September 2013 - Bron Afon

Bron Afon Community Housing
Thursday 26 th September 2013
Board Meeting
MEETING ROOM 1,
TŶ BRON AFON, LLANTARNAM
6:00pm – 8:30pm
Pre-Board: Social Media/Buzz – Ben Black
01
02
03
04
A buffet is available from 5.30pm
Non-Confidential
Welcome and Introductions
Apologies for Absence
Election of Chair
Election of Vice Chair
6:00pm
05
06
07
08
09
Declarations of Interest Page 3-5
Non-confidential minutes of the previous meeting held 18 th
July 2013 Page 6-12
Action Points from previous meetings Page 13-14
Appointment of Chair of Afon Community Trust and Afon
Community Services
Board Membership and Attendance
Items for Decision
10
11
12
13
14
Management Accounts 6:30pm Page 15-35
Performance Report Page 36-53
Outcomes and Service Planning Page 54-67
Welsh Language Scheme Annual Monitoring Report Page 68-79
Review of Emergency Repairs Policy Page 80-85
Items for Discussion
15 Community Based Working 7:00pm Page 86-113
16 Customer Service on the Helpdesk Page 114-118
1

Items for Information
17 Voids Standard Page 119-133
18
19
Minutes of the Audit & Ethics Committee meeting held 9 th
July 2013
Confidential
Confidential minutes of the previous meeting held 18 th July
2013
Page 134-142
8:00pm Page 143-148
20 Use of the Seal Page 149
21 Schedule 1 Declarations approved between meetings Page 150-183
22 Future of the Fairwater and Garndiffaith Offices Page 184-185
23 TPAS Renewal Page 186-189
24 Board Communications
If you would like any of our information in Welsh please ask. You can do so by visiting us or
writing to us at the address below or by telephoning 01633 620 111. If you would find it easier to
talk to us in Welsh we can arrange for a Welsh speaker to be present at an appointment.
Os hoffech gyfieithiad Cymraeg o unrhyw ran o'n gwybodaeth, gofynnwch, os gwelwch yn dda.
Gellwch wneud hynny drwy ymweld â ni neu ysgrifennu atom yn y cyfeiriad isod neu drwy ffonio
01633 620 111. Os oes well gennych siarad â ni drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg gallwn drefnu i gael
siaradwr Cymraeg yn bresennol mewn apwyntiad.
Registered Office/ Swyddfa Gofrestredig: Bron Afon Community Housing Limited, Tŷ Bron Afon,
William Brown Close, Llantarnam Industrial Park, Cwmbran NP44 3AB.
2

BOARD MEMBER
ELIZABETH
HAYNES
CARL WITCOMBE
HUW PARRY
INTERESTS
Torfaen County Borough Council elected Councillor
Resources & Corporate Business Scrutiny Committee
Appointments committee
Members Constitutional Working Party
St Dials & Greenmeadow Community Hall Trustee
Mayor of Torfaen’s Charity Appeal Fund
Leader of the Independent Group
Member of Cwmbran’s Got Talent Community Association
Trustee of Afon Community Trust
Director of Afon Community Services
Currently on the waiting list for a Bron Afon Property
Family members are Tenants of Bron Afon
Fairwater & St Dials Safer Neighbourhood Group
Member of Torfaen Canal Watch
Owner of Torfaen Freegle
Tenant of Bron Afon
School Governor of Victoria Primary School
Tenants Advisory Panel Full Member
Member of the Torfaen People’s Panel
Steering Group member of Moneyline Cymru
Head of Income & Billing at Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
Daughter is an Aspire volunteer
JEAN LEWIS
Sheltered Housing Tenant of Bron Afon
CATHERINE
PRICE
ALLAN GILES
DEBORAH SMYTH
GAVIN SMART
LOUISE KIRBY
Sheltered Housing Tenant of Bron Afon
Tenant of Bron Afon
Family members are Tenants of Bron Afon
Secretary of Communities First Trevethin
Cold Barn Farm Committee Member
Church Hall Trevethin Committee Member
Chair of Track2 Committee Member
Tenant of Bron Afon
Director of Policy and Practice, Chartered Institute of Housing
Strategic HR Change Manager for the Department of Business,
Innovation & Skills.
Husband is Caerphilly CBC Councillor
3

BOARD MEMBER
MANDY OWEN
STEPHEN
BROOKS
INTERESTS
Torfaen County Borough Council elected Councillor
TCBC Committee member of Planning and Healthier
Communities
Cwmbran Centre for Young People
Cwmbran Regeneration Partnership
Greenmeadow & St Dials Community Association
Gwent Police Authority – Animal Welfare Scheme
Thornhill Communities First Partnership Board
Torfaen Women’s Aid Management Committee
Bron Afon Tenant
Family members are Tenants of Bron Afon
British Diabetics Association – Member
Bron Afon – Leaseholder & Garage Tenant
Bryn Bran Woodland Trust – Member
Catenian Association – Member
Congress Theatre Co – Member
Corpus Christi CV Comprehensive School – Invigilator
Cwmbran Baroque – Supporter
Cwmbran Centre for Young People – Chair
Cwmbran Community Council – Councillor
Cwmbran Male Choir – Supporter
Fairwater High School Football Academy – Member
Friends Bruchsal – Member
Gwent County Football Association – President
Gwent Hospitals Contributory Fund – Member
Labour Party – Member
Llantarnam Abbey – Member
Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre – Vice Chair
Llanyravon Social Club – Member
Magistrates Association – Member
Ministry Justice – Magistrate
National Association Councillors Wales – Treasurer
Our Lady and St David's RC Parish – Committee Member
Our Lady of the Angels – Dining Club/ Tuesday Club
Our Lady of the Angles Primary School – Governor
Papal Knight – Order of St Sylvester
Pontnewydd Ladies Choir – Supporter
Pontnewydd Male Choir – Supporter
Pontnewydd United AFC – President
Pontypool Museum – Museum
Pontypool Twinning – Museum
RHS – Member
Roman Catholic Archdiocese's of Cardiff – Committee Member
St Albans CV Comprehensive School – Invigilator
St Davis Primary School – Governor
Torfaen County Borough Council - Councillor
Torfaen Junior and Youth Football League - Vice President
Torfaen Voluntary Alliance - Vice Chair
4

BOARD MEMBER
KELVIN HARNETT
INTERESTS
Wales and the Marches Catholic History Society – Member
Torfaen Aids for the Disabled – Treasurer
Torfaen Community Transport – Member
Torfaen County Borough Council elected Councillor
Member of TCBC Full Council
Chair of the TCBC Audit Committee
Member of TCBC Healthier Communities Committee
Member of TCBC Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Member of TCBC Ethics and Standards Committee
Chair of Democratic Services Committee
Magistrate
Governor Cwmffrwdoer primary school
Governor Abersychan comprehensive school
Depot inspector Stagecoach Cwmbran
Member of Pontnewynydd Community Association
NEIL SMITH
RICHARD CLARK
Head of Mobile Networks in Europe, Middle East & Africa at
Cisco Systems Inc.
Founder and Coach of Velo Youth Cycling Club
Founder and Coach of Wales Paracycling Club
Appointments Committee Cabinet
Cabinet
Cabinet (Equalities) Sub Committee Cabinet (European &
Regional Affairs) Sub-Committee
CouncilGwent Archives Joint Committee
Executive member for Health, Social Care, Well-being &
Equalities
Capital Region Tourism (SE Wales Regional Tourism
Partnership)
Congress Theatre Management Board
Croesyceiliog Joint Users Committee
Cwmbran Regeneration Partnership - Strategy Group
Local Authorities World Heritage Forum
Torfaen Voluntary Alliance Board
Rents a garage from Bron Afon
5

Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of
Bron Afon Commuinty Housing Limited
Thursday 18 th July 2013
Meeting Room 1, Tŷ Bron Afon, Llantarnam
Present
Board Members: Deb Smyth, Huw Parry, Stephen Brooks, Allan Giles, Liz Haynes,
Louise Kirby, Jean Lewis, Catherine Price, Gavin Smart, Neil Smith.
Staff/Visitors: Dorothy Morland (Membership), Peter Hayes (Membership), Duncan
Forbes, Ian Simpson, Neil Edwards (part), Kevin Willmott.
The meeting was declared as being quorate.
No. Discussion/Action
Officer
Responsible
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Carl Witcombe, Kelvin Harnett,
Mandy Owen & Richard Clark.
2. Declarations of Interest
There were no changes to the current Declarations.
3. Minutes of the Meeting held 27 h June 2013 for Approval
Board agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 27 th June 2013
to be an accurate record, subject to them accurately reflecting
apologies received from Carl Witcombe, Gavin Smart, Louise
Kirby, Mandy Owen, Kelvin Harnett and Richard Clark.
Acting
Governance
Officer
Matters Arising
It was suggested that a letter of congratulation be sent to
Margaret Howells who had been awarded a British Empire
Medal. This was agreed.
Chief
Executive
4. Action Points
• Action Point 4 – The Chair offered to present the summary
video of this Board meeting.
Chair
6

• Action Point 6 – This will now be presented in September.
5. Audit & Ethics Committee Annual Report to Board
The Chair of the Audit & Ethics Committee presented the annual
report.
The Board thanked the Chair of the Audit & Ethics
Committee for the report which was approved.
6. Year End Statutory Accounts
The Director of Resources introduced the report, explained major
changes over the year and asked the Board for approval to
recommend the accounts to the AGM. He also asked for the
Chair to sign the Letter of Representation and for the Chair and
Vice-chair to sign the accounts.
Board Discussion and Decision
The Board inquired about the tender process for the External
Auditors.
The Director of Resources informed the Board that presentations
will be made in August.
Director of
Resources
The Board questioned the emphasis on the contribution made by
the predecessor of the previous Chair with little mention of her
successor’s influence. Board felt that there should be more of a
balance in this respect. It was agreed to remove the last two
sentences (p6, pp3). It was also agreed that the previous
incumbent’s contribution be publicly recognised at the AGM.
Membership Committee Comments
Members queried whether the presentation shown at the Ethics
and Audit Committee will be delivered at the AGM by the
Auditors.
Members gained assurance that Bron Afon will still receive gap
funding.
The Board thanked the Director of Resources for the report
and, subject to the changes noted above being made,
agreed to recommend the accounts to the AGM and
authorised the Chair to sign the Letter of Representation on
Director of
Resources
7

ehalf of the Board.
(Neil Edwards left the meeting).
7. Area Offices
The Head of Inclusion & Support presented the report and invited
questions from the Board.
Board Discussion and Decision
The Membership Committee (MC) representatives expressed the
opinion that the closure of the Area Offices was a win/win for
Bron Afon inasmuch as it would add properties to our letable
asset base. They did query whether the extension to the
Garndiffaith office would remain.
The Board questioned whether it was wise to close the Area
Offices when it was apparent that the Helpdesk was struggling to
cope with demand as things stand with poor call handling
performance evident.
The Head of Inclusion & Support replied that the extension to the
Garndiffaith office would remain. She informed the Board that
peak demand for Helpdesk services was in the morning and it is
during that time that the staff from the Area Offices would be on
hand to increase our capacity to handle calls to the Helpdesk,
thus improving performance.
The Chair asked if it were feasible to add our services to that of
TCBC and HMRC in a community-based location. It would then
be possible for tenants to have all related inquiries dealt with by
different agencies all in one place, e.g. benefit/housing inquiries.
The Board discussed the possibility of mobile vehicle surgeries to
increase engagement with tenants.
The Board asked whether surgeries were working.
The Director of Community Housing & Support replied that,
usually, surgeries got off to a slow start but were used more often
and by more people than the Area Offices.
The Chief Executive added that we needed to make our services
available to all tenants, especially since HQ was now not in a
central location, within the borough.
The Board discussed whether our presence in the community will
8

e diminished by the closure of the Area Offices and if we should
establish a presence at schools in order to take advantage of
parents dropping off and picking up their children. The MC
representatives expressed the opinion that we should maintain
our identity ensuring that tenants do not confuse Bron Afon with
TCBC.
The Board recognised that we must make the best possible use
of the resources at our disposal, maintaining the ‘Bron Afon
comes to you’ philosophy whilst ensuring that the Helpdesk
works more effectively. The MC representatives informed the
Board that both Members and Forums had declared their
willingness to use our services even if they were based at
locations other than the Area Offices.
Membership Committee Comments
Member queried whether surgeries would be better attended if
they were advertised more effectively, and noted that
Membership Committee Members should be aware of the
surgeries as well invited to the ones in the communities they
represent. Community Involvement Manager to follow up.
The Head of Inclusion and Support asked the Committee for
suggestions of how the surgeries could be effectively advertised.
Members noted that while tenants can contact Bron Afon via
telephone and receive a similar service to that which is delivered
at Area Offices; it needs to be considered that there is a large
cost when a tenant is using a mobile phone.
The Committee agreed with the recommendation to close the
Area Offices in line with the Board Paper.
The Chair asked for a show of hands which resulted in a majority
in favour of the recommendations contained within the report
which were, therefore, approved.
The Board thanked the Head of Inclusion & Support for the
report and approved the closure of the Area Offices in line
with the proposals set out in the report.
(Catherine Price, Jean Lewis and Cath Stenson left the meeting).
8. Welfare Reform – Policy on Mutual Exchanges
The Director of Community Housing & Support introduced the
report, highlighted the issue identified in it and requested Board
approval to amend the policy accordingly.
9

Membership Committee Comments
Members queried whether Mutual Exchange will be open to
people with arrears as a result of the bedroom tax as opposed to
other arrears. The Head of Inclusion and Support confirmed that
any arrears will be considered.
The Committee added a concern about the recovery rate stating
that if it is on the same level as bedroom tax, it will be too high.
The Head of Inclusion assured the Committee that mutual
exchange tenants with rent arrears, will be reviewed on a case
by case basis.
The Committee were happy to approve the proposed
amendments to Bron Afon’s policy on mutual exchanges.
The Board thanked the Director of Community Housing &
Support for the report and approved the change to the
policy.
9. Housing Association Regulatory Assessment, Service Planning,
Project Management & Outcomes
The Chief Executive introduced the presentation, highlighting our
current corporate priorities, how we measure impacts in some
areas and the importance of all of us asking ourselves ‘what
difference does it make
He posed a number of questions for the Board to ask itself in
response to the HARA.
He underlined our risk approach to Welfare Reforms, Self
Assessment and HARA. Whilst there were significant on-going
actions required to address the areas covered by the HARA the
Regulator had said to Chris Thomas and himself that they had
not identified any significant areas which were not already
identified within our self assessment.
Board Discussion and Decision
The Board discussed data collection, IT systems and the
proportionate accumulation of data.
The Chair reported that there had been no feedback from the
regulators and questioned whether or not Board wanted
engagement with the regulator.
10

Board discussion centred on whether there was any benefit to
Bron Afon in this but the Board decided that there was no addedvalue,
however we should keep abreast of future regulatory
approach.
The Chief Executive asked whether there should be a change in
the frequency in which reports are presented to Board, especially
relating to rent recovery trends and outcomes.
The Board discussed the frequency of reports and suggested
that they remain as they are. They agreed that measuring
outcomes was difficult but important and that we should set our
own targets.
The Chair mooted that, to ascertain what both parties expect of
one another, it is important to hold dialogue with both parties
and, to that end, we should meet with the regulators on a
listening basis rather than an inquisition basis. We should set
and control the agenda, asking for a presentation on their
assessment. Board expressed some doubt as to whether this
was a good idea but settled on attempting to arrange a meeting
with the Regulators sometime in October/November. It was
further agreed that the Membership Committee would have a
presence at the meeting.
Membership Committee Comments
The Committee suggested that lessons can be learned from
Monmouthshire Housing Association.
Members mentioned a number of points they felt were
contradictory, including home owners and value for money.
There was concern that the regulator does not understand the
issues connected with the fact that Bron Afon are a community
mutual.
Members raised concern that tenants could be subsidising
leaseholders with relation to service charges. The Director of
Resources assured the Committee that Bron Afon are
undertaking a review on service charges, to ensure that rent and
service charges are separated in the future.
The Vice Chair informed the Committee that any further
questions related to the HARA can be raised with the Chief
Executive at a meeting dedicated to the HARA on July 31 st .
The Board thanked the Chief Executive for the presentation.
11

10. Minutes of the Staffing Committee meeting held 6 th June 2013
Membership Committee Comments
The Committee showed concern at the results of the staff survey
and suggested that Bron Afon need to work with staff to take the
feelings shown in the survey forward.
The Board accepted the minutes from the Staffing
Committee.
I sign below to confirm that these minutes were agreed to be a true reflection of the
meeting held Thursday18 th July 2013.
Signed ___________________________________________
Chair of the Board
Print Name:
Deb Smyth
Date: 2013
Minutes of the
ge 14
12

ACTION POINTS FROM PREVIOUS BRON AFON BOARD MEETINGS
Users enter information in these fields only
ITEM
NUMBER
First
Raised
REPORT HEADING
ACTION POINT & BOARD
REQUIREMENTS
OFFICER
RESPONSIBLE
DUE FOR
COMPLETION
PROGRESS or COMMENTS (date
revised)
REVISED
COMPLETION
1 26/04/2012 Board Appraisal
There was support for utilising external
presenters at Board meetings. The
Chairs Group will explore the options of
available presenters.
Chairs Group 06/06/2013
Karl George presented in May. Audit
committee training in September.
Other options to be considered in
relation to the 2013 Board appraisal
(20/02)
2 27/09/2012 Performance Report
It was agreed that where applicable
some charts could be removed from the
report for the future. It was requested
that where possible data is expressed in
actual numbers as opposed to
percentages and to use a dashboard
format.
Chief Executive
Report on this agenda recommending
revised performance reports.
Suggested charts are linked with
analysis rather than separate
dashboard.
26/09/2013
3 25/10/2012 Budget Guidelines
It was noted that a list of projects will be
kept ready to implement in order to meet
budget and business plan requirements.
Large projects may be split into smaller
sections in order to fit the financial plan.
It was requested that the board are
advised of these projects.
Chief Executive
We will bring a report forward now
that first quarter spend is clear on use
of savings and projects and business
plan options. Work on this is in
progress and we will report to the
October Board.
24/10/2013
4 28/02/2013
Board Meeting Summary
Video
It was noted that no video had been
made following last months meeting.
The Board were advised the
Communications and Marketing Team
were in the process of reviewing whether
this was the best method and format for
reporting key Board discussion
points/decisions.
Chief Executive 21/03/2013 Chair did video for July meeting. 26/09/2013
5 28/02/2013 Single Plan
Board to receive proposals for holding
Board meetings at offices of key
partners to improve presence and
encourage improved communication &
transparency.
Chief Executive 06/06/2013
Work in progress and future meetings
will be held at other venues Agenda
item for Chairs meeting.
06/06/2013
13

ACTION POINTS FROM PREVIOUS BRON AFON BOARD MEETINGS
Users enter information in these fields only
ITEM
NUMBER
First
Raised
REPORT HEADING
ACTION POINT & BOARD
REQUIREMENTS
OFFICER
RESPONSIBLE
DUE FOR
COMPLETION
PROGRESS or COMMENTS (date
revised)
REVISED
COMPLETION
6 21/03/2013
Service Planning &
Outcomes Report
The Board requested that a high level
report on Service Plans be bought to
them for consideration.
Director of
Resources
On this agenda 26/09/2013
7 25/04/2013
Inclusion & Support
Services
The Board requested a break down of
the cost of all of the support initiatives
provided. A list is available and will be
circulated. Short updates per activity
were also requested in the future
Head of
Inclusion &
Support
Figures to be included in September
Board update.
26/09/2013
8 25/04/2013
Welfare Reform Pilot/DWP
Update
Although individual notifications were not
sent before the Bedroom Tax came into
effect, the Board agreed that the
message had been made available
through the publicity received. The
Board was Interested to know about
those who did not know it was
happening and requested information
around that.
Director of
Community
Housing &
Support
To be included in September Board
update
30/06/2013
9 25/04/2013
Income recovery in
Challenging Times
A more detailed report will be provided in
July with full evaluation
Head of
Inclusion &
Support
18/07/2013
Reports due July but insufficient
space on agenda and full report due
October 2013 (25/04).
24/10/2013
10 25/04/2013
Review of Our External
Environment
The future of Retirement Housing was
discussed. The Board requested a
copy of the Hanover review when that is
complete
Director of
Community
Housing &
Support
Included in September Board Update 01/11/2013
14

26 th September 2013
1 st April 2013 to 30 th June 2013 Management Accounts
Joanne Jones, Head of Finance
Joanne.jones@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620408
Neil Edwards, Director of Resources
Neil.edwards @bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 6201137
1. Introduction
1.1 This report presents details of the financial performance of Bron Afon for the three month
period ending 30 th June 2013, considering the major areas of variation to the period budget
approved by Board. The full year forecast is also shown and compared to the full year
approved budget.
2. Background
2.1 The management accounts are presented on a quarterly basis to Board for consideration
and monitoring of performance. The report highlights key areas of variation between the
budget and the actual income and expenditure for the period. Annual forecast figures can
be compared to the annual budget.
3. Action required by the Board
3.1 The Board are asked to consider and discuss any areas of concern or areas where more
detail and explanation is required in order to satisfy themselves that income and
expenditure are being managed appropriately and effectively.
4. Supporting Information
4.1 Included as appendices to this report are:
• A detailed Income and Expenditure breaking the information down over each
directorate along with explanations for variances – Appendix 1 - 3.
• A Balance Sheet showing the assets and liabilities of Bron Afon as at the end of the
period – Appendix 4
• A Cash Flow schedule for the next 12 months – Appendix 5.
• A schedule showing Treasury activity – Appendix 6.
• A schedule of the non-property Capital Expenditure – Appendix 7.
• A schedule showing the current situation against 4 of the key Business Plan
assumptions – Appendix 8.
15

5. Summary of Performance
5.1 An Income and Expenditure account for Bron Afon is after section 14 of this report however,
a summary of the key outcomes are:
• Three month actual
revenue surplus
• Three month capital spend
• Bank and treasury balances
held
• Net loan drawdown in the
period
• Covenants
£1.971m compared to a period budget of
£0.8m
£5.468m compared to a period budget of
£4.875m
£6m
£2.5m giving a loan balance at 30 th June of
£71.915m
The annual cash flow covenant is met.
6 Introduction
6.1 As mentioned above, the income and expenditure account is broken down into directorates
and can be found in appendices 1 – 3. Detailed notes on variances are also within these
appendices. Therefore, the content and purpose of the report itself, is to highlight the areas
considered necessary to Board.
6.2 It should also be noted that the number of appendices has been reduced from 4 to 3, as the
Community Investment and Involvement (CI&I) income and expenditure has been
amalgamated with Community Housing and Support. This is as a result of changes in
Directorates where the CI&I team now report to the Community Housing and Support
Director.
7 Community Housing and Support (Appendix 1)
7.1 Community Housing and Support total net income is £7.587m for the period, £0.2m higher
than the budget. Further detail is included in the detailed Community Housing and Support
Income and Expenditure in Appendix 1. The areas to emphasise to Board are:
• Voids – Void performance has continued to improve. Whilst there has been an
increase in the number of properties becoming empty back to the same levels as a few
years ago, the time taken to turn the property around and prepare ready for letting has
decreased and at the same time a number of long term voids have been let.
• Community Housing expenditure – There is a £28K underspend during the period,
however, the year end is forecast to be overspent by £128K. This is primarily due to the
requirement for agency staff through the remainder of the financial year to cover essential
services. Note 4 within Appendix 1 provides further information. However, this is offset by
savings from closing the area offices where costs would have been in the region of £42K.
• Welfare Reform Project – The Welfare Reform project is currently only showing a
£7K underspend, however, it is forecast to have a net underspend of £175K. This is due
16

to the DWP project being extended until December 2013 instead of June 2013 which has
resulted in higher income receivable.
8 Support services (Appendix 2)
8.1 Support service and other includes the central costs of IT, HR and finance as well as office
running costs. It also includes interest receivable and payable and depreciation.
8.2 Expenditure within Support Services is currently £0.2m underspent, mainly due to legal and
professional fees, IT costs and Insurance. However, the forecast for these is currently
anticipated to be in line with the budget. All variances have been explained in the notes of
Appendix 2.
8.3 Interest payable during the first quarter is £0.25m less than the budget and is forecast to be
£0.6m less than budget due to the budget being based on higher loan balances.
9 Property (Appendix 3)
9.1 Net Property revenue expenditure totals £2.688m, £2.051m of which relates to traditional
revenue repairs such as responsive, void and cyclical repairs. Property expenditure is
underspent during the period by £0.4m. This is primarily due to:
• £118K underspend within traditional property revenue expenditure where less has
been spent on responsive repairs and related assets, offsetting higher spends on cyclical
and void repairs and minor adaptations. It should be noted that a significant contingency is
held in the revenue budget and that this is being used to carry out more routine planned
and capital works to help reduce demand for repairs. Please see notes 1 – 4 within
Appendix 2 for the detail behind the variances.
• Central property costs – These costs are currently underspent by £172K and this
rate of underspend is expected to carry through to the year end. The detail behind this
variance is in note 8 of Appendix 2.
10 Capital (Appendix 3 and 7)
10.1 The net capital property spend (Appendix 3) during the period is higher than the budget by
£0.7m. This is expected to increase to an overspend of £0.8m at the year end. This
overspend is to be funded from the year end forecast underspend of £0.8m within property
revenue expenditure. Notes 10 and 11 within Appendix 3 provide explanations for
variances within the capital spend. The revenue budget included a contingency which is
intended for use in mitigating risk of changes in responsive demand with an expectation of
reducing demand. It may be used on either revenue activities or capital activity. As the
contingency is held in a revenue budget, expenditure on capital items has resulted in a
variance.
10.2 Appendix 7 gives a detailed breakdown of Other Fixed Asset spend compared to budget.
£0.8m is anticipated to be spent by the year end on computer software. This is
predominantly for the development of the new housing management system using a
Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). The grounds maintenance team were
anticipating the purchase of equipment for grass cutting when they set the budget,
17

however, since then the grass cutting service has been contracted out, and so the
equipment is no longer required.
11 Cash Flow/Treasury (Appendix 5 and 6)
11.1 The cash flow forecast in Appendix 5 shows the requirement to drawdown £2m from the
revolver loan facility in quarter 4. The year end forecast closing balance is £3.754m.
11.2 There was a net drawdown of £2.5m during the first quarter. This can be seen in the cash
flow forecast, where £15m was required to be drawn down under the loan agreement;
£12.5m of which was used to repay the revolver loan balance.
11.3 Appendix 6 provides details of the loan balances, interest paid and the prevailing interest
rates.
12 Business Plan Assumptions (Appendix 8)
12.1 A summary of the monitored business plan assumptions are in Appendix 8. All of these are
currently within the target levels required, except inflation.
13 Covenants
13.1 The annual covenant has been met. Below is a summary of the covenant monitoring
calculation.
Target annual cash flow deficit £17,534,100
Year end forecast deficit £20,299,359
Less non cash items (£5,553,294)
2013/14 forecast cash flow deficit £14,746,065
13.2 The 2013/14 forecast cash flow deficit is less than the required covenant cash flow deficit.
14 Conclusion
14.1 Budget management support from the finance team will continue with budget holders both
on a quarterly and monthly basis to ensure that the annual covenant is monitored closely.
14.2 Board will be aware that Bron Afon has annual cash flow covenants which means that any
under or overspends can not be rolled forward or absorbed by future over or under spends.
18

