Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 50 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) 311 There have been tangible improvements in the relationship and support provided to TMOs. There is now a greater and more positive dialogue with these organisations that has improved the perceptions of HFI among TMOs and provided a greater focus on service delivery. They have introduced a range of improvements that include: standard format for the <strong>report</strong>ing of PIs; early information on annual management allowances; additional funding for improved IT to give TMOs access to HFIs intranet and email system; a new customer commitment so TMOs understand the services HFI provide; focused training; a new negotiated management agreement and allocation policy. 312 There is a positive trend in all best value performance indicators (BVPI)s and local PIs. For example, making and keeping repair appointments, improved rent collection and performance repairing and re-letting empty property. The organisation has also achieved IIP accreditation. 313 However, a number of very recent improvements, such as the specialist court officers have not yet had time to have an impact and work on improving health and safety on major works sites has not had the desired results as there were still health and safety issues on a number of the major work sites we visited. A range of improvements have been made from issues arising from the BVR and from resident feedback, all of which have benefited service users. These include: provision of a dedicated children’s play areas in area housing office reception areas; new freephone credit and debit payments of rent and service charges to the HFI Direct; re-housing advice available through HFI Direct, with around 3,000 calls dealt with each month; clear and extended service standards (customer commitments) across the range of housing activity; new HFI web-site launched in September 2004 with rent and service charge payments now available online and interfinder repair ordering; reduced turnaround times for empty properties; asbestos information provided to all tenants whose home is regarded as high risk; an increase of £450,000 in the adaptations budget, now held by the council social services; introduction of specialist TMO officers to provide a more focused liaison and support to TMOs; dedicated antisocial behaviour officers based in the area housing offices; the introduction of individual care plans for vulnerable tenants who are provided with assistance by housing support officers; immediate clearance of bulk refuse from two of the six housing areas; an improved housing benefit advice service and dedicated HB officers in all area housing offices; payment method details and debt advice included with biannual rent statements; and the introduction of a leasehold newsletter.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 51 314 The resident focus groups provided examples of changes made that they considered were improvements to the service and overall they thought services were getting better and that significant strides had been made since the ALMO had been set up. This is consistent with the improved satisfaction levels: overall landlord services from 41 per cent in 2001 to 52 per cent in 2004; repair and maintenance service from 38 per cent in 2001 to 48 per cent in 2004 and; opportunities to get involved from 27 per cent in 2000/01 to 38 per cent in 2004. 315 HFI has learnt from successful practices used in Hyde managed properties in the Lyon Street area - Hyde have performed better in terms of rent arrears collection and time taken to repair and relet empty homes than HFI. Consequently, HFI has introduced specialised rent arrears officers, court officers and caretakers are now carrying out minor repairs. Hyde managers meet regularly with HFI managers and comparisons of the performance of area offices has helped to drive improvements. 316 There are monthly meetings of performance and partnership officers, successes in one area have been shared and rolled out to all area offices, examples include publicity material such as the new welcome pack and the call messaging system which tenants have welcomed. 317 Mystery shopping by residents has been introduced following training provided by HFI. The first round of this mystery shopping was completed in October 2003 and outcomes from this were used to inform service planning of customer care provision in relation to telephone, face to face and access standards. Local service delivery plans (LSIPs) were developed to address the identified weaknesses. The second round of mystery shopping was completed in August 2004 and the findings have been amalgamated into a single customer care LSIP. 318 The building blocks to learn from formal complaints have now been put in place, HFI is analysing stage two complaints and each complaint is responded to locally by a senior manager who is also required to submit a <strong>report</strong> with appropriate recommendations to address underlying issues. For example, a complaint about the way relatives of deceased tenants was received and there is now an information sheet for relatives on termination of tenancy, explaining clearing possessions and recharges. In addition all stage one and two complaints are now the subject of six monthly <strong>report</strong>s to HFI’s management team with recommendations for corrective action to address weaknesses that the process exposes. 319 There are opportunities for HFI staff and its partners to share learning through shadowing and secondment arrangements between staff at HFI Direct and Caxton and Caxton staff work alongside call centre providing technical support for staff taking repair calls. There are back to the floor visits by senior staff that aid learning and an understanding of issues at the front line. Office visits by board directors are now carried out and are to be programmed as a regular occurrence to ensure board members understand the service and performance issues. 320 As part of the BVR, HFI carried out a number of visits to find out about positive practice elsewhere and this informed improvements in the IP. There have also been more recent visits to other ALMOs to assess how effective governance arrangements are and these visits have influenced the governance arrangements for the board. Benchmarking has also been used to gain positive practice and as part of service reviews and to look at costs.
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 45 and 46: Service charges London Borough of I
Page 49: London Borough of Islington - Homes
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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