1. home and garden

DELIVERY PLAN 2015/16
Delivery Plan 2015/16
1. Introduction
This Delivery Plan for 2015/16 sets out Lambeth Living’s priorities to achieve the aims set out in
its Business Plan 2012-17. As the aims of the Business Plan broadly remain the same the
emphasis here is on the continuation of our main areas of activity. (The Annual Service Plans
contain the necessary detail for these priorities to be managed at the operational level).
The key areas of change are:
 The reintegration of Lambeth Living into London Borough of Lambeth
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The introduction of a planned maintenance programme.
The delivery of over £100m of investment in our homes.
A targeted approach to raising satisfaction at estate level.
A revised delivery model for the Lambeth Housing Standard (LHS) and improvements to
the Section 20 consultation process for leaseholders.
A different approach to complaints to promote early resolution.
A number of underlying themes run through the plan:
 Championing the use of external benchmarking to move Lambeth Living towards ‘one of
the best housing management services in London’. This is reflected in the draft
Performance Targets for 2015/16 at appendix 1.
 Focus on high quality customer services we provide to leaseholders and how we bill
them.
 Maximising the benefits of the significant investment we have made in new IT systems
over the last few years.
 Improving the overall customer experience and widening the opportunities for customers
to get involved.
2. Property and Housing Services
The Repairs Service
I.
Deliver a planned and cyclical programme from headroom in the repairs budget.
II.
Reduce the volume of aged disrepair cases and average case completion times to below
150 live cases by year end.
III.
Launch a revised Solutions Team approach that offers customers an immediate site visit
by a surveyor when a service failure is reported, eliminating blind inspections.
IV.
Reduce the average end-to-end completion time for responsive repairs to 13 days in
quarter one to 11.5 days in quarter 4 of 2015/16
V.
Introduce a revamped and enhanced strategic contract management system.
VI.
Through the actions described above and other initiatives, to drive improvements in the
in the delivery of the repairs service, including:
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a. 95 per cent of appointments made and kept
b. 90 per cent tenant satisfaction with repairs service, and 90 per cent satisfaction
with the quality of the repair
c. 85 per cent of repairs right first time
d. Proportion of repairs overdue maintained below one per cent of all repairs
The Capital Investment Programme
I.
Identify affordability gap in the delivery of the LHS programme and to develop strategies
to bridge those gaps.
II.
Review the staffing structure to:
• ensure the appropriate staff structure and staff are in place to deliver the
programme
• ensure that the staff’s skill levels are appropriate for their roles
• foster the appropriate culture of project ownership and customer service.
III.
Review existing management information systems to confirm suitability with
emphasis on making best use of Northgate and Keystone systems to improve the
planning and monitoring of works and to facilitate more timely and accurate
reporting.
IV.
Deliver the following outputs, which will be measured through our performance
indicators:
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improve 4,616 homes to the Decent Homes standard
improve 2,100 homes to the Lambeth Housing Standard (LHS)
improve the percentage of residents satisfied with the quality of major
works to 90%
predict contract sums compared to delivery costs with 90% accuracy
complete internal modernisations within 15 days
improve the average SAP rating of Lambeth Living homes to 55 to 58
(Rating D).
Technical Services
I.
Audit all properties within the borough not currently on the gas plan, ensuring the target
of 100 per cent gas certification compliance is met and maintained throughout the year.
II.
Complete the water tank verification exercise to all shared structures across the borough
to identify any unidentified water tanks not currently incorporated within the planned
maintenance programme.
III.
Ensure that any newly identified tanks are made compliant and included in future years
planned programmes.
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IV.
Ensure that all Landlords electrical services are compliant with Institute of Electrical
Engineers (IEE) regulations.
V.
Undertake and complete the 2015/16 programme of testing to maintain the rolling 5 year
programme of Periodic Inspection Report (PIR) inspections to communal systems.
Home Ownership Services
I.