Bron Afon Community Housing
Income and Expenditure Account As at 30 June 2013
Full year
Community Housing and Support
Period
Budget
£’000
Actual
£’000
Period
Variance
£’000
Full Year
Budget
£’000
Full Year
Forecast
£’000
Forecast
Variance
£’000
Gross rent (inc service charges) 8,838 8,838 - 34,092 34,005 87
Leaseholder charges income - 46 46 174 174
Less voids (185) (162) 23 (712) (594) 118
Net rent 8,653 8,722 69 33,380 33,585 205
(Increase)/decrease in bad debt provision – Rent (161) (127) 34 (644) (644) -
Community Housing income 143 160 17 572 596 24
Community Housing expenditure (1,085) (1,057) 28 (4,427) (4,555) (128)
Community investment & involvement expenditure (141) (152) (11) (589) (623) (34)
Support service net income/(expenditure) (9) 10 19 (37) 36 73
Furnished tenancies net income 68 62 (6) 259 230 (29)
Welfare reform project (including DWP project) (38) (31) 7 (297) (122) 175
Total Community Housing and Support 7,430 7,587 157 28,217 28,503 286
Property
Property revenue income 8 58 50 60 86 26
Property revenue expenditure (2,169) (2,051) 118 (9,037) (9,115) (78)
Grounds maintenance & block cleaning expenditure (456) (411) 45 (1,674) (1,588) 86
PV net income/(expenditure) 35 51 16 (121) (89) 32
Other property expenditure (22) 23 45 (92) (106) (14)
Central property costs (530) (355) 175 (2,737) (2,566) 171
Total Property (3,133) (2,685) 449 (13,601) (13,378) 223
Support Services and other
Right to Buy Income - 64 64 - 64 64
Office overheads, Insurance, IT, HR & corporate (1,456) (1,219) 236 (8,177) (8,131) 46
services
Café net expenditure (11) (14) (3) (48) (49) (1)
Lettings project expenditure (25) (6) 19 (100) (100) -
Depreciation (1,067) (1,115) (48) (4,268) (4,459) (191)
Net interest payable (889) (642) 247 (3,565) (2,998) 567
Total Support Services and other (3,448) (2,931) 516 (16,158) (15,673) 485
Total Revenue Surplus 849 1,971 1,122 (1,542) (548) 994
Capital
Internal & external improvements, & major
(4,750) (5,445) (695) (18,635) (18,871) (236)
adaptations
Other Fixed Assets (125) (23) 102 (964) (881) 83
Total Capital spend (4,875) (5,468) (593) (19,599) (19,752) (153)
Total Surplus/(Deficit) (4,026) (3,497) 529 (21,141) (20,300) 841
19

Appendices
20

Community Housing and Support Period Ending 30 Jun 13 Full year
Note
Budget
£’000
Actual
£’000
Variance
£’000
Budget
£’000
Appendix 1
Forecast
£’000
Variance
£’000
Income
Gross rent (inc service charges) 8,838 8,838 - 34,092 34,005 (87)
Leaseholder charges income
Less voids
1
2
-
(185)
46
(162)
46
23
-
(712)
174
(594)
174
118
Net rent 8,653 8,722 69 33,380 33,585 205
(Increase)/decrease in bad debt provision – 3 (161) (127) 34 (644) (644) -
rent and leaseholder charges
Commission receivable 143 146 3 572 582 10
Court cost income - 11 11 - 12 12
Other income - 2 2 - 2 2
Total income including net rent 8,635 8,754 119 33,308 33,537 229
Expenditure
Staff costs 4 (709) (705) 4 (2,836) (2,938) (102)
Housing management costs 5 (60) (57) 3 (312) (311) 1
Allocations SLA 6 (18) (19) (1) (72) (76) (4)
Communal services (retirement
7 (222) (227) (5) (893) (913) (20)
accommodation)
Communal services (flats and group homes) 8 (41) (37) 4 (183) (186) (3)
Community teams 9 (14) (6) 8 (56) (56) -
Professional fees 10 (22) (6) 13 (77) (76) 1
Total expenditure (1,085) (1,057) 28 (4,427) (4,555) (128)
Community Investment & Involvement
C I & I income - 18 18 - 66 66
C I & I costs (inc staff costs) (124) (123) 2 (506) (494) 12
Aspire project costs - (17) (17) (15) (63) (48)
Other project costs (17) (30) (13) (68) (132) (64)
Net C I & I expenditure 11 (141) (152) (11) (589) (623) (34)
Support Service
Support service income 120 118 (2) 481 472 8
Support service costs (inc staff costs) (129) (108) 21 (518) (437) 81
Net support service income/(expenditure) 12 (9) 10 19 (37) 36 73
Furnished Tenancies
Furnished tenancies income 75 64 (11) 289 243 (45)
Furnished tenancies expenditure (7) (2) 5 (29) (13) 16
Net furnished tenancy income 13 68 62 (6) 259 230 29
Welfare Reform Project
Welfare reform project income 48 42 (6) 48 230 182
Welfare reform project expenditure (86) (73) 14 (345) (352) (7)
Net Expenditure 14 (38) (31) 7 (297) (122) 175
Total Community Housing 7,430 7,587 157 28,217 28,503 286
21

Community Housing and Support variance explanations
Detail
1 Gross Rent
No budget for leaseholder income where the total expected for year amounts to £174K.
2 Voids
Rent loss from Voids is lower than budget as a result of the improved turnaround time and reduction
in long term vacancies. This trend is forecasted to continue for the whole year.
3 Bad Debt Provision
The contribution to bad debt provision is less than budgeted at the period end. This is as a result of
arrears not rising as much as expected, thanks in particular to the continuing focus on support and
recovery action.
4 Staff costs
As a result of vacancies and sickness in the Money Solutions and Community Housing teams ,
agency workers have been used to cover these posts. Savings resulting from the timing of
recruitment across the directorate have ensured that spend has not exceeded the period budget.
Steps are being taken to replace agency workers where possible with fixed term appointments to
mitigate the forecast year end overspend. The appointment of temporary additional staff to the Help
Desk as part of the drive to improve performance in this corporate “Area of Focus” is reflected in the
forecast.
5 Housing management costs
Housing management costs are lower than budget during the period predominantly due to timing.
The spend is anticipated to actually happen later in the financial year, where the budget has been
phased equally through the year.
6 Allocation SLA
The budget did not include Bron Afon’s contribution to the purchase of IT software by TCBC on
behalf of the Homeseeker partnership. This has resulted in a small overspend. There is a possibility
this will be offset by a reduction in SLA charges as 2 housing associations have expressed interest
in joining the partnership.
7 Communal Service (Retirement Accommodation)
The budget for utilities was based on estimated readings; however, as the accounts have come
through during the quarter, it appears the budget was set too low.
8 Communal Service (Flats and Group Homes)
Utilities during the first quarter are underspent. A review of utility reading processes will be carried
out on both retirement and flats to reduce future anomalies. The forecast underspend on utilities
will be absorbed by the unbudgeted costs of security surveillance at The Tower.
9 Community Teams
At present the method for rolling out the community team work is currently under review so the
actual spend at the period end is lower than was initially expected. Once the review is completed it
is expected that the full annual budget will be spent by the year end.
22

10 Professional Fees
The Community Safety team have made savings in both professional and legal fees. These savings
are likely to be realised by the year end. This will be reviewed at half year with an adjustment to the
year end forecast. At this time, the forecast has been set as per budget.
11 Community Investment and Involvement
Community investment and Involvement income and expenditure activity differ to budget due to:
• Income - The income is greater as a result of the team taking part in a Families First project
which is fully funded. The expenditure relating to this project is shown within “other project
costs”. (see below)
• Staff costs - Due to vacant posts there is a saving against budget. This surplus will be used
to fund other overspends within the team.
• Aspire project the timeframe for the decision about the outcome of the latest Lottery bid has
been pushed back resulting in the need for additional Bron Afon funding for up to 6 months to
bridge the gap.
• Other project costs – The period overspend is in part, due to higher expenditure on the
Families First Project, which will be funded from additional grant income (see income note
above), as well as being offset by underspends on projects which are anticipated to start later
in the year.
12 Support Service
The budget included a higher number of staff in the establishment than is required to deliver the
support service tender. This was planned as part of the restructure of the team and any vacancies
that arise during the period where headcount is above the required establishment will not be filled.
During the first quarter, a member of staff has left and will not be replaced. This process will
contnue until, the staff numbers meet the requirements for the service.
13 Furnished Tenancies
Furnished tenancy activity has been scaled down whilst a rolling review is carried out, which
includes the consideration of recycling opportunities and housing benefit changes.
14 Welfare Reform
The DWP project which forms part of the Welfare Reform project work has been extended until 31
December 2013 and therefore a larger amount of the spend can be recovered than that budgeted.
23

Support service and other Period Ending 30 Jun 13 Full year
Note
Budget
£’000
Actual
£’000
Variance
£’000
Budget
£’000
Appendix 2
Forecast
£’000
Variance
£’000
Income
Miscellaneous income - 1 1 1 1 -
Right to Buy sales income 1 - 64 64 - 64 64
Total Income - 65 65 1 65 64
Expenditure
Staff costs 2 (532) (526) 5 (2,127) (2,129) (2)
Corporate welfare reform contingency 3 - - - (1,764) (1,764) -
Corporate salary cost contingency 4 - - - (355) (355) -
Legal and professional fees 5 (147) (107) 40 (762) (744) 18
Office repairs and maintenance (17) (15) 2 (66) (66) -
IT costs 6 (194) (144) 50 (776) (767) 9
Office overheads (76) (75) 1 (312) (304) 8
Rent 7 (146) (116) 30 (585) (583) 2
Insurance premium and claims 8 (180) (146) 34 (690) (690) -
Staff welfare and training 9 (62) (38) 24 (278) (278) -
Bank charges (5) (5) (19) (19) -
Project costs 10 (6) - 6 (73) (73) -
Other costs 11 (92) (47) 44 (370) (362) 8
Total Expenditure (1,456) (1,219) 236 (8,178) (8,135) 42
Café
Total café income
Total café expenditure
12
(23)
12
(26)
-
(3)
46
(94)
46
(94)
-
-
Café net expenditure 12 (11) (14) (3) (48) (48) -
Lettings
Total lettings income - - - - - -
Total lettings expenditure (25) (6) 19 (100) (100) -
Letting net expenditure 13 (25) (6) 19 (100) (100) -
Depreciation
Other fixed assets depreciation (57) (65) (8) (230) (259) (29)
Housing property depreciation (1,010) (1,050) (40) (4,038) (4,199) (161)
Total depreciation 14 (1,067) (1,115) (48) (4,268) (4,459) (191)
Interest
Interest receivable 15 9 (6) 60 51 (9)
Interest payable (904) (651) 253 (3,626) (3,051) 575
Net interest payable 15 (889) (642) 247 (3,566) (2,999) 567
Total (3,448) (2,931) 516 (16,158) (15,676) 482
24

Support Services and Other
Detail
1 Right to Buy sales
During the first quarter Bron Afon sold 1 property through Right to Buy.
2 Staff Costs
Staff costs are lower for the period and forecasted to be higher than budget at the year end due to:
• Period Variances
The time taken to recruit into vacant posts.
• Full Year Forecast
‣ A member of ICT team increased their working hours per week.
‣ Agency staff used within Finance team to cover long term sickness
3
Corporate welfare reform contingency
Bron Afon has prepared for the current and future welfare changes by ensuring it has central funds
which can be used to counter the impact of the changes imposed by the Government.
4 Corporate salary cost contingency
This budget is to fund any cost of living salary increase. This is currently being negotiated with the
Unions.
5 Legal & Professional Fees
At the end of the first quarter Legal and Professional Fees are circa £40K lower than budgeted as a
result of savings achieved in Advertising and Recruitment as well as payment transaction costs.
However, recruitment costs are forecast to be fully spent by the year end. Forecast year end
savings can be attributed to the transaction costs and other professional fees.
6 IT Costs
ICT have achieved a circa £8K saving through negotiating more favourable landline telephone
charges. These funds will be used to partly fund the increase in hours mentioned in staff costs
above. Other savings in this quarter amounting to circa £41K are as a result of phasing and are
forecast to be spent by the end of the year.
7 Rent
Under the HQ lease agreement the rent is scheduled to increase during this financial year. This
increase amount is yet to be confirmed. Therefore a saving is shown in the first quarter.
8 Insurance premiums and claims
Both insurance premiums and claims are underspent during the first quarter. However, due to the
uncertainty of insurance claims, the forecast has been kept at the same level as the budget.
9 Staff Welfare and Training
The underspend in the first quarter is because the budget for training is expected to be spent later in
the year.
10 Project Costs
Project costs relate to projects within the communications team (£8K) and New Business
Development (£65K). Both of these project budgets are yet to commence.
25

11 Other Costs
Other costs are lower for the period and for the year end forecast due to:
• A first quarter period saving in Postage, Photocopying and Printing. However, this is
expected to be fully spent by the year end.
• Board costs at the period end are £8.5K lower than budgeted. This includes £5k for elections
which will take place in the latter part of the year.
• At the period end Human Resources recorded savings of £5k within its staff initiatives
budget. This will be fully spent over the next nine months as the team is planning a health
and wellbeing initiative during the latter part of the year.
• The Health & Safety expenditure is £5K less than budget at the period end due to timing and
the budget is anticipated to be spent by the year end.
12 Café
Although turnover has increased, net expenditure is higher than expected. It is thought this is due
to a high stock holding as at the end of June; cost of sales includes stock held as well as food
consumed.
13 Lettings
These are initial costs associated with the Lettings project. A business plan is currently being
worked upon.
14 Depreciation
More assets were purchased during the 2012/13 financial year than anticipated when the 2013/14
budget was set and therefore the cost of depreciation is greater than budgeted in this current
financial year.
15 Interest payable
Interest payable is lower for the period and the full year as the budget was based on higher loan
balances.
26

Property
Note
Period Ending 30 June
2013
Budget Actual Variance
£’000 £’000 £’000
Budget
£’000
Appendix 3
Full year
Forecast
£’000
Variance
£’000
Income
Responsive repairs - 34 34 - 33 33
Cyclical repairs 1 9 8 35 37 2
Void repairs 7 15 8 25 15 (10)
Total Income 8 58 50 60 86 26
Property Revenue Expenditure
Responsive repairs 1 (1,163) (1,054) 109 (4,141) (4,250) (109)
Cyclical repairs 2 (290) (354) (64) (1,160) (1,253) (93)
Voids repairs 3 (435) (486) (51) (1,552) (1,479) 73
Minor Adaptations 4 (56) (73) (17) (171) (234) (64)
Commercial heating (3) - 3 (13) (13) 0
Related assets and environmental
improvements
(222) (84) 138 (2,000) (1,885) 115
Total Property Revenue Expenditure (2,169) (2,051) 118 (9,037) (9,115) (78)
Grounds Maintenance & Block Cleaning
Grounds maintenance & block cleaning
income
Grounds maintenance & block cleaning
expenditure
-
(456)
4
(415)
4
41
35
(1,709)
39
(1,626)
4
82
Grounds Maintenance and Block Cleaning 5 (456) (411) 45 (1,674) (1,587) 86
PV Trading Income and Expenditure 35 51 16 (121) (89) 32
(see breakdown on next page)
Total PV income/(expenditure) 6 35 51 16 (121) (89) 32
Other Property Expenditure
Net Contract expenditure - (19) (19) - (73) (73)
Bron Afon Contractor expenditure (3) (9) (6) (13) - 13
Development & delivery team expenditure 7 (8) 52 61 (39) - 39
Commercial shops expenditure (10) (1) 9 (40) (33) 7
Total Other Property Expenditure (21) 23 45 (92) (106) (14)
Central Property costs apportioned to
revenue and capital expenditure above
Director of Property and housing
8 (304) (150) 154 (2,424) (1,773) 651
maintenance
Asset Management 9 (155) (143) 12 (585) (529) 56
Other general repairs and maintenance (72) (62) 10 (284) (260) 24
Total Central Property Costs expenditure (531) (355) 176 (3,293) (2,562) 731
Total Property expenditure (3,134) (2,685) 449 (14,158) (13,374) 783
27

Property
Note
Period Ending 30 June
2013
Budget Actual Variance
£’000 £’000 £’000
Budget
£’000
Full year
Forecast
£’000
Variance
£’000
Capital expenditure
Income
Internal improvements - 5 5 - 5 5
External improvements - 47 47 - 47 47
Major adaptations - - - - - -
Total Capital Income - 52 52 - 52 52
Expenditure
Internal improvements 10 (2,149) (2,694) (545) (8,454) (8,608) (154)
External improvements 11 (2,228) (2,422) (194) (8,051) (8,806) (756)
Major adaptations (374) (381) (7) (1,574) (1,509) 64
Total Capital expenditure (4,751) (5,497) (746) (18,079) (18,923) (844)
Total Capital spend (4,751) (5,445) (694) (18,079) (18,871) (792)
PV Trading Account
Income
FiT Income
Generation income
Internal recharge income
Period Ending 30 June
2013
Budget Actual Variance
£’000 £’000 £’000
7
193
-
7
204
1
-
12
1
Budget
£’000
18
518
-
Full year
Forecast
£’000
19
543
-
Variance
£’000
1
25
-
Total income 199 213 13 536 562 26
Expenditure
Staff Costs (17) (17) - (68) (67) 1
Materials (1) - 1 (5) (1) 4
Professional fees (14) (12) 2 (55) (55) -
Vehicle costs (3) (3) - (12) (13) (1)
Surplus before depreciation and interest
payable
164 180 16 396 426 30
Depreciation (66) (66) - (263) (263) -
Interest payable (63) (63) - (254) (252) 2
Surplus 35 51 16 (121) (89) 32
28

Property variance explanations
Detail
1 Responsive
Demand for responsive repairs is higher than originally forecast. There were 6,659 jobs completed
in the first quarter which is 14% higher than the budget assumption (5,801). Whilst the Q1 actual is
showing an underspend of £109K this is because the data on which the accruals were made was
incomplete. The full year forecast of £4.25m is £109K more than the original budget as the budget
assumption for the number of job completions has been increased from 25,000 to 33,259. In
addition expenditure of a further £150K is forecast within contingencies to clear the back log in jobs
older than 30 days.
2 Cyclical
The forecast overspend for cyclical maintenance of £25K is due to an increase in expenditure on
materials and subcontractors for gas servicing. This extra expenditure is accompanied by a
significant improvement in the performance of the gas servicing team which at the time of drafting
this report achieved 100% of services completed within the 12 month due date as well as 100%
legal compliance. For the rest of the variance, £55K is due to duty of care works which had not been
budgeted. This includes Glazing Surveys and Works which have been identified by the Health and
Safety Officer as necessary as a result of changes in legal requirements (£22K) and Emergency
Lighting Upgrades required following routine servicing (£30K). Also there are additional smoke
alarms that have been fitted replacing battery operated alarms that require servicing (£3K). A
virement of £55K will be made from the property contingency to meet the cost of these unforeseen
works required under health and safety legislation.
3 Voids
There is an overspend in the first quarter of £51K for the Voids Job Costs. The budget was based
on a job cost of £1,460, where the actual cost per void is £1,959. 226 voids were completed against
a budget assumption of 244 and a revised assumption of 840 from 864 has been used to calculate a
revised full year forecast. This additional cost is partly attributed to an increase in the amount of
work required in voids, however, most of the variance is as a direct result of using our in-house
trades team rather than external contractors. Currently our in-house team is not able to compete
with the market prices for this kind of work, despite being very competitive in many other areas. In
short our trade salaries are more expensive than the market for this kind of work. Asset Board will
be considering the feasibility of reverted back to contractors going forward and only using direct
labour in voids where work can be completed in line with the market benchmarks. Before this
change is made full and consequential issues need to be fully considered and a balanced view on
risk arrived at.
4 Minor Adaptations
There is an adverse variance of £17K to the period budget for Minor Adaptations and £64K adverse
variance to full year forecast as demand for the service continues to grow. The majority of demand
arises as a result of Occupational Therapist referrals following slip, trip and fall assessments with
work being delivered within the acceptable service standard. The full year variance will be met by an
underspend from major adaptations.
5 Grounds & Block Cleaning
There is an underspend of £86K to the full year forecast. £4K, is unbudgeted income and the
remainder is largely the result of two vacant Community Caretaker posts and their associated vans
and related costs. The forecast assumes recruitment in September, however as these are
management posts and their absence has not impacted on service output, recruitment of these post
will be reviewed before appointment.
29

6 PV
The feed in tariff increased in April 2013 in line with RPI which has resulted in additional income of
£25k forecast from PV Panels for the full year. The net expenditure figure includes depreciation and
interest payment; on a cash basis the PV Panels make a surplus. For detailed information on the
performance of the PV portfolio please refer to the PV Trading I&E.
7 Internal Delivery Teams
This team delivers a repairs and improvements service where demand is across the organisation
and is acting like a separate contractor, where it charges the area of the business it delivers the
service to. Therefore, any costs it incurs are recharged to the team who receive the service.
8 Director of property and housing maintenance
This budget includes the main property contingency of £2.27m. The contingency is forecast to be
utilised to fund:- (i) £150K expenditure on responsive repairs back log Note 1, (ii) The variance in
Duty of Care £55K ref. Note 2, (ii) The potential contribution to the Trevethin Vision Project - £107K
ref. Note 11, (iii) External Improvements slippage and Planned maintenance £450K ref. Note 11.
9 Asset management
The £56K underspent forecast is due to savings on agency staff and a vacant assistant data analyst
post which is in the process of recruitment
10 Internal improvements
There is an adverse variance of £545K to the period budget and £154K adverse variance to the full
year forecast for the Internal Improvement programme. 252 jobs were completed at an average cost
per property of £10,690 against a target of 249 at an average cost per property of £8,630, an
increase in the cost per property of 23%. 14% of the increase is associated with increased works in
these homes, and 9% is associated with productivity. Currently most of the internal improvements
are now delivered via labour only external contractors managed by Bron Afon, following recent
workforce planning changes. Going forward contractors will be contracted on a fixed price basis.
11 External improvements
The External Improvements overspend is funded from the maintenance contingency budget to fund
project slippage from the 2012/13 programme and increased costs of the Trevethin project.
30

Bron Afon Community Housing Ltd
Balance Sheet
As at 30th June 2013
Appendix 4
1st April 2013 30th June 2013
Opening Balance
Closing Balance
£000 £000 £000 £000
Fixed Assets
Housing Properties
Cost 125,704 131,172
Depreciation (6,705) (7,755)
Gap funding & Capital Grant (27,380) (33,180)
Other 91,619 90,237
Cost 10,817 10,840
Depreciation (2,827) (3,025)
7,990 7,815
Total Fixed Assets 99,609 98,052
Current Assets
Debtors 5,439 5,013
Stocks 278 269
Cash at bank and in hand 3,874 6,026
9,591 11,308
Creditors - falling due in 1 year (8,285) (3,974)
Net Current Assets/ (Liabilities) 1,306 7,334
Total Assets less current liabilities 100,915 105,386
Creditors - falling due after 1 year (67,898) (70,398)
Pension liability (10,319) (10,319)
Net Assets 22,698 24,669
Capital and Reserves
Non equity share capital - -
Community Investment Reserve 2,345 2,345
Community Support Fund 6 6
Pension Reserve (10,319) (10,319)
General Reserve 30,666 32,637
Total capital and reserves 22,698 24,669
31

