An introduction to The Riverside Plan

An introduction to
The Riverside Plan
2011–14

Four things we want to achieve,
two to help us
As good as
the best
get there.
The Riverside Plan
2011–14
More support for
those who need
a helping hand
Valuing and
developing
our people
Every three years we develop a plan to set the direction of
everything we do. With our latest plan now approved, this
booklet sums up our aims in the six themes opposite.
Well maintained
homes, low
running costs
More homes,
more focus
Running a
fitter, leaner
business
You’re the key
Your hard work during the three years of the last plan, means
we’re in a strong position. By pulling together in the same
direction, we can continue our success and make a real
difference to people’s lives.
Wherever you work and whatever your role, whether it involves
one or all six of the plan themes – you’re a fundamental part
of the organisation. That’s not lip service – you’ve helped us
stay strong in very challenging times.

Why do we need a plan?
We need a plan to give us focus and make sure we’re working
towards common goals.
Hundreds of employees, residents and Board Members have
helped shape the new plan. Now it’ll be used to help us understand
what it means to us, what our priorities are and how we can work
together to build on the success of the past three years.
Where does it fit in?
The new plan will give us direction for the next three years.
But, our vision and our values will run beyond that period and
remain the same. So our overall vision remains, ‘transforming
lives, revitalising neighbourhoods’ and our values still guide the
way we act.
The plan will introduce new initiatives to help deliver our aims.
But many existing approaches will continue. So our approach
to working with our customers will still be guided by the
Riverside Service Style, communication standards and
commitment to equality.
What happens next?
This booklet should give you a quick introduction to the plan
and help illustrate your importance in keeping the organisation
working well.
Over the coming months, you’ll see the themes of the plan in your
appraisal, your team action plans, Key Performance Indicators and
in training. You’ll also see stories and messages in the likes of Vox,
Riverside Matters and Team Brief, reinforcing their connection to
the themes.
To help you get familiar with different areas of the plan and what
they mean to you, we’ll also be sending out various activities.
You can keep them together in the back of this booklet and keep
it as your personalised guide.

How?
Deliver good value,
consistent service for all.
Most of our customers are looking for something straightforward:
a decent, reliable service offering great value. Whilst the majority
already get that level of service, we don’t deliver it for everyone,
all of the time. When we’re at our best, we are up there with the
top performing organisations. So if every part of Riverside
becomes as good as our best, we’ll have cracked it.
We’ll do this by:
> focusing our energy and resources on improving
our weakest areas
> improving information we hold about customers, to help
better understand their needs
> tackling issues before they become problems, through
regular planned visits and annual property inspections.
As good as the best

How?
Offer opportunities for
the most vulnerable.
A growing number of our customers are looking for something
more – extra support to help them manage in their homes.
This could be because they’re elderly, struggle to manage their
money or have a range of more complex needs. With things likely
to get tougher for the most vulnerable, though we know we can’t
do everything, we want to offer as much as we can.
We’ll do this by:
> growing Riverside ECHG’s housing support services
> developing a clear service offer for older residents living in
general needs homes
> delivering improved welfare advice and helping tenants find work.
More support for those
who need a helping hand

How?
Invest in homes to
meet people’s needs and
tackle rising fuel costs.
Well maintained homes,
low running costs
More than anything, our customers expect to live in good quality
homes that are well maintained and easy to run. We’ve invested
huge sums in surpassing the Government’s decent homes standard.
Now we need to keep our homes up to scratch. But with rising fuel
bills, our homes also need to be cost effective to heat, with us
paying special attention to older properties.
We’ll do this by:
> investing more than £130m replacing worn out components
like kitchens and bathrooms – that’s over £2,000 per property
over the next three years
> finding new ways to improve the most difficult to heat homes –
using new technology and practical advice to residents
> providing much more money for adaptations, to help older
and disabled tenants remain in their homes.

How?
Build new affordable homes
and focus on places we can
make a difference.
More homes,
more focus
The country needs more affordable homes. We’ve always helped
provide them and will continue to do so. It helps us spread our costs
and deliver better value services. But, with less support from the
Government, it will be more difficult. We need to use all parts of
the Group, including our commercial companies to provide a good
choice of homes for rent and affordable ownership. At the same
time, we need to focus our work in the places we can make
a difference – which may mean working in fewer of them.
We’ll do this by:
> building more new homes under the Government’s new
affordable housing framework – aiming for 1,600, plus even
more through our commercial companies
> growing by looking to merge with like-minded organisations
where we can deliver real benefits to our customers
> selling homes in areas where we’re not well placed to deliver
good services, mostly to other housing associations or for
home ownership.

How?
Better development of
our people so we can
do more for others.
Valuing and developing
our people
We can only deliver better services and provide more homes
through your hard work and commitment. You’re at the heart of
this plan, and we need to provide you with the right support and
recognition. That’s why we’re saying: help transform the lives of
others, and we’ll help transform yours.
We’ll do this by:
> delivering comprehensive training and development through
the Blueprint Framework, with more on-line learning
> listening carefully to colleagues through our
Employee Experience programme
> supporting and developing our Board members to ensure
they have the skills and knowledge to lead us through
challenging times.

How?
Deliver better value and
increase commercial income.
Running a fitter,
leaner business
We need to stay in shape to succeed in these challenging times.
We’ve made great progress already, but to deliver the extra things
our customers need, we must be even more efficient and pull in
extra income from our commercial activities.
We’ll do this by:
> finding more savings on our main activities, using our size to
drive harder bargains with suppliers
> using IT more effectively, investing in systems to help manage
contact with customers and improve access to performance
information at all levels
> generating extra income by developing new commercial
business opportunities.

Your Plan
2011–14
Creating your personal plan
We said up front that you’re the key. So now it’s over to you
to continue the good work. If all of our work follows the aims
of the plan, we’ll have another successful three years.
What you think
If you’d like to comment on anything to do with the plan
or the ways it’s communicated, please discuss it with your
local team so it can be fed back. Or if you’d prefer, you can
email listening@riverside.org.uk
Find out more
More information on the plan and associated work,
like case studies and targets, can be found on the
Policy and Information RIC site.

The Riverside Plan 2011–14
R8/024-0511V1.0C