‘Value for money’ Customer Conference Wednesday 18th June 2014
Customer Feedback Presentations: Emma Wilson (Director of Communities) Introduction to the event Ian Munro (Chief Executive Group —New Charter Homes) - Introduction to Value for Money at New Charter Group Alistair McIntosh (Chief Executive of Housing Quality Network) - The Regulators requirements in measuring Value for Money and return on assets Cath Owston (Director of Customer Experience) - Where does our money come from and where does it go?
Workshops: Cost, Quality and Satisfaction—consultation with residents on the impact and cost viability of projects at New Charter Homes, Aksa Homes, Gedling Homes & Threshold. Return on Assets - embedding a culture of Value for Money within the organisation whilst achieving high quality services for customers. Social Gains—consultation on the importance of social gains which investment by New Charter produces across programme areas:
Cost, Quality and Satisfaction workshop Presentation: Lynn Clayton (Director of Gedling Homes) - outlining the considerations NCHT need to make to create Value for Money. Consultation on the following projects with residents to ascertain ‘is the result worth the time, energy and input.’ Facilitators: Lynn Clayton, Phil Saxton, Sue Cox, Tanuja Patel, Jenni Lever Repair appointment letters—Gedling Homes
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Low Cost
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Medium Impact Low Impact
Details: Repair appointment confirmation letters sent to customers following reporting a repair. Costs include staff admin time, printing and postage
Customer comments: Is it really necessary? Could use profiling information to select who to send to—only those who are elderly. Could ask people how they want to be contacted Use email, texting or phone call the day before instead Could email the co-ordinator at sheltered schemes with repair details The postage makes it high cost but this needs to be weighed up against the cost of tenants forgetting appointments A good reminder for those who may forget.
Makes people feel they are cared about
Response from Gedling Homes—due to feedback from residents at the VFM conference the decision has been made to stop sending the appointment letters. Instead alternatives will be used, such as email, phone calls and texting for reminders.
Proud of your pad project—Threshold
High Cost High Impact
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Low Cost
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Medium Impact Low Impact
Details: quarterly project sessions for Threshold customers, to improve communal areas in and around supported housing services, benefitting the wider community. Promoting positive messages for customers, giving customers an opportunity to work alongside positive role models, developing confidence, skills and promoting health benefits.
Customer Comments: A bargain! Low cost, high impact It’s a key service for the client group, without which they may struggle It improves areas and builds confidence Got it right, no improvements needed Are four sessions per year enough? Do the costs given include the cost of the other agencies involved? Would like to see an impact assessment completed following the projects, to show the outcomes Would like the scheme publicised more around the organisation
Response from Threshold- “Thanks for the feedback about our ‘proud of your pad’ initiative. We really enjoyed looking over the comments. The initiative is built on strong partnership working and that’s what, we believe, makes it work. It also has a strong emphasis on volunteers with people volunteering time and resources which of course helps keep the cost down. We will definitely look at doing more sessions, across wider areas and publicise it more widely. Thank you all of those who took part in the workshop and for your really useful comments.”
Tenants Magazine—New Charter Homes
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Low Impact
Details: quarterly magazine for all New Charter Homes tenants. Posted to all. Customer comments: Extremely high cost, not particularly much impact All attendees at the conference read it but a survey needs to be done on readership of the wider tenant base. Should only be distributed to those who want it & people should have a choice of format Could post it on-line, facebook & email to those who request it, elderly people may still prefer a hard copy but this doesn’t apply to all Could put copies in hubs for residents to collect The high cost is due to postage rather than publication Could change the quality, currently over the top, could use cheaper paper Could cut down on content, not all is relevant Could it be completed only twice annually Too much emphasis on gardening Looks great, feels great and is very interesting, it’s a good way of knowing what is happening
Response from New Charter Homes—the information gained from attendees at the VfM conference will be taken to the Customer Communications Group (the resident editorial panel for the magazine) for further consultation.
Great Day out—Gedling Homes
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Low Cost
High Impact Medium Impact Low Impact
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Details: an annual event to thank residents for their support. Includes entertainment and refreshments and is an opportunity for Gedling Homes to consult on issues such as Welfare Reform, repairs, neighbourhood plans and to distribute information on services.
Customer comments: Expensive event for the amount of attendees Could use the £11,000 to fund local community events, street parties, where information could be distributed & consultations done. Tenant led activities are more cost effective & have a lasting affect—creates a community feel & reduces ASB Use gazebos instead of marquees Could use questionnaires to do consultations instead, suggestion boxes or posters Costs could be reduced by using tenants to volunteer to provide entertainment, although this would need to be professional & the proper insurance would be needed Do Gedling have a target number for attending? A good event that is enjoyed by everyone, not a high cost per tenant as a ‘thank you’. It’s good to meet new people & have face to face contact with staff Need to encourage more from the sheltered schemes to attend Could be done in association with Resident Groups who may be able to help fundraise Was an impact assessment carried out and reviewed by the Tenants Panel?
Response for Gedling Homes—as a result of the feedback Gedling Homes will be reviewing the format for GREAT Day Out for 2015 to ensure it delivers value for money.
Rent statements—New Charter Homes
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High Impact Medium Impact
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Low Impact
Details: rent statements are sent out quarterly with the tenants magazine to save on postage time. They give an up to date account of tenants rent and payments received.