Bron Afon Community Housing
Management Accounts - Appendix 5
Cash Flow Forecast
The schedule below shows the actual cashflow from the April 2013 to June 2013 and the forecast cashflow for April 2013 to Mar 2014.
2013/14
Forecast Actual Forecast Actual Forecast Actual Forecast Actual
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000
Receipts
WAG Funding 5,800 5,956 - - -
Property Sales - 142 - - - -
Loan receipt 13,000 15,000 - - 2,000
Interest received 3 4 3 3 3
Income 10,602 13,479 10,602 10,602 10,602
Total Receipts 29,405 34,581 10,605 - 10,605 - 12,605 -
Payments
Payroll 3,877 5,048 3,877 3,877 3,877
Suppliers 11,893 14,043 5,534 6,311 5,765
Property purchased - 173 - - -
Loan repaid 12,500 12,500 - - - - - -
Interest paid 610 666 765 765 765
Total Payments 28,880 32,430 10,176 - 10,953 - 10,407 -
Movement 525 2,151 429 - (348) - 2,198 -
Opening Cash 3,577 3,875 4,102 6,026 4,531 6,026 4,183 6,026
Movement 525 2,151 429 - (348) - 2,198 -
Closing Cash 4,102 6,026 4,531 6,026 4,183 6,026 6,381 6,026
32

Bron Afon Community Housing Ltd
Treasury Report
Period Ended 30/06/2013
Appendix 6
Loan movements
£
Loan balance as at 1st April 2013 69,415,000
Quarter 1 2,500,000
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Total drawdowns 2,500,000
Loan balance at 30th June 2013 71,915,000
Broken down between the following lenders:
Interest rate range
Balance
EIB 4.626 - 4.828% 22,000,000
RBS 0.65 - 5.518% 39,160,000
Principality 0.65 - 5.038% 10,755,000
Total loan balance 71,915,000
Interest paid during the period
£
Quarter 1 700,374
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Total 700,374
Investments held at the 31st March and interest received during the period
Bank
Amount
Invested @
31/03/13
Amount
Invested @
30/06/13
Interest Received
RBS-SIBA £1,000,687 £3,733,728 0.45% £4,009
Principality £2,824,250 £2,824,250 1.50% £5,281
Total £3,824,937 £6,557,978 £9,290
33

Bron Afon Community Housing Appendix 7
Management Accounts - Period ending 30th June 2013
Other Fixed Assets
Additions
Period Budget Actual Variance Full Year
Budget
Forecast
Variance
Computers Hardware 4,000 8,428 (4,428) 76,750 76,750 -
Computers Software 37,000 14,131 22,869 803,000 803,000 -
Office Equipment - 800 (800) - 800 (800)
Plant & Tools (Grounds maintenance) 84,000 - 84,000 84,000 - 84,000
125,000 23,359 101,641 963,750 880,550 83,200
34

Bron Afon Community Housing Ltd
Business Plan Assumptions Appendix 8
Period Ended 30/06/2013
The table below compares some of the key Business Plan assumptions with the current figures.
It must be remembered that these are merely a snapshot and don't necessarily mean that the position won't change. Also the matter is complicated by the fact that each variable should
not be seen in isolation from each other. When the original sensitivity analysis was carried out on the Business Plan, each key variable was changed whilst the others were held
constant to see what the effect would be. In practice if one variable changes, the others also change i.e. they are linked in some way. For example normally if inflation rises,
then interest rates also rise, though not necessarily immediately, so that over time the difference between them remains fairly consistent. Similarly, rent is likely to remain inflation
linked to RPI unless WG changes its policy. But one factor they would consider when doing this would be the business plans of RSLs.
Key
As good or better than the Business Plan
Currently not as good as the Business Plan and needs to be watched
Worse than the Business Plan and is potentially a major problem
Item
Assumption
Mar-13
Comment
Inflation 2.80%
2013/14 Business
Plan rate
3.10%
(Rate for year to June 2013)
Higher than assumed inflation increases the peak debt, although in the long term inflation reduces the real
value of our interest payments.RPI seems to be bumping along around 3% down since the peak of 5.59% in
Sept 11.
Key for Bron Afon is the link of our rent increase to inflation.
Rent Increase RPI +1% Actual Rent increase =RPI +1 The plan assumes rent increases of inflation + 1%, based on the September rate.
There is still a risk that WG will depart from this in the future, although the recent rent consulation stated that
the RPI+1% assumption was still in place.
In the long term the risk is around the increasing emphasis on the lower level CPI and whether the Welsh
Government switches rent increases to this as they have done in England
Voids and Bad 3.50% Yrs 1-15 Voids = 1.82% Voids are currently running at 1.82%. (The void rate includes long term voids and properties held void
Debt W/O = 0.00% deliberately). No write offs have been carried out in the first quarter.
Total 1.82%
Bad debt provision, which is a way of setting aside money in case rent that is due is not actually received
is 1.43% of the rent actually due. This is established to ensure we do not receive the benefit of all the
money due, if we think there is a risk it might not be received.
This is an area that could become of concern as the government reforms take effect, therefore it is
being shown as amber. It is not worse than the business plan currently but is being monitored closely.
Interest Rates Fixed Rates =
Actual Rates
Fixed rate loans are included in the business plan at the actual interest rate charged. Variable rate loans
are charged at an assumed LIBOR rate of 2% plus margin. At the end of June, 1 month LIBOR was
LIBOR = 1.20% LIBOR = 0.50% at 0.5%, so the interest rate charged was a quarter of the rate we had included in the Business Plan.
35

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
29 th August 2013
First Quarter Performance Review: 1 st April to 30 th June 2013
Duncan Forbes, Chief Executive
Duncan.forbes@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620118
Action required by the Board
The Board is asked to consider the steps being taken and satisfy themselves that
these are appropriate and to comment on the format of the data presented.
Corporate Plan Headings:
1 Sustainable Business
(Ensuring Bron Afon is a sustainable business)
Rent loss due to lettable units of permanent accommodation being empty as a
percentage of the total rent debit for the financial year (Slide 3)
Void – Decant Update (Slide 4)
Average days to let lettable units (Slide 5)
Tenancy Ending in First 12 Months (Slide 6)
Total new lettings (Slide 9)
For ease of reference and to avoid duplication we have pulled the information relevant to
the above slides, which are all closely inter-related, into a single commentary:
What have we achieved in Q1
During Q1 we let 220 properties in comparison to 178 lettings in Q4. We did this whilst
continuing to reduce our relet times which evidences the impact of our continuing drive to
improve performance in this critical area:
Property type
Average relet time (calendar days)
Q1 2013-14 Q1 2012-13
All (including retirement housing) 39.52 52.80
General Needs 25.14 32.04
We had 78 voids at the end of Q1 which is an encouraging improvement on Q4 (90) and
shows that we continue to reduce the number of long term vacancies:
• 52 were general needs properties
• 14 were retirement properties
• 6 were being used as decants
• 6 were unavailable to let having been earmarked for demolition or extensive remedial
36

works
Q1 rent loss shows a significant decrease showing that we are back on track in improving
performance following the temporary setback suffered post Christmas 2012. During Q1
we achieved 8 back to back lettings where there was no rent loss incurred.
From April we expected to see higher numbers of empty properties as the impact of
welfare reform took effect. Indeed 84 properties became vacant in April and had this trend
continued we would be heading for an all time high of 1000 vacancies over the year. In
fact turnover reduced in May (55 vacancies) and June (60) to the point where we closed
the quarter with a reduction on the same period last year:
Period
Number of
vacancies
Q1 2013-14 199
Q1 2012-13 210
Q1 2011-12 170
We have analysed the reasons for tenancies ending to better understand this and to
explore what happened in April. The table below includes a comparison with last year:
Reason for tenancy ending Q1 2013-14 Q1 2012-13
Notice given, destination not specified 63 90
Transferred to Bron Afon property 61 34
Abandoned 2 5
Deceased 31 44
Evicted
(13 for Rent Arrears, 1 for ASB)
14 12
Moved to nursing home 5 4
Moved to private rent 12 10
Moved to housing association 11 21
Total 199 220
Transfers have increased markedly in Q1 compared with 2012/13 accounting for 31% of
vacancies in the period. This is a direct result of welfare reform with 18 of the 20 tenants
choosing to downsize in Q1 doing so through Gold and Platinum priority following the
introduction of the bedroom tax:
Reason for transfer
Number of tenants
Larger property 15
Smaller property 20
Move to retirement housing 15
Like for like 10
37

Adapted property 1
44 of the tenants who gave notice to quit completed exit surveys. Interestingly, aside from
the 8 moving because of the bedroom tax no one else told us that they were ending the
tenancy due to financial reasons which has regularly been identified as contributing factor
in our periodic analysis of tenancies ending in the first year. Nine did not provide any
reason. The driving factor behind these 44 moves is detailed in the following table:
Driver
Number of tenants
Impact of Bedroom Tax 8
Anti Social Behaviour 9
Need for larger property 9
Need for smaller properties (but not due to bedroom tax) 1
Need for get family support 2
Moving in with partner 3
Need to be closer to employment 1
Domestic Violence 1
Purchasing own home 1
Of those who left Bron Afon, 27 tenants (61%) rated the services of Bron Afon as
excellent or good with 11 people (24%) rating the services as fair. From the exit surveys,
5 tenants (11%) stated they were not satisfied with the services from Bron Afon (1 tenant
did not respond to the question). From the comments made the reason for this
dissatisfaction generally related to the standard of the repairs service received.
Continuing with our analysis of turnover 30 of the tenancies that ended during Q1 had not
lasted 12 months:
Month
Tenancies ending
Apr May June
4 10 16
The ways these tenancies came to an end were:
Transfer 7
Notice to quit 16
Use & occupation account ending 3
Death of tenant 2
Abandoned 1
Eviction 1
Total 30
Six of the tenants giving NTQ completed exit surveys giving with their the reasons for
leaving being:
• 1 was in prison
• 1 was fleeing domestic violence (and were being supported by Hafen Cymru)
• 1 wanted a bigger property
• 2 wanted to move due to ASB
• 1 did not move into the property
38

Most significantly 6 out of the 7 transfers were downsizing moves and 1 was as a result of
a direct match in exceptional circumstances. So a significant number of tenancies “ended”
(in practice the tenants involved remain with Bron Afon) following the introduction of the
bedroom tax as people who moved in before April found they could no longer afford the
rent of the property they were in. This is not unexpected and we have indeed we will see
the general trend around transfers continuing as we support and actively encourage
tenants affected by the bedroom tax to move wherever they can.
We have been more robust in our pre- tenancy process since March to ensure applicants
can prove they can afford the rent on a property if they are under occupying and we have
an Income Officer providing personal budgeting support to applicants as part of the
process.
What is the current position
We have been particularly successful in allocating our retirement properties, especially
some that have been empty a long time. Between April and August we let 51 retirement
properties and 23 of these had been empty 6 weeks or longer. This is the result of
persistent advertising, identifying any reasons for refusals or lack of demand and trying to
address those issues, as well as sign posting applicants to alternative schemes that they
may not have previously considered. Whilst we need to do some research to evidence this
we feel that the improvements made to communal lounges has also had a positive impact,
creating modern inviting areas and helping overcome the institutional vision some people
have of retirement accommodation.
At the end of August, 6 of the 13 retirement properties currently empty are hard to let
properties which have been empty over 6 weeks. The number of decant properties
increased to 6 during Q1 from 4 in Q4. The increase was the result of the need for 1
property to be used for temporary accommodation following a house fire and 1 to allow
major works to be completed. Two of the 6 decant properties have been returned to
general needs use during Q2 bringing the total decant properties back down to 4 at the
time of writing the report.
We are closely monitoring our larger property vacancies to establish what if any impact
the bedroom tax is having. In one of our communities Blaenavon, where we have very few
1 bed properties, there are emerging signs of a shift in demand away from 2 bedroom
properties since April as a result of the bedroom tax making them unaffordable to people.
Last year in Blaenavon the already high demand for our scarce 1 bed vacancies was
evidenced by there being on average 26 people bidding for every vacancy and the
average is now 43 bids. In contrast we did not have to re-advertise any vacancies last
year. So far this year we have had to re-advertise 3 two bed properties – in April when we
had 7 two bed vacancies we received 24 bids on average for each of them yet in August
when we had 6 two bed vacancies bids were down to 15 on average. The fact that we are
still getting relatively high numbers of bids for our 2 beds shows that they are still in
demand but clearly we are now keeping a watchful eye on the situation given the adverse
trend. Our big concern is that there are simply not enough 1 bed homes in Blaenavon for
people hit by the bedroom tax & for newly forming households to move to.
At the time of writing our average relet time for all properties has further improved to 38.30
days. The average for the 299 general needs lets completed stands at 24.03 days (31.56
in 2012/13) and for the 51 retirement housing lettings at 105.55 days (127.05 in 2012/13).
As the data in the chart below shows (for the 313 homes let to 19 August) we relet 70% of
our vacancies within 28 days and obviously if we were to strip out retirement housing from
39

the analysis the picture for general needs would be even brighter.
80
71 Voids @ 16/08/13
70
61
60
53
Frequency
50
41
40
30
18
19
20 15
13
9
10
4 6
1 0 1 1
0
Range (days)
What action is planned & what difference will this make
At the end of August, 6 of the 13 retirement properties currently empty are hard to let
properties which have been vacant over 6 weeks. We will be completing and
implementing our marketing strategy for retirement housing in October and our aim is to
reduce long term voids by half by the end of quarter 3.
We will further strengthen performance management during September to ensure that the
improving trend we have firmly established around voids and relets continues through to
year end and beyond. This will include systematic scrutiny of all long term major works
voids and those awaiting demolition by our asset programme board to ensure they are
moved on to their end destination without delay. In addition senior managers will review
the status of all voids that have stood empty longer that our rolling average general needs
relet time to ensure each is following its own time bound action plan. Our aim is to drive
relet times for general needs properties down to 22 days and to be letting all new
retirement housing vacancies within 28 days, by year end.
Our Area Management Boards will formulate action plans to address the issues giving rise
to dissatisfaction with the repairs service amongst a small proportion of outgoing tenants
with the aim of eliminating this as a reason for dissatisfaction by Q4.
We will continue to systematically track demand for our larger properties to establish
whether the pattern emerging in Blaenavon continues or is repeated elsewhere and will
devise timely and appropriate strategies for dealing with any firm adverse trends
identified.
Evictions & Possession Orders (Slide 7)
What have we achieved in Q1
The number of evictions (13) for rent arrears in Quarter 1 is comparable to that for the
same period (12) last year.
40

102 cases were taken to Court in Q1 which is almost double the number for the same
period last year. This is a direct result of our more consistent and timely approach to
income recovery. In terms of judgements 19 immediate possession orders and 48
suspended possession orders (SPO) were granted. 25 cases were adjourned, 8 cases
were withdrawn as debts were paid before the court date and 2 money judgments were
obtained.
Our enforcement activity saw 27 warrants issued in Q1 along with 6 issued in Q4 2012/13
with execution dates in Q1. 13 evictions were subsequently carried out compared to 12 in
Q1 last year. What this shows is that we are taking a balanced approach with higher
numbers of defaulting cases being escalated promptly through the recovery process into
court and at the same time our increased support activity is helping tenants keep their
homes, with SPOs in place as our safeguard. This is further reflected in the 16 warrants
that were suspended when tenants engaged with support and in the 4 cases where
tenants cleared their debt in full.
Of those cases where evictions took place, 9 were single people, 3 were single parent
families and 1 was a 2 parent family. Geographically there were 3 evictions for arrears in
both Blaenavon and the New Inn/Sebastopol communities, 2 in the
Croesyceiliog/Llanyravon/Llanfrechfa community and 1 in each in Garndiffaith, Trevethin,
Northville and Fairwater.
What is the current position
To date in Quarter Two 372 notices have been served. There have been 63 Court
hearings and 46 possession orders granted. The Money Solutions Team continues to
proactively work with tenants to offer support at all stages of the recovery process in order
to mitigate and minimise the impact of debt on vulnerable households.
Our Own Two Feet project continues to support young tenants to maintain their new
tenancies, and the Aspire Home Family Link Officers are working closely with
families who have specific income and money management issues to prevent a
deterioration in this situation. The Aspire Family Link Officers’ advice reinforces rent
payments as a priority with arrears and eviction as situations to be avoided at all costs.
The Under Occupation team has been targeting arrears cases over £500 in the bedroom
tax cohort Q1 as a tactic to support this group who were already struggling to pay and are
closest to the eviction stage. Throughout this quarter the number of cases continued to
increase and peaked in mid June at 222. The team has focused on completing needs
assessments to support and build capacity with these residents to maintain their
agreements or court orders whilst paying the spare room subsidy. Going in to Q2 the level
of arrears in this group is encouragingly showing a reduction, indicating our strategy is
having the intended effect.
What action is planned & what difference will this make
Going into Q2 we have developed stronger links between the Under Occupation, Income
Recovery and Money Advice teams. The Income team have been focusing on tackling
arrears in the >£500 category setting a target of a 10% reduction in numbers of cases and
a 2% reduction in the value of arrears in this group during Q2. As part of the improved
joining up of the service we are seeing an increase in referrals for those tenants affected
by under occupation. This is having the effect of further preventing evictions, even those
which have got to the final stages of the process by putting support plans in place to
41

continue to support them to pay their rent and maximise their income or move. In Q2 we
have started working proactively with tenants whose Discretionary Housing Payment
(DHP) is coming to an end. Our aim here is to support tenants to maintain their claim
where there is a need and to ensure that in other cases they have robust plans in place to
sustain their tenancy and pay their rent.
Supported Living Outcomes (Slide 8)
What have we achieved in Q1
The Supported Living team support on average 370 service users, aged 50 and above, at
any one time. As service users attain their goals they move out of the service, often being
sign posted to follow on services that meet new needs, for example the Aspire befriending
service. In Q1 the service supported 422 people.
As part of the needs assessment, service users identify with their Support Worker which
Supporting People outcomes they need to achieve in order to address their support
needs. The graph on the slide shows the number of people meeting each of the 11
Supporting People outcomes for Q1.
Due to the impact of Welfare Benefit Reform we are seeing an increasing number of
referrals to support service users with money management and/or re-housing.
The waiting list for the service has increased from 8 referrals to 31 and all are currently
undergoing a needs assessment. The increase is mostly due to Managers promoting the
service to external agencies including Torfaen Social Services. If any priority need is
identified on assessment support can begin immediately.
Despite this increase in numbers the average waiting time between a non urgent referral
being made to the support being provided is 5 – 6 weeks.
What is the current position
Due to the impact of Welfare Benefit Reform we are seeing an increasing number of
referrals to support service users with money management and/or re-housing.
The waiting list for the service has increased from 8 referrals to 31 and all are currently
undergoing a needs assessment. The increase is mostly due to Managers promoting the
service to external agencies including Torfaen Social Services. If any priority need is
identified on assessment support can begin immediately.
Despite this increase in numbers the average waiting time between a non urgent referral
being made to support being provided is 5 – 6 weeks. This is much better than many other
support services locally some of which have a 2 – 3 month wait.
What action is planned & what difference will this make
Our pressing priority in Q2 is to establish a better understanding of the impact Welsh
Government’s (WG) planned cuts in Supporting People (SP) grant funding will have on
our Supported Living contract so that we can develop appropriate plans in response. The
information that we have obtained so far through the local SP planning forum suggests
42

that budgets may be cut by 10% although WG is saying that it expects SP commissioners
to take a strategic approach to savings rather than applying an across the board cut.
Alongside this our aim is to ensure that the huge difference the Supported Living service
continues to make to the lives of substantial numbers of Torfaen’s older adults is as widely
recognised and valued as possible, in order to make a compelling case for continuing
funding.
Current Rent Arrears (Slide 10)
What have we achieved in Q1
The compliance framework which was introduced in July 2012 has continued to
demonstrate an impact in terms of performance management on income recovery. During
Q1, 97% of all cases were in compliance with our income recovery policy and at the end
of the quarter, arrears stood at £1,144,337, an increase of £132,942 on the Q1 period in
2012/13. The increase over the year is largely due to rising debt across the board but
particularly among tenants in the Direct Payment Demonstration Project (DPDP) and in
Q1 specifically, the early impact of the under occupation charge.
The Helpdesk continue to make agreements on arrears cases up to £500 which frees up
the Income Recovery Officers to tackle high level debts of >£500 which at the end of Q1
accounted for 50% of all arrears, 1% less than at the end of Q4.
In terms of recovery action in Q1 we issued 489 Notices Seeking Possession and
undertook 1455 intervention visits, up 28% in terms of notices and 35% in terms of
intervention visits on Q4, reflecting our focus on this key priority.
Below is a summary of progress on high level debt and cases inside and outside of the
DPDP in Q1:
• In the last 3 months, total arrears outside the DPDP increased by £73,167 to the
end of June 2013. There were 4,183 arrears cases in total and average debt per
case stood at £274 per case.
• Total arrears inside the DPDP stood at £282, 671 at the end of June 2013, down by
£3,250 in the quarter. There were 812 cases in arrears and the average debt per
case was £348, which is a marginal increase of £3 over the last quarter. There
were 124 cases above £500 at the end of March, which reveals an increase of 2
cases over the last quarter.
The Under Occupation Team spent Q1 working in the main with those households under
occupying by 2+ rooms and all new cases falling in to arrears as the number in this group
increased across the quarter from 163 to 221 cases owing a total debt of £69,071 at the
end of Q1. We are now starting to see these cases decline and hope to report a positive
trend at the end of Q2.
What is the current position
Encouragingly as at 2 September tenant debt for those outside the Direct Payment
Demonstration Project (DPDP) was £1,278,529 which is a significant £98K reduction on
the position in July. The number of cases in arrears also fell from 5786 to 5301. Tenant
debt in the Demonstration Project in the same period fell from £260,094 to £243,993 and
43

the number of tenants in debt from 785 to 749. Average debt for DPDP tenants was £326,
down from £331 the previous month, compared to an average of £241 for tenants outside
the project.
We are making steady progress too in stemming the increase in debt amongst the group
of tenants affected by the bedroom tax. At the end of Q1 74% of tenants affected by the
tax were in arrears and the amount they owed had increased by £55,000 since 1 April. By
19 August (the date of the last 4 weekly housing benefit payment) the proportion in debt
had reduced to 63% and the increase in total debt over the 1 April position stood at
£20,504.
Our focus continues to be on tackling the cases above £500 which present the highest
risk in terms of tenancy sustainment. We are starting to see some unwelcome trends as
these cases have increased across the quarter from 447 in March to 572 at the end of
June but as a result of action taken in Q2 we are seeing these cases starting to decrease
in terms of both value and number.
In terms of action taken to both drive down case numbers and address the cases above
£500 we have been managing compliance with policy on a weekly basis. We continue to
reinforce the message at the pre-tenancy stage and in all the support activity we do with
tenants in arrears that they must prioritise their rent. We are continuing to trial a range of
activities such as asking tenants to pay a week’s rent at sign up and we will report back on
these to the Board in October.
Community Housing Officers are now much more involved in ensuring new tenants don’t
get into arrears by proactively telephoning tenants who have incurred a debt since the last
Housing Benefit payment. Officers continue to seek to create sustainable agreements to
pay, backed up with appropriate support.
We identified towards the end of Q1 that we needed to take a more robust approach to
ensuring agreements to pay which has been put in place with tenants in arrears were
consistently implemented and were reducing the level of debt. We put resources into
addressing this at the end of Q1 and will be reporting an improvement in Q2 which is also
impacting on arrears levels.
We have identified 1472 households that were subject to the under occupancy charge;
385 households were paying the full deduction and 298 households were partially paying.
The under occupation team put in place prior to April have continued to work with
households affected by the Bedroom Tax and towards the end of Q1 were starting to
demonstrate pleasing outcomes from their activity. We are continuing to build on this
performance in Q2 and are anticipating that we will be reporting a reduction in arrears in
this group at the end of Q2.
Early examination of the results of the money advice pilot we have commissioned Torfaen
Citizens Advice Bureau to run suggests that whilst all the tenants seen (69 up to the end
of July) feel more confident about managing their money and whilst significant gains in
benefit appear to have been made (circa £14K when annualised), their indebtedness to
Bron Afon has not reduced.
What action is planned & what difference will this make
As part of the DPDP extension new tenants to Bron Afon who are of working age and on
44

housing benefit are being moved on to direct payment by default. Pre-tenancy procedures
have been developed with our DPDP partner the Council to mimic those proposed under
Universal Credit. All new tenants will have a comprehensive personal budgeting support
and digital inclusion assessment, with tailored support to meet their needs. The aim here
being twofold, to establish what works best in terms of early intervention and support and
to understand the extent to which those who have no prior experience of the housing
benefit system are better able to cope with direct payment that their peer tenants who are
already “in the system”.
Work is well underway to build and deploy our new Rentsense reporting system.
Rentsense essentially analyses payment patterns and applies sets of rules that we define
to filter out arrears cases that need attention from those that do not (e.g. because they are
keeping to a repayment arrangement). We will begin realising what we expect to be a
20% efficiency saving in Income Recovery Officer effort in the first year of operation when
Rentsense goes live in October. This will in turn provide additional capacity within the
team to respond to the demands of welfare reform.
We are now populating the under-occupancy module we have built in our CRM system to
help us manage the bedroom tax caseload and track and report on the outcomes that flow
from our support and recovery interventions. We aim to be using the new system as a
routine and producing the initial set of outcome reports from it in Q3.
We will do further work with Torfaen CAB to determine the full impact of the money advice
pilot we have commissioned them to run. Our aim is to be clear about value for money by
October based on a detailed analysis of the 2 key outcomes the pilot is aiming to achieve
- an improved sense of financial well-being amongst tenant participants and a reduction in
participating tenants’ indebtedness to Bron Afon – and the cost of delivery.
Finally we are pulling together the evaluation of the income recovery pilots that the Board
has given us approval to run and will be reporting back with our findings in October.
Former Tenant Arrears (Slide 11 and 14)
What have we achieved in Q1
£45,875 of former tenants arrears have been collected in Q1 out of a total of £462,491
outstanding. No accounts have been written off as they continue to be actively pursued at
this stage in the year.
The recovery of former tenant debt has been enhanced through the appointment of a
dedicated member of staff working three days a week focusing on these arrears and
through the use of software to help us more easily trace former tenants.
What is the current position
Cash collection on former tenant arrears for the whole of 2012/13 amounted to £127,013.
To date we have collected £74,263, 58% of the total collected in the last financial year.
Those debtors who have been sent reminder letters and who have failed to contact the
team are being visited more frequently in an attempt to continue to improve debt
collection rates.
What action is planned & what difference will this make
45

