuel.
This is completely FREE charity service, as we are fully funded. It is available to people of any age and background, whether you own your home, rent, or are a council or social housing tenant.
On average, a household can save £325 a year by following the advice given by the Green Doctor!
Some of the reasons people ask us for help are:
- struggling to pay energy bills
- finding it hard to manage fuel debt
- worrying about keeping warm or choosing between eating and heating
- known issues with cold, damp or draughtiness or worried this may be happening in your home
- respiratory problems e.g. asthma or a persistent cough
- a permanent health condition or terminal illness
- simply wanting to save money and keep the home warmer for less
What to expect from a visit
When you sign up we will call you to book a home visit at a day and time of your choosing.
We’ll assess your home to identify and tackle problems, review your utility bills to ensure you’re not paying more than you should, and offer tips to save energy and water.
We’ll give you free energy-efficiency measures like LED light bulbs and draught excluders. We can also help you access support around emergency heating, fuel vouchers, government subsidies or grants, and advice on debt.
We can also help you learn how to make the most of retrofit technology such as solar panels, heat pumps, loft and wall insulation, and smart heating systems.
A home visit by the Green Doctor, our advice, installation of items and further support is absolutely free of charge as we are fully funded by local and national funders including the Energy Redress Scheme, Cadent, British Gas and others.
We are also available as speakers for community events and local interest groups, free of charge. If you are interested in finding out more, contact us via the below details.
Get a free home visit
Sign up for this service for yourself or behalf of another person by clicking the button below, and we will be in touch. If you’d prefer to speak with us directly, email gwfcgreendoctor@groundwork.org.uk or call 0115 9788212 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm).
Accessibility
We want to support you as best as possible and make our service accessible to all. Please make mention when you sign up of any potential accessibility issues and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Examples could be speaking limited English, being deaf or blind.
Please note we are able to offer British Sign Language (BSL) for home visits in Derby and Nottingham only. We can do deaf community visits elsewhere if a translator is present or if the person has translating software available.
Free courses for professionals
Accredited course: Water Literacy
Businesses, organisation and community groups/leaders can take part in our FREE online Water Literacy training courses.
Understanding how we use, waste, and protect water is vital – not just for the planet, but for our communities and future generations. This course empowers you with the knowledge to make informed decisions and influence others.
Upon completion, you’ll gain an official certificate to show you’re part of the solution.
Click the button to see all our upcoming courses and to book your fully funded course.
Workshop: Health impacts of fuel poverty and carbon monoxide
The number of households in England who are in fuel poverty is around 6 million.
Fuel poverty affects vulnerable people disproportionally both physical and mentally. A cold home exacerbates existing health conditions (especially raspatory) and negatively affects mental health as financial stress becomes all-consuming.
Carbon monoxide poses a risk to all homes, but those in fuel poverty face greater danger. They may be unable to afford gas safety checks, live in energy-inefficient homes, suffer ill health that masks CO symptoms, or engage in risky behaviours.
In this workshop you will learn to spot the signs of fuel poverty and CO hazards, how these affect people, and the rights of social housing tenants.
Damp and Disrepair
We believe every home should be a safe and healthy place. Addressing the causes and effects of damp and mould improves quality of life, finances, physical and mental health.
It’s why our team of experts works closely with local authorities and housing providers to identify and tackle the root causes of damp and to get disrepair issues fixed quickly.
The result is improved mental and physical wellbeing, and healthier, more comfortable homes – for the tenant to reside in, and for the landlord as part of their portfolio.
With the Regulator of Social Housing clamping down on wayward landlords, it is more important than ever to look after your housing stock. We can help you improve your Consumer grade by providing a pro-active approach, bridging the gap between you and your tenants.
We offer home visits where we’ll identify specific areas for improvement and provide recommendations for remediation. We often find tenants that landlords struggle to connect with, are very receptive to our third-party support and impartial advice.
By being pro-active, you can prevent claim farmers by showcasing good practice, sympathetic communication and swift repairs.
We follow up with the tenant two months later, to ensure our advice has been put into practice, and check if repairs have started on the reported issues.
We also offer residents’ workshops, designed to build understanding of the importance of proper home maintenance. This is a great way for residents to learn the skills need to make their home safe and warm.
Take a look below at the infographic for the financial year of 2024/25, where we inspected 333 properties for damp, mould and disrepair. We found 1,145 rooms in total with damp, mould, or disrepair problems.
By advising tenants on how to use their energy more efficiently in their homes, we were able to help save an average of £293 per household on energy bills yearly with a staggering total of £97,482.
If our advice is followed, a total reduction of 187,338 kg of CO2 can be achieved – the equivalent of driving 554,802 miles. On top of this, these households can save a total of 6.1 megalitres of water which could fill up a 25 metre pool 9.4 times!
Download the brochure
Our Damp & Disrepair brochure gives further insight into the issues you may be facing and how you can combat them through our service.
Get information about the Regulator of Social Housing’s inspections and their expectations, Awaab’s law, and much more.
Download the PDF brochure by clicking the button below.
Free Damp & Disrepair trial
We offer free Damp & Disrepair trials so you can test the positive impact of our service on your housing portfolio. This can take the form of a number of home visits to addresses you are worried about or have had problems with before.
By working with a well-established charity, you can open doors, start conversations and resolve tenants’ issues – preventing complaints to the Ombudsman or costly claim farmers, while improving your housing stock.
If you are interested, fill in the below form, or contact us via 0115 9788212 / gwfcenquiries@groundwork.org.uk
Damp & Disrepair
Register your interest in our Damp & Disrepair service.