Questions and Actions Resident Meetings July 2018

Questions and Actions Resident Meetings July 2018 Questions and Actions from the three sessions at Norris Green, Fazakerley and Croxteth (5 th, 12 th and 19 th July respectively) Present from Cobalt; Nick Grubb, Head of Tenant and Customer Experience (NG) Alan Rogers, Chief Executive (AR) Actions / Questions raised 1) Communication Communication about the meeting was poor which limited attendance Action: NG to discuss with VT and the team to agree a wider distribution with more varied methods. Could we have an Editorial committee, and could we have hard copies of the newsletter again? We have just advertised for a Communication and Marketing Manager role to take forward our approach to the many varying comms threads we have. We will fully expect that person to consider the best way to involve residents in our comms offer, which may be an editorial panel. In terms of a paper newsletter, we don t want to return to a system where are printing off and sending 6,000. We accept that some people would prefer it in this format and believe the next piece of work to do on this is to understand how many people want a paper copy and then discuss how and if we can accommodate this Action; NG to discuss this during recruitment process and with new incumbent when appointed 2) Anti-social behaviour (ASB) If we split to Neighbourhood models, would expenditure on ASB in one area limit what we could do on ASB in others? Our overall budget for front facing services is increasing, at the moment we don t currently budget by Neighbourhood but, we may do in the future. Having said that our funds are finite and we may need to prioritise one geographical or thematic area to address the challenges it faces, this may be at the expense of another activity. We appreciate that there are things that we absolutely need to deal with and funding will be made available, but we can t do everything and, following consultation, budgets in some areas may need to decrease. Our Neighbourhood

teams will be working closer with the community to deliver a more proactive, preventative system rather than reactive which tends to be more expensive. We hope that this will allow us to make better decisions about where we can make best use of resources, in both financial and people terms. How do we consider which ASB cases are more important to tackle? Our approach will be victim centred, in that we will assess the impact of the issue on the victim, rather than simply looking at the issue itself. Different people have different tolerance levels and a different ability to deal with things. The change in management arrangements will not detract from our approach to ASB and delivering a specialist service within the teams. It is our hope that pulling the ASB specialists closer to the teams will create a more cohesive approach to ASB and allow us to deal with more things before they become serious issues and to be more proactive in preventing issues. 3) Cobalt staff restructure and future plans Where are we in the restructure/ what will the four Neighbourhoods be, and who will be the Managers? Following the assessment centres, we are really pleased that Paul Ellison, John Burghall, Sharon Edwards and Jill Roberts, all of whom currently work within the team and understand the area well, were recruited as the Neighbourhood Managers. These roles start in September, after a brief lead in period. We are yet to recruit the Customer Leads but have included tenant representation in this process as the successful candidates will be vital in developing our resident involvement offer. This should happen during July / August. After this we will create the full teams, predominantly from our existing staff base. In terms of the neighbourhoods, the Neighbourhood Managers are looking at this currently, but it s unlikely that we would move too far from the existing areas (Croxteth, Fazakerley plus 2 x Norris Green patches), largely because part of this is to work closely with partner agencies and the local community so mixing up the patches too much would be counter-productive. We haven t put Neighbourhood Managers to patches yet. Action; NG to arrange sessions with residents in October with relevant Neighbourhood Manager. Also, to arrange website update. What job losses have there been with the restructure? Overall there are more staff working for Cobalt than before the demerger from Onward. The new operations structures cost marginally more and have more people than the existing structure, as the exercise has not been to cut costs, but to improve our services and approach. Some people have left the business, through choice, as there were roles they could have applied for but decided not to. Most existing staff applying for new roles have been successful. In terms of the process, where we have new roles these are initially ring-fenced for any managers or officers at risk of redundancy.

During the process we have committed, where possible, to retaining and developing the staff within the business, rather than make wholesale changes. We are losing some knowledge as part of the departures but have retained a core of staff who understand our business and the communities we serve. We realise that circumstances change, and we must react to that change. This means that our staff need to be flexible and prepared to adapt to what is required. The example given at one meeting was that if there no ASB in a neighbourhood we might either move the ASB person to another area, or more likely, ask them to help and assist other members of their team to help in other ways to deliver the best possible service to people. Will we circulate information about the new structures and approach to neighbourhood management? Yes, we will circulate information in a variety of formats and with content which ideally, we would like to agree with tenants to ensure it is as useful as possible. The timing of this would be best when all recruitment is finished, and we know who will be working in each Neighbourhood Team. Action; NG to agree communication plan with tenant reps (late August /early September), also consider website, social media and organising more local meetings with residents as well. Has anyone had a pay cut as part of staying with the business? One person has decided not to apply for a manager s job but has been successful in their application for an officer role that was available. This is a lower salary but was their choice and the salary level is lower for clear and transparent reasons. Due to our terms and conditions this reduction in salary would not kick in for two years as their pay will be protected. We believe the other salaries, that were externally benchmarked, do not disadvantage anyone financially and in several cases the new roles bring an increase in salary (and an increase in accountability). As we lose specialists who will attend partnership meetings, resident meetings etc? We are mapping all the meetings and partnership groups we currently attend or support in other ways. Where we believe our presence there benefits the organisation, our tenants or the wider community we will ensure our continued presence between the new managers and team leaders. This presence will be consistent and organised. The Neighbourhood Managers each have a champion role and will, alongside the Head of Service, lead this theme from a strategic perspective, attending the relevant meetings accordingly. Action: NG and Neighbourhood Managers to define who will attend what and inform relevant parties (early September). What is morale like in the team? Morale generally remains good, given this is a period of change. Whilst some people have left the business this has been on good terms and new people will be joining. There may also be opportunity for current staff to try new roles with