The former tenant officer is now focusing on more proactive work looking at all accounts
at the point tenants give notice. Our aim here is to have made contact with all outgoing
tenants who give notice from Q3 onwards to obtain a forwarding address and ensure that
tenants are clear about the level of any arrears and consequence of failure to pay these.
Loan Drawdown (Slide 15)
At the start of April 2013 a loan total of £13,000,000 was drawn down in accordance with
Bron Afon’s business plan for the current financial year. In addition to this a further
£2,000,000 was drawn down to support both the external and internal improvement works.
Total Number of Accidents/Incidents by Category (Slide 20)
RIDDORs
There have been 2 reported RIDDORS this quarter and both have been near misses.
Both situations have been investigated fully and lessons learnt have been used to raise
awareness and improve practice.
Near Miss Reporting
Our current Health and Safety focus has been on accident and near miss reporting and in
particular identifying and sharing learning lessons from incidents and near misses. We
have received 8 near miss reports (including the 2 RIDDORS) which link to the
implementation of a new quality inspection process and increase awareness amongst
staff on reporting requirements. Going forward, near misses will now be recorded
separately.
2 – Existing Commitments
(Meeting our existing commitments)
Internal Improvements (Slide 22)
Presently 30 properties behind programme. There are two reasons for this:
· Short notice cancellations by tenants.
· Shortage of suitably approved external contractors and the availability of
approved contractors. This shortage has arisen as we have had to suspend issuing
work to some contractors for quality reasons, another is suspended pending the
completion of an investigation into a major house fire and another has moved
resources to another client.
Our view is this a short term issue and we are in the process of procuring suitable
replacements.
Total Cost of Adaptations compared to Budget (Slide 23)
Currently Major and Minor Works Adaptation track anticipated cash flow forecast. No
issues to report this quarter.
46

3 – Excellent Standards
(Doing what we do already to a higher standard)
Number of Column Inches of Press Coverage (Slide 25)
April
Positive press coverage: 40 approx. column inches
Positive press coverage this month included stories on the Job Club, gas safety checks
and distribution of baby food donated to us.
No negative coverage.
May
Positive press coverage: 409.75 approx. column inches
The increase in trend this month is mainly due to stories on the de-cluttering of a tenant’s
garden in Trevethin, the bee festival at Ponthir School, the launch of Bron Afon ‘bee
worlds’, leaseholder conference, donations of garden tools to Blaenavon Community
Volunteer Group, Afon Youth’s work with Fixers, Trussel Trust food parcels, Job Club and
our participation in Adult Learners’ Week.
No negative coverage.
June
Positive press coverage: 25.25 approx. column inches
Positive press coverage we received this month included stories on the importance of gas
safety checks, estate walkabouts and our bee campaign.
No negative coverage.
Social Media
April
Twitter
An addition of 55 followers to a total of 1097.
Total of 223 interactions including @mentions, re-tweets, replies and favourite tweets.
Bron Afon sent 81 tweets.
Facebook
An addition of 54 likes to a total of 836.
Total of 541 interaction / engagement including likes, shares, messages and comments.
May
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Twitter
An addition of 49 followers to a total of 1146.
Total of 117 interactions including @mentions, re-tweets, replies and favourite.
Bron Afon sent 40 tweets.
Facebook
An addition of 34 likes to a total of 870.
Total of 212 interaction / engagement including likes, shares, messages and comments.
June
Twitter
An addition of 67 followers to a total of 1213.
Total of 158 interactions including @mentions, re-tweets, replies and favourite.
Bron Afon sent 59 tweets.
Facebook
An addition of 17 likes to a total of 903.
Total of 298 interaction / engagement including likes, shares, messages and comments.
Complaints/ Compliments (Slides 26/27)
Community Housing & Support
This quarter has seen a reduction in complaints in comparison with the last quarter and for
the same period in 2012/13.
The management team continue to work with individual members of staff to improve their
performance and this is evidenced by the overall reduction in complaints in certain
communities. For example, the highest number of stage 1 complaints in 2012/13 could be
found in communities 1, 8,14 and 15. To date in 2013/14, there have been no complaints
recorded for communities 1, 8, and 14 and only one stage 1 complaint in community 15.
We have recently appointed two change managers who will be working to create a suite of
policies and procedures to ensure improvement and clarity around consistent decision
making.
We continue with intensive scrutiny of monthly case management audits and on-going
work with the service monitoring and improvement team. This team are completing
monthly satisfaction surveys of anti-social behaviour cases to address lessons learnt from
complaints and this knowledge and learning is shared across the service area.
Property complaints
Management attention continues to focus on improving satisfaction with the responsive
repairs service and external improvements. With regard to external improvements, we
now have a robust recording and monitoring of complaints in place to ensure that
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timelines are met.
We have one point of contact in the Property service who arranges appointments with
customers which ensures that we meet the requirements of the complaints policy and
helps to assure our customers that we value their opinions and react positively to their
comments. Having a single point of contact ensures that complaints are being dealt with if
the investigating officer is not available; demonstrating a significant improvement in
internal communication and customer care.
The complaints remain quite complex and time consuming, however, we have got better
at providing timely updates to the customers and achieving close down. We will continue
to improve our communication with customers and improve relationships across the
property service to close down complaints quicker. We are able to demonstrate that this
approach is working through the reduction in complaints progressing to stage 2.
We have recently introduced a feedback form at the end of a complaint to ensure that the
customer is completely satisfied. This in some instances has returned 10 out of 10
satisfaction, with customers providing valuable feedback and compliments for staff
dealing with their complaint. This process has also alerted us to other issues that may
well have escalated.
Recent feedback from work undertaken by direct labour on the EWI project has shown an
increased satisfaction with delivery compared to the service given by contractors.
Satisfaction of tenants during 4 weekly visits (Slides 28/29/30)
What have we achieved in Q1
We completed 91 new tenancy visits in Q1. 83% of tenants surveyed felt that the
accommodation they moved into was of an excellent or good standard and 85% felt that
the services they had received from Bron Afon were excellent or good. These results are
consistent with Q4.
Our approach to new tenant visits recognises the importance of early tenancy intervention
as the foundation of behavioural change. This said we do sometimes find it difficult to
gain access and on some occasions we have to make second or third visits which delays
intervention and engagement.
What is the current position
The findings from our new tenancy surveys continue to be favourable and are consistent
with those for 2012/13. The small proportion of ‘poor’ ratings we receive tend to relate to
repairs that have not been completed at the time of the new tenant visit and our
Community Housing Officers routinely follow these up
What action is planned & what difference will this make
We are due to complete a review of the pre tenancy process in September where we will
be re-emphasising the importance of new tenancy visits and developing a relationship
with the new tenant in the early stages of tenancy. We will also be making the new
tenancy visit appointment with the new tenant at point of sign up to ensure that the date is
mutually suitable. Managers will track the process on a weekly basis. We expect this to
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drive up our rate of success in terms of gaining access and visit numbers completed and
through this enable us to capture more robust outcomes data
We will complete an analysis of all tenancies that started since April where tenants are
under-occupying and have demonstrated that they can afford it in our pre-tenancy
affordability tests. This exercise will examine levels of rent arrears together with the
impact our early tenancy interventions and support is having on the sustainability of the
tenancy. The lessons we learn will shape refinements in the pre-tenancy process and will
be summarised in the October Board Update.
We recognise the potential to make fuller use of the information we gain from new tenant
surveys to identify trends and drive continuous improvement. We have therefore recently
revamped our survey to refine the information we capture and have strengthened the
associated monitoring process. The new survey was implemented at the beginning of
September and we expect to see an improvement in satisfaction levels by the end of Q4.
Percentage of Abandoned Calls (Slide 31)
What have we achieved in Q1
We saw a very sharp increase in abandonment rates in Q1 to unacceptable levels of
around 32% in April and May. Whilst we saw an improvement in June when abandonment
rates fell below 20% we acknowledge they are still far too high and are consequently a
priority for immediate and continued improvement.
The increase in abandonment rates in Q1 was driven in part by increased call volumes
brought about by the introduction of the bedroom tax on 1 April which highlighted that the
service did not have the resources to cope with increases in demand
What is the current position
Improving service across both Helpdesks is an immediate priority for improvement and in
order for this to happen we have put significant additional resources into the service to
enable a quick turnaround of this unsatisfactory position.
The closure of the area offices in August has allowed us to introduce additional resources
to deliver our telephony services and in addition we working to merge the Repairs and
General Helpdesks so that there is more flexibility to enable the service to better meet
demand. The additional staffing on the phones is having an immediate impact on driving
down abandonment rates; in week commencing 19 August:
• 89.3% of the 2941 inbound calls received by the Helpdesks were either answered or
requested a call back
• 73% of the 2532 calls answered were answered within 1 minute
• Abandoned calls had reduced to 10.7 %
The move to a more flexible workforce will enable us to sustain the improvements we are
making and consistently deliver high levels of performance over the longer term.
Alongside this flexibility we have also recognised the need to be more proactive in
anticipating demand and ensuring staff are skilled to be able to answer all enquiries that
result from changes in our operating environment and awareness raising campaigns we
undertake.
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What action is planned & what difference will this make
We have set ourselves stretching targets over the course of the next few months with the
aim of reducing overall abandonment rates and driving up other aspects of the service to
customers. Through until December we will be providing Board with detailed monthly
reports on our Helpdesk improvement strategy and the difference it is making. The first
report is on this evening’s agenda.
Satisfaction Levels on Improvements (Slide 32)
Improvements satisfaction remains at a consistent level. We continue to monitor returns
on a monthly basis via the Tenant Liaison Manager.
Responsive Repairs – Average end to end time of repairs (Slide 33)
The average time to complete repairs is higher as expected as we work on clearing the
back log of repairs older than 30 days. Management action is proving effective in this
area with current mean down to just over 13 days and Median of 4 days. More information
on up-to-date performance can be found in the September monthly update.
Responsive Repairs – Overall tenant satisfaction level (Slide 34)
Over all satisfaction with repairs is excellent and significantly higher than the top quartile
house mark benchmark.
Responsive Repairs – Percentage of jobs fixed first time (Slide 35)
Percentage jobs fixed first time is excellent and is in line with the top quartile of the
Housemark benchmark.
Responsive Repairs – Percentage of jobs fixed within 30 days (Slide 36)
As forecast the percentage of jobs complete within 30days is low but in line with
expectations as we work to complete the jobs outstanding the longest. Management
action is proving effective in the area as set out in the monthly performance update for
September. The downward curve is now turned and we are back up to 89% completed
within 30 days.
Gas Safety (Slides 37/39)
Gas performance is excellent and the contribution and commitment of the team is noted.
Number of cases currently on the Occupational Therapist waiting list and length of
time each case has been on the list (Slide 40)
Excellent Progress made as OT’s have now removed all cases from 3 to 6 Month Band as
previously reported. This has been achieved with a temporary engagement of an OT and
the return of permanent OT from Maternity Leave. Interviews are taking place towards end
of September in order to have permanent OT in place.
Progress of Occupational Therapist cases against projection (Slide 41)
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Actual backlog for first quarter was a major operational issue.
Reasons:
· Increased demand during January/February.
· Resource issue: One full time OT left for new permanent position outside of the
organisation, at the same time as another OT was on on maternity leave.
Actions to address:
· Engagement of part time OT.
· Recruitment of full time OT post to start in October 2013.
· Rescheduling of workload within Team.
Currently our backlog stands at 30 Properties with the latest referral being 11th July 2013.
This is excellent progress and the commitment from the Team to address the previous blip
in the back log is noted.
Average Time for Adaptations (Slide 42)
Performance in this area remains constant. However, with the increase in performance on
referral times we anticipate ‘referral to completion’ time improving over the remaining
financial year.
Bron Appetit performance against prediction (Slide 43)
Income remains below the Option 2 target of £5,000 per month; however is higher than
budgeted with snacks, beverages and lunches in particular exceeding budget. Breakfast
takings have been poor and we have revised our opening hours to open slightly later with
a reduced breakfast offering and stay open longer to sell snacks and light lunches; this
came into effect however in Q2.
Funds Brought in to Torfaen by us for Investment (Slide 46)
What have we achieved in Q1
Total investment secured in Quarter 1 was £66,043 from the Welsh Government
Communities 2.0 programme for a project to support working age people affected by
welfare reform.
The project ‘Digital Inclusion – removing barriers to welfare reform’ aims to reach working
age tenants who have low levels of IT skills through working with them in their own homes
to provide 1 to 1 support. The project will develop volunteers as coaches, similar to the
successful model we have implemented through Aspire and Tech New Age working with
people aged 50+. The project will support individuals directly and also aims to work with
partners including Communities First Torfaen, Torfaen County Borough Council and Job
Centre Plus to bring about mainstreaming of digital inclusion activity within our respective
organisations.
What is the current position
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The Digital Inclusion Coordinator and Digital Inclusion Outreach Worker attached to the
project are now in post and are busy setting it up. This will link with the £40,000 Digital
Deal funding that we were awarded in August to launch four online kiosks in Torfaen.
Bron Afon is the only organisation in Wales to receive the Digital Deal from DWP and
Community Local Government. Our partners in the project include Torfaen County
Borough Council and Communities First in Torfaen.
What action is planned & what difference will this make
The funding for the Digital Inclusion project will run until September 2014 although our aim
is for the project to be sustainable beyond 2015. The goal is to reach 864 digitally
excluded individuals across Torfaen and volunteers will be trained to provide one on one
support to those who are furthest from being digitally included.
The Digital Deal project aims to enable Torfaen tenants to find it easier to get online with
four new digital help points being built in the area. The UK Government’s Digital Deal
project has awarded £40,000 to fund a project led by Bron Afon Community Housing, with
partners including the Council and Communities First. There will be two multimedia kiosks
in north Torfaen and two in south Torfaen. The machines will also be able to make video
calls to cut down on travel to public organisations.
Both projects are aimed at encouraging more tenants to get online, improve their skills
and benefit from wider internet services, particularly online access to Universal Credit.
Percentage of Contractors within NP4/NP44, Newport or Cardiff (Slides 51/52)
The majority of Bron Afon’s expenditure remains with local contractors in line with our
aims, values and procurement policy – this has been achieved in full compliance with EU
procurement regulations.
WHQS Compliance (Slide 53)
Unfortunately we are still under reporting the percentage of properties with a SAP of 65 or
more, this is a data calculations issue. Whilst work is completed we are still in the process
of calculating the SAP for each individual property. Unfortunately this is a manual exercise.
It will be completed by the end of March 2014.
53

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 th September 2013
Outcomes and Service planning
Duncan Forbes, Chief Executive
Duncan.forbes@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620118
1. Introduction
1.1 This report provides information on the steps we have been taking to address
a number of action points from our self assessment in the autumn of 2012. It
summarises the work that has been done to date and the work that is in
progress for the Board to review and comment. It makes recommendations to
the Board about future reporting arrangements.
1.2 We agreed the areas for improvement from our last self assessment in
October 2012. The Board agreed a reporting framework at their meeting in
December 2012. We have reported on progress with the actions on our self
assessment to the Board at Board meetings in March, on 20 th June and in
July 2013. Action points have also recorded at each Board meeting where
follow up reports are due back.
2. Self Assessment Action Points
2.1 This report covers the following action points from our 2012 self assessment:
• Improve our measurement of outcomes and set outcome based
targets.
• Improve our day to day communications with tenants and leaseholders
over the phone, in conversation and by letter.
• Improve our service planning approach and use of performance
measures to secure continuous improvement.
• Maximise income and further improve cost control.
• Need to improve management information held by service managers
so that data is more easily and readily available.
• Drive down arrears and support tenants in coping with welfare reforms
in ways that protect our income.
• Improve our knowledge of our tenants and leaseholder services so that
we have a better understanding of their needs in terms of services and
support including making more systematic use of data from surveys.
2.2 The work in progress described below will also enhance our ability to check
and demonstrate better the equalities impact of our service delivery.
2.3 Our regulator has identified areas which they want to focus on in their future
engagement with us following the Housing Association Regulatory
Assessment and this report covers some or all of the following areas they
have identified:
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• Ensuring the revised planning and performance management
framework is informed by a clearer understanding of, and focus on,
outcomes, including a more robust approach to self assessment from
the customer perspective.
• Embedding improvements to ensure the association is easy to contact,
consistently responsive and meets customer needs.
• Implementing an effective strategic approach to diversity, including
tailoring in response to diverse needs measuring fair service delivery
and responding to people preferring to use the Welsh language.
3. Jargon Busting (Board may find this website helpful
http://www.raguide.org/1_1.shtml)
3.1 There is a lot of confusing terminology in this field which isn’t always defined
by those who use it so it is important that we all have a common
understanding of how we use these terms within Bron Afon. Here are some
definitions:
• “Business results” - These are the results that Bron Afon as a whole
and particular services or team within Bron Afon want or need to
achieve from the work that we do. In some cases these business
results overlap with outcomes (see below) but in other cases they don’t.
For example, reducing voids is a pure business result as it saves the
business money. All of the literature on outcome planning makes the
clear distinction between results that the business can control and
“outcomes”. Business results are within our control; outcomes may be
affected by many factors including our actions.
• “Outcomes” – an “outcome” is an improvement in well being for the
targeted individual or group. . An individual outcome could be if
someone got a job. A lot of our work leads to individual outcomes. A
group outcome is that Bron Afon as a business manages to create a
number of new jobs that people can fill. We do this as well. I said that
outcomes may be affected by other factors including our actions. So
we can help people increase their skills and with application forms, but
we cannot guarantee they will get a new job. That depends on many
other factors including their own attitude and behaviour and the choices
made by an employer over which we have no control.
• “Delivery Outcomes” – These are a set of expectations of the
performance standards that Welsh Government publish that are used
by the Regulator to monitor and evaluate housing associations during
the Regulatory assessment and throughout our engagement with them.
As Professor Dave Adamson advised during our recent training, they
are not “outcomes” in the sense I have defined it above.
• “Impact” – I use this phrase to describe the effect of a change.
Sometimes the impact will be that outcomes for tenants have changed
and at other times it will be a change in our business results. For
example, if we carry out a change in approach within the repairs
service we would do it expecting it to achieve an improved business
result.
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• “profile data” – This is information about the personal characteristics of
a tenant or housing applicant or leaseholder that we record which then
enable us to adapt services for that individual tenant or monitor access
to our services. We don’t collect data for its own sake, only with a
purpose that is beneficial for tenants. For example, if we know that a
person has a disability and so cannot get out of the house we can
ensure we do a home visit rather than expect them to come and see us
in the office. Collecting this data for most or all of our tenants enables
us to analyse it in a different way and use it to adapt services in the
future to meet our customers needs more effectively. For example, we
know that fifty six percent of our tenants report that they have a
disability or long term illness that affects their lives. Knowing this, we
can redesign services to take that in to account. If we had better
information about how many of our tenants had a mental illness, we
could design services specifically around that issue. We know that
twenty nine percent of our working age tenants report themselves as
either having a mental illness or depression so we can start to develop
ideas around how services could be designed to tackle that issue.
• “CRM” – The abbreviation “CRM” stands for “Customer Relationship
Management system”. This is a computer software system which can
be designed to help us deliver services to the individual customer
based on their needs. If we record tenant profile data about individuals
and households in the CRM, then when they call or we visit, we know
more about them and can take their needs in to account when
arranging a visit or responding to the issue. For example, if we know
that a particular tenant has difficulty reading, there is no point in
sending them lots of letters about rent arrears. The best way to contact
them is a visit or telephone call.
I will make use of some of this jargon in the report below.
4. Service Planning, Business Results and Managing Performance
4.1 All our front line services now have service plans in place aimed at improving
business results and outcomes. The delivery of each service area is
monitored by the collection, monitoring and analysing of business results.
Key areas of performance are reported to the Board but as we sought to
illustrate in the August and September Board updates we have far more
information behind the scenes that we use on a regular basis. For example,
there is weekly repairs information, weekly voids information, weekly rent
information and daily gas servicing information. There is also weekly
monitoring of calls to the helpdesk.
4.2 We analyse business results on a regular basis; the frequency and the level of
management analysing the data is determined by the level of risk and the
degree of fluidity in the data or performance. For example, since the
introduction of the bedroom tax (which is high risk and where the impact is
uncertain and fluid), the Head of Inclusion and Support provides a weekly
analysis of the last weeks data on rent arrears to the Executive Team and
advises if anything has changed and what our response will be. Because of
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the problems caused by lack of resources in the Helpdesk until the Area
offices were closed in August we analyse data on the helpdesk weekly too.
We analyse gas data daily, repairs data weekly and duty of care data weekly
by way of other examples. None of this is set in stone. If performance dips or
there is some change that creates a new risk, the management level and
frequency of our analysis will change. Other analyses are less frequent; for
example the Board gets a six monthly analysis of the External Environment
and an annual report on anti social behaviour.
4.3 The quarterly performance report in the original format agreed by the Board is
on this agenda as a separate item. Our suggestion is that the Board agree to
refine the data they get and that we incorporate the charts and graphs into the
text of the performance report so that the analysis and the data are featured
together. We also recommend that we present the data on business results
by service area rather than under the Corporate plan headings so that, for
example, all the data on rent collection appears together. We collect this data
weekly in most cases, so the Board can decide how often they wish to receive
it.
4.4 We suggest the Board agrees a list of areas where they receive a periodic
overview analysis of trends which are important for future planning and in
some cases for the management of risk.
4.5 Our recommendation then for your approval is that:
• You decide how frequently you want a report on the issues set out in
Appendix 1 under the main headings covering repairs, voids, rent,
helpdesk calls, repairs and improvements. We collect most of this data
weekly.
• You continue to receive regular reports quarterly or six monthly or annually
with a more detailed analysis of key areas but we add to these so that the
areas you receive analyses on are as set out in Appendix 2.
• We redesign the reporting format so that the charts and analysis of
performance are together in the same report.
4.6 All of these analysis and reviews will be relevant to our self assessment. We
are not proposing they will all come together to the Board on one occasion but
they are all issues that will be important to take in to account when carrying
out a self assessment particularly the issue of the tenant experience which will
draw together all the data we have about the totality of the experience that
tenants have of the work that we do. The Membership will play a key part in
developing this approach for our self assessment in 2013.
4.7 The business results reports you receive will continue to be data based i.e.
statistics which are merely indicators of trends etc. The reviews will be the
story behind the indicators using a range of data including not just the
statistical information but feedback from the Membership, scrutiny, mystery
shopping, surveys and stories, compliments, complaints etc. All of this is data
which needs to be drawn together.
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4.8 This process of drawing together data from different sources of different kinds
to try and present an overall picture is known as triangulation. It reflects the
fact that no one source of data necessarily provides the whole picture.
Statistical data indicates change and performance but so too do stories from
individual tenants and their experiences as well as testing done by people like
mystery shoppers and other trend indicators such as compliments and
complaints.
4.9 In addition, where the Board receives a report on a specific change
programme or new initiative, we will propose a system for measuring the
impact of the change. This has already been done in relation to a number of
changes including, for example, the pilot rent recovery mechanisms on which
the Board will receive a report in October as planned. We have also recently
discussed it in relation to the hardship fund, with a report coming back to the
Board when this has been in operation for three months explaining what
impact it has had.
5. Outcomes
5.1 There is a general approach in public services in Wales to move towards
outcome based planning and monitoring. So called “outcome based
accountability”. It is fair to say, however, that few public services have
cracked this and this is partly because there is quite a high level of confusion
between what I have called “business results” and outcomes.
5.2 In relation to individual outcomes, the Board has seen in the past the reports
that have been generated in respect of outcomes for Aspire and supported
living and these were included in the August Board update. It is worth noting
that the systems we have in place for this individual outcome monitoring have
been widely praised by many of our partners. The entire children’s
safeguarding system in south Wales has been looking for an outcome
monitoring system and are extremely interested in adopting the system we
use. Supporting People in Gwent have also seen it as a model of good
practice. It is a good system but it is not yet effective and in use across the
whole support service within Bron Afon and it is too burdensome for use for all
tenants. I will return to the issue of timescale for rolling this system out for the
whole support service later in this report but the key point is that we have a
system which we know works and we want to roll out as and when resources
permit.
5.3 In terms of group outcomes for the community living in Torfaen we have
spent quite a considerable amount of time exploring the tools that other
organisations are trying to use to record and report on these. They are all
incredibly cumbersome and we recently visited another Housing Association
which we had been recommended to visit because of its approach to
outcomes only to find that they hadn’t cracked this at all. So we are not alone
in struggling with these issues.
5.4 The situation is made more complicated by the requirements of funders and
recipients of the data. We recently had a letter from Kath Palmer, the Deputy
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Director of Homes and Places at Welsh Government, essentially requiring us
to use the Value Wales Tool for measuring outcomes in terms of community
benefits from our contracting. We have had requirements from Families First
to measure outcomes for the Families with Complex Needs project in a
particular way. We also have separate requirements from the Supporting
People Commissioning Team to measure outcomes for them in a particular
way. So just on three small aspects of our business, we already have three
different requirements for measuring outcomes using different databases and
different models. Measuring outcomes isnt primarily for the benefit of third
parties; it is to enable us to check that the work that we are doing has the best
possible impact for our tenants. So it is a real challenge to find a system that
enables us to do this effectively with minimal front line effort.
5.5 It is important to note that we already do record, measure and report on these
group outcomes but that we do so in a cumbersome way that requires a lot of
“counting”. What we don’t have, and what we seek, is a single system that
will enable us to do this for all the different needs that we have and this is
work in progress.
5.6 In the definitions, it was pointed out that sometimes outcomes and business
results overlap. For example, a Housing Officer may provide support to a
tenant that enables them to sustain their tenancy. That is a business result
for us as we want to keep tenants in their homes and keep the rent coming in.
It is also an outcome for the tenant as they want to keep their home too.
5.7 The service plans we have identify business results and this is what we are
measuring and analysing as discussed above. What we are now doing
however is reviewing them with Professor Dave Adamson from the Centre for
Regeneration Excellence in Wales who provided the training to us on
outcomes before the summer. He is reviewing the service plans and providing
an external challenge on the extent to which we are measuring outcomes that
service areas are achieving. He will recommend changes to our measures or
additional measures and also advise how we can demonstrate outcomes
most effectively; sometimes by recording stories, pictures, other times by
surveying and collecting numerical data. When he has done this piece of work
he will advise further on our overall collection of societal outcome data and we
will make a final decision on how to capture it and report on it. He is carrying
out the work before Christmas and has already started.
6. Profile Information and CRM
6.1 The collection and recording of characteristics of tenants and leasdholders
and the inputting of this information into the Customer Relationship
Management system is important for the monitoring of equality, for adapting
services to meet individual tenant needs and to provide larger scale data to
enable us to adapt services for all of our tenants in a way that takes in to
account the wider levels of need now and in future.
6.2 In the past year we have carried out a fundamental review of the housing
management systems available on the market and whether they would meet
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the needs of Bron Afon and our tenants particularly in the light of welfare
reform. We have taken into account the experience we have had in the Direct
Payments Demonstration Project and also have many conversations with
other organisations about the systems they use. At a recent conference of
welfare reform attended by the Chief Executive, there were senior managers
there from over thirty Housing Associations in England who were scathing
about the systems available, some of which have been in use in England for
some time, and their lack of functionality in terms of coping with the
complexity of welfare reform and Universal Credit in particular. We are
working with a company called Mobysoft who provide a tool called Rentsense
to analyse rent arrears cases and they have acknowledged that we are ahead
of the field in terms of the level of analysis we are asking for about rent cases
so that we can assess the risk posed to tenants on the sustainability of their
tenancies.
6.3 So when we have looked at the housing systems we haven’t found one that is
suitable to meet the current needs including the need for flexibility and the
ability to redesign quite easily as circumstances change or the needs of the
business alter. As a result of the review, the best option was to design
modules ourselves for a Customer Relationship Management system based
on software known as Microsoft Dynamics. The resources and change
management required to develop the systems we required have been
targeted at the priority area of under occupation in the early part of this year
and that module is now operational.
6.4 A major corporate project has been in progress and will continue (probably
indefinitely) to design and deliver the changes required. There has been a
huge amount of input from across the business in terms of the data we need
to capture to deliver services particularly in the light of welfare reform and our
experience of the Demonstration Project. You will also recall that in April,
Cath Stenson reported on the development of the new support service and
the intention to use a triage system to identify the level of needs of individual
tenants. This will also require data to enable us to assess the level of contact
that different tenants require and have with us.
6.5 Members of the Board or Membership Committee who would like to have a
demonstration of the CRM and its operations within Supported Living or in
under occupation cases are very welcome to do so and we can set up a
session for the Board before a Board meeting if that would be convenient.
6.6 The current development stage for the CRM will see its use by everyone in
the business to record all customer contact and a system that can record key
data we require for all tenants and leaseholders. We have just finalised the
data requirements to enable the software programming to be started and we
aim to have a system ready for implementation in January in phases. Over
200 staff will need training before this system is in use everywhere.
6.7 Choices will need to be made about how we collect data from our
tenants and record their willingness for us to use the data to populate
the system once it is designed. We also need to decide how
60