Provide a high quality customer-focused service and ensure that complaints are reduced
and satisfaction with the team is increased.
II.
Maximise income collection from both day to day and major works service charges so
that we stabilise the business, render it financially viable and provide it with the capacity,
space and scope to improve customer services. To collect some £5 million in section 20
service charges, and to collect 95 per cent of the day-to-day service charges in the year,
and 100.5 per cent including charges recovered that relate to previous years.
III.
Improve communication with leaseholders and develop customer profiling.
IV.
Demonstrate value for money by reviewing high costs services and making them more
efficient.
Estates & Tenancy Services
I.
Investigate new ways to publicise and deliver estate services to residents, for example,
working with the Lambeth Living Information Technology Team to implement a mobile
application for the reporting of environmental and housing issues and publicising how
and when blocks will be serviced to improve the management of residents’ expectations.
II.
To improve estates management, by encouraging residents to take an active role in
decision making about the management of their estates, for example, by establishing
block champions.
III.
Increase the physical presence of estates housing officer (EHO) staff using local
resident engagement models that include monthly estate surgeries at designated
community facilities, “coffee morning” and “Meet your EHO/Cleaner” events.
IV.
Develop and extend the “Hurst Street model” through which residents are engaged
through a voucher scheme to conduct inspections on the standard of estates cleaning
and to report concerns to their EHO as a more cost effective and rigorous means of
quality assurance.
V.
Undertake specific “estate cleaning” presentations for residents at tenant and resident
association (TRA) meetings to improve the quality of estate cleaning so that resident
satisfaction is maintained at or above 90 per cent throughout the year.
VI.
Maintain resident satisfaction with grounds maintenance at or above 90 per cent
throughout the year.
VII.
Publicise the details of all planned improvements works in advance of work commencing
on site.
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Enforcement
I.
Increase satisfaction with the tenancy enforcement service by 10 percentage points.
II.
Increase satisfaction for antisocial behaviour management to 60 per cent, with 96 per
cent of all closed ASB cases resolved.
Empty Homes
I.
Work with the Planning and Performance Team to improve processes, maximising value
for money and efficiency in particular, for voids and disrepair performance, ensuring we
meet the end of year targets for empty homes of 21 days for short cycle voids and 25
days for long cycle voids.
II.
Maintain the total number of empty properties at or below 157, and maintain the re-let
times for short and long cycle voids at or below 21 and 25 days respectively.
Customer Care
I.
Achieve effective client management of call handling contract with our General
Dynamics IT (GDIT) call centre by ensuring they meet all contractual key performance
indicators (KPIs), in particular ensuring that 80% of calls are answered within 20
seconds.
II.
Maintain effective performance in the management of all complaints and enquiries, so
that:
 90 per cent of members’ enquires are answered on time
 no more than 20 complaints are received through the Independent Housing
Ombudsman, with no more than 50 per cent of those complaints upheld
 the number of local resolution complaints is reduced to no more than 600 for the
year
 escalation rates for local resolution complaints us maintained at or below 15 per
cent
 the proportion of review stage complaints upheld is maintained at or below 30 per
cent
 the number of complaints per 1,000 properties is maintained at or below 21 for
the year.
III.
Carry out accurate analysis of complaints to understand pressure points and use this
analysis to drive service improvement reviews through the Performance and Planning
team. To include a review of the service failures giving rise to complaints about the
repairs service and to work with the asset managers and other key colleagues to correct
any systemic weaknesses underlying these complaints.
IV.
Deliver the final phases of Northgate Housing Customer Service Module (CSM) Project.
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V.
Maximise the benefits of the new Northgate Housing Customer Services Module and
Task Manager workflow functionality, including better Document Management and a
system for managing Disrepair cases.
VI.
Embed ‘Residents First’ behaviours and values to drive up the quality of residents’
experience with the service, to help drive tenant satisfaction up to 70 per cent, when it is
next measured through the survey of tenants and residents (STAR)
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Central Income Team
I.
