To improve the quality of service that we provide to residents, we carried out a review of our customer service functions across housing and repairs. We asked Pennington Choices to carry out an independent review of our customer service and repairs functions and they made 24 recommendations for improvement.
This project started out under the title of 'Customer Service and Repairs Review', and is now being taken forward under a new identity – the Resident Focus Project. This name was chosen to reflect our aim to better meet the needs and aspirations of our residents and improve their satisfaction with our services.
We have now set the timescales for each recommendation to be implemented, and created an action plan which we will use to track our progress. The recommendations document has been updated and you can view this below. It tells you what has been completed, what is currently in progress, and what is yet to begin. This will be updated and published monthly.
Monthly project updates will also be posted below.
If you would like to be kept updated on this project, please sign up to our communications channels, including the newsletter and social media, on the Housing Communications page, or come back to this webpage for updates.
New and completed policies for Asbestos Management, Electrical Safety, Lift Safety, Water Hygiene Safety, Reasonable Adjustments and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion will be being taken to Committee for approval this month. Once approved they will be shared with colleagues and residents.
Most of the new service standards are now completed and will be published later this month. The standards cover important areas like repairs, rents and money matters, tenancy management and antisocial behaviour and explain what residents can expect from us in each of these areas.
Pennington Choices continue to conduct a detailed review of how we manage the ‘big six’ safety compliance activities for fire, electrical, water, lifts, gas and asbestos. The Housing Compliance Manager role has been advertised. The Compliance Manager will oversee the effective management of the “Big Six” mentioned above.
The Housing Service Development Plan 2024-2026 has been drafted and shared with colleagues to comment. This overview gives the department direction and a clear plan of improvement opportunities across the service.
Work continues on drafting a new suite of policies, including several related to safety compliance
The Resident Involvement Team have received the TPAS report and are reviewing the information about the new clear and transparent resident communication strategy and plan.
Staff across all areas have completed Positive Impact (Customer Services) Training. Team Managers have also attended an embedding session to take the training forward.
Workshops have been held with staff about the idea of a “single point of contact” for residents. Many ideas and perspectives were shared about the benefits, implications and best practices for a Housing Contact Centre.
Pennington Choices have been appointed to conduct a detailed review of how we manage ‘big six’ safety compliance activities for fire, electrical, water, lifts, gas and asbestos. This is due to finish in March 2024
Our new Handbooks for tenants and Leaseholders are now being designed. These will be taken forward to consultation with residents in the Spring
Work continues on drafting a new suite of policies, including several related to safety compliance
Service standards for key topics are finalised and will be completed in February 2024, once service managers have reviewed them
The idea of a housing Contact Centre is being developed in more detail and will move towards staff consultation in late February
Pennington Choices were appointed to conduct a detailed review of how we manage ‘big six’ safety compliance activities for fire, electrical, water, lifts, gas and asbestos. This is due to finish in March 2024
Our new Handbooks for tenants and Leaseholders are now being designed. These will be taken forward to consultation with residents in the Spring
A dedicated project manager started in post, who will oversee progress on the Resident Focus Project
TPAS continued their work on our new resident involvement framework, hold engagement sessions for residents and staff. These were well attended and we gathered plenty of valuable feedback on how our new involvement mechanisms might work
Several staffing changes in the Housing and Property Services teams have taken place, which has resulted in some delays to certain actions in the project plan while work is handed over to new staff members
The Assistant Director for Housing & Barbican and the Head of Repairs and Maintenance left their posts and interim staff are now in place, who will help drive forward the actions in the project plan
A draft training plan for staff was created following a ‘skills scan’ – this will inform our training priorities over the coming 12-18 months
Training will start with customer service sessions, commencing in January. This will be delivered to staff across Housing, Property Services and the Barbican Estate team
A new Tenants’ Handbook and a similar handbook for leaseholders are being created – we are currently agreeing the wording for the handbooks before moving on to the design stage and planning the consultation with residents
A ‘skills scan’ of each job role was completed, which will be used to help create a training plan for our team
Work continued on the Service Standards – these are now at an advanced stage and, following initial feedback from service managers, further changes will be made to get them ready for publication
Work continues on drafting new policies and procedures and several new policies are complete
We have agreed a schedule for the work to be carried out by TPAS to formulate a new resident involvement and influence strategy. This will start in October 2023 and finish in January 2024.