frequently we update the data to make sure it is current. Our initial view
is that we should not aim for a “big bang” on collection of the data and
either divert scores of staff or commission external contractors to
collect the data to get started. Instead we should populate the system
over a longer period focusing first on the tenants with the greatest
levels of need and focusing on the data that best enables us to reduce
risk to the tenants and Bron Afon. We propose to monitor and report
on the percentages of data entered and we can review this approach
because the downside of this approach is that it will take longer to get
the full benefits from the use of the data.
6.8 Organisations in England have been collecting tenant profile data for many
years using a system called “STAR”. Whilst they send 100% of their tenants a
star survey, those organisations we have spoken to say their return rates are
between 30 and 40% and the general view seems to be that those tenants
about whom the associations want to know the most are the ones least likely
to return the form! So we don’t think that is necessarily the best way of
proceeding. Instead, we are proposing to make collection of data part of the
“business as usual” work of support staff, housing officers and help desk
where we collect and populate the system as and when we are in contact with
our tenants or they are in contact with us. We will only then proactively
contact tenants and leaseholders where we have had little contact and we
believe they may have unmet needs. We do propose to use aspects of the
STAR system for our tenant survey as this will enable us to benchmark our
performance with other associations using the same questions but this survey
data is anonymous and not linked to individuals so it is a separate issue.
6.9 As explained, the current stage of the CRM development is focusing on tenant
profile data and recording customer contact. Later development stages will
start to develop workflow and case management systems for the most
frequently used services. One of these later stages will be the development
of a system to capture individual outcomes for support services and hopefully
housing and property management interventions. We do not currently have
the resources either within our ICT team or within the business as a whole to
develop this alongside the current CRM development stage so we will need to
keep the Board updated on progress with the current stage and the proposed
priorities and timescales for later phases as these become clearer. Other
requirements may arise e.g. as a result of welfare reform that take a higher
priority for resources as happened with under occupation.
7 Conclusion
7.1 This report has identified:
• The ongoing work to improve our work on societal outcomes with support
from Dave Adamson and the challenges on finding the best system for
recording and reporting. We will report back further on this later this
Autumn.
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• The great work that has been done on measuring individual outcomes in
some support services but that we don’t yet have a timetable to roll this out
for all of housing and support services because of resources
• That the current stage of development of the CRM will enable us to
improve our knowledge of tenants and leaseholders by recording data
about them and as we have better data about issues such as preferred
communication and other needs this will help us improve our day to day
interaction with them.
• That we now have in place and fully operational a service planning system
for securing improvement to services and the measurement, analysis and
use of business results (management information) for key service areas.
• That the CRM data will help us assess the level of contact we need with
tenants so that we can target our support to assist those most likely to
have difficulties with rent payments to sustain their tenancies and reduce
our arrears.
7.2 The development work identified in this report has been ongoing for well over
a year and will continue for many years to come. We have focused on getting
it right rather than doing it quick; learning from others and future proofing our
developments so that when it is complete it is fit for purpose and of the
highest quality. We have also focused on engaging staff in the development
of the systems they will have to use so that they influence the design in
accordance with our values.
7.3 The Board are asked to review and endorse our approach to data and
proposed developments.
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BUSINESS FOCUS
AREAS
FREQUENCY OF
REPORTING TO
BOARD
RENTS VOIDS REPAIRS HELPDESK IMPROVEMENTS
Monthly reports in
Board update on
performance if there
is specific
management
intervention to
address issues
(these areas will
change regularly and
new areas reported
or reports
discontinued
Business as usual
reports (board to
decide what
frequency it wants)
DWP % collected / arrears
Bedroom tax:
. rehoused
.downsized
.arrears as result
of underoccupation
Caseload in debt as % of
overall tenant population
showing distribution
Proportion paying as agreed
Number of tenancies
sustained as a result of our
intervention – including
measures of:
Sense of ‘financial
wellbeing improved’
Additional money /
income increases
gained
Movement in Long term
voids
Reducing voids in
retirement housing
Decants
Proportion related to
under occupancy –
turnover & voids
End to end costs (rent loss
plus repair cost)
End to end time showing
distribution
Numbers and percentage
turnover broken down
into General needs and
Retirement housing
Satisfaction data – by new
starters & leavers
Numbers taking more than
30 days by category
Price per property
% within 30 days
Fixed first time
Average end time
Satisfaction data (eg
responsive)
Progress of of merger into
single Helpdeskmeasured
by % of change plan
completed on time
Call handling performance
by Area of business
Abandoned call rate, first
call resolution and
answering times
Call answering times
Abandonment rate
Ist time resolution
Call volumes (as a context
measure)
Satisfaction data
% availability of resources
% of properties meeting Welsh
Housing Quality Standard
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Levels of arrears
Current arrears as % of rent
due – permanent
accommodation
REPORTING AT DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES
DIRECTORATE
COMMUNITY
HOUSING
PROPERTY
COMMUNITY
INVOLVEMENT AND
INVESTMENT
CORPORATE SERVICES
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Quarterly reports (
we may gradually
merge into the
analysis reports)
Turnover of tenancies and
demand
Arrears trends and costs of
collection
Voids loss: rent loss due to
voids as percentage of total
rent debit
Average days to let units
Tenancy ending in 1 st 12
months
Capital projects progress
and financial performance
Internal improvements
WHQS compliance
Barbara
Loan drawdown (cf spend
on improvements)
Performance / forecasting
Cashflow/ covenant
performance
Treasury Activity
Business plan
Evictions and possession
orders
Support Service outcomes –
by individual projects
Rent arrears owed by
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former tenants as % of total
rent collectable
Leaseholder service charge
recovery (cumulative)
Six monthly reports
Satisfaction of tenants at 4
weekly visits
Asset Demand report
External environment
Annual reports
Community based working
ASB analysis
Stock viability report
Outcomes – contractors
and spend by post code
Training and Jobs
Funding brought in
Membership
PR and social media
Volunteering
Support service
Adaptations
Satisfaction overview
Incl complaints and
compliments and gathered
data from all parts of
business
Staffing trends
Occasional reports
Audit and Ethics
Duty of Care
Facilities Management
Staffing -
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turnover
Average % days lost due to sickness
Grievances
Total no accidents/ incidents by category
Board updates
Gas safety –
Cases on OT waiting list
Progress of OT cases v projection
Av time for adaptions
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Appendix 2
Areas for detailed reviews to be provided to the Board on an annual basis or more
frequently where shown. We will develop the precise nature of these reports over
time in the light of Board comments and questions and the external environment. We
may also want to combine some of these reports as we develop their use.
• Analysis of societal Outcomes including performance against Corporate Plan
• Analysis of outcomes we have achieved working with individualsDemand
handled by the repairs service and overview of performance
• Community viability/voids/turnover/housing demand and overview of
sustainability of tenancies and any issues around stock viability.
• Customer service demand and delivery.
• High risks (6 monthly) and risk events
• Rent arrears: longer term trends on debt and payment patterns.
• Staffing trends including management of performance, safety issues and staff
survey when available.
• The overall tenant experience including tenant survey when available.
• The leaseholder experience including the leaseholder survey when available.
• Membership impact and volunteering outcomes
• External environment.
• Antisocial behaviour analysis.
• Analysis of our approach to securing value for money
67

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 September 2013
ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT TO THE WELSH LANGUAGE COMMISSIONER
Duncan Forbes, Chief Executive
Duncan.forbes@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620118
1. Introduction
1.1 Every year we have to provide the Welsh Language Commissioner with an
annual monitoring report, which sets out, by way of self-assessment, our
progress with our Welsh Language Scheme (and the associated action plan).
1.2 The Welsh Language Commissioner expects “the report to have been
discussed and agreed upon via the organisation’s committee and internal
scrutiny arrangements before being submitted to the Commissioner”. Our
annual monitoring report for 2012-13 is attached.
2. Background
2.1 Bron Afon’s Welsh Language Scheme was approved by the Welsh
Language Board on 3 March 3011.
2.2 Following the approval of the Welsh Language Measure (Wales) 2011, we are
aware that will be a period of change which will result, in due course, in
schemes being replaced by standards relating to the Welsh language. In the
meantime, we will continue to implement our current Welsh language scheme
prepared in accordance with the Welsh Language Act 1993.
2.3 We are not expected to revise our scheme before the standards come into
force, but the performance reporting and monitoring arrangements will
continue.
3. Action to be taken following decision
3.1 Once agreed, the report will be translated and a bilingual monitoring report will
be submitted to the Welsh Language Commissioner to meet the deadline of
the end of October 2013.
3.2 The Welsh Language Commissioner considers the monitoring report to be a
public document and we will be expected to publish this monitoring report on
our website. This will be the same arrangement as the one followed last year.
4. Conclusions
4.1 The annual monitoring report identifies the significant progress made by Bron
Afon during 2012-2013 with the Scheme and provides information where we
need to develop.
5. Action required by the Board
The Board are asked to consider and approve the Annual Monitoring Report 2012-
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2013 to be submitted to the Welsh Language Commissioner.
69

WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME
ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT TO THE
WELSH LANGUAGE COMMISSIONER
2012 - 2013
Your guide to this report:
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 2
2. COMPLIANCE WITH THE WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME ................................. 3
3. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SCHEME .............................. 2
4. PROGRESS WITH THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME 2012-13 ..................... 3
5. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 3
6. NEXT STEPS 2013-14 ............................................................................................ 4
APPENDIX 1 – EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH STAFF ......................... 5
APPENDIX 2 – PROGRESS WITH THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME 2012-13 .. 7
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1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this report is to outline the progress made by Bron Afon Community
Housing in delivering public services in accordance with its Welsh Language
Scheme.
2. BACKGROUND
On 30 March 2011, Bron Afon adopted the principle that in the conduct of its business
with the public, it will treat the Welsh and English languages on the basis of equality.
Our Welsh Language Scheme sets out how Bron Afon will continue to develop this
principle when providing services to the public and explains how we will plan and
provide our Welsh medium services.
Following the approval of the Welsh Language Measure (Wales) 2011, we are aware
that will be a period of change which will result, in due course, in schemes being
replaced by standards relating to the Welsh language. In the meantime, we will
continue to implement our current Welsh Language Scheme prepared in accordance
with the Welsh Language Act 1993.
3. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SCHEME
Reporting on progress
The Chief Executive reports to Bron Afon’s Board every year prior to sending a copy
of the report to the Welsh Language Commissioner.
This report was reviewed and approved by Bron Afon’s Board on 26 September
2013.
Monitoring & reviewing
Monitoring this Scheme is an ongoing process. We made a commitment in our
Welsh Language Scheme to keep it under review “to reflect changes in community
language profiles...”. We will continue to do this as we learn more about the
language preferences of our tenants and develop services to meets the needs of
those we come into contact with.
We use our complaints procedure to record and deal with complaints in relation to
our Scheme. This ensures that specific complaints associated with the Scheme can
be monitored. Since our last monitoring report we have received two complaints:
October 2012 - we received a complaint regarding English only signage and a lack
of bilingual publicity at our ‘Fun Day’ that year. We take complaints seriously and
have taken the opportunity to review the effectiveness of our communications with
staff to increase awareness of the importance of complying with the commitments in
our Welsh Language Scheme. We have:
• Increased communications with staff using existing mechanisms such as our
staff newsletter and intranet site.
• Targeted staff involved in community activities and projects involving written
communications and publicity, with the aim of continually raising awareness of
our Scheme.
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• Been working with our Helpdesk staff, who are the first point of contact for
anyone contacting Bron Afon, to ensure they are aware of Bron Afon’s
responsibilities in relation to the Welsh language and communication over the
telephone.
We are also in the initial stages of working with our Service Monitoring &
Improvement Team to explore the use of ‘mystery shopping’ to monitor compliance
with our corporate greeting.
In addition, we are developing a Welsh language module on our e-learning site to
support ongoing awareness raising which will be incorporated into our corporate
induction process.
March 2013: This complaint related to signage placed on Bron Afon Community
Housing’s property. The existing signage (in English only) was replaced as part of the
External Wall Insulation contracts. New bilingual signs should have been fitted in
their place. This was an oversight by both the Project Manager and contractor and is
being rectified. There has been a delay with the translation of the signage, but we
have now received this from Torfaen County Borough Council.
Steps were taken to ensure a similar incident does not occur again by making
changes to our existing translation process. A directive from our management team
to all project managers has ensured that they are all aware that new/replaced
signage must be bilingual to comply with the Scheme. In addition, as directed by our
senior management team, the translation process is now co-ordinated centrally. This
means there is tighter control of the process ensuring compliance with the Welsh
Language Scheme.
Appendix 1 provides samples of our communications to staff to demonstrate what
we are doing to ensure better compliance of our Welsh Language Scheme.
4. COMPLIANCE WITH THE WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME 2012-13
Progress with our Welsh Language Scheme is outlined in Appendix 1. Bron Afon’s
Welsh Language Scheme and action plan contains measures which have been
reproduced along with comments on Bron Afon’s progress during 2012-13 in
implementing each measure.
5. CONCLUSIONS
• We continue to make good progress with the measures outlined in Bron
Afon’s Welsh Language Scheme as illustrated in this monitoring report.
• We acknowledge the complaints about our lack of compliance with the Welsh
Language. Our actions demonstrate that we have learnt from these and have
put actions into place to ensure there is better compliance of our Welsh
Language Scheme.
• We will continue to monitor and review the Scheme until the standards are
introduced.
6. NEXT STEPS 2013-14
72

We will:
• Continue raising awareness of the Scheme using our existing communication
methods.
• Explore the use of ‘mystery shopping’ to monitor compliance with our
corporate greeting and review learning from this.
• Continue our review of information needed to access our services for the first
time to ensure this is available in English and Welsh.
• Establish the chosen language of those dealing with us as part of our profiling
exercise.
• Review the Welsh language skills of new starters to build on our existing
internal directory of Welsh speakers.
• Introduce Welsh language into our learning and development programme and
evaluate feedback.
• Introduce the Welsh Language e-learning module and evaluate the results.
• Continue to hold meetings (2-3 times a year) with Torfaen County Borough
Council’s Welsh Language Officer.
• Explore opportunities to collaborate on learning & development activities with
Torfaen County Borough Council.
We will provide an update on the progress of the above action points in our next
monitoring report.
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APPENDIX 1 – EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH STAFF
Buzz – Intranet site
Mini campaign targeted at helpdesk staff and staff involved in community events & activities
74

Working with Helpdesk staff
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APPENDIX 2 – PROGRESS WITH THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME 2012-13
Measure Commitment Progress
Service provision All key documents will contain the following statement in
Welsh:
“If you would like any of our information in Welsh please
ask. You can do so by visiting us or writing to us at the
address below or by telephoning 01633 620 111. If you
would find it easier to talk to us in Welsh we can arrange for
a Welsh speaker to be present at an appointment.”
This statement will also be displayed in all our reception
area.
This statement appears on Bron Afon’s key documents and in
our reception area.
Correspondence
Services provided in Welsh and English will be of equal
quality and will be provided within the same timescale.
Establish efficient and effective translation process to
ensure there is no delay when a response to
correspondence is required in Welsh.
Keep a record of those persons who wish to deal with us in
Welsh.
• No requests were received to provide services through
the medium of Welsh during this period.
• We work with Torfaen County Borough Council’s inhouse
Welsh Language Translator to ensure
consistency of the language in the county borough.
As explained in the update to our 2011-12 monitoring report we
are in the stages of:
1. Exploring how we hold this information within our
existing system. This is almost complete in terms of
identifying what types of information we want to hold
including language preferences.
2. Planning a wider profiling exercise to capture the
language preferences of all our tenants. We are
currently exploring and discussing the best method to
capture this information.
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Measure Commitment Progress
Our switchboard (Helpdesk) staff will answer telephone
calls with a bilingual greeting.
Communication over the
telephone
We will publish names of staff who have Welsh language
skills on the intranet.
We will publish internal guidelines and ensure that front line
staff know how to respond to telephone calls from Welsh
speakers.
• This forms part of our corporate telephone greeting.
• As explained in the update to our monitoring report
2011-12, as part of our regulatory assessment, the
Welsh Regulation Team tested this out and were
appropriately passed to a Welsh speaking member of
staff.
• We are exploring how we can use our mystery
shopping programme to monitor this.
• There is a link from the homepage of Bron Afon’s
intranet site to an internal directory of all staff who can
speak Welsh, their contact details and guidelines for
dealing with telephone calls.
• We regularly promote the guidelines to staff and our
nominated officer is closely working with our helpdesk
staff by attending team meetings to ensure they are
able to respond to requests in Welsh on the telephone.
Public meetings & face to
face meetings
We welcome meetings with the public in Welsh or English
and will provide translation facilities.
• We have arrangements in place to provide translation
where needed.
• We have had no requests for this.
Corporate identity and signs We have a bilingual corporate identity. We have a bilingual identity promoting Bron Afon, our premises
Printed material
When renewing or erecting new signs these will be
bilingual.
We will produce documents that are needed to access our
services for the first time in both languages e.g. leaflets,
application forms and a summary of our Welsh Language
Scheme.
and services.
• As outlined in the ‘Management and Administration of
the Scheme’ section of this report, we reviewed our
processes to address issues raised by complaints.
• Relevant staff have been provided with guidelines to
ensure we are complying with this commitment. Heads
of service have been asked to monitor compliance.
• We reported in our 2011-12 moniotring report, that we
undertook a review of first point of contact information
to ensure this was available on the Welsh page of our
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Measure Commitment Progress
We will produce these documents separately giving people
the choice of which language version they require.
website. This was suspended whilst we considered the
requirements for our new website.
• We are now taking the opportunity to continue this
review – which we aim to complete in the next 6
months.
• Any new initial contact information about front line
services that is produced is available bilingually.
Our Annual Report for public consumption will be published Our Annual Reports called ‘A year in the life’ are available
Website
Publicity - Press releases,
notices
Staffing and recruitment
bilingually.
Include a statement in our bilingual Annual Report for public
consumption, noting where members of the public can
obtain a copy of our annual monitoring report to the Welsh
Language Commissioner.
Access information referred to above is available in Welsh
through our website. This includes a webpage explaining in
Welsh how people can deal with us using the Welsh
Language.
bilingually.
Arrangements have been made to incorporate this into our
next “A year in the life”.
• Since submitting our 2011-12 monitoring report, we
have replaced our website. We have developed a
phased approach to making information available since
launching the website in May 2013.
• This will include the Welsh Language, so that
information about our services and how people can
deal with us in Welsh will be available.
Our Welsh Language Scheme will be posted to the website. • This was available on Bron Afon’s website from the
date the Scheme was approved.
• The Scheme is available on our new website with a
copy of our 2011-12 Monitoring Report.
Notices will be bilingual if considered appropriate. • All notices advertising community events are produced
bilingually.
We will conduct an audit every year to establish the number
of staff who have Welsh Language skills as well as their
ability and location.
• Analysis of the equality and diversity questionnaire
completed by staff identified that we have 5 Welsh
speaking members of staff.
• We now send a monitoring form out with all new starter
packs to ensure that our records are kept up to date.
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Measure Commitment Progress
We will audit of all posts with regards to Welsh Language We have decided to revise our recruitment process to enable
skills required.
managers and our HR team to identify if the Welsh language is
Training
Compare results of above exercises to identify workplaces
where there is a shortage of staff with appropriate skills in
the Welsh language.
Provide awareness training for staff with regards to the
requirements of the Welsh Language Scheme. Our
standard practice will be to include such training in the
induction of new staff.
Undertake to support staff to learn Welsh wherever it is able
to do so. E.g. general introduction to the language for
learners, confidence building sessions for staff with some
knowledge of the Language, Welsh for front line staff,
advanced courses, Welsh Language Awareness.
desirable for vacant posts.
We will review the process above along with the completion of
the monitoring forms to identify any shortfall in the existing
number of Welsh speaking staff.
• The Scheme and guidelines can be accessed from the
homepage of Bron Afon’s intranet site for staff; they
have been advertised in staff newsletters, promoted
through meetings with heads of service and managers;
and annually as part of the service planning process.
• We have targeted staff involved in community activities
and projects involving written communications in
particular by using a mini campaign aimed at
continually raising awareness of our Scheme.
• We are currently looking at developing a Welsh
Language module on our e-learning site to support
ongoing awareness raising which will be incorporated
into our corporate induction process.
• We’ve received interest from members of staff who
want to learn Welsh – from key phrases to wanting to
learn more. We are incorporating this into our learning
and development programme.
• We will also explore opportunities to collaborate on
learning & development activities with Torfaen County
Borough Council.
79