Deliver the Housing Benefit “Bridging the Gap” initiative, which aims to generate
£600,000 of additional rental income between April 2015 and March 2016 through
housing benefit assessments and Discretionary Housing Payment processing.
II.
Increase the variety of methods used to notify tenants of their arrears through expanding
the number of channels used to do this by greater incorporation of text messaging, email
and other non-standard methods of communication.
III.
Manage increasing arrears cases combined with 50/50 Casework Monitoring Initiative to
improve the overall standard of case management, increase the number of cases that
are compliant and help maximize income collection levels and drive down arrears to the
target of 4 per cent during 2015/2016.
IV.
Improve former tenants’ arrears recovery combined with revising the former tenants’
arrears escalation procedure to create a more streamlined and efficient process for
managing these debts that in turn improves collection / arrears reduction performance
with a view towards achieving this year’s collection target of £3.5m.
V.
Maintain an effective rent collection service so that:
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The percentage of rent and arrears collected for the year is at or above 95.1 per
cent
In year rent collection for the year as a whole is at least 99 per cent.
Welfare Reform
I.
Minimize the impact of welfare reform through effective intervention by reducing 200
households that are affected by Size Criteria.
II.
Continue the roll-out of the rental exchange programme. This is an initiative developed
with Experian Business Strategies and the Big Issue that enables tenants’ rent payments
to be counted towards their credit score, helping them create an online” digital proof of
identity and to build up am improved credit score through the timely payment of rent.
This initiative supports our financial inclusion agenda by helping tenants to access
affordable credit and avoid “pay day” loan companies, and also acts as an incentive to
tenants to pay their rent in full and on time.
Based on our modelling, the scheme is expected to increase the proportion of tenants
with digital proof of identity from the current low base of 35 per cent to a much more
inclusive 83 per cent. In addition, 42 per cent of Lambeth Living tenants would see an
immediate positive impact upon their credit score through the incorporation rent payment
data, with over 700 of those tenants immediately gaining access to previously
inaccessible credit and services.
3. Resident Engagement
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I.
Continue to effectively manage the Getting Involved (GI) grants programme worth £150k
which last year involved 26 TRAs and over 3,500 residents. To hypothecate money
received through the mobile telephone mast income paid by telecoms providers to fund
the programme going forward.
II.
Consolidate ‘Edible Living’ by increasing food growing areas by 50 per cent.
III.
Expand Learning works to 40 residents for Community Action in Housing course; 24 for
Level 3 in Award in Education & Training; 40 for finance/bookkeeping & 20 for managing
community facilities.
IV.
Launch Estate Pride awards by March 2015 with awards ceremony in November 2015.
4. Supporting the operational teams
Finance
I.
Deliver another year of value for money savings.
II.
Ensure that Lambeth Living complies with its statutory priorities in closing down the
company at re-integration.
III.
Deploy our reserves to support Lambeth’s strategic priorities.
IV.
Lead the delivery of a 5 per cent reduction in the fee budget for 2015/16.
V.
Lead the delivery of a 5 per cent reduction in the delegated budget for 2015/16.
Human Resources
I.
Enable and empower managers to lead and manage staff through their own
development in key areas of management skills.
II.
Provide appropriate support to the business to ensure a smooth and effective reintegration of Lambeth Living back into the council on 26 June 2015.
III.
Resourcing job roles with the right skills and experience through effective recruitment
and selection processes
IV.
Ensuring induction, probation and appraisals are completed on time and in line with
organisation objectives, and provide SMART objectives aligned to the Business plan
V.
Using management information and business intelligence to challenge manager
performance management.
VI.
Assisting in the reduction of absence, attrition and the improvement of performance
through a learning culture and positive environment
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VII.
