Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 56 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) 351 The use of consultants to bring in additional capacity has been appropriate, they have been used to carry out value for money assessments of SLAs and some external challenge which were considered high priorities and HFI lacked the immediate capacity to resource the work internally. 352 HFI with the council have increased resources through the PFI schemes to deal with disrepair and deliver a higher standard than DHS and HFI will receive increased income in 2005/06 of around £4.5 million from the end of loan payments from an investment made in the 1970s by the council. 353 The relationship with the council works effectively, there are clear and regular formal and informal contact between HFI and the council, with six monthly meetings of the chair of the board and HFI’s CE with the council’s CE, deputy CE and Executive Member. There are also monthly monitoring meetings between the Council as client and HFI officers. HFI is invited to corporate initiatives such as ‘One Islington’ and they invite the council to their conferences. Relations are seen as positive and not intrusive and the performance management arrangements are working effectively with key targets in the service development plan (SDP) being met. HFI sees itself as a major partner delivering the council’s corporate objectives which are also its own objectives. There are board members on the LSP and the boards of regeneration schemes as well as less formal networks, these are positive links that ensure a two way traffic of information. 354 The council has not placed onerous conditions on HFI to maintain council support services as HFI can give notice at any time and use an alternative supplier. This gives HFI the flexibility to get the best VFM and they are in the process of doing this. 355 Seven of the 17 board directors are residents, thereby ensuring that residents have more say in strategic decisions affecting the way their homes are managed. 356 As well as board directors, the managed property and contracted services sub-boards are made up of associate directors drawn from the nine elected consultative forums all of whom are residents. Sub-boards such as this are an effective means of involving residents in decisions and managing performance to allow the board to have a more strategic overview. 357 Through away days and training the shadow board slowly established a consensus about their role as a board. They understand what they need to achieve and the business planning and strategic direction to achieve this. There is clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the both the main Board and two sub-committees. There is a good skills mix with clear criteria used to recruit independent board members. As a consequence the independent members have skills and knowledge that include human resources, accountancy, equalities, procurement, the construction industry and sustainable development. The board are clear about changes essential for business needs however and are setting up an equalities committee to address this key area of provision. A selection sub-group has been set up, that has a majority of tenants, this group is developing future selection arrangements and succession planning. The board are also setting up a protocol with the council to ensure their nominees build on the skills of the board. 358 The board have not yet firmed up some posts within the structure of HFI and want the flexibility to assess how current arrangements are working for example the director of resources is also the company secretary and the board want to see whether this is the most effective way of servicing this role.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 57 359 Residents raised concerns to us about the possibility of a conflict of interest by having the council lead member for housing, who is an executive member of the council,a board director and on the housing consultative panel (HCP). The ODPM also raised concerns of a possible conflict of interest by having a lead member for the council housing services as a board director. The council have guidelines to minimise the risk. The council’s position is that with partnering, staff and councillors may have a number of different roles and often may chair or be members of boards connected to the council. While we consider that no conflicts of interest have occurred, there is the potential for conflicts of interest. We also considered that some board members have too many roles and therefore too much influence for example chairs of area panels can also be board directors. 360 HFI has continued to ensure its robust performance management system is effectively used to improve performance and deliver HFI’s objectives. An annual cycle of appraisal and development objectives is in place, linked to divisional objectives. HFI has carried out an audit of appraisals and found there were high levels of compliance, our reality checks confirmed this. 361 In HFI Direct for example, there is a strong performance culture. PIs are monitored weekly and publicised among staff. Steps are taken to effectively manage performance if it deteriorates. When HFI Direct took over making appointments for the gas servicing contract, performance initially dipped. However, rotas and shifts were re-arranged to improve performance and it has improved. 362 There is also a strong emphasis on staff development, incentives, learning and people development. Examples of this include the monthly staff awards, job shadowing and development programmes for staff. 363 The management team focus on business relating to the key objectives of the organisation, their <strong>report</strong>s are of good quality for decision making. A monthly <strong>report</strong> is presented to the management team, which includes data on a wide range of indicators and compares performance in area housing offices. This closely monitors the standards delivered under contract by TMOs, Hyde Northside and Partners (PFI1) in respect of all elements of the respective partnering contracts for housing management and regeneration services. 364 There is close monitoring and management of the SLAs with the council, there are quarterly monitoring meetings held with each council provider and an HFI service director leading on each contract. The monitoring of TMOs has been rationalised and formalised and performance information now more clearly reflects the same monitoring process for HFI area offices. HFI is also bringing in a more transparent assessment of the governance of TMOs, finances and caretaking so TMOs better understand what they need to deliver and how they need to manage. 365 The IP is monitored by the senior management team on a monthly basis and by the board of directors bi-monthly. Weaknesses identified in the body of our previous <strong>report</strong> have been assigned to individual service directors and these are discussed in depth at monthly 1:1 sessions between service directors and the CE. Progress has been recorded on a special monitoring spreadsheet. 366 Strategic performance management is undertaken by the HFI board with bi-monthly <strong>report</strong>s that recommend options for action to tackle under performance. Sub-boards are charged with performance monitoring of operational activity in their respective zones of responsibility. They receive PI <strong>report</strong>s at each meeting, as well as <strong>report</strong>s on performance in individual service delivery areas.
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Inspection report
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Summary London Borough of Islington
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Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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