Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 30 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) 179 There has been a step change in performance on gas servicing over the past four years, although this has been from a low base. In 2000/01 only 40 per cent of gas servicing was completed and the Health and Safety Executive were threatening enforcement action. In 2003/04, 92 per cent of gas servicing was completed. Officers agree that this performance was ‘disappointing’ and a cause for concern as 1,535 services remained outstanding from 2003/04 and a further 421 from 2002/03. 180 At the time of inspection performance was 92.77 per cent on all activities (including Packington and Churnfield who have four services a year) and 91.7 per cent excluding this activity compared with 78 per cent at the same point in the previous year. Officers were confident that they were on target to complete 97 per cent of gas servicing by the end of the financial year. 181 HFI has adopted a more targeted approach to servicing in 2004/05 with more personal contact, more involvement from the area offices and HFI Direct, and the introduction of a variety of initiatives to improve their performance. There are no properties outstanding for more than two years and the number of properties outstanding over one year has been reduced to 950 at the time of the inspection. 182 The organisation used all resources at its disposal to improve their performance on gas servicing. HFI Direct was introduced as the single point of contact for gas servicing appointments in 2004 amendments were made to the IT system to add flags to advise call-handlers when a gas service is required. HFI Direct also made outbound calls to contact tenants and make appointments in targeted areas. 183 HFI takes effective steps to maximise their potential to gain access to properties to complete a gas service. They adjusted the timescale of their programme so that it finished in September, allowing them seven months to gain access to the more difficult properties. They have established a central no-access team from housing management who interrogate the housing management IT system to gain further information about the no-access cases including language difficulties, vulnerability information, and tenancy details. This information is passed to a mobile gas team who work in the evenings and at weekends in order to gain access. This process is effective for servicing difficult to access properties where the contractor has already tried to gain access three times. 184 No access cases from 2003/04 were prioritised in the first weeks of the 2004/05 programme. These tenants were contacted by HFI Direct and flagged as a priority. Over 400 of the 1,900 (approximately) outstanding cases were completed in the first four weeks of the programme as a result of this action. 185 There is a robust monitoring regime in place to monitor progress on the gas plan and there is clear commitment from senior management and the contractor to improve performance in this area with weekly meeting with senior management from property services, housing management and Caxton to review performance and discuss further steps that need to be taken. 186 There is positive action from the gas contractor to ensure they have sufficient resources to deliver the gas servicing programme in 2004/05. They entered into partnership with a labour agency to ensure they can address the shortage of gas engineers. They also appointed a contractor specifically for agency staff and introduced a staff induction programme covering the level of expectations, customer care, and technical information, from this they took on an additional 30 seasonal engineers. Caxton also involved the Federation of Islington’s Tenant’s Associations (FITA) in their staff induction sessions which they believe helped to get the message to tenants about the importance of gas servicing.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 31 187 HFI and Caxton contacted other councils to seek help and advice on how to gain access to ‘hardcore’ no access cases. They met with other Boroughs including Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, and Bournemouth, and also visited Barnet. 188 HFI, by its own admission, ‘pushed the boat out in publicity terms’ for the 2004/05 gas servicing programme. They used a variety of publicity methods including letters, stickers on letterboxes of non-serviced properties, advertising in local newspapers and in resident newsletters, advertising on the side of the number 43 bus that runs through the borough, and advertising on Caxton's vans. They also introduced a cartoon character called Frankie the Flame to publicise the programme and provided large cut-outs of the character in each area office. 189 The use of a contract to replace boiler gaskets that contain asbestos has also been useful in improving the level of servicing as affected properties have a full gas service when the boiler gasket is renewed. 190 HFI has taken effective steps to develop their gas database which was previously a stand alone system but has now been integrated with their main repairs database. This information is updated with data from the capital team when they have changed or removed boilers or systems. 191 A significant level of capital investment has led to a reduced number of gas response repairs since 2002. There were 26,000 gas response repairs in 2002/03, reducing to 20,000 in 2003/04 and officers anticipate a further reduction in the level of gas response repairs in the current year as there were only 12,000 gas response repairs by November 2004. 192 HFI has an effective programme in place for installing smoke alarms in their properties and the majority of these 32,370 now have battery operated smoke alarms that plug into a light socket and have a ten year life. 193 There are clear contract management arrangements in place for gas servicing and repairs. Regular meetings take place where contract performance standards are reviewed. There are penalties contained in the southern gas contract for not meeting performance standards. However officers have chosen not to invoke them because it is a partnering contract and the focus is on trying to jointly improve the service. 194 However there is no independent post-inspection of gas servicing or gas response repairs. HFI and Caxtons previously commissioned an external contractor to carry out this task but have since chosen to carry out this work in-house against an agreed set of criteria. Aids and adaptations 195 In our previous inspection, we found high satisfaction levels with the service. Knowledgeable and dedicated teams provided a high quality service that had clear and well publicised service standards. 196 However, we also recommended the council review the budget and streamline the arrangements between departments dealing with aids and adaptations. 197 In this inspection we found there is a high level of satisfaction with the adaptations service and the council. HFI have also taken clear steps to implement the recommendations from our last inspection however there is a lack of targets to measure the time taken to complete an adaptation and the shortfall in the budget means that the needs of tenants requiring adaptations is not being fully met.
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 and 14: How good is the service? London Bor
Page 29: London Borough of Islington - Homes
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
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Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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