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 th September 2013
EMERGENCY REPAIRS POLICY REPORT
David Sharman, Director of Property
Dave.sharman @bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620197
1. Introduction
1.1 The purpose of this report is to present the new Emergency Repairs Policy for
consideration and Board approval.
Background
1.2 As part of a review of existing repairs policies it was consider necessary to set
out a specific policy covering emergency repairs in addition to the current
Repairs, Maintenance and Major Works Policy.
2. Action required by the Board
2.1 The Board are asked to:
• Consider, comment on and if required amend the draft Emergency
Repairs Policy and then approve the policy.
3. What does this policy add to existing policies
3.1 The policy add clarity in the following areas:
• When is a repair an emergency repair
• When is the emergency repair service available
• What is an emergency repair
• What happens when an out of hour’s repairs is reported
• What happens if the tenant is vulnerable and/or frail
• What timescales are there for responding to emergency repairs
• What arrangements are there for implementing and monitoring this
policy and who will be involved
Appendices
None
Background papers Repairs, Maintenance and Major Work Policy
Corporate Plan This policy supports Corporate Plan objectives Two and Three
For further information about this report, please contact: (Russell Watkins, Property
Manager – Russell.watkins@bronafon.org.uk 01633 620203,
For copies of documents referred to as appendices or background papers, please
access Buzz or contact Gwyn Lloyd, Governance Officer.
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EMERGENCY REPAIRS POLICY
Guide to this policy
1. Why have an emergency repairs policy ................................................................ 1
2. When is a repair an emergency repair.................................................................. 1
3. When is the emergency repair service available .................................................. 2
4. What is an emergency repair ................................................................................ 2
5. What happens if the tenant is vulnerable and/or frail ........................................... 3
6. What happens when a repair is reported ............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
7. What timescales are there for responding to emergency repairs ........................ 4
8. What arrangements are there for implementing and monitoring this policy and
who will be involved...................................................................................................... 4
___________________________________________________________________
1. Why have an emergency repairs policy
Bron Afon undertakes emergency repairs to its properties to ensure a safe and
secure environment for its tenants, leaseholders and the general public.
This policy provides guidance on what repairs are to be treated as emergency
repairs within or outside of working hours and also sets out what tenants and
leaseholders can expect when requesting an emergency repairs service.
2. When is a repair an emergency repair
An emergency repair does not mean general works which could be planned and
prioritised to be undertaken as part of everday urgent or routine repairs, but genuine
issues that if not promptly dealt with are likely to result in the following:.
• Any fault which could lead to death or injury of the occupants, staff or visitors
to any Bron Afon property.
• Faults which could result in danger to life or limb, contravene legislation or
seriously impact on the health and wellbeing of people affected.
• Faults which are likely to cause extensive damage to the building or its
contents.
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3. When is the emergency repair service available
The fundamental aims of the service are to respond to emergencies where there is a
danger posed to the tenant or property of Bron Afon.
We operate an emergency service which is available 24 hours a day every day
whether in normal working hours or out of normal working hours, which also includes
public holidays.
4. What sort of repairs will be treated as emergencies
• Gas – if there is a smell of gas or you or someone in your home is
experiencing head aches, nauseous or feeling dizzy and you suspect an issue
with the heating appliance, telephone the National Grid Gas Emergency Line
on 0800 111 999 straight away. (This is a 24 hour emergency line).
If you report a gas leak to us directly, we will ring the National Grid Gas
Emergency Line on your behalf and advise you to do the same as a back up
measure. Further detail are available in the Gas Management Procedure
document.
• Fire – Ring 999 and ask for the fire service immediately.
• No or any defective smoke or carbon monoxide alarm in property. (Battery
operated alarms remain tenants responsibility to maintain).
• Defective fire alarm systems to communal areas.
• Water leaking onto electrical equipment.
• Risk of electrocution, live wires, damaged components etc.
• Total loss of electrical power
• Blocked flue to heating system including open fire.
• Vulnerable person locked in or out of their home.
• Vulnerable person has no heating in winter.
• Insecure window or external door.
• Only toilet in property blocked and backfilling
• Serious blockage or leak to foul drain
• Water leaking uncontrollably, following attempt to shut off at stop tap.
• Hanging roof tile, gutter or glazing likely to cause accident
• Flood water penetrating homes.
• Tree falling or hanging dangerously.
• Explosion
• Lighting on communal stairs and landings of tower blocks and enclosed flats
required as fire escape routes
• Defectiive fire doors in blocks of flats
• Sprinkler system defects in the tower blocks
• Defects that might give rise to legionella problems or is that going to be longer
term
• Damaged and exposed asbestos
• Seriuos hazards causing risk of slip or trip and causing injury e.g. broken
steps or retaining wall posing an immediate real hazard
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• Work required to manage health & safety issues for tenants affected by
serious anti socail behavior (at the request of the Community Safety Team)
Note: We may recharge for emergency repairs that are tenants responsibility under
the terms of their tenancy agreement or if the emergency is necessary due to misuse
or damage. Further details will be available in the Recharge Policy.
Where access becomes available to a property with an outstanding heating/gas
service, or any other safety / Duty of care issue. We will mobilise resources to
undertake this service immediately.
The list above is not exhaustive and a degree of discretion is required when risk
assessing each occasion.
5. What happens if the tenant is vulnerable and/or frail
The emergency repairs criteria will be applied in a caring and sensitive manner in
respect of vulnerable and frail tenants. To assist us we may refer to our data base
for details.
Tenants may be vulnerable by virtue of a variety of reasons including age (young or
old) medical condition, disability, physical or mental health.
We will make a judgment regading the upgrade of a repair to an emergency based
on the information available to us at the time based on our judgement of the tenants
ability to cope and obtain help themselves.
When temperatures are below freezing, vulnerability may be further defined as,
tenants with pre school children, elderly people over the age of 65, disabled person
who is living on their own or someone with a medical reason which requires
continuous heated environment.
During these periods tenants may be advised of alternative action to keep warm
such as retiring to bed, hot water bottles or hot drinks, particularly where heating
failures are likely to extend beyond 10pm.
6. What happens when a repair is reported
On receiving notification of a repair we assess and prioritise based on the level of
risk to people and property. This will include the re-commissioning of essential
services where practically possible, dependant upon the availability of both staff and
material resources.
We will endeavour to complete the repair at the time of the call but in some situations
it may only be possible to make the situation safe and undertake the full repair the
next working day.
Where a call does not meet the criteria for emergency, tenants will be advised on an
appropriate priority and timeframe for repairs, based on the details in the repairs
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policy. Out of hour’s calls, are logged by our service provider and details are passed
to the repairs helpdesk the next working day.
7. What timescales are there for responding to emergency repairs
All jobs emergency jobs are logged on our job management system.
• We aim to attend emergency repairs within 2 hours and at least make
situations safe. Where it is not be possible to complete all works during the
emergency visit, we will prioritise these to complete within the 30 day target
set out in the Repairs Maintenance & Major Works Policy.
• If following the report of an emergency repair, by a tenant, for their own home,
we are unable to gain access to the property; and we have called within 2
hours, we will recharge the tenant raising the call for the abortive work
incured.
• Where an emergency situation is known to exist and we are unable to gain
access to a property to eliminate that risk, we will take action to enforce
tenancy conditions and/or use the statutory powers of ourselves and/or our
partners to eliminate that risk. We will recharge the tenant responsible tenant
for the abortive work incured.
• Out of hours calls are recorded by our service provider and are available to
our repairs helpdesk the next working day. This will include the nature and
outcomes of calls received.
8. What arrangements are there for implementing and monitoring this policy
and who will be involved
Implementation
The Head of Property Services is responsible for the implementation and revision of
this policy.
Monitoring the effectiveness of the service
• Monitoring of the out of hours repairs will be carried out by area managers
repairs teams to ensure service aims and standards are met.
• Regular quarterly reviews of the service will be undertaken by area repairs
management team.
• Tenants will be encouraged to contribute to service development and provide
feedback on performance, materials and the effectiveness of the service. This
feedback will be used by the Quality Design Forum and the Service
Monitoring and Improvement Teams when reviewing service prvision.
• Any future amendments to the policy will be presented by the Service
Development team.
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Document History
Version number 0.1
Date approved
Approved by
Next review due
3 years time.
Review Committee
Who this policy applies to
Who is responsible for the policy Director of Property
Reporting arrangements To be confirmed.
Risks of not having this policy The absence of a policy would mean inconsistencies
in the way out of hours calls were treated.
Links with legislation
None.
Links with other policies • Repairs, Maintenance & Major Works.
Who has been consulted
• Complaints Policy
This policy has been developed after consultation with
heads of service.
Document Control
All enquiries with regard to this document should be addressed to the Head of Property
Expired issues of this document will be retained by the Policy & Research Officer
85

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 th September 2013
Community Teams and Area Based Working
Eva Cook Community Team Manager
Eva.cook@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620483
Liz Evans Head of Community Housing
Liz.evans@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620126
1. Introduction
1.1 This report outlines Community Teams progress and achievements to
date and explains the recent alignment of services into four Areas
overseen by the newly established Area Management Boards
consisting of service managers for those areas (AMB).
2 Background
2.1 During 2011/12 we set up 17 community teams led by Community
Housing Officers to support the development of communities and
improve local service delivery.
2.2 Community Teams are still at various stages in development; some are
flourishing and others are still in earlier stages. As a result a more
strategic approach has been adopted in order to coordinate and
support community teams development in line with core business
objectives and the onset of welfare reform. The establish Area
Management Boards aims to provide a more structured and joined up
approach.
2.3 The overall aim of Area Management Boards is to improve our
approach to community based working by creating and driving
improved working relationships, sharing knowledge and
communications and providing more focus and support for Community
Teams. We have seen early success and outcomes through a more
streamlined and consistent approach to service delivery, in line with our
core business needs.
2 Action required by the Board
3.1 The Board are asked to consider and note: :
• the direction of community and area based activity in line with the
aims and values of Bron Afon
• The suggested frequency of updates to Board on community and
area based working.
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3 Community Team Progress and Outcomes
3.1 At June 2012 pre board meeting, Board received a presentation of
progress made with the staged approach to developing community
teams and the early outcomes we were achieving in communities. The
Community Teams have continued to work towards improving their
communities by developing and delivering initiatives that fall in line with
our core business and specific community needs and priorities. ‘A new
way of working: Community Team’ document has been provided to
board to highlight an overview of examples of Community work since
May 2012.
3.2 Community Housing Officers have received further training in
community development. In order to support the community teams
working to be more co-ordinated 2 community involvement officers
have been dedicated to support community team work, in particular to
develop action plans based on community survey results, local data
and feedback.
3.3 Every community team has carried out a door knocking exercise to
complete community surveys to identify local needs and priorities.
From this we recognise that all communities have distinct
characteristics, varying strengths and challenges and a unique set of
needs and priorities. Therefore different approaches to community
development are required to suit the needs of individual communities.
There have been different approaches to feeding back the results of
surveys, and involving tenants and residents in developing areas for
improvement or getting involved in community Initiatives. These include
events, newsletters and community action planning sessions and
working with partners.
3.4 Appendix 1 demonstrates some outcomes achieved from a sample of
community team projects.
3.5 The early focus of community teams has been to get to know and build
links with their communities, and achieve quick wins through the
delivery of projects and initiatives to improve appearance and amenity
of the local environment, and the community facilities. Early progress is
considerable and widespread. Over the last year overall Community
Team work achievements include:
• Held 70 community events
• Engaged 1000 local people at events
• Signed up 106 new Bron Afon Members
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• Developed 53 new partnerships
• Held 11 school initiatives
• Engaged 356 school children (through above initiatives)
• Planted 700 plants (or seeds) in communities (received through
contractor benefits)
• Supported the community in the to development of 15
community gardens (included schools and retirement housing)
• Supported 11 community led garden clearances (for individual
tenants)
• Filled 51 community skips
• Developed closer working relationships with 17 local ward
members
• Supported 7 community groups to develop constitutions
• Supported 11 community groups to apply for and receive Afon
Community Trust Funding
• Supported 7 community groups to apply for and receive external
funding (e.g. Welsh Church Fund, Awards for all)
• Provided 8 community groups with equipment and/or support to
deliver community fund raising activities (e.g. provided raffle
prizes, assistance to complete risk assessments, provided
gazebos)
3.6 Having established their local presence Community Teams are
becoming more focused on delivering core business priorities in
communities. For example, in December 2012 all Community Teams
delivered a door knocking and telephone campaign to raise awareness
of the bedroom tax. Through this exercise we knocked on 1300 doors
with the aim of assisting tenants to complete a questionnaire as to gain a
better understanding of individual need as a result of the bedroom tax.
Through this exercise we spoke to 606 affected tenants and raised
awareness and knowledge of staff across the whole business of welfare
reforms and gave a valuable insight of the impact for our tenants.
3.7 During May 2013 each community team held workshop planning
sessions and developed an annual plan to focus their work in individual
communities towards developing community plans. The Community
Teams are using individual data dashboards outlining performance
information on rent arrears, voids and lettings and responsive repairs
and a more focused approach to core business and objectives. This
approach is also enabling a more focus in particular in response to
Welfare Reform and rent arrears within communities. Appendix 2
demonstrates an example of a community team annual plan.
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3.8 Although each community had some areas of unique need the main
themes and areas of focus in the annual plans are:
• Welfare reform
• Bedroom tax
• Maximising tenants income
• Budgeting
• Rent arrears
• Value for money
• Housing Management and Repairs
3.9 Some teams have shown very encouraging progress and the work has
shown very positive results in those communities. Appendix 3
demonstrates a good practice example of how community team based
working has achieved successful results; with a Community Housing
Officers’ perspective on their Community Team journey since the
establishment of the St Dials Community Team.
3.10 We recognise that the capturing of outcomes of community team work
needs some improvement and this has been addressed in the
Community Housing Service Plan 2013/14. We are working closely
with corporate services to deliver outcomes training to all staff to
ensure that there is a consistent approach to gathering relevant and
quality information from projects to demonstrate the impact.
4 The New Estate Inspection Regime
4.1 Building on Community Teams early focus centring on improving the
environment we introduced a new approach to Estate Inspections
(Quality Streets) in January 2013. This is a systematic approach with
the use of the Housemark photo book. The purpose of the photo book
is to provide a visual aid and guidance to grade the quality standards of
cleaning, caretaking and grounds maintenance. Members of the
community teams undertake the estate inspections with partners
including elected Members, officers from TCBC Street Scenes,
members of the community and service improvement monitors.
4.2 The information/grading is collated centrally to measure the service
standard across communities, and identify hotspots and trends. This
data can then be used to develop solutions, direct resources and
prioritise investment at a local level. To enable the grading to be more
visual we are planning on plotting grading onto GIS mapping as and
this is being taken into account in the development of CRM.
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4.3 Each of our 17 communities has been split into four zones for the
purpose of estate inspections. The four zones are inspected on a 6
weekly cyclical basis with a follow up inspection on week 5 to check
that any issues reported on the initial inspection have been completed.
This means that each community has a thorough estate inspection
twice yearly to enable comparisons on grading and monitoring of the
quality of estate maintenance within communities.
4.4 The first round of estate inspections has been completed and the table
below shows that overall numbers of issues that have been picked up
as a result:
Inspections carried out to date 68
No. of Issues reported to TCBC street scene 102
No. of Issues reported and completed to our 208
Community Environmental Team (Facilities) for
general grounds maintenance and cleaning
No. of Issues reported (and completed) to our 153
Community Environmental Team (Facilities) for trees
Issues reported (and completed) to repairs 75
4.5 Improvements as a result of this are being captured and monitored.
Following the completion of the first round of estate inspections we now
have a baseline grade of all communities and zones, to enable the
Community Teams to measure and monitor improvement over time.
Appendix 4 highlights the outcomes of the grading’s for all communities
to date.
5 Housing Surgeries
5.1 In response to our commitment to be more visible in our communities
we have introduced housing surgeries in our 17 communities. The
housing surgeries have been delivered in a range of venues such as
community centres, churches, car parks and gazebos on our estates.
5.2 With the closure of our area offices we have increased the number of
surgeries held. Between June and August 2013 we have held a total of
52 general housing surgeries and 56 retirement Housing surgeries.
5.3 There are examples of good practice with the community team
delivering housing surgeries, working in partnership with the Police and
elected members. The knowledge and skills of the community team
with improved partnership working delivers a comprehensive approach
with many issues being dealt with at first point of contact.
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5.4 The surgeries have been advertised via Facebook, with posters in local
shops and community hubs however there has been limited uptake in
some areas.
5.5 Of the 52 general housing surgeries held in the last 3 months we have
had a total attendance level of 38 residents. The success and demand
for community surgeries is being continually monitored and reviewed.
We continue to assess demand, suitability of venues and effectiveness
of publicity to ensure we provide opportunities for value for money
accessible services to our communities.
5.6 Its fair to say that surgeries primary role so far has been to provide a
small number of tenants who use them with a local venue to discuss
individual issues rather than being a bustling service delivery point.
Issues raised at the surgeries include incidents of anti social behaviour
(ASB), repairs, tenancy advice, bedroom tax enquiries, allocation and
Homeseeker advice.
5.6 Retirement surgeries have a higher number of attendance as they are
often linked to coffee mornings and other weekly or monthly social
events. Numbers attending vary considerably from month to month
and for different schemes; with an average of 8 retirement housing
tenants attending retirement housing surgeries.
6 Alignment to Area based working
6.1 We have recently introduced a new four area based way of working in
order to provide a more joined up and resourceful way of supporting
Community Teams. The area based working model gives more support
and coordination of Community Teams and enhances the scope for the
work carried out in individual communities as the pool of resources will
be larger through the sharing of community team members.
6.2 The Property Service has been reorganised to area-based working in
order to establish a more strategic and joined up approach to improving
the repairs, facilities and community housing service to our
communities. The areas are divided on the 4 geographical areas:
• Area 1 – Blaenavon/Mid Torfaen
• Area 2 – Pontypool
• Area 3 - Cwmbran North
• Area 4 - Cwmbran South West
6.2 This has seen the alignment of area and community teams in
Community Housing and Property. The teams are overseen by Area
Management Boards (Community Team Manager, Area Repairs
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Coordinator, and Facilities Coordinators) and the model allows
business areas to work together to ensure amore coordinated
approach to greater consistency in service delivery. See appendix 5.
6.3 We have recognised that a more systematic approach to tackling
identified issues will raise standards in our communities and assist
us in delivering a quality service that is value for money. The Area
Management Boards have developed standardised methods of
recording issues, actions, progress and outcomes through issues and
completion logs.
6.5 A planning workshop was held in May 2013 with a cross section of staff
representing Responsive repairs, Community Housing and Facilities in
order to identify and develop shared aims and objectives, and ways of
working in partnership to deliver outcomes.
6.6 The workshop identified the key purposes of the Area Management
Boards to be:
• Agree shared priorities arising from core business priorities and
community teams
• Capturing and monitoring outcomes
• Sharing of information
• Problem solving
• Enhancing partnership working
• Reduce silo working
6.7 Area Management Boards meet monthly and will have a live action
plan incorporating actions as identified in each of the individual
community plans along with over-arching area based actions. The
agenda for each meeting consists of:
• Issues raised by the core and wider team as entered on to the
issues log throughout the month
• Corporate or service improvement priorities raised by Board,
Membership, SMT/HOS
• Issues arising from Estate inspections, community surgeries and
membership.
• Community plans priorities and progress
6.8 The Area Management Board coordinators have also set up
information boards as a visual communication and problem solving tool
which will reflect the current status of the Area Boards, progress made
and outcomes.
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7 Improving Community and Membership Involvement
7.1 The community involvement team facilitate the 4 area forums delivered
in the borough. The attendance rates in the south of the borough are
higher with a core group ranging from 10 to 24, in the north of the
borough the average participants is 6.
7.2 The forums offer opportunities for community members to be involved
at an area level. The forums have become a progression route to more
formal involvement activities such as tasks and finish groups,
membership committee, scrutiny and service improvement monitors.
7.3 The Area Management Board model will foster greater links with area
forums by delivering regular updates on progress, undertaking joint
activities across areas and delivering community plans. This will also
facilitate a better channel of communication from the Area Forum to the
services within Bron Afon and will allow for their suggestions and
issues to be responded to efficiently.
7.4 We also acknowledge that we need to improve the involvement and
communication of Bron Afon members in communities and will be
working with the membership committee to develop a Membership
Charter which will set out Bron Afon Member’s role in line with Area
Management Boards and how we can effectively engage our members
to have an active involvement in area and community based working.
8 Conclusion
8.1 To date Community Teams have made encouraging progress and
achieved an array of outcomes to improve communities and as well as
enhancing our service delivery locally.
8.2 The new approach to Area Management Boards will enable Bron Afon
to focus on delivering core business priorities locally and improve
systems for monitoring outcomes and success measures of community
plans. The strategic approach, linked to corporate and community
priorities will enable drilling down into the issues effecting individual
and collective communities and will support the more efficient of
resources, value for money and better capture of outcomes.
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Appendix 1
Examples of Community Team Projects
PROJECT NAME IDENTIFIED OUTPUT OUTCOME NEXT STEPS
Speeding Project
The community surveys in the
Mid Torfaen and Pontypool
areas identified the theme of
the project ‘speeding traffic’
as one of their top 5 priorities.
Members of Mid Torfaen Area
Forum had also been
reporting their concerns
around parking at their
meetings.
The project recognised
that parking issues can
not be solved by
building a multi-storey
car park or digging up
green spaces. This
project tackles children
and works up to
parents, education and
advising responsible
road usage. The project
was delivered in 6
schools over the
summer term. They
were:
• Penygarn
• Garnteg
• Abersychan
• George Street
• Griffithstown
• Cwmffrdoer
The workshops included
a quiz on road safety, a
planning for real
Over 300 children were
involved in the project
and the results were
great showing that over
70% felt much safer
following the sessions.
We have received
positive feedback from
the school who have
requested that the
session runs every year
to year 6 as it is vital to
their development and
safety as well as the
importance of this type
of workshop on the local
community.
We have formed
positive partnership
relationships with the
Police, Communities
First, TCBC who have
also expressed a desire
Revisit the schools in 12
months time to evaluate
the project and
undertake a mini
exercise with young
people new to the year
group.
Explore the need to
deliver the project in
other areas.
Plan and deliver further
sessions in the school
and other areas.
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exercise identified areas
where speeding is
taking place and safe
places to park. The
pupils going out with the
police using the
speeding guns.
to work with us on
further projects.
This project attracted
match funding of 50%
from Communities First,
in kind staff
contributions from
TCBC and the Police as
well as promotional
resources gifted from
TCBC.
Banners designed by
the children are now
displayed outside the
schools reminding
motorists of the dangers
of speeding. We are
awaiting information
from the police
regarding any impact
this has had on the
number of speeding
complaints received.
Plas Twyn Play
Area
The Northville community
survey identified the theme of
the project ‘lack of safe play’
as one of their top 5 priorities.
Consultation events and site
visits with consultants have
identified this as a need in the
Plas Twyn play area is a
large area of green
open space with limited
play equipment.
It is used by young
people and their families
Outcomes so far
include:
Generation of external
funding of £3000 so far
with further match
funding anticipated.
Further work shop to
assist the community to
identify and agree which
elements to undertake
at stage one.
Community Group to
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area.
and they have
expressed a wish to
have more equipment
and use the area as a
social hub.
The community are
taking ownership and
plan to continue
maintenance of the play
area.
Master planning
sessions with Caerphilly
ground work and the
local community have
produced excellent base
line information and
have outlined the new
playground design and
specification and
breakdown in cost.
Established good
working relationships
with Caerphilly
Groundwork and TCBC
regeneration
department.
Project is in its early
stages with further
anticipated outcomes to
include:
Community to feel
involved and
empowered to improve
the area they live in.
Young people to feel
enjoyment through the
use of natural play
equipment.
gain constitution and
bank account.
Further capacity building
with the community
group in order for them
to apply for further
funding, plan and deliver
their own initiatives and
become a sustainable
community group.
Residents of all ages to
have more pride in their
community environment.
Reduction in damage
and neighbour disputes
as a result of children
playing near and around
cars.
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The development of this
site to create a social
hub for the community
to utilise for community
activities.
Environmental
Action Days
The community survey in
West Pontnewydd, identified
the theme of the project ‘litter
and fly tipping’ as one of their
top 5 priorities. This also been
identified through consultation
events and estate inspections
The environmental days
focused on improving
the appearance of our
open spaces and
instilling pride in the
local community. This
was achieved through a
variety of formats
including skip amnesty,
community litter picks,
planting days and
supported local schools
with environmental
projects.
Community have
commented on
improvements in the
area in regards to
flytipping and litter.
Improved partnership
working:
School children have an
increased awareness
and relationship of the
local community care
taker.
Explore funding
opportunities to deliver
joint projects with a
focus on recycling and
education.
Tenants receiving
monitoring and on going
support.
The project has also
supported individuals
with garden and house
clear ups.
Increase in reporting of
issues from the Tidy
Kids programme as
confidence in Bron Afon
grows.
4 Schools positively
involved in Bron Afons
environmental
initiatives.
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Increased positive
reputation as further
schools are enquiring
about working in
partnership with us.
Working closely with
TCBC enabling us to
achieve quicker
responses and action to
issues that are outside
of our remit.
Positive engagement
and relationships with
elected members has
increased efficiency of
environmental
improvements of which
responsibilities span
across several
organisations.
Improvements in
grading from Estate
Inspections
Personal outcomes for
tenants include
sustaining tenancies
and improving their
quality of life, health and
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wellbeing.
Properties brought back
up to standard through
repairs and internal
improvement previously
refused by tenants.
Guerrilla Garden
Thornhill Community Team
presence in the community
resulted in Monnow Court
tenants and residents
approaching us for support to
develop a piece of unused
land. The land was a hot spot
for fly tipping and ASB.
The Guerrilla garden
was created using
recycling material. The
community team
supported the
community with man
power, plants, soil and
expertise.
Reduction in fly tipping.
Improved community
image.
Improved community
cohesion as neighbours
are working together
towards mutual goals.
Continue to support the
group with the
development of the
guerrilla garden.
Community Group to
gain constitution and
bank account.
The vegetables grown
are shared in the
community. Saving on
food bills and helping
our low income families
to eat healthy.
Change in behaviour
amongst local young
people thus reducing
low level ASB.
Increase in community
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pride.
Positive learning
experience for local
children as they now
engage in the allotment.
External funding of £50
gained by the group as
well as in kind support
from partner agencies.
Positive reputation of
Bron Afon as this was
televised by BBC as
exemplar.
West Pontnewydd
Fun Day
Cwmbran North Area Forum
meets on a monthly basis.
They were keen to raise the
profile of their group and
recruit new members. They
also expressed a wish to
develop community forum in
their local area. The West
Pontnewydd Community
Team supported them to do
this.
The event was designed
and delivered in
partnership with the
area forum and
community first. The aim
of the event was to
engage with all ages
living in the community
and offer opportunities
for them to get more
involved.
At the event Bron Afon
and partners provided a
range of information
Positive engagement
with 186 age range from
a few months to over
80.
6 Bron Afon members
signed up.
Positive consultation
with 52 questionnaires
completed identifying
local issues.
40 people registered for
future Area Forums
First community forum
planned for Autumn
2013.
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with a focus on money
advise, cooking on a
budget to maximise a
our tenants income. The
interaction fun activities
included
• A potters wheel
• crafts
• Barbecue
• Driving stimulator
• Glaston bees
• Glitter tattoos
10 enquiries about
benefits resolved
instantly.
Increase in healthy food
awareness through the
cooking on a budget
demonstration.
Future outcomes
anticipated:
Residents to feel
empowered to improve
their community.
Increase in attendance
at Area Forums and
other community group
activities.
Increased diversity
amongst the Area
Forum participants.
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Community Team 1 - Blaenavon Forward Planning - 25th April @ 11:30am
Baseline for priorities top 10 priorities Estate Inspections Welfare Reform Health and wellbeing Environment ASB Surgeries
The Neon Youth do fantastic work for the youth in the
Whole team need to be
Work with the Neon, do projects
Fresh eyes on the street -
Really difficult to hold general
area and contribute significantly to keeping the ASB
educated so that the
Questionnaire - community to Bin storage at Riverside - Currently a tackling aspirations - link up with the
each inspection to have
surgeries as there is no venue -
down in the community by providing support and Youth disorder and lack of
knowledge given to
be involved in the construction health and safety risk
go girls project - positive role
designated rota
The pavilion has shut down
something to do!
youth facilities
community is correct
models
Community Priorities / Ideas
from Team
Asses cost of living ion Blaenavon
Blaenavon has been effected hard by the new benefit
changes with a lot of people under occupying but no
where for the tenants to downsize tom, with a huge
lack of 1 and 2 bed properties and very little people
digitally involved
As garden maintenance is a problem in Blaenavon and
in our original questionnaire it showed a significant
number of people needed help to maintain their
garden. We are working with the group to help them
start allotments in people’s gardens or provide help
with garden maintenance.
Statistics show poor health is a significant issue in
Blaenavon and we are working with Blaenavon
Communities First to try to improve the situation and
the next community event we are planning on doing a
questionnaire
Welfare reform and money
advice and bedroom tax
Working with Blaenavon
Community Volunteer Group
Questionnaire on Health and
wellbeing
Want to make strong links
with the council
Good to have a presence in
the area - Bron Afon logos
Referrals - Events
Capturing all info from events -
all departments need into a
joint website so that
Need to ask residents if
targeting directly - Door
they want it to happen and
knocking
if they want to get involved
Look at response rate / statistics
Link in with community foodie
and environment projects to
grow edible landscapes
Recipe Book published - Old
family recipes - simple/ cheap
nutritious! Work with the
nutrition team CFst
Door Knocking consultation to see
what residents will prefer - tenants
take ownership and pride
Look at the St Dials bin storage and
use it as a best practice
Capture views before and after, take
photos and liaise with partner
agencies - such as the council to get
outcomes from this investment
Link up with Communities First
Street Games project
Contact Police for before and after
stats - less ASB report
Employment taster days - Link in
with school leavers and Maria
Claire has suggested working
from the Garn office as no one
has been attending - at least
Claire can open emailes - Verry
poor internet in Blaenavon
suggested venues in the area are
the Neon, baker street house -
however these places contain
vulnerable adults and they don’t
have open access
Promote Food Banks
Encourage Pop up shops - work in
partnership with Towns Team
Hill Street Flats - Drying Area
Very little environmental work has been completed in
this area. Site visits confirm bin storage is a
significant problem as they are at the rear of the block
and difficult to get to which means many people leave
them on the pavement which can be dangerous. Bin storage area at Riverside
Current project not being used by residents -
Intergenerational project Franco Taruschio famous
chef has also expressed his interest in getting
involved as he holds a cooking school in Blaenavon
Neon youth club and Blaenavon Voluntary Group
working on the raised flower beds that have been put
in. Neon youth club and Blaenavon Voluntary Group
working on the raised flower beds that have been put
in.
Baker st Community Garden
We discussed completing a new questionnaire up the
top section of Blaenavon where all external
environmental works and internal works have now
been completed
Community Questionnaire
Alison Langford to be
involved - keep an eye on
the recycling boys leaving
mess behind etc
Training for the team who
will be attending
GIS Maps to printed top
show boundaries etc
Could we match fund this project
Health and safety report on the
pavements
Alison Langford and Martyn Savage
involved in the process
Radiate Project - OCN Training
opportunities etc
Trips - get to know your neighbour -
team bonding etc
Ael Y Bryn Garages to be knocked
down, It’s a huge fly tipping
hotspot need to take action
against it
Do a fundraising event to support
the BVG get a Van
Build 1 bedroom flats - Look into
possibilities
Compare the results with those for our survey and
discuss
Be involved with awards evening maybe get and give
out prizes
Community team to be involved in estate inspections
as and when needed. Do a big walk about with team
in summer
Torfaen Housing Needs
survey for Blaenavon
Neon youth club
Raise profile of community
team and estate inspections
Baker Street - get the BVG involved
and start using it again get
outcomes, develop constituted
group
Facebook Page needs to taken
over and kept up to date - Look
into getting Daneka to look at hit,
putting survey links, advertising
events, keep it up to date, digital
community - Link in with the
digital officer when in post
102