A set of new Service Standards has been drafted and these will begin to be rolled out to staff and residents in October. They cover important areas like repairs, rents and money matters, tenancy management and antisocial behaviour and explain what residents can expect from us in each of these areas
Recruitment of a Compliance Manager is underway, who will review our management of key safety processes relating to the ‘big six’ – lifts, gas, electrics, water hygiene, fire risk and asbestos. This will build on significant work already done in this area in response to new building safety regulations
The new Housing Management Strategy is in its final stages of development. This new plan reflects feedback from residents, staff and Members on what our priorities should be for the short to medium term
Progress has been made on formulating design principles for a potential central contact centre function for Housing and Repairs, which would provide a first point of contact for housing and repairs queries and handle correspondence through email and letter
Following a detailed analysis of job roles, a training plan is being developed to ensure staff receive relevant training, at appropriate intervals, to help them in their roles
A plan has been developed to improve how we induct and train new staff. Resources are being written for our staff intranet to ensure that every receives an appropriate induction according to their specific job role
New Service Standards in a range of areas are now drafted and will be finalised in September
We are finalising the new Performance Dashboard, which will give details of performance across Housing and Repairs; this will be ready in early September
TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) has been appointed to help us create a new resident involvement plan and associated processes, to improve resident influence on service delivery
We have appointed TPAS, the tenant engagement experts, to assist us in creating our new Resident Involvement Strategy. This will set out how we aim to improve the way we involve and listen to residents, and better enable them to influence the services we deliver
A summary of the review’s findings, including the feedback received from residents, Members and staff, has been published on the web page
A training needs analysis has been completed by job type and this is going to be added to the updated training plan for the Housing Team. Training to be prioritised includes customer service, communications skills, equality and diversity and effective complaints handling
Nine of the eleven new Service Standards have been drafted and will be finalised in August
New policies are being drafted and many are on track to be approved at Committee in the Autumn of 2023. The new policies drafted so far include Tenancy Management, Fire Safety, Leasehold Management and Repairs
We are finalising our improvements to intranet resources for staff, which tell them which team or individual is responsible each part of the Housing Service, to help them when resolving residents’ queries. Work has also started on improving our induction process for new staff
Walkabouts and drop-ins have been reviewed and a new schedule created, which will be published shortly and take us well into 2024
Our performance indicators have been finalised and a draft ‘dashboard’ is being evaluated at the time of writing, which will be finalised by the first week in August
Discussions have begun about the recommended central contact centre function. Staff will be involved in these discussions in August 2023 before options are finalised
The Customer Service and Repairs Review has been given a new identity – the Resident Focus Project. Future communications will appear under this branding, to help you keep track of the work being done following the external review. Please look out for our new logo on future updates and in the '@Home' newsletter and magazine.
A project plan has been finalised and timescales allocated (this will be updated regularly and will appear on this page)
A project group has been initiated, with colleagues across Housing and Repairs taking part
Work is well underway on several recommendations and some have already been completed
A list of ‘missing’ policies has been compiled and work has started on drafting these
Six new Customer Service Standards have been drafted, including Antisocial Behaviour, Home Ownership, Repairs & Maintenance and Allocations & Lettings. A total of twelve new standards will be introduced, which explain what residents can expect from us in key areas of housing and repairs customer service
A suite of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and associated ‘scorecards’ have been developed and finalised, monthly performance tracking will start in July. This information will be used to report in more detail to residents on the Housing Service’s performance. It will also be scrutinised by senior managers, the Executive Director and Members
Significant progress has been made on the new Housing Management Strategy, which is due in October 2023
In July, we are carrying out a skills and training assessment for all staff in Housing, to identify training and development needs aimed at improving the customer service you receive as residents
