UK Housing Awards 2011

Transcription

1 UK Housing Awards 2011 Delivering Effective Repairs and Maintenance: Finalist Harvest Housing Group: A Four Way Partnership Summary Harvest Housing Group is a group of housing associations operating in the North West and West Midlands. Responsive to our customers needs and focused upon our vision of Turning homes and neighbourhoods into places where people want to live and choose to stay, we own and manage 18,000 affordable homes. Following a strategic review in 2006 we have invested heavily in our repairs service for Manchester & District Housing Association and Frontis Homes Limited. Since 2007 we have made huge changes that benefit all of our customers, and our repairs partners and in house direct labour organisation (DLO) are delivering excellent results against a challenging but highly rewarding contract framework. Our first class repairs service is performance driven and offers: Extended access 8am-10pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm Saturdays, Sundays and some bank holidays A full appointments system for all repairs More first time fixes, with no need for return visits

2 An effective and speedy pre-repair inspection process Absolute cost control so we get more repairs for our customers money Customer involvement in performance review and service improvement meetings Demonstrable improvements in performance, cost management and customer satisfaction ratings A jointly employed workforce with our repairs partners and our own in house DLO, with a clear focus on apprenticeships and local labour Customer liaison officers to support our most vulnerable customers. What did you set out to achieve? We know from feedback how important it is that customers receive a quality repairs service. In 2006 the Group had several contractors delivering the service under traditional cost plus arrangements. The offer was basic and the service was inconsistent across areas. We had limited customer input, and service improvement was not embedded in a way that delivered high quality outcomes for customers. The pressure of delivering with inadequate budgets also led to annual over spending, and adversarial relationships with contractors. A strategic review was therefore commissioned to look at all of these issues. The overall aim of the review was to design and implement a first class consistent repairs service across the Group, in order to meet the needs and expectations of our customers, whilst also delivering excellent performance, cost certainty and national upper quartile customer satisfaction ratings. New contractor partners would be selected through an OJEU process to help deliver this. However, we recognised that customer involvement in the design, procurement, implementation and monitoring of the new service was integral to achieving success and so the Group: Sent out surveys to 6,000 customers asking for views and preferences regarding the service Held focus groups to obtain feedback on the service, find out what customers wanted, explain what had been done and asking for more involvement Appointed customer representatives to work with staff overseeing the procurement process Established a repairs panel who met regularly throughout the review to share ideas and validate feedback received from the wider consultation processes. Their involvement was instrumental in designing a new service and appointing new partners to deliver it. A set of customer and business objectives were developed and agreed and serve as a reference point to measure success.

3 How were these aims and objectives met? The Group established a repairs panel (including customers) to oversee the procurement process. The panel issued a formal OJEU notice and followed the competitive dialogue process to help shape the new service and appoint new partners. The panel assessed each pre-qualifying questionnaire submitted and generated a long list to invite to the next stage. Customers and staff held an open day with the long list, so customers could meet them, and so the partners had a clear understanding of the requirements for the new service. A shortlist was then invited to submit a formal tender. Our customers worked with staff to assess the tenders submitted, and independently from staff, carried out reference site visits to other organisations that the short-listed contractors worked for and talked to their customers about the quality of the service they received. Jenny Neville (Business Development Director for PH Jones) said: This was the first time customer groups had visited us during a formal tender process, independently from the staff running the procurement process. At the end of the procurement process, the panel agreed on the selection of two partners who were able to offer a solution that met all of their needs. In July 2007, we appointed Cruden Property Services and PH Jones as new partners and the new service went live in November 2007 following a detailed and intense mobilisation period. The partnership is worth approximately 46m over a 7-year period. Since November 2007, the partnership has worked tirelessly to deliver a first class repairs service that not only meets, but exceeds our customers expectations. What challenges did the project face, and what lessons were learned? We faced several challenges including: Being consultant led and not client intelligent through procurement and design The partnering arrangements set out were complex and the contract framework was not sufficiently understood Roles and responsibilities were not clear The lead in time to mobilise was not sufficient (4 months) Not all systems and processes were fully tested and in place at go live We were over-ambitious with innovation at the start We promised too much too soon to our customers We under estimated the competencies required and the scale of the change we were implementing Our year 1 assumptions to arrive at a target price were under-stated.