Appendix 3
The St Dials Community Team Journey
By Tracey James, Community Housing Officer
Our Launch
The St Dials Community Team was launched 5.10.11 – It was well attended all
members were very supportive and actively participated.
November 2011: The Community Survey
Community Survey were completed through door knocking in our community.
Through the results we identified the top 5 priorities –: Lack of Parking, Lack of Safe
Play, Lack of/poor garages, poor outside lighting & litter.
We had a 48% return rate on these surveys so are confident that we have captured
a fairly wide audience.
Results
Most residents surveyed were retired, have lived there for more than 10 years were
fairly satisfied with their area.
They thought the area was staying the same and they were satisfied with Bronafon
services. 70% want a community hub, 69% need help repairing/maintaining
home/garden, 60% interested in local events, 136 people would go to a community
meeting.
A small group of residents did an Urban Design Course with Powell Dobson
Urbanists, and came up with ideas for environmental improvements. These ideas
were then fed back to the community at the Christmas event which was well
attended. We even had a Santa’s grotto and children’s activities.
Please see attached report explaining the background of Santas Grotto.
February 2012
103

We held an Open Day where we fed back results, showcased the environmental
project and block improvement project ideas alongside children’s activities. These
results had also been distributed through a newsletter in order to ensure all residents
received the information.
Team Walkabout
We carried out a team walkabout in order to identify some quick wins. These
included fencing around the brook, removing ivy from the blocks and removing
duplicate street lights.
I do monthly walkabouts on the patch split over 3 areas. Residents are invited, but
only 1 has ever attended. As part of our new estate management there are now
going to be more estate inspections and the patch will be split into 4 zones.
Inspections will be carried out every 6 weeks, with follow up inspections on week 5.
We will be grading our estates to ensure that we are improving over time.
Before
After
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Easter Event
We held an event which included skip amnesty, litter pick and children’s activities. At
this event we met with a group of young mothers who were the supported and
encouraged to organise similar children’s activities themselves.
We have also carried out monthly skip events which not only reduced fly tipping but
more importantly gives us an opportunity to engage with residents. Our last event
also included Cash For Clothes where residents could get a little bit of cash for
unwanted items.
The St Dials resident group applied and were successful in gaining a £30 grant from
Wilkinson’s Helping Hands. This will help with future community initiatives as
identified by the group.
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St Dials Newsletter
This is produced twice a year – Summer & Winter. This helps to keep the community
informed of progress and on going projects within their area. It also provides them
with information on local issues and services.
June 2012
The team contacted residents who said they would be interested in working with us
and as a result we now have 14 people interested in taking community projects
further. We are also working with them to support their action planning.
July 2012
We held a Jubilee event – which was very successful with over 300 residents in
attendance. This brought the community together through music, BBQ, Bronafon
information stalls and children’s activities. One of the information stalls was run by
the community themselves. It was called utilities ware house and included
information from an organisation that helps consolidate all utility service in order to
help reduce payment for residents. We had excellent feedback and good outcomes
including: We signed up 5 youths for the youth forum, some of which were known to
cause Anti Social Behaviour. We worked with residents who were interested in
setting up neighbourhood watch in their area. We also engaged residents in projects
such as community gardens, allotments and safe play. Aspire, our in house
volunteer project also gained 3 new volunteers.
August 2012: Topical issues
Due to a spate of bin fires in the community we worked closely with the Police & Fire
Service and carried out a bin fire awareness campaign on 22 August 2012. Staff
from across the organisations removed the bins from the flats, then advised
residents that they can no longer store their bins in the flats and were then shown an
area close to the block where their bins will be stored on a temporary basis until a
more permanent solution is found by implementing the block improvement
106

programme. This was a vital piece of work not only to ensure the safety of our
residents but to re-assure the community.
Another issue that the team worked to gather to tackle was in response to needles
being found in one of our blocks. We worked with a range of agencies and other
landlords in order to combat the current issue as well as prevent future problems.
Monthly community surgeries in Power Station
We hold monthly surgeries; however, these are not very well attended. So we will
now be doing them every 2 months jointly with the Police and local Councillors.
What are our Next Steps
We are holding a Planning For Real session in a local school, with a view to
engaging local residents in what they would like for their community and also to
establish a residents group. Once the group is set up, we need clear direction from
the community about how to deliver a balance between basic services and actual
works.
We hope to get the group constituted and support them to apply for funding to
enable them to be able to do things in their community.
We hope that they will work with us to develop an action plan – we believe the action
plan falls into 2 parts – Environment & Buildings (Environmental issues top 5
priorities, environmental improvements, block improvements) and People &
Services (Welfare, Maximise Income ). This will feed into our corporate priority as
Welfare Reform will affect many residents and we need to support them and help
them maximise their income, liaise with various agencies to see how they can help,
signpost for specialist support for all ages.
December 2013: Welfare Reform
Welfare Reform is going to have a huge impact on us an organisation, our
communities and our tenants. In December the team visited all the tenants that will
be affected by the Bedroom Tax. As usual the team embraced the challenge. They
spent quality time with the tenant to make sure they understood the impact and
asked them how they thought they would cope. Early results showed that only a
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small number of tenants wanted us to help them move, the rest were going to need
our support to help remain in their homes.
March 2013: Easter Event
We held a multifunctional event at The Power Station on 20 March 2013. We looked
at 4 out of 5 priorities identified in the community surveys and encouraged residents
to take ownership where possible with support from relevant agencies. The team
see their role as empowering residents to develop their own community with our
support. Our key partners; Police, Councillors, Co Star, TCBC, and the newly
appointed Communities First attended. There were also various organisations to
help with maximising income ready for Welfare Reform and Bedroom Tax. There
were children’s activities and it was an opportunity to display the brilliant work that
has taken place in the community so far ie. Insulated render, fencing, bin stores,
curtain walling and door entry systems to flats. At the event we details of residents
that were interested in becoming a community group.
Estate Inspections
The Community Team now get more involved in the estate inspections, which are
also attended by TCBC. we pick up issues and pass them to the relevant sections,
identify any potential projects and then grade the estate. Most of them have an
average grade of B, but we are striving to achieve A’s.
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May 2013: Launch of the St Dials Community Action Group
As a result of holding various events and the every day contact we have with the
community, the St Dials Community Action Group was launched in May 2013. They
are being supported by us, the Police, Torfaen Council and Communities First to
tackle issues affecting their community and are already seeing some improvements.
They are also looking at using some land to grow food. The group consists of a mix
of tenants and owners of all ages.
This is what they have to say: “We want to make a difference in our community. We
aim to create a place where we are pleased and proud to live, in a clean, healthy and
friendly environment. We have identified litter, dog fouling, speeding and antisocial
behaviour as real issues in our community. As a community action group, we want
to find ways of solving these problems.”
The group meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 6 pm at The Power Station.
They have so far discussed litter/fly tipping, dog fouling, ASB & speeding. They
have also held 2 events, one for raising awareness of dog fouling and they have also
carried out a litter pick.
August 2013
On 12.8.13 a Dog fouling exercise was held which involved spraying the dog mess
bright yellow to highlight to dog owners and the local community how bad the issue
is; 200 pieces of dog mess was sprayed in a 2 hours. Following on from this the
action group has plans to hold an event with The Dog Trust to promote responsible
dog ownership.
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On 23 August 2013 I took a few members of the group to Woodlands Field in
Penygarn, which is now a very successful self sustaining community hub and a
centre of learning. Those who attended who totally inspired by the visit and it gave
them a flavour of what they could achieve as a community group, once they were
constituted.
On 21 August 2013, We the team achieved no voids in our community. We felt a
real sense of achievement that this was partly due to the team identifying
improvements that needed to be made in our community, particularly the 17 blocks
that are a feature of the community. By delivering these improvements, St Dials has
become a much more attractive place to live.
September 2013
In September we did a community litter pick and collected 7 bags of rubbish. The
community members included 3 young people and 5 adults. The action group plan to
continue to litter picks in the area and wish to reward the young people with a
Christmas party. They are now a constituted group that have plans to seek external
funding to deliver community events and their aim is to create a clean safe
environment where people want to live. In between their meetings, they walk
around the community litter picking and talking to residents about local issues and
encouraging them to join the group.
110

At their last meeting on 3 rd September 2013, they talked about doing a community
Christmas event, and to operate a time banking system for the children to show them
that if they look after their community and get involved in things for the community
they would get rewarded. We will also be arranging training sessions for them, as it
was agreed that they will gradually take over the ownership of future newsletters.
The St Dials Newsletter is currently called “Your St Dials”, but the aim is for it to
become “Our St Dials”, to give them ownership. They were encouraged to attend
our estate inspections and to grade the estate. We also drew up a draft constitution
ready for the next meeting. Once they are constituted, we will then support them
with their applications for external funding.
As a community team, we agreed that everything we do needs to be aligned with the
6 Areas of Focus on the Corporate Plan.
111

Appendix 4
Base Line Grading for all Communities
112

Appendix 5
Area Management Board Model
CORPORATE PRIORITY TASK ASSIGNED
AREA MANAGEMENT BOARDS
Inclusion of Board
and Members.
Members will sign
up to a Charter
which will detail
involvement.
Regular Board
Updates.
Area 1 Area 2
Core Team
Under occupation
Income
Leasehold
Facilities
Area managers
CHO'c
Community
housing Managers
Involvement
Voids
Repairs
Area 3 Area 4
Internal
Performance
Data
Partnership Working
Locally identified issues from Core Team
Surgeries Area Forums Inspections
Community
Involvement
Key: ------- Wider Business Engagement
Area Action plan
113

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 th September 2013
CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THE HELPDESK
Cath Stenson, Head of Inclusion and Support
Cath.stenson@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620373
1 Introduction
1.1 The need for a prompt and significant improvement in call answering times
and the rate of abandoned calls across both the General and Repairs
Helpdesks has been an issue for some time and we have been working to find
solutions. The recent closure of Area offices has assisted by adding
resources at key peak times. This is the first of a series of monthly reports to
the Board which will set out:
• Current performance for the month against target
• Customer satisfaction information
• Changes being implemented across the Helpdesks in order to improve
customer service
1.2 Service improvement in this area is key to us delivering and developing our
customer services approach as set out in the Board report presented in April
around developing Inclusion and Support services. We need to continue to
develop effective ways for our customers to contact us and improved
Helpdesk service is key to that wider objective.
2 Background
2.1 In July 2013 the Board agreed that the people and financial resources
released by the closure of the Area Offices should be invested in
strengthening customer service for all our tenants. The 6 existing staff were
subsequently redeployed to the Helpdesk after the offices closed and 3
additional full time equivalent Community Housing Advisor (CHA) posts have
been created within the Helpdesk team funded by the saving of £73,000.
2.2 We are using July 2013 as our baseline position against which to measure
improvement. Our reasoning for this is that the Area Offices closed on 9
August and the redeployed staff started on the Helpdesk on 12 August. The 3
new CHAs joined the team on 19 August and we expect to demonstrate an
immediate improvement in speed of answer and abandonment rates from this
point.
3 Action required by the Board
3.1 The Board is asked to consider the improvements achieved in Helpdesk
performance during August and to note the improvement targets set for
September.
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4 Performance on the Helpdesks in August 2013
4.1 By the end of August performance across the two Helpdesks had improved
significantly:
Average speed of
answer
July (baseline) Target August (actual)
1 minute 50 1 minute 52 seconds
seconds
Abandonment rate 20.60% 16.00% 7.85%
1 st point of
contact resolution
54.00% None set 66.80%
4.2 As charts 1 and 2 below evidence there was a marked decrease in
abandonment rates between w/c 5 and w/c 12 August when the Area Offices
closed and 6 staff transferred to the Helpdesks at HQ.
Chart 1: General Helpdesk call answering performance August 2013
4.3 Speed of answer is also showing a steady improving trend. During the week
commencing 19 August we answered 73% of the 2,532 calls received within a
minute. We still have some way to go if we are to achieve the contact centre
industry standard of answering 80% of calls in 20 seconds and we
acknowledge that at peak periods people are still waiting an unacceptably
long period of time to have their call answered.
4.4 Whilst we have not yet set a target for calls resolved at the first point of
contact there has been a marked improvement in this area across both
115

Helpdesks during August, particularly on the Repairs Helpdesk where we
have worked across teams to improve the declining trend which occurred as a
result of a newly introduced way of working on repairs.
Chart 2: Repairs Helpdesk call answering performance August 2013
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
75.96%
72.81%
77.90%
60.00%
50.00%
52.82%
50.15%
Abandoned Rate
40.00%
First Point Resolution
Speed of Answer
30.00%
20.00%
20.47%
10.00%
0.00%
1:46
29th July
11.75%
8.02%
6.44%
3.77%
1:12 0:54 0:51 0:39
5th August 12th August 19th August 26th August
5 Customer Satisfaction
5.1 To better understand how our improvement strategy is impacting on
customers we asked a small sample of callers (23 for General and 83 for
Repairs) about their experience of using the two Helpdesks during August.
The results were as follows:
General Helpdesk
5.2 Of the 23 people in the survey sample, 1 abandoned their call before it was
answered and 3 chose not to answer the satisfaction questions. The 19
people who did participate were asked to rate their experience out of 5:
• 96% of respondents agreed (score of 4 or above) that the CHA who answered
their call was “polite and friendly”;
• 95% said they were you given the correct information by the Helpdesk
Advisor;
• 62% said the advisor they spoke to was able to resolve their query;
• 90% of respondents expressed satisfaction with their overall experience of
contacting Bron Afon to resolve their query.
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Repairs Helpdesk
5.3 We asked 83 callers to the Repairs Helpdesk two questions about their
experience of reporting repairs:
• 93% of respondents agreed (score of 4 or above) that it was easy for them to
report their repair;
• 94% were satisfied by the way their call was handled.
5.4 Whilst it is recognised that these are small samples the responses give a
positive indication of customer satisfaction with the service. We will continue
to expand the use of these surveys over the course of the next couple of
months and will explore other opportunities for measuring satisfaction using
the Service Improvement Monitors team.
6 On-going service developments
6.1 We continue to move forward with the longer term plan to make all staff
across both Helpdesks multi skilled with the aim of having a fully integrated
single Helpdesk by March 2014. From the middle of August staff have been
‘buddying’ across teams to help instil a basic level of knowledge of all subject
areas across the whole of the team.
6.2 Helpdesk staff themselves are working with teams across the business
including the Learning and Development team to develop more detailed
training modules which all Helpdesk staff will undertake to increase their skills
and competence. Competence will be tested and then signed off by service
managers. The overall aim of this is to create a more flexible, knowledgeable
team who can answer calls quickly and resolve calls promptly to offer
excellent customer service and reduce demand on other services who will
consequently be freed up to deal with more complex, in depth queries.
6.3 The customer contact module of CRM is currently in development and when
in November it begins to be rolled out to the business it will really support the
Helpdesk to deliver an improved level of service as all staff will be logging all
contact with customers on this new system. This will give Helpdesk staff a
fuller picture of previous discussions with the customer and enable them to
directly resolve more enquiries; it will also ensure that complex enquiries that
the Helpdesk is unable to resolve are efficiently passed on to right person. At
the moment this process involves the generation of substantial e-mail traffic
which is difficult to follow up and track. Importantly the new contact
management system will allow full follow up and tracking of outcomes for
customers.
7 Activities planned for the next month
7.1 In the last few weeks we have started to look at the longest waiting times
each day. More detailed analysis is being done around the length of time
people are waiting and when this is happening. We will report back fully on
this to Board next month.
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7.2 More work will be undertaken on customer satisfaction with the service and
the opportunity to involve the Service Improvement Monitors will be fully
explored.
7.3 Managers will continue to monitor the headline statistics on a weekly basis
and will take corrective action whenever necessary to ensure that
performance continues to improve.
7.4 The three new CHAs will complete their induction training and we expect to
see further increases in enquiries being resolved at first point of contact as
their knowledge increases.
7.5 We will continue to push hard to decrease the abandonment rates and
improve call answering times. It should be noted that demand in terms of call
volume is likely to increase as we move into the winter months with more
requests for repairs. As a result performance may be plateau for a couple of
weeks before continuing to improve as we assess and respond to changing
demand.
7.6 Our key targets for September are to achieve an average speed of answer of
50 seconds and subject to the above proviso about changing patterns of
demand to maintain abandonment rate at August’s level as we are already
doing better than the 12% goal we have previously set.We will report back to
Board in October on progress achieved.
Appendices
None
Background papers
None
Corporate Plan • Doing what we already do to an excellent standard
• Building skills and capacity
• Providing advice and support to those who need it
For further information about this report, please contact: Cath Stenson – Head of
Inclusion and Support. Tel: 01633 620373 e-mail: cath.stenson@bronafon.org.uk.
For copies of documents referred to as appendices or background papers, please
access Buzz or contact Kevin Willmott, Acting Governance Officer.
118

BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING BOARD
26 th September 2013
VOIDS REPIARS STANDARD REPORT
David Sharman, Director of Property
Dave.sharman@bronafon.org.uk
(01633) 620197
1. Introduction
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the board with the existing voids
repairs standard currently in operation along with recent minor operational
changes.
2. Background
2.1 Void repairs fall within the Repairs, Maintenance and Major works policy.
Application of the policy is delegated to operational managers.
2.2 It’s been over 4 years since the board last received information on the voids
standard and it operational application. The last review included the decision
to bring Voids up to WHQS when they became void. The policy was
developed in consultation with the membership.
2.3 The voids standard sets out our approach to repairing all properties becoming
void and preparing them for re-letting.
2.4 The most recent operational change to this standard has been the inclusion of
decorating packs for tenants use.
3. Action required by the Board
3.1 The Board are asked to:
• Note the void standard and provide comments and recommendations.
Appendices
Background papers
The Voids Standard
None
Corporate Plan The action supports our self assessment actions and
Corporate Plan objectives 2 and 3.
For further information about this report, please contact: (David Sharman, Director of
Property, dave.sharman@bronafon.org.uk, 01633 620197).
For copies of documents referred to as appendices or background papers, please
access Buzz or contact Kevin Willmott
119

120

Lettable Standard for Void Properties
This is the minimum standard to which all homes should be brought up to before being
re-let. It is the standard which makes a property safe and secure for occupation.
Technical specifications are included below.
We will carry out any essential repairs and/or Health & Safety checks that require
completing prior to re-letting. The primary objective of the Void process is to return the
property for re-let in the shortest possible time. It is a “repair and safety check” process
only. Works that are not essential to do before letting such as routine repairs and that of
planned or cyclical nature will be dealt with when the property is occupied under our
usual responsive and programmed maintenance procedures, within timescales provided
to the new tenant.
The pre-void inspection form completed during the notice period will provide further
detail and specific instructions for each property.
On receiving the keys to the void property, checks will be made to ensure any
outstanding essential repairs are incorporated into the voids schedule.
Area
External
Site Clearance
Lettable Standard
The interior and exterior of the property (including loft space), and
garages let with the property, are to be cleared of all former tenant
belongings and debris including furniture, carpets, laminate flooring,
non-approved fixtures and fittings, sheds/stores/greenhouses etc.,
and general garden rubbish.
The cost of removing and disposal of tenant abandoned items such
as furniture, carpets, laminates, appliances, vehicles and scrap metal
etc., along with any associated works to “make good” will be charged
to the former tenant in accordance with the Recharge Policy.
Cleaning
Cracks
Where evidence exists of needles, faeces or bodily fluids,
arrangements will be made for the property to be cleared of all
contaminants by specialist cleaners before contracted works
commence.
Major structural and dangerous cracks in the external envelope of the
building will be assessed and appropriate technical advice will be
sought on rectifying faults with any necessary works being
programmed accordingly.
Any visible aesthetic cracks to interior finishes will be left and dealt
with via the decoration packs.
121

