Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 38 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) Action taken Activity 2003/04 Activity 2004/05 Eviction 10 11 Injunction 8 4 Professional Witness Deployment 8 6 241 HFI actively publicises ASB initiatives and outcomes within area offices in order to indicate to tenants that ASB will not be tolerated. There has been positive local press <strong>report</strong>s on its action to deal with antisocial behaviour and, this is linked to pro-active work in sustaining tenancies such as mediation A mediation service based in Camden provide a relatively successful service as 55 per cent of cases, where residents engaged with the process, <strong>report</strong>ing no further problems. However, outcomes of some cases were not always <strong>report</strong>ed to HFI. 242 There are strong connections between the estate services officers and ASB teams - they attend monthly ASB meetings, work on joint initiatives with the ASB and IASB teams to ensure links are made with staff working out on the estates. 243 HFI currently operates a neighbourhood warden scheme to supplement the work of ASB officers in the Holland Walk area. The wardens are resourced through neighbourhood renewal funding (NRF) although consideration to mainstreaming the service will be given when this funding runs out in March 2005. The original warden scheme finished when the funding stream ended, a further year's funding was secured by Holland Walk from the NRF but a different scheme was chosen that allows the wardens to be more mobile and focus on areas where there is the worst recorded incidents of ASB. These wardens link to both the ASB area officer and the IASB team and are used to target ASB hotspots within the scheme area and are considered relatively successful. 244 Case files we reviewed were found to be well ordered and following the ASB procedures. Details of ASB issue are clearly identified and actions recorded with a spreadsheet tracking live cases. A four to six weekly review of live cases takes place with the area team leader to address any outstanding issues and develop follow up actions or agree closure of cases. There are also local performance monitoring processes which include the mapping of harassment complaints and identify hotspots for action. 245 Consideration is also given to staff safety and risk assessments are carried out and staff are advised to ensure their movements are known. They have mobile phones and do not work alone if they consider they are putting themselves in a dangerous situation. 246 Post tenancy visits are carried out for new tenants within four weeks of the commencement of tenancy. This visit is used to identify potentially failing tenancies which can be referred to the housing support officer. 247 Around 400 risk based tenancy audits are carried out annually to identify illegal occupants. Tenancy management advisors check proof of identity and where the outcome is suspicious cases are passed to the housing investigation team (HIT) for further action. This is made easier because all new tenants have a photograph taken at sign up and at mutual exchange sign ups. These digital photographs are retained on the house file and are used to clearly identify legal occupants.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 39 248 We found some areas of weakness in that while the Islington antisocial behaviour team is a partnership with the council and police, there is only a draft service level agreement. There is no systematic monitoring and assessment of the impact of activities such as diversionary schemes, and early intervention, to ensure that the most appropriate action is taken. Ethnic monitoring of ASB cases is not consistently being recorded and so analysis of cases by ethnicity may not show the full picture to help form future plans. Similarly satisfaction surveys of complainants of ASB are not carried out, or exit surveys of tenants that leave, consequently there is no learning from the experience of residents to inform future plans. And, current ASB cases cannot be flagged on the IT system so HFI Direct staff taking repairs such as broken windows cannot link these <strong>report</strong>s with an ongoing case. Housing support officers should provide a service for all residents, however they considered that they only provided support to tenants. Estate management 249 In our previous inspection, we found that estate agreements were in place and tenants had photos of the quality they could expect. Caretakers were more flexible, had been trained to BICS standard, and had been provided with uniforms to increase visibility, mobile phones to improve responsiveness and given better equipment. Estate inspections were undertaken with service users, the council had obtained funding for a pilot scheme to tackle removal of bulk rubbish which was a persistent problem. The management of parking was improving. However, tenant satisfaction levels with the service had not improved, contact numbers and duties lists were not displayed in convenient places and relationships between the area housing offices and TMOs were variable. 250 HFI have maintained a good service and built on this by enhancing the role of caretakers; providing greater support to TMOs; piloting immediate bulk refuse removal and further improving parking arrangements. Our reality checks showed that the estates managed by HFI directly met a high standard of cleanliness. However the standard on some estates managed by Hyde Northside did not all meet the same standard; there is an investment need to improve some communal paved areas and lighting. The refuse collection service does not meet local needs and there is inadequate feedback on communal repairs and improvements. Overall this an improving area of the service but with some development still required. 251 There is an improved monitoring system for estate inspections. HFI has introduced quality control inspections besides the inspections carried out by officers and residents that cover the upkeep and cleanliness of the estates, communal repairs and wider issues like crime and nuisance. One of these quality checks is carried out each month to inspect the upkeep of estates including caretaking areas and to score the areas on a scale of A (excellent to D (poor). Any areas identified as scoring D will result in the caretaker being interviewed by their manager to discuss, identify and resolve issues. Performance on the standard for each locality is <strong>report</strong>ed to area panels of residents and all estates are <strong>report</strong>ed to a sub-group of the board each month along with other performance information. 252 The role of caretaking staff has been developed and they are now undertaking minor repair works on estates and identifying and removing graffiti and dealing with other effects of low level antisocial behaviour. And, as mentioned earlier, there are clear links between caretakers, estate care officers and the ASB officers and IASBT to <strong>report</strong> and deal effectively with ASB.
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 37: 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
Page 65 and 66: Positive practice London Borough of

Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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