4 At first these issues led to performance suffering, customers being dissatisfied, and costs over-running. It proved to be a very testing period. However, the strength of our relationship with our customers and partners has been our willingness to learn, challenge and change when we have needed to. We appointed Tribal to come in and review the progress of the partnership. Whilst a lot of what they told us was what we already knew, it gave us a fresh perspective and a clear plan of action. We took the plan and developed our model for success, focusing on 5 key areas: Leadership we established a system of joint leadership and shared culture Capability and competence we assessed our collective competency levels and knowledge to establish where the gaps were, and major changes in personnel where necessary. Although this was extremely difficult at the time, we are now reaping the rewards for tackling this crucial issue Systems and processes we worked tirelessly on our ICT interfaces to maximise the benefits we could get from them. We also developed our data management and performance reporting Structure we established groups to oversee progress and performance. These include a strategic core group, operational customer groups and a financial reconciliation group The framework we simplified a number of areas of the contractual framework including elements of the term brief, the payment mechanism, the balance scorecard and the void process. How was the success of the project measured? We now have a strong partnership with the capability and competence, delivering an excellent repairs service. Our framework is understood, embedded and operating very effectively. We have delivered cost certainty, can demonstrate VFM, and service improvement is embedded and well evidenced. Most importantly the partnership is delivering excellence and top quartile performance in a number of key customer satisfaction areas: Repair and void completion times 96% Overall response times 7.5 days Appointments made and kept 98% Repairs and voids quality inspections 98% Void times - 6 days in maintenance First time fix rates 89% Customer satisfaction 88% Gas compliance % to 100%.

5 Cost certainty has been achieved through the effective management of the payment and performance mechanism, which operates on sharing risk and reward. The payment mechanism contains a target price and a guaranteed maximum price and this ensures cost certainty for the Group, as any risk on over-run on the guaranteed maximum price passes to our partner. The challenge for our partners has been to ensure their cost for delivering the service is below the target price of the work carried out, whilst also delivering performance excellence. In the past 2 years the partnership has delivered 13.6m worth of target price work for an actual cost of 13.2m, thus delivering 400,000 worth of savings. These are shared between the partners. This payment mechanism is linked to performance and therefore the partner can earn additional profit for performance excellence, or a payment deduction where performance is unsatisfactory. We have an application with HMRC for a VAT exemption on the jointly employed staff. If successful this will result in savings of 1.4m backdated, and a further 350,000 per annum going forward. This money will be invested back into our neighbourhoods to benefit customers further. We have implemented a range of working practices that have resulted in VFM outcomes. These include: Extended hours service has reduced the cost of out of hours emergency repairs Text messaging has significantly reduced the level of no access calls and unproductive time Opti-time has improved productivity through more effective deployment of the workforce Rechargeable repairs are dealt with at the first point of contact with customers, and payments for works are taken upfront Having a key safe on void properties has assisted in reducing void times from 20 days in 2008 to 6 days in 2011 Operatives can vary work up to the value of 200 and this assists first time fix rates and enhances the customer service Dedicated operatives for our sheltered schemes means non-urgent works can be batched and delivered on the specified days agreed with customers Large numbers of our workforce are multi-skilled and this assists first time fix rates and enhances the customer service Supporting apprenticeships and other local labour initiatives We have a clear process for batching high value non-urgent repairs for inclusion in minor planned programmes of work. Pennington Choices (consultants) conducted 2 VFM reviews in 2008 and 2010 and site our approach as an exemplar for risk and reward partnering.

