Agenda item

Matt Hillman, Assistant Director, Housing:

a.    provided a report giving an interim review on the implementation of the Scheduled Repairs Pilot within the Housing Repairs Service

b.    reported that the Housing Repairs Service had recently begun a pilot of a new way of managing housing repairs for scheduled repairs that needed to be completed although not urgent and unlikely to cause risk to our customers, their home or belongings, carried out at set times of the year across set areas of the City

c.    advised that the City had been divided into four areas for this purpose; North- Ermine East, West and Newport, East-St Giles and Monks Road, Central- Boultham Moor, Bracebridge, Manse, City Centre, South- Birchwood and Hartsholme, with repairs for each of these areas scheduled in every 12 weeks over a three week period

d.    emphasised that priority repairs would continue to be prioritised within 24 hours and urgent repairs within 3 days

e.    reported that based on previous feedback, our customers  had said they would like fewer appointments and follow on work, less missed appointments, minimal disruption and more flexibility in appointment time slots

f.     added that scheduled repairs allowed the service to plan all the work in each area to ensure the correct resources and materials were in the right place to complete any repairs reported in the one visit, which gave customers more certainty that the repair would be carried out on the expected date

g.    reported further on the background to the pilot scheme in relation to the following:

·         Repairs Data

·         Vehicle Data

·         Travis Perkins Data

·         Customer Survey

·         HRS Staff Survey

·         Communications

·         Welfare Unit

h.    gave a power point presentation to members on the background to the new way of working to illustrate his report covering the following main areas:

·         Repairs Data

·         Fuel Expenditure

·         Mileage

·         Deliveries

·         Operative Visits to Stores

·         Social Media Reach

·         Productivity North (9-27 November)

·         Customer Survey Responses

i.      requested members’ feedback on the content of the report.

Chris Morton, Resident Involvement Manager and Rachel Jackson, Resident Involvement Officer presented a power point presentation to members on the responses received as a result of the customer survey, covering the following areas:

·         Uncompleted surveys- 40% responded out of 186 properties surveyed.

·         Complaints before August-majority of tenants said they were happy before the new pilot began.

·         Disruption due to scheduled repairs- most reported less disruption.

·         Fewer repair appointments-55 responses said there were fewer repair appointments.

·         Repairs carried out in one visit-most tenants responded agreed.

·         Completed by repair date-most responses agreed with this.

·         Flexibility in time slots-51 people felt there was greater flexibility.

·         Difficulty in receiving different trade repairs-69 tenants responded they had no difficulty in receiving all different types of trade repairs.

·         Scheduled repairs within timeframe- the majority of responses received said they either always or very often received appointments within the timeframe.

·         Scheduled repairs accessibility-most responses answered accessibility was easier or no difference.

·         Weekdays or weekend repairs-more than half of respondents requested evening or weekend repairs.

·         Literature on scheduled repairs-most people happy with information provided.

·         Housing Repairs Service-future communication-text messages preferred option.

·         Materials used- majority of responses said they were good or excellent.

·         Additional comments received – two positive and 2 negative comments received.

Members discussed the content of the report and associated presentations in further detail, commenting/raising questions as follows:

·         Comment: If the survey was conducted in the first area of work tenants would be happy to be a part of the first trench of scheduled repairs.

·         Question: How would the number of repairs in each customer property be monitored going forward to ensure it could be compared against measured data?

·         Officer Response: Repairs were booked out on multiple tickets based on job type. If one operative was able to carry out all repairs in the household it would be measured as a one job. Consistent monitoring would be carried out to ensure exact data was compared

·         Comment by LTP Member: Concerns had been raised regarding repairs taking more than 28 days and being deferred to the next cycle. Customers only got one week’s notice before work started and were told they would only get repairs when operatives were in the area. There were also some repairs outstanding from March.

·         Officer Response: The procedure was to finish repairs in the current cycle within the allocated timeframe. Officers were aware of minor issues with regards to the completion of contracts during the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters and were looking at redirecting resources to deal with this. Operatives worked in each zone for three weeks. Urgent repairs continued to be prioritised within 24 hours and urgent repairs within 3 days. There were only a few cases now of outstanding repairs since March which were due to COVID 19 restrictions.

·         Question: LTP Member: Had the council carried out a Quality Impact Assessment with regard to vulnerable/disabled customers in relation to the Repairs Policy?

·         Officer Response: The policy contained a section on vulnerable people, however, the process would be refined to potentially include a Handyperson scheme for such customers in need.

·         Question: Lenton Green was being used as a temporary welfare unit for staff operatives in the north of the city. Were there any plans for the north zone?

·         Officer Response: The Newland Street West Depot would incorporate a welfare unit to serve central and north area relocated from Turner Avenue as it offered better resilience especially to the new team working on fire doors.

RESOLVED that:

1.    The continuation of the Scheduled Repairs Pilot making changes to the service based on customer feedback be supported.

2.    The continued development of data to provide exact comparisons be supported.

3.    The provision and delivery of the ‘drop down’ sites be supported.

4.    Development of further assistance to vulnerable customers in terms of the Repair Policy be included as an agenda item at the next scheduled meeting of Lincoln Tenants Panel