Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 14 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) 37 There is a comprehensive range of HFI leaflets and information displayed and available at area offices. The customer commitment leaflets have been reviewed, extended to include the repair pledge and republished with the new HFI logo. We found these to be consistent and comprehensive, they all provide details of HFI’s new website and are in plain English. In addition monitoring arrangements are now in place. 38 There is a comprehensive, easy to navigate website developed that provides a wide range of information to customers, including the CCs and tenants can <strong>report</strong> a repair and pay rent or service charges online. 39 An analysis of stage two complaints is carried out every six months to identify trends, recommendations are made and fed into a local service improvement plan which is continually updated. 40 The range of services provided through HFI Direct have been extended, they now deal with around 3,000 re-housing enquiries a month, taking rent and leasehold charge payments over the telephone and making gas servicing appointments as well as all repairs. All of which provide additional easy access to these services. It is a freephone service and is well managed. Call handling performance is positive and meets HFIs target with 97 per cent of calls answered within the target time of 20 seconds during the day and 85.6 per cent out of hours. Random quality checks are carried out on calls and we considered calls were handled well. 41 The contact details for HFI Direct, and other key numbers like the ASB and fraud hotline are well publicised on key fobs and fridge magnets and are given to new and current tenants and advertised in newsletters and on the website to ensure residents are clear about who to contact in HFI. 42 The closure of cash offices has not had an adverse effect on access to pay rent and service charges as additional payment methods have been introduced. HFI provide a wide range of payment methods and facilities have been added to pay by direct debit, telephone and over the internet since the last inspection and there are flexible options to repay leasehold debt. 43 Offices have been upgraded to a high quality with facilities for children and are DDA compliant. We found all staff to be identifiable wearing HFI name badges and residents told us they found staff to be responsive and accountable. 44 There is a flexible approach for appointments with the opportunity to arrange out of hours appointments if required and a drop-in service for general enquiries and for housing benefit staff based at the area offices. 45 HFI also provides an accessible home ownership service, there is a welcome pack, that includes the leasehold handbook, commitment leaflets on leasehold management, RTB and selling on, emergency repairs, translations, complaints and customer care. All new home owners are offered an introductory talk with their homeownership officer. 46 From resident feedback HFI have improved arrangements for responding to telephone and personal calls left for staff when they are out or unable to take calls. There is now a messaging service at area offices that tracks the response of staff to calls left, and is monitored to ensure an effective response is made within the timescale set out in the CC.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 15 47 HFI continues to provide services in a customer focused way. There is an independent annual survey of residents and an annual leasehold survey, area focus groups have been established and act as reference groups. There are area housing panels (AHPs) and a repair improvement group, all of which provide input into service improvement. For example out of office hours and emergency appointments have been agreed as a result of tenants’ suggestions from these groups. 48 The annual satisfaction survey indicated a satisfaction level of 52 per cent, which shows it is improving over time from 41 in 2001/02, although this is still bottom quartile. However a recent independent one-off MORI survey carried out for the ODPM of residents in London, placed Islington first in terms of satisfaction with housing services at 42 per cent. 49 There is a quarterly newsletter that provides HFI and local news appropriate to each area. An editorial board oversees the content of these publications and other communications, the board includes two resident representatives. There is a leaseholder newsletter also commended by our focus groups of resident representatives who considered communications had improved in the last six months. 50 Some of the improvements are not yet embedded, for example some of the scripts used by call-centre staff do not reflect the recent changes in appointment slots and so customers may not be offered the extended service. Call centre staff are not aware of what major works are taking place because they cannot access this information and repair warranty details are not identifiable on the IT system they use, so staff have to contact area offices if they have any queries. 51 A number of the customer commitments are not specific enough and not all have firm target times. For example, the antisocial behaviour (ASB) CC provides details of the mediation service but not details of response times following an enquiry. It also fails to mention the ASB hotline or other remedies that are available. 52 Performance on complaints is regularly <strong>report</strong>ed to a sub-board of HFI’s main board of directors, and it has improved in relation to stage 2 complaints but is still inadequate. Of the 44 cases dealt within the 6 months between April and September, only 15 or 32 per cent were responded to in the 10 day target, this was an improvement from 10 per cent identified in our previous <strong>report</strong>. Performance for stage 1 complaints is better with 612 of the 694 complaints or 88 per cent dealt with in the target time. However, the quality of some responses are poor and do not answer the complainants enquiry. A quality audit has recently been carried out and HFI are taking action to improve the quality of responses. 53 There continues to be an inconsistency in access to the repair service. HFI customers can access the routine repairs ordering from 5 pm to 8 pm in the evening and on Saturday mornings on a free phone. However, Hyde customers can only access the repair service between 9 am and 5 pm and have to pay a local charge to <strong>report</strong> repairs. Arrangements have not been aligned, as this required changes to the current contract with Hyde and these were not negotiated. Hyde is not extending its management contract and HFI will be directly managing properties in the Lyons Street area after June 2005 when services will be standardised. 54 There is inconsistency of signage on estates, and some of the estate notice boards were not branded but this was rectified during the inspection.
Page 1 and 2: Inspection report
Page 3 and 4: Summary London Borough of Islington
Page 5 and 6: London Borough of Islington - Homes
Page 7 and 8: Recommendations London Borough of I
Page 9 and 10: © Audit C
Page 11 and 12: The service London Borough of Islin
Page 13: How good is the service? London Bor
Page 45 and 46: Service charges London Borough of I
Page 59 and 60: Summary London Borough of Islington
Page 61 and 62: Documents reviewed London Borough o
Page 63 and 64: Gary Doolan GMB London Borough of I
Page 65 and 66:
Positive practice London Borough of
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Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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