External Area
(Doors and walls)
Garden and
outside Area
All external walls to be clear of graffiti
Note:
Offensive graffiti will need to be removed within 24 hours after the
initial inspection.
Grass, hedges and shrubs will be cut back only if they represent a
health and safety risk.
Weeds will be removed/ treated from paths and patio areas
Property will be cleared of rubbish and debris. This will be recharged
to the outgoing tenant, where appropriate.
Property will be free of all pests e.g. wasps nests or any evidence of
rats
Trees, Bushes
and Shrubs
Any mature trees will be checked to ensure that they are not in a
dangerous condition and do not present a hazard in respect of
causing structural damage.
Any structural or health and safety issues caused by trees, bushes or
shrubs will be made safe.
Ponds
Fencing and Gate
(where applicable)
Footpaths and
steps
Outbuildings,
sheds and
greenhouses
All ponds and water features shall be removed; the resulting hole will
be filled in to match the surrounding area. The disturbed area will `be
finished with turf or grass seed (depending on the time of year) This
will be recharged to the outgoing tenant.
All existing fencing and gates will be complete and in a reasonable
condition, both serviceable and upright, of consistent materials and
following the legal boundary.
Gate should be installed to side, front or rear entrances only where
they are missing and only if there is a legitimate entrance point.
All surfaces will be safe and free of obstructions and trip hazards and
protection supplied where heights are excessive
Any uneven or unsafe slabs or paths with a trip hazard tolerance in
excess of 25mm will be treated as a trip hazard and rectified
accordingly.
Ensure all outbuildings are safe.
Unauthorized or unsafe outbuildings will be removed. Reinstate
disturbed area to match existing surroundings. any electrical
connections to be removed and made safe. This will be recharged to
the outgoing tenant.
All outbuildings, sheds and storage cupboards served by common or
shared access points to be numbered the same as the void property.
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Outbuildings will be cleared of rubbish and other personal items. This
will be recharged to the outgoing tenant
Shelving will be left if secure and safe
All doors and locks will be in working order
Washing Line
All void properties with individual gardens will have either a rotary or
straight washing line; this depends on the location of the line.
A hard surface path must lead from the property to the washing line’s
location, this to include the entire length of the straight washing line.
If the void property is a flat in a block, efforts will be made to ensure
where practical a washing line is provided for the use of the incoming
tenant.
Windows
Windows glazing will be clean
Window frames will be clean and able to open and close, with
catches and restrictors intact.
Any defective panes of glass to be replaced (only if evident during
void period)
Ground floor windows will have lockable security locks/restrictors with
keys provided.
Doors
All doors will open and close properly
External locks will be changed or repined before commencement of
work’s to secure property
Cables
All cables on the building exterior will be secured correctly or
removed if not essential for the operation of the property. Subject to
gaining any 3 rd party consent.
Temporary or non-compliant cabling going to external buildings will
be removed and recharged when installed by the previous tenant
Guttering
External lighting
Existing gutters, down pipes, drains and gulley’s will be inspected for
any obvious sign of defect and checked to ensure they are free
flowing.
Any external lighting provided is to be in working order
Any faulty or unsafe lighting to be removed and replaced, if originally
provided by Bron Afon Community Housing
123

Ramps and Rails
(where applicable)
Internal
Adaptations
Internal walls
Ramps provided for access and egress, will be left in place. Provided
they are fit for purpose and in good order
Where it is evident that the property has had adaptations installed,
surveyor will consult with Occupational therapist for guidance on what
equipment is to be left in place. As a matter of principle adaptations
are to be left in place and suitable new tenant(s) needing the
adaptations should be sought, if at all possible within a reasonable
time. Direct matching should be considered in line with the allocations
and lettings policy.
All internal walls will be clean and tidy.
Walls will be sound and free from major defects, though hollow
patched of plaster would not normally constitute a defect unless it
affects the integrity of the wall.
All surfaces will be prepared ready for decoration, holes to be filled.
Any damaged wallpaper will be removed.
Any wall paper in reasonable condition will be left in place.
Where it is necessary to redecorate then decoration packs will be
offered to the incoming tenant as part of the letting process and the
letting officer will ensure the tenant is aware of the decorating
process. In special cases (for example Where an incoming tenant is
elderly or disabled and has no other means of assistance) then
alternative arrangements can be made to decorate defective areas of
the property. Only in extreme circumstances will a full property
redecoration be undertaken.
Decoration allowances will be as follows and subject to periodic
reviews::
• Bedsit ………………………….. £90.00
• One bed flat …………………. £110.00
• Two bed flat ...…………..….....£130.00
• Three bed flat ………….……. £150.00
• One bed house ……………… £120.00
• Two bed house ……………….£140.00
• Three bed house ………..…..£150.00
• Four bed house ………………£200.00
• Redecorate kitchen/bathroom . £50.00each
• Redecorate single room only.. £55.00
The cost of making good damage to decoration will be recharged to
the outgoing tenant where it is not a result of fair wear and tear.
Ceilings
All ceilings will be clean.
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Lighting pendants will be safe, secure and clean
Remove all polystyrene ceiling tiles found in the property and make
good the ceiling. This will be recharged to the outgoing tenant.
Windows
All windows will be cleaned from the inside
Ensure all catches, locks etc. will operate affectively.
Flooring
‘wet areas’
All kitchens, bathrooms, WC’s and utility rooms will have some type
of non-slip flooring. All affected areas should be free from rips, tears
or delamination.
If flooring in these areas is intact and in a good state of repair it will
be left in place and cleaned.
Other areas
Broken floor tiles will be replaced individually however the
replacement tiles need to be a reasonable close match where
possible with the rest of the area.
All carpets and laminates to be removed from property, this includes
removal of any carpet grippers and metal door thresholds. This will be
recharged to the outgoing tenant.
Where vinyl tiles are damaged around the perimeter of the room from
removal of the grippers broken floor tiles will be replaced individually
however the replacement tiles need to be a reasonable close match
where possible with the rest of the area.
Damaged asbestos floor tiles to be removed.
Extractor fans and
grills
Water and
Plumbing
To be clean and in good safe working order.
Carry out a full check of all plumbing, waste, pipe-work and isolation
valves, taps, shower mixer, toilet cisterns and washing machine taps
ensuring the installation is sound, serviceable, water tight, free
flowing and without defect.
Ensure the installation is accessible for maintenance purposes and
that the main stop taps operates freely, and all valves etc. are clearly
labelled.
If the void turnaround prediction is more than 20 days in the winter
months or extreme cold weather is reported, water services will need
to be turned off at the mains stop tap and the heating system drained
down to minimise risks and damage to the building fabric.
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Kitchen and Utility
Room Worktops
and Units
(cupboards and
drawers)
The kitchen should be less than 15 years old and in reasonable
condition and meet the safety, space and layout criteria designed in
accordance with the minimum requirements
The kitchen should contain the following as an absolute minimum:
• 1 x double base unit (or larder equivalent)
• 1 x sink base unit with bowl and drainer (Belfast type is
acceptable)
• Work surfaces either side of cooker space and sink space
• 1 x 1000 wall unit (double)
• Space for cooker
• Space for fridge/freezer
• Washing machine space with suitable plumbing available
• Adequate provision of electrical points
All worktops, to be secure, clean and hygienic. They must also be
free from chips, deep cuts or burn marks.
Worktop trims to be secured in place and undamaged.
All units must be clean inside and out. All surfaces to be safe and free
of obstructions.
Unit doors and drawers to be in working order.
Check drawer runners working efficiently and door hinges secure and
working freely. Also check door catches working.
Check if missing edges on shelves and brackets secure.
Sinks,
Washbasins and
Taps
This also applies to walk-in cupboards, wardrobes and redundant
heating cylinder cupboards
All sinks to be clean and clear of stains. Limescale to be removed.
Where possible using domestic cleaner only.
All sinks to have plug and chain intact
All taps to be in good working order and watertight
Taps should be matching
Stop tap(s)
Wall Tiles
Drains to be working and limescale and odour free
All stop taps to be adjusted, labelled and in working order
Remove and replace cracked or broken tiles, repair damaged
grouting
Ensure all tiles are mould free and sealed
126

Bath
To be clean, with plug and chain intact
Drains to be working and limescale and odour free.
Showers over
baths
Shower units over baths to be tested. If in good, safe working order
to be left in place.
Electric Showers if unsafe, to be removed and replaced with a
shower unit supplied from a combination boiler.
Curtain rail and shower curtain to be provided.
WC (including any
external WC)
Note:
Shower curtains in Low Level Access Showers to be a weighted
version.
To be clean, with seat intact and secure. Replace seat if necessary.
(Rule of thumb- replace toilet seat only if it is more than one year old
i.e. displaying signs of wear and staining and cannot be cleaned).
All sanitary sealants to be clean and intact, free from mould and
mildew and stains and fully operational with plugs and chains.
Appliances
Fireplaces
If a sanitary ware item needs to be replaced during the Void period,
then it should either colour match the existing remaining items, or be
in white.
no appliances to be left in properties, cookers, fridges, freezers,
washing machines and tumble dryers to be removed. Removed items
will be recycled via Bron Afon recycling service where possible.
All fireplaces, hearth and fire surround to be intact and clean.
All gas focal fires with back boilers and solid fuel heating systems to
be removed.
All fire places that are removed and not replaced with electric fires will
be bricked up and made good.
Where a focal fire has been removed from the Lounge, this will be
replaced with an electric fire as per current agreed specification.
All rooms are to have a heat source, if the focal fire is removed and it
was the only heat source in the room, a radiator or other heater must
be installed.
Roof Space
The roof space will also be inspected to ensure that there are no
signs of water penetration and no obvious inherent defects to the roof
coverings that could lead to water penetration. Any urgent repairs will
be completed whilst the property is void. Any unauthorised alterations
to the roof space are to be rectified. This is a rechargeable item back
to the tenant.
All exposed pipe work and water tanks to be insulated or removed if
127

edundant.
Stairs
Will be in structurally sound and in a reasonable condition, free from
disrepair and defects.
Handrails/banisters and spindles to be secure and intact.
Ranch rail design stairs to be removed or covered over, spindles with
a greater distance of 100mm between them to be boxed over
Light Fittings
Window openings
Remove all non-standard light fittings and replace with Lighting
Pendant drops or specialist light fittings designed for special locations
(Bathroom, Kitchen and Utility Room). This will be recharged to the
outgoing tenant.
Curtain rails, wooden/steel poles and vertical blinds left by outgoing
tenant to be removed. This is a rechargeable item to the outgoing
tenant.
If not installed curtain battens are not to be provided
Light bulbs
Light bulbs to be left in all light sockets
When replacing use energy-efficient bulbs
Fire Safety
Smoke detectors
A fire safety risk assessment will be carried out for every void and
any works required as a result will be completed in accordance with
the priority determined by the risk assessment. Work will either be
carried when the property is void, as a planned repair when the
property is occupied, or scheduled for inclusion in a planned
maintenance programme.
Check that the property has at least one (to each floor) fully
operational and hardwired smoke detector with a back-up facility. If
not installed a battery operated smoke alarm must be provided.
All existing smoke/heat alarms must be checked for signs of
unauthorized tampering, correct operation and interconnection with
other alarms in the same void.
All smoke/heat detectors must be cleaned, check manufacture
operational replacement date, any devices with less than 12 months
life cycle remaining must be replaced, if there is a doubt, the detector
must be replaced.
A completion certificate must be issued when a new installation has
taken place.
Electrical
Carry out visual inspection of electrical installation, property must
contain the following as the minimum requirement;
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• 4 Twin Power points to the Living room
• 2 Twin Power points to the Dining room
• 3 Twin Power points, to the Kitchen
• 1 Single Power Point with Isolation Switch for each appliance
in the Kitchen
• 1 Cooker Power Point to the Kitchen
• 3 Twin Power points to the main and second bedroom
• 2 Twin Power Points to the box bedroom
Electrical works to be completed during the Void period to achieve
this minimum lettable standard.
Isolation Switch
If an isolation switch is present carry out works required and bring up
to the 17th edition.
If no isolation switch is present, this will have been identified during
the Pre Void Inspection and ordered by the voids
Supervisor/Surveyor.
Heating
Gas Installation
and
Appliances
Statutory Safety
Certificates
Asbestos
Western Power Distribution will carry out the installation on behalf of
Bron Afon Community Housing.
.
Ensure the heating system is in good operation, and provide specific
operating instructions (wherever possible). Generic instructions must
be provided if specific ones are not available. Ensure radiators are
adequately sizes for all rooms, replace where undersized and any
visible leaks are attended too.
Cap off the main gas service at the meter and carry out a tightness
check
A copy of the following certificates must be left in the void property
and the property file:
Electrical Installation Condition Report or Electrical Installation
Certificate,
Gas Safety Record
Asbestos Management Certificate
Energy Performance Certificate
Review asbestos register to identify if the property has an existing
management survey before commencement of work’s, intrusive
work’s will require an asbestos refurbishment survey to identify
possible risks within walls, cupboards or other hidden areas.
Where ever possible, asbestos is to be removed to eliminate the risk
of contamination in the event of damage being caused from
unauthorized works. In the event of a removal taken place the
asbestos register must reflect this change taking place.
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Asbestos that is not removed must be clearly labelled and a copy of
the survey left at the property.
General
Welcome Pack
Stock Condition
survey
Ensure property is wind and watertight. Leave gel air fresheners in all
rooms and blue blocks for wc.
A Community Housing Officer is to ensure a welcome pack is left in
the property for the new tenant. Tenant signs to accept property as
per appendix 1 document.
An updated stock condition survey will be carried out in every void
and the data feed into the stock condition data base.
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Appendix 1
Our Standard for Your Homes
The Lettable Standard is the standard you can expect your home to meet when you
move in. It is also your obligation to maintain this standard throughout your tenancy. The
lettable standard is separate to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, which will be
achieved as part of the Improvement Programme. Works to bring your home up to the
standard will normally be carried out before you move in. However, occasionally some
work may need to be carried out after you’ve moved into your new home. As your
landlord, we need to ensure that your home is safe, clean and in a reasonable state of
repair. When you sign your Tenancy Agreement, we’ll discuss the works and timescales
with you, so you’ll know what to expect.
The General Standard:
• Your home will have been assessed against the Housing Health and Safety Rating
System Risk Assessment to ensure all category 1 Health and Safety hazards are
resolved.
• All plaster work/ceilings will be sound and free from major repair.
• Floors will be sound, secure and free from major defects.
• Your home will be watertight and free from damp penetration.
• Internal doors and furniture will be correctly fitting and serviceable.
• Architraves and skirting boards will be complete.
• All lofts will be cleared and we will ensure insulation is in place.
• At least 2 shelves (slatted) will be fitted in airing cupboard (if applicable)
• All polystyrene tiles will be removed and ceilings will be made good.
• Drainage systems will be free flowing and functional incorporating replaced grids.
• Hot water cylinder will be lagged.
Inside your home
Security
• All door locks will be changed.
• Windows and doors will be secure and fully serviceable with glazing intact.
Electrical fixtures and fittings
• At least 2 smoke alarms will be fitted.
• Low energy light bulbs will be supplied.
• Electrical checks will be carried out (certificates will be provided).
Gas appliances
Gas checks will be carried out (certificates will be provided).
Kitchens
Will meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard where possible
131

Bathrooms
Will meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard where possible
Decoration
• You will be provided with a voucher to have a decorating pack suitable for your
home. Your community housing officer will explain the process to you when you sign
up
Cleaning
• Your home will be in clean condition.
• All woodwork and front doors will be cleaned.
• All worktops / sanitary ware / floors will be disinfected.
• All internal glazing / frames will be cleaned.
• All rubbish will be removed prior to you moving in.
Your garden
• All gardens will be clear from rubbish.
• Grass and vegetation will be strimmed in extreme cases.
• Functional washing line/rotary clothes line will be provided where applicable.
• Boundaries will be clearly defined.
• We will ensure that any existing unattached outhouses/sheds etc. are safe.
• Wheelie bins will be free from rubbish
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Option A
I have viewed
(address).........................................................................................................
And agree that the lettable standard has been met.
I also understand that if I wish to end/transfer/exchange this tenancy, I must ensure that
these standards are maintained.
Failure to do so will result in the transfer/exchange being refused. I may also be liable
for recharges if Bron Afon has to re-instate this property to this standard at the end of
my tenancy.
Signed........................................................
Signed........................................................
Option B
I have viewed
(address)..........................................................................................................
And agree for this list of works, detailed below to be carried out within the first ten
working days of my tenancy in order for the lettable standard to be achieved in full.
I also understand that if I wish to end/transfer/ exchange this tenancy, I must ensure that
these standards are maintained.
Failure to do so will result in the transfer/exchange being refused. I may also be liable
for recharges if Bron Afon has to re-instate this property to this standard at the end of
my tenancy.
List of works:-
............................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
Signed........................................................
Signed........................................................
133

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BRON AFON COMMUNITY HOUSING
AUDIT & ETHICS COMMITTEE
Present:
Thuesday 9th July 2013
Meeting Room 1, Tŷ Bron Afon, Llantarnam.
Board Members: Huw Parry; Deb Smyth; Jean Lewis.
Staff/Visitors:
Observers:
Auditors:
Duncan Forbes (Chief Executive); Neil Edwards (Director of
Resources); Jill Jones (Corporate Services Manager); Joanne
Jones (Head of Finance); Dave Sharman (Director of Property);
Kevin Willmott (acting Governance Officer).
Steve Traynor (Membership Committee).
Clive Fitzgerald (TIAA); Nigel Ireland (Head of Internal Audit),
Glen Jones (Mazars).
Item No
Nature of Action
Officer
Responsible
1 Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Neil Smith.
2 Declarations of Interest
There were no changes to the existing Declarations of
Interest.
3 Action Points
1. It was suggested that the proposed committee
handbook be replaced by distribution of the
publication “The Board Game” and this was accepted
by the Committee.
Governance
Officer
4 Internal Controls Assurance and Review of Internal
Controls
The Chief Executive introduced the report, explained the
background and his reasoning behind each of the decisions
contained in the report.
He further explained that the ‘risks’ element was fully
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covered later in the Committee papers.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
Referring to some of the internal audit reports to be
discussed later, it was queried whether there is an issue
with what appears to be incomplete record keeping, jobs not
seen through to correct completion and a lack of checks to
ensure that things are being done and recorded in the
correct manner - it was difficult to have confidence in
systems that appeared not to have sufficient close oversight.
The Chair explained that the report was a balanced
overview of what is seen over the course of a year, that
things will be found to be incorrect and that steps will be
taken to address those issues.
The Chief Executive said that checking had to be done on a
sample basis as it was impossible, without additional costly
resource, to physically check that every person had done
everything they should have done when they should have
done it.
The Chair asked the Internal Auditors for their respective
opinions.
Clive (TIAA) expressed the opinion that there had been a
vast improvement since Transfer and Nigel (BSS) pointed to
the levels of assurance gained in audit reviews.
The Committee considered whether or not we do enough to
see things through to a satisfactory conclusion, stating that
the start and middle of any task seemed to be good, but that
we might be failing at the end.
The Director of Property said that we, like other
organisations, do rely on self certification by our contractors
and we undertake spot checks of both the contractors and
our own staff and, where necessary, consider applying the
Capability Policy where the latter is found to require it. There
were implications, in relation to contractors, of moving from
the status of an expert client to an interfering client, the
former being where the contractor is responsible for risks
and the latter where we become responsible for risks.
The Chief Executive informed The Committee it was
recognised that we cannot completely remove risk so, like
all organisations, we have a risk management structure in
place to mitigate, as far as possible, risks. We identify risks,
rate them and apply Executive and management resource to
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those rated as ‘high risk’ and it is these that we ask auditors
to look into.
The Internal Auditors informed The Committee that it was a
positive sign that they were asked to look into high risk
areas and that 8 out of 11 of the audited systems gained
either reasonable or sunstantial assurance.
The Corporate Services Manager informed The Committee
that we were part of the Risk Forum, along with 17 other
RSL’s, and that the Forum share experiences, good practice
and concerns.
The Chair asked whether the Committee felt that the report
was a fair and balanced statement.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked the Chief Executive for the
report, agreed that it was a fair and balanced
assessment and that the Statement of Assurance
should be recommended to Board.
5 Financial Statements for the year ending 2012/13
The Head of Finance introduced the report and invited
questions.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
The Chair queried why there was a lower fixed asset figure
for the whole Group than there was for Bron Afon
The Head of Finance explained that this was due to the PV
element, where the cost to Bron Afon was £1.08m but the
cost to the Group was £0.927m, the difference being an
internal transfer between ACS and Bron Afon which
disappears when the accounts are consolidated.
It was suggested that we standarise our number format so
that all financial reports are stated in, for example, millions
or thousands but not a mixture of both.
The Head of Finance accepted this and agreed to present
reports using a common method.
Head of
Finance
Clarification was sought as to the difference of absence
levels shown as 6% (p44) and 5.32% (p52).
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The Head of Finance explained that the former covered all
absence and the latter covered just sickness absence.
The Committee queried the figures relating to leavers and
asked why it was that the majority (42 out of a total of 78)
were designated as ‘left for other reasons’ (p52).
The Head of Finance explained that most of these 42
leavers were on fixed-term contracts and those contracts
had ended.
Mazars presented their report, gave an overview of the work
they have undertaken on behalf of Bron Afon, their
assessment of it’s financial health and explained how they
arrive at their assessment.
The Committee requested that the Mazars presentation be
distributed to all Board members.
COMMITTEE DECISION
acting
Governance
Officer
The Committee thanked the Head of Finance and Mazars
for the report and confirmed that the Financial
Statements were a true and accurate reflection of Bron
Afon’s financial health. It therefore agreed that Board,
subject to the changes mentioned above, should be
asked to recommend the adoption of the Financial
Statements to the Members at the AGM on 10 th
September 2013. The Letter of Recommendation will be
presented and signed at the Board meeting of 18th July
2013.
6 Bron Afon Audit & Ethics Committee – Annual Report to
Board 2012/2013
The Chair of the Committee presented the report which
asked the Committee to approve the report for submission to
the Board.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
It was noted that there was a totalling error on page 124 of
the report and it was requested that this be rectified.
Corporate
Services
Manager
COMMITTEE DECISION
Subject to the above-noted error being corrected, The
Committee accepted the report and recommended it’s
submission to Board.
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7 Review of Internal Audit 2012/2013 – TIAA
The report was presented by Clive with the opinion that
having just one audit showing limited assurance should be
viewd positively. Questions were invited.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked Clive for the report, which they
accepted, and thanked him for his contribution over the
years and presented him with a card.
8 Review of Internal Audit 2012/2013 – BSS
The Report was presented by Nigel who invited questions.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked Nigel for the report from which
they gained assurance.
9 Emerging and Rising Risks
The Chief Executive introduced the report and spoke about
the recent fire at Tilsland, the consequent murder trial and
the critical nature of fire safety. He informed the Committee
that Bron Afon was the first in the UK to fit sprinklers as
standard to high-rise properties.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
The Committee expressed the opinion that the new report
was in a much better format than previous reports.
The Committee discussed risk number 5 (Management
Competancies/Capacity/Silos between teams -p142) and it’s
relationship with the spending on staff training (Financial
Statements p43) and asked for a breakdown of expenditure
on training over type to understand how it contributes to the
improvement of performance within Bron Afon.
Head of HR
The Committee discussed issues around the difficulties of
long-term expenditure forecasts.
The Head of Property explained that we were previously
foreasting costs with a 3% contingency built-in but that
contingency was rarely utilised. As a result we are now
138

adopting a project management approach but with an
overall 1% underspend budget tolerance level.
The Chair stated that it was easier to make short-term
forecasts but less so with long-term forecasts.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee commended the revised format, thanked
the Chief Executive and accepted the report.
10 Slips & Trips Audit – BSS
Nigel explained the report, it’s key findings and invited
questions.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
The discussion centered around why we are only now
assessing this risk, and why it has been judged as giving
limited assurance.
The Director of Property explained that we only assumed
responsibility for this risk in 2010 as it was previously part of
TCBC’s remit. We recognised that it was a high risk area
that required independent assessment which is why BSS
were asked to audit the procedures.
It was discussed whether there were other risks that needed
to be considered and the Chair explained that the
Committee had the opportunity of influencing and revisiting
the Audit Plan at any time.
The Corporate Services Manager informed the Committee
that, once we had assumed responsibility in 2010 for slips
and trips on our land, it took over 12 months to map and
walk the land. She further explained that photographs of any
area in which a slip or trip occurred were very difficult unless
a very specific location can be identified. She also explained
that our standards were currently higher than the Council in
that we intervene when the unevenness level reaches
15mm, half that of TCBC and this might need to be
reconsidered.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked Nigel for the report which was
accepted.
139

11 Ministry of Justice Reforms
The report was presented by the Corporate Services
Manager, highlighting the operational and financial impacts
of the ‘Jackson Reforms’.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
The Committee questioned whether the new regime of not
being able to recover legal costs would reduce the number
of claims that we defend.
The Corporate Services Manager stated that it was likely
that we would be subjected to increased volume of claims in
the belief that we would settle rather than defend. It was,
therefore, important that we continue to robustly defend
cases where we believe that we are not liable, which was
agreed by the Committee.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked the Corporate Services
Manager for the report.
12 Asbestos Audit
Nigel presented the report.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked Nigel for the report.
13 Financial Controls
Nigel presented the report.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked Nigel for the report.
14 Treasury Management Update
The Head of Finance introduced the report and talked
through the items on it.
COMMITTEE DECISION
140

The Committee thanked the Head of Finance for the
report.
15 VfM Update
The Corporate Services Manager presented the report.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked the Corporate Services
Manager for the report.
16 Monitoring Internal Audit Reporting & Outstanding
Audit Recommendations
The Corporate Services Manager presented the report.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee thanked the Corporate Services
Manager for the reports.
17 Contractor Management Policy
This report was replaced by a tabled paper “WHQS VfM”
that he Committee will discuss at the next meeting.
18 Appointment of External Auditors
The Head of Finance presented the report.
COMMITTEE DECISION
The Committee agreed that Huw Parry, Steve Traynor
and Jean Lewis will be involved in the process of
selecting the external auditor.
I sign below to confirm that these minutes were agreed to be a true reflection of the
meeting held Tuesday 9 th July 2013.
Signed
___________________________________________
Chair of the Audit & Ethics Committee
141

Print Name
Huw Parry
Date 2013
142