Customer comments: Could these go out to only those in arrears? Send with arrears letters Can we use a secure area on the website instead where you can access your account? If so tenants would need to know it was there and how to use it—this could be put into the tenants magazine Give tenants a choice on those who don’t want one, those who prefer an email, use website. Printout only for those who want it Can they be done once or twice annually instead? The impact is ‘piece of mind’ Make statements smaller Statement is excellent—has a lot of information
Response from New Charter Homes— there is a secure area on the website where tenants can access their rent account details which is regularly promoted in the tenants newsletter. New Charter Homes will make this more accessible and encourage tenants to use it more. We will improve choices for tenants on the format in which they receive their rent statement.
International womens day—Aksa Homes
High Cost High Impact Medium Impact
Medium Cost
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Low Impact
Details: a one day event to address health and wellbeing for women. Including information on diet, cholesterol checks, work opportunities, business awareness and aerobic classes.
Comments: Why just women? Topics covered could be useful but measuring the impact is difficult Changes made to residents from attending the event could potentially be life changing but tracking is needed to see what people do with the information – has it changed lives High cost Could add ‘confidence building’ to topics and blood pressure tests. The impact is ‘wellbeing’ Concerned to understand cultural context
Response from Aksa Homes—The event raises the profile of gender in equality, International Men’s Day is celebrated in November. Specific attention is required for the needs of women excluded from the economic activity in particular, within the BME (Black, Minority and Ethnic) community. Follow up to the event suggests women who took part utilised the learning they had received from the day which impacted their whole families; ranging from exercising and eating healthily to taking direct action to address health issues such as high cholesterol and depression, encouraging women to attend job clubs and helping them to improve their conversational English. This impact has been measured by Aksa Homes and has been proved to be successful. Confidence Building and blood pressure tests have been included within the workshops completed. Aksa homes will take on board all the comments made by residents at the VfM conference when arranging future events and activities.
Return on Assets Workshop Facilitators: Mushtaq Khan—Director of Aksa Homes, Sean Stafford—Director of Development (NCH) Presentation—the aim of the session was to embed a culture of Value for Money within the
organisation whilst achieving high quality services for customers. The presentation incorporated an interactive ’who wants to be a millionaire’ style quiz where residents answered questions about the income and expenditure of the New Charter Group.
Tenants are supportive of the move towards ensuring that each property’s rate of return is an important indicator of whether we should invest in that area or property The shortfall in housing numbers is something that we need to address and our new build programme is welcomed Investment in property needs to be done in accordance with the wishes of tenants, the use of the property as well as stock condition data Asset management has a social as well as a technical dimension
Social Gains workshop Facilitators: David Hoyle—Business insight analyst New Charter Homes, John Bowden Marketing and PR Advisor, Threshold Participants were asked to give their views about the relative importance of the social gains which investment by New Charter Group produces across 6 programme areas, which were: Reducing anti-social behaviour/promoting pro-social behaviour; improving the environment in neighbourhoods; programmes that promote health/healthy lifestyles; providing financial advice (including welfare reform) and debt advice; putting on community and family events; and, programmes that improve employability (e.g. through education, learning and work clubs). Tenants were asked for their views on the relative importance of the social gains generated by such investments at levels of: • Themself as an individual; and • The neighbourhood/community where they live. In total, 34 tenants from across the Group (New Charter Homes; Aksa, Gedling and Threshold)
The tenants who took part said, from their perspective, the social gains they valued most were in the investments which led to reductions in anti-social behaviour and promoting pro-social behaviours. This was followed (in descending value order) by; investment in community events; programmes to promoting health/healthy lifestyles; providing financial information and debt advice; and, promoting employment and training. In tenants’ opinion, social gains they valued lowest (in their view, a low priority for investment by the Group) was in environmental programmes.
2. Tenant perception of relative importance of social gains – for their neighbourhood
The tenants who took part said, from their perspective, the social gains they valued most were in the investments which led to reductions in anti-social behaviour and promoting pro-social behaviours. This was followed by (in descending order); investment in employment and training; community events; and, promoting health/healthy lifestyles equally with improving the environment. In tenants’ opinion, the least important programme area for investment by the Group in the neighbourhood where they live was around financial information and debt. 3. The difference between tenants’ perceptions of the relative importance of social gains – for them as an individual and for the neighbourhood where they live
Again; the social gains consistently valued most highly by participants in the two workshops – both for themselves and for the neighbourhood where they lived – were those generated by the Group’s investments which led to reductions in anti-social behaviour and promoting pro-social behaviours.
4. Tenant perception about the highest importance of investment to realise social gains
As before; the social gains consistently valued most highly by participants in the two workshops were those generated by the Group’s investments which led to reductions in anti-social behaviour and promoting pro-social behaviours. Again; the social gains consistently valued least highly by participants in the two were those generated by the Group’s investments in environmental programmes. 5. A selection of individual comments/ideas/suggestions from participants Staying healthy – needs to be changes in GP service – can be difficult to get an appointment/there; need a much more joined up approach for emotional needs/problems. Lots of us have lots of life skills/experience – how can we help with young persons life skills training e.g. cooking, cleaning, budgeting/bill paying, community values. Ways of bring different people (young, old, whatever) in a community together will have a knock on effect, we will all then respect where we live Education and training essential for all of us - younger generation to get work; they could help older residents e.g. with computers Money/debt Advice is really important, but some people shy/ashamed about asking for help Healthy living is important - but a lot of people see to live on cheap junk food, whos problem is this New Charters or health? It is important to keep community spaces tidy and nice to look at, But, tenants must, must also keep their own gardens tidy Why do some people behave badly? Can we be brought together to discuss this and hopefully reform their behaviour. There should be more money spent on apprenticeships
