Below, you can find information on the scrutinies carried out over the past year,
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Voids Scrutiny 2024
Each year the Orwell Residents Group (ORG) selects 3 topics or services to review. In January 2024, the ORG selected Orwell's Voids Process as one of its services to review.
The following aims were agreed by the ORG:
- Practical scrutiny – visit properties with the ORG when empty and then finished “before and after”.
- Review standard of work and condition of properties.
- Process map to understand if efficiencies could be made to reduce the length of time properties are empty.
The methodology for the scrutiny was as follows:
- Stage 1) Initial scoping meeting
- Stage 2) Source background/supporting information
- Stage 3) Process mapping
- Stage 4) Hold focus groups
- Stage 5) Review of voids administration
- Stage 6) Voids time in motion study
- Stage 7) ORG to understand current processes before assessing void properties
- Stage 8) ORG to review documents relevant to voids
YOU SAID
WE LISTENED
- Review staff shortages and structures to ensure there was enough resource and people had the correct skillset and level of ownership required.
- Structure to be agreed in 2025 including budgets and headcount to ensure we are sufficiently resourced in the future.
- The condition of properties have declined resulting in more time and money spent to return them to lettable standard.
- We are working to have more availability of appointments and guidance on reporting repairs in a timely manner should alleviate this going forward.
- There appears to be large gaps throughout the voids process from the pre void stage to the final post void inspection resulting in numerous delays and costs throughout.
- This process is under review to ensure the correct resource and budget is in place for 2025 , thus eliminating unnecessary delays and costs.
- Lack of or inconsistent communication leads to a lack of ownership and last-minute changes which directly affect customers.
- How we communicate more effectively and consistently is part of the ongoing review across all departments in Orwell in 2025.
- Review impact on customers and staff.
- We have shared the findings with the relevant Heads of Service and Directors for considerations to be made with new voids role and undertake the same focus groups in one year's time to check for progress.
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Housing Management Scrutiny 2024
Each year the Orwell Residents Group (ORG) selects 3 topics or services to review. In January 2024, the ORG selected Housing Management as one of its services to review.
The following aims were agreed by the ORG:
- Understand the remit of Housing Officers.
- Internal feedback/121s from staff to understand if they suffer abuse from customers.
- Understand customers’ expectations of their Housing Officer
The methodology for the scrutiny was as follows:
A meeting was held with the Senior Housing Management Team in May to discuss the scrutiny. The Customer Insight & Engagement Team attended the Housing Management meeting on the 19th of June to obtain the team’s views.
A survey was drafted in consultation with senior members of the housing management team and trialled with Housing Officers. Following this, several changes were made to the survey before distribution to customers.
Once dispatched, the survey was further amended following feedback from a customer who identified an issue with the question options.
3,763 customers were identified as receiving a housing management service from Orwell. SMS (text) was used as the main method of distributing the survey, email being the second, followed by postal.
YOU SAID WE LISTENED - Housing Officers would like to be out on their patches more, visiting and supporting customers and helping to foster stronger communities.
- Existing workstreams are already in place to improve IT and the delivery of other Orwell services. This should reduce some of the burden on Housing Officers to provide a HM service . It is our intention to undertake some roadshows out in the community to increase visibility and also the introduction of our Neighbour champions as detailed in the survey.
- 13% of respondents do not know how to contact their Housing Officer, with over 10% saying they don’t know who their Housing Officer is.
- 90% of respondents stated that they rarely or never contacted their Housing Officer, whilst 8% contacted their Housing Officer weekly or monthly.
- 32% of respondents still use their Housing Officer to report repairs with a further 18% using them to report estate issues.
We will communicate the following in early 2025 to both internal and external customers using a variety of methods.
- Who the Housing Officer is.
- How they can be contacted.
- Clarity about contact and responsibility for specific services i.e., repairs, estate services.
- Orwell’s Service Standards.
- Acceptable behavior standards.
- The length of time it takes for Housing Officers to respond was mentioned more frequently than other issues, followed by queries not being dealt with and customers not getting a response.
- We will be introducing a consistent email templates/read receipts and mobile voicemail messages which include service standards and out of office information.
- Telephone was selected by 30.1% of respondents as their top 3 preferred method of contacting Orwell if they were unable to contact their housing officer directly, followed by email (28.1%) and text/SMS (20.9%).
- We are reviewing the process of accepting calls whether that is through a separate triage system or other ways to divert non urgent calls and queries.
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How we Communicate Scrutiny 2024
Each year the Orwell Residents Group (ORG) selects 3 topics or services to review. In January 2024, the ORG selected how we communicate with our customers as one of its services to review.
The following aims were agreed by the ORG:
- Review communication to customers, specifically acknowledgement of correspondence, keeping customers informed, service standards.
- Addressing feedback from complaints
The methodology for the scrutiny was as follows:
To analyse all customer insight relating to communication from TSM’s, complaints, transactional surveys and summarise key actions/steps to make improvements.
The report brings together the following already available data and feedback from the following sources:
- Calls
- Customer insight metrics
- Customer feedback from 9 transactional surveys
- Tenant satisfaction measures
- Housing management scrutiny
- Estate services scrutiny
YOU SAID WE LISTENED - The strategic aims of the business and the wishes of customers may not always align.
- We are reviewing the current objectives about communication to make sure that these align with both Orwell’s aims and customer’s wishes.
- Review the current objectives about communication to make sure that these align with both Orwell’s aims and customer’s wishes, there needs to be greater integration of the digital options so that customer requests are dealt with automatically as a single point of entry.
- We are reviewing the digital offer to ensure that it provides a more efficient and effective service for customers.
- The accuracy and completeness of customer contact details i.e., mobile phone and email address could be improved.
- We are working to ensure that all staff are trained to update customer contact details at all points of contact and offer an efficient self service option for customers.
Poor communication was a theme that ran through transactional surveys, Tenant Satisfaction Measures and other scrutiny projects. Key issues included:
- Failure to contact/respond to customers.
- Not keeping customers informed/updated.
- Difficulty getting hold of staff.
- Failure to report issues/follow on appointments to the appropriate team.
- Lack of communication between departments/contractors.
- Difficulties using the self service options to report issues such as repairs.
- Customers say they resort to the formal complaints process to speed things up when nothing appears to be done to resolve issues.
- We are working to ensure that all teams across Orwell are adequately resourced and trained to answer internal and external customer queries with appropriate and consistent advice and all staff receive training on delivering the best customer experience.