To drive forward capacity and capability building through:
 the new management development programme and a second round of Residents
First training based on the Mary Gober Institute approach. To deliver a total of 24
management training days, 2 one-day and 8 half-day residents first workshops
 take forward the fourth cohort of Lambeth Living direct apprentices
 sponsoring colleagues to undertake professional qualifications via the PQS
 the general training calendar, delivering Microsoft Office training packages,
functional skills (underway with 20 participants), business IT skill and soft skills
 14 technical skills modules covering project management, contract management,
property inspections, schedule of rates and tenancy management
 talent management ( with a current cohort of 8). Development activities covering
mentoring, shadowing, leadership and management skills development and
membership of the Service Improvement Group (SIG).
Performance and Planning
I.
Continue to embed the programme management office (PMO) function by working
closely with project managers across the business to provide monitoring, advice and
guidance to deliver successful and timely project outcomes.
II.
To make best use of business intelligence to shape Lambeth Living’s strategic direction
and priorities:
 expand LHS survey to include tenants and years 2 and 3
 secure agreement from HouseMark to re-introduce withdrawn KPIs
 champion the use of the Best in London index as a means to drive service
improvement.
III.
Develop the team’s performance improvement function by agreeing a programme of
business reviews and developing the scrutiny and governance tools necessary to ensure
that the recommendations from these reviews are implemented.
IV.
Lead the business’s operational and strategic planning and monitoring functions. To
support all heads of service in developing cogent and well-focussed service delivery
plans, and to lead the work in monitoring and reporting on progress in delivering those
plans. To included leading the quarterly, six monthly and annual reviews for the Board
and Client team.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
I.
Implement functionality for managing the Capital Programme in our new Keystone
system which will make possible enhanced contract management, a better and more
structured approach to planned maintenance, and better management of asbestos
and fire safety across our housing stock.
II.
Improve our repairs and appointments systems.
III.
Improve our rent and service charge collection facilities, particularly in relation to
welfare reform, and major works recharges.
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IV.
Provide excellent training to ensure colleagues understand all the recent
improvements to our IT systems and use them effectively to improve efficiency and
customer service. We plan to develop our eLearning Library and provide around 1,300
classroom places during 2015/16, training colleagues to manage all areas of our work
using our Northgate Housing and Keystone systems, including around 300 training
days for Repairs and Disrepair, 300 for Tenancies & Voids, 100 each for Introduction
to Northgate, CSM, Arrears, Document Management, Reports, and the Capital
Programme, and 50 for Service Charges. We will also provide approximately 100
Training Surgery days at satellite offices. (We recognise that these numbers may
change in response to new priorities after reintegration).
V.
Develop our Residents Portal, SMS messaging, and other new cost-saving and
convenient channels for communicating with residents.
VI.
Maintain and improve our management information reporting system, and ensure data
on our systems is accurate and complete.
VII.
Investigate ways to improve IT facilities for new parts of the Housing Service following
reintegration with the council.
Communications
I.
To manage consultation and transition arrangements throughout the process of reintegration to minimise service disruption.
II.
We will communicate improvements in the delivery of key services to residents through:
 Living Local magazine (4 issues)
 Lambeth Talk magazine (11 issues)
 Weekender newspaper (12 issues)
 Web-based channels including the website Twitter account.
III.
We will ‘show and tell’ residents about the benefits of the investment in the Lambeth
Housing Standard (LHS) through:
 News items disseminated through the channels listed above
 The Lambeth Country Show
 Ward-level website updates to councillors, with at least 4 issues for each of 21 wards
 A ‘What to Expect’ booklet for external works
 Publicity for the Community Investment Core Group (CICG) about the benefits for the
borough arising from the apprenticeships and other social investment components of
the capital programme.
IV.
We will build a feeling of pride, break down silo working and promote the core value of
working together and build engagement through:
 Living Voice magazine, 11 issues
 Facilitating at least 6 meetings and reports for the Committee for Communication
 Organising and running the annual conference
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Re-launching Living Space and new file sharing functionality on a suitable new web
browser.
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Annex 1: 2015/16 Performance measures
<Summary table to be included>
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