Local authority landlord of the year: finalist North Tyneside Homes & North Tyneside Council: A year of innovation

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1 Local authority landlord of the year: finalist North Tyneside Homes & North Tyneside Council: A year of innovation Please provide evidence of how your local authority is delivering high quality services to residents, across a range of service areas In 2010/11 North Tyneside Homes (NTH) improved almost every area of service. We: Collected more rent Delivered more repairs on time and by appointment Took less time to relet empty homes Prevented more homelessness Involved more tenants. We regularly ask our customers about their experience of our services through our Vision Management System (VMS). We monitor eighteen areas of service. Sixteen of these now have scores rating good (with two average ) Thirteen have seen their scores increase this year. This includes: 8.04 out of 10 for customer care 8.31 out of 10 for repairs 7.83 out of 10 for access to services. Our team of patch officers and estate caretakers deliver great value for money by providing a low cost estate management ( per home) and achieving good satisfaction. Last year our estate caretakers removed more than 800 tonnes of rubbish from our estates and helped North Tyneside win a 5-star Tidy Britain award. We have a robust and proactive approach to tackling antisocial behaviour which contributes to North Tyneside being one of the safest metropolitan boroughs in the nationally. Our Safer Estates Team s outstanding practice has been recognised by the Northumbria Police Excellence Awards and the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group s Awards. Our involvement and scrutiny programme continues to go from strength to strength and has resulted in: Increased choice of fixtures and fittings in our home improvement programme Introduction of on-line reporting for antisocial behaviour and on-line rent statements Seven local offers (Repairs, Getting a Home, Tackling ASB, Support, Equipment and Adaptations, Sheltered Housing and Involvement). Service improvements include a new handyperson scheme for disabled tenants and tenants over 60, a new post to support victims of antisocial

2 behaviour, improved support for tenants moving into sheltered housing, repairs priorities revised with customer and more than 90% repairs now done by appointment. Tenant scrutiny is thriving. Groups of tenants, specialising in different service areas, review performance information and hold quarterly challenge sessions with senior managers to discuss it and identify improvements. Two tenant-led service reviews are underway. Tenants will make recommendations directly to the Head of Housing and Cabinet Member. We provide strong support to tenants to help them maintain their tenancy including our: New Support Gateway - a single point of access to Supporting People-funded housing related support. In the first nine months 705 referrals were made to the service with 565 nominations made to other service areas. Our new New Beginnings Scheme offers supported accommodation and passport to housing accredited training to young parents. NTH's Financial Inclusion Team work with tenants to raise awareness of money management, fuel poverty and illegal money lending. A specialist Tenancy Support Officer helps new tenants aged to manage their tenancies. Very vulnerable tenants are identified using a risk matrix and then visited by a specialist officer who can identify support needs. Please tell us about a specific project or achievement which sets you apart from other good performing local authorities Launched last summer, Think>Change is a new initiative that encourages all employees to be actively involved in changing and improving the service. They are invited to use their creativity and expertise to come up with, and in some cases be actively involved in the delivery, of new ideas and projects. The Senior Management Team (SMT) has identified 7 priority areas for innovation: Being more efficient Improving service quality for our customers Being more environmentally friendly Engaging and involve young customers better Supporting our tenants to pay their rent Building a strong Team NTH culture Better tailoring services to meet individual needs. The agreed priorities, which are linked to service priorities, ensure that time taken to innovate is not wasted on areas that are not high priority. Individuals and teams are encouraged to generate unrestricted ideas through team meetings, 1:1s and frequent communication. All ideas are considered by the Creativity Forum (10 volunteer staff members chaired by a member of SMT). They agree:

3 which ideas should be developed into a high level business case and by who which ideas should not proceed which ideas can be implemented immediately (easy to do, no cost or policy implications, clear benefit). All business cases are then considered by SMT and a decision made on whether to implement them. Why is your approach innovative/unique? Think>Change isn t a stand alone initiative. It s about shifting organisational culture through inclusivity and innovation. It resulted from a substantial piece of work involving senior managers, all staff, partners and tenants about developing a shared vision for North Tyneside Homes. It was also developed in response to staff feedback. In the 2009 staff survey, only 44% staff agreed with the statement, I have opportunities to put forward ideas and suggestions for improving the way we do things. Emphasis is therefore put on making Think>Change part of the day job. Every member of staff attended a briefing by the Head of Service and managers received Think>Change training. It is now a standing item on every team meeting agenda and teams also hold dedicated meetings to generate ideas. Proposals will not be considered for inclusion in the new Service Improvement Programme unless they have been through the Think>Change process again demonstrating that it is part of the mainstream and not an addon. Every member of staff can put forward ideas to Think>Change and see the suggestions using a desk-top IT application. They are invited to comment on them so developing a dialogue which creates momentum and interest. When you hear water cooler conversations about Think>Change, you know that it is starting to take root. Think>Change has already captured the imagination of staff. So far, staff have submitted 74 ideas, 12 have been put forward for a business case, 2 are already implemented and 5 more will shortly be implemented. Please provide evidence to demonstrate the positive impact of your project or achievement for the communities involved Think>Change has already helped staff to feel that their ideas are valued. In the last staff survey the proportion of staff who agreed with the statement, I have opportunities to put forward ideas and suggestions for improving the way we do things had risen to nearly 80%. One of the most innovative projects, resulting from a staff suggestion, that we have undertaken this year, has been the installation of Solar PV panels onto our roofs. With only a few months to turn this idea into reality and meet the national Feed In Tarrif deadline, we undertook a feasibility study and OJEU

4 procurement exercise in a very short timescale. Following a successful procurement of a delivery partner we embarked on one of the biggest Solar PV installation projects for housing providers in the country. The benefits to tenants, their communities and the environment of this work are enormous. Positive impacts include: 1500 tenants properties benefitting from free electricity 25,000 square metres of panelling installed in 4 months (the equivalent of 6 football pitches) Savings to tenants in the region of 120 off their energy bills each year Total savings to tenants are expected to be 4.5m over the 25 years of the project Contributed to increasing the SAP rating from 61 to 71 in the last 4 years Saving an average of 22.1 tonnes of CO2 per property- a total saving of 33,150 over 25 years Generating income to the Council of 40,000 per year for the roof rental. It has been agreed that this money will be re-invested back into energy efficiency work for tenants whose homes are not suitable to have to have solar panels fitted. Please tell us briefly why your local authority should win this award We are a housing service that embraces change and innovation. The Think>Change and Solar PV initiatives are characteristic of a year packed full of change and innovation. In 2011/12, we ve launched new services including: New Handyperson Scheme New Beginnings Supported Accommodation Scheme for Young Parents New Support Gateway' - single point of access to Supporting People funded housing- related support New support service for antisocial behaviour victims Fitting solar panels on over 1500 roofs, reducing tenants fuel bills' and the council s carbon footprint and generating income of an expected 40,000 per year to offer energy efficiency improvements to other council tenants We also completed the Decent Homes Programme on time and on budget, implemented seven local offers agreed with tenants, got to grips with the scrutiny agenda and made over 1 million savings in a tough economic climate. The NTH Senior Management Team is committed to the philosophy that happy staff make happy customers and excellent services. Our staff told us that they want to be more actively involved. This is where Think>Change comes in. It focuses on what is important to NTH and is structured in a way so

5 that every member of staff can feel that their ideas are valued and that they can drive service improvement. We believe we deserve the award because we empower staff to generate ideas to improve outcomes for customers and have laid the foundations to ensure we will continue to be an innovative organisation in the years ahead.