6 We have also received external recognition: CCA Excellence Award 2008 Innovation in Employee Development UKHA Finalist 2008 Best customer driven services Audit Commission inspection stars and excellent prospects Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies 2009 Harvest 82, Cruden 50 Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies 2011 Harvest 42 National Housing Maintenance Forum Finalists 2011 Best Client and Best Contract. What were the key positive outcomes? The Group has two other housing associations (Derwent & Solway Housing Association and Moorlands Housing) based in Cumbria and Staffordshire. In April 2009 we rolled out all aspects of this service with our partners (PPM and AFM) in Cumbria, and in 2010 we did the same with our in house DLO in Staffordshire. Again customers were integrally involved in reaching this decision, which now ensures that all 18,000 customers across the Group receive the same service offering, irrespective of where they live. We now operate with the same contractual arrangements with each of our partners, and this has significant improved our client side management of the contracts, and resulted in consistent and positive behaviours being displayed. This has resulted in close and collaborative working between all our repairs partners and we regularly hold service improvement away days where ideas for improvement are shared, and changes are considered by all and implemented in a consistent fashion. HQN hosted our last event to ensure we fully debated service excellence examples from across the sector. All our partners worked in collaboration to implement Opti-time in The Group has also been involved in presenting at HQN and NHMF seminars sharing our experience with others, most notably in terms of lessons learned in partnering, delivering customer involvement in procurement and in applying risk and reward. We envisage that our joint employment initiative will be applied more widely in the sector if we are successful with our application for a VAT exemption. We believe there is a lot of potential for developing improvements that can be rolled out across the maintenance industry using some or all aspects of the measures we have implemented.

7 How has your approach resulted in an improved service to residents? Our customers have been integral in helping us shape and provide a service offering, which we believe is second to none. Those involved understand exactly how much hard work, dedication and effort has gone into achieving what we have, and they are advocates of the partnership being delivered by our repairs partners and in house DLO. Our approach has resulted in the following benefits for our customers: Customer satisfaction ratings which are consistently high Customers are familiar with the workforce delivering the service, as they are either in house or jointly employed with our partners An integrated appointments system delivering appointments 8am-10pm Monday to Friday, and 9am 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. This is supported with a 24 hours out of hours provision 365 days a year Appointments made at first point of contact and reminders sent via text messages, s, letters, phone calls, etc. whatever methods best suits the needs of our customers We have an integrated contact center where customers can be transferred to our partners as part of the same call enquiry A strong emphasis on repairs being completed at the first visit. This is achieved as many of our operatives are multi-skilled, with appropriate van stocks and van tracking, and can therefore complete a high number of repairs at the first visit. We have also recently implemented Opti-time to further enhance performance in this key area Dedicated customer liaison officers to assist vulnerable customers A dedicated man in van service for sheltered schemes, cited as best practice by the Audit Commission Both partners contribute significantly to community and neighbourhood initiatives and our customers really value this. How do you know that your approach is meeting the needs or priorities of your residents? From a customer testimony: I was pleased to be involved in the procurement process and found it to be an exciting journey and a real move away from how contracts had been traditionally procured. I believe involving customers in each stage of the process significantly enhanced the project and gave customers a real say in both the design of the repairs and gas service and selection of the new partners. Four years on and the partnership is delivering everything that was promised and much more. Our partners not only deliver a high quality service, but their work in supporting community initiatives shows their commitment to enhancing customers lives.

8 How does your project help address either a current challenge, faced by many providers, or meet a current priority in your part of the UK? Customers play a key role in monitoring the performance of the service and do so in a very hands-on way. On a monthly basis the operational groups review the Balanced Scorecard, which includes the results of our monthly customer satisfaction returns. The Balance Scorecard has four dimensions - costs, customer satisfaction, internal business processes and innovation and learning. The payments our partners receive are adjusted upwards or downwards on a monthly basis based on comparing their costs to the target price, and based on the level of performance they achieve. Customer satisfaction is the most important dimension so this is recognised by having a higher weighting (40 out of 100 points available). Four years on and the partnership is delivering excellence and national top quartile performance in a number of key customer satisfaction areas: Repair and void completion times 96% Overall response times days 7.5 days Appointments made and kept 98% Repairs and voids quality inspections 98% Void times - 6 days in maintenance First time fix rates 89% Customer satisfaction 88% Gas compliance % to 100%. Is your project influencing the way other providers work, will it help deliver improvements beyond those immediately involved? We envisage that our joint employment initiative will be applied more widely in the sector if we are successful with our application for a VAT exemption. We believe there is a lot of potential for developing improvements that can be rolled out across the maintenance industry using some or all aspects of the measures we have implemented. For more details please contact Lee Woods on