greater responsibility as part of their development. From a performance perspective, it has very much been business as usual. How and where are roles advertised? The vacant roles, some of which are new to the organisation, are initially ringfenced for people at risk of redundancy. Thereafter we use a range of advertising opportunities, including the Echo, Inside Housing, Indeed and other job sites. Current employees also receive e-mails about vacancies and there are also updates on workplace (software like Facebook but for businesses, which all employees have access to). As a business we would like to continue to balance a grow your own approach to staff with bringing in new faces with a different approach. What training is planned for people new to role? As part of the recruitment exercise for the roles we are doing assessment centres aimed at helping us choose the best person for the role but also to identify training needs. We will be spending a fair amount of time and money helping to develop people into roles and empowering them to do an excellent job. Welfare Benefits team? The Welfare Benefits team are not part of the wider restructure but are due to be reviewed in terms of how they can work differently to reach more people. This piece of work will be undertaken from start September and is intended to improve, not reduce, a service that we know is important to many of our tenants. The team members will be heavily involved in this process and have already come up with some ideas on changes that would benefit customer and the organisation moving forward. How will people learn new roles? In tier 2 (officer level) there will be more people matched to roles, meaning less competition for jobs and a more straightforward transition. To make this work we need some people to learn new skills through a combination of training and on the job learning. Across the teams there has already been shadowing between officers and informal learning opportunities, prompted by managers and the staff themselves. This will continue and at the inception of the new teams there will be a good mix of experience in each team to ensure there is always someone there to give advice or help when needed. Given they experience the services, should Tenants be involved in Procurement of things like maintenance contracts? We think this is a good idea and something that has happened on certain projects in the past. In addition, we believe that residents should then help us to review that contract as it moves forward. Action; NG to discuss with procurement leads. What options are there to expand Cobalt Plus? We need to link this question to our approach to procuring services but also need to understand fully what Plus can deliver and their overall capacity. The Cobalt

Plus Manager will lead this piece of work. We would like to grow Plus but this needs to make business sense and provide a good service to our tenants. Will we see more officers out and about from September? One of the key reasons for the change is for us to work closer with our communities. We will judge progress on this when we do the follow up sessions in October. Will voicemail be managed better if officers are out? This is a critical issue as if officers are out more we need to manage this. The intention is to use the Cobalt Solutions team for the straight forward matters, and first-time calls. This is where the training comes in as staff need to update all contact they have with tenants, so the staff have up to date information to share, so the tenant does not have to repeat things. In is also the hope that as we improve our digital offer that more contact will be through email. Will there be more consistency with who tenants deal with? The intention of having neighbourhood teams is that relationships will be better than in the past and tenants will deal with the one person for a variety of issues. The neighbourhood officers will deal with people from the time they express an interest in a property, through the allocations stage and tenancy until a time when the tenancy ends. This will give consistency to tenants and responsibility to staff, other officers may dip in where there are unusual circumstances and more expertise are required; but in general terms it will be either the neighbourhood officer or one of the Cobalt solutions team, who deal with most things. Action; See above sessions in October but also the comms explaining what we are doing and why. Also, Tenants to let NG know if we aren t visible. Also, there is a commitment to do walkabouts with residents and for senior staff to get out and engage where possible. Who will support the Neighbourhood Managers in delivering a wide remit? The Head of Tenant and Customer Experience will support, guide and develop the Neighbourhood Managers to deliver their role effectively and productively. In addition, the Customer Lead in each team will assist with the running of the team and be responsible for delivery of several housing functions. In setting the Neighbourhood Manager patches at 1500 properties, rather than a bigger number, we believe they will have the ability to focus effectively on the varying tasks Following the brief update on our approach to Digital Working and people accessing our services online, have we considered those who can t do that? Our approach to a digital offer is inclusive, with a slow / medium paced approach to moving people across to digital services. We fully appreciate that some of our

customers cannot access digital services or have concerns about doing so. We have recently appointed a Digital Officer who will work with communities and individuals, as well as other stakeholders, to ensure we have places where people can access the internet, and education and assistance in how it works. We can t ignore digital as it boosts choice for our customers, many of whom already want to access services in this way, plus it reflects the need for tenants to become digitally active for things like universal credit and other online services. Some landlords have withdrawn other methods of contact when they have gone live with digital. It is not our intention to do this. What we do believe is that as the number of people using the digital service grows, it will alter the way we deliver some services and will also free up staff time to work more closely with those who can t use this method. 4) Resident Involvement Will residents be involved in the Neighbourhood Plans? Yes, the Neighbourhood Plans will be created after considering a number of things; information that we gather around numbers of voids, rent loss, number of reported ASB cases etc, statistics and input from other agencies, including their priorities for each neighbourhood. The views of local residents and their thoughts on what will, and won t work, will be an important part of the process to agree the neighbourhood s proposals. The plans then pull these together and define a series of actions we will deliver to try and improