Annual Report 2018

over-arching strategy, helped Connect to achieve
the strong regulatory judgement of G1:V1.
The Board had already commissioned
consultants to carry out a comprehensive
review of its structure and processes; one of
the results is a new HR and Governance
Committee to oversee two of the main pillars of
Connect’s success; its people and its decisionmaking
processes. The review concluded with
an appraisal of the Board’s effectiveness
which found that there was a ‘good
governance culture’ at Connect.
Part of this culture is a strong and visible
relationship between the Board and customers,
ensuring that there is a route for the customer
voice. In its new over-arching strategy, the Board
clearly set out its ambition.
“Our customers will design our
services with us – choice,
convenience and communication
will be core principles to the way
we work.”
Connect has been very lucky to have the support
and challenge from another group of committed
volunteers, Connect Resident’s Federation (CRF)
who give a huge amount of time to scrutinise our
work and help steer improvements. The CRF and
the Board worked together during 2017/18 to look
at how best to weave the tenant’s voice into the
work of the Board, in light of our new approach to
working in neighbourhoods and the increasing
impact of on-line customer engagement.
The result is a new Tenant Scrutiny strategy that
will be a priority for the Board in the coming year.
The CRF also completed a major piece of
governance work during the year; a Scrutiny
Review of In-house Repairs, the final report of
which was presented to the Audit and Risk
Management Committee which will track the
implementation of the recommendations made.
The conclusion of the review was:
“We gathered evidence which
shows that the repairs service has
become more efficient, cost
effective and that it was the right
choice to bring it in-house.”
So, no wonder time has truly
flown in 2017/18.
It’s time to get on with creating
the content for the ‘post-Brexit’
review of 2018/19.
Thank you for reading.
The Connect Resident’s Federation at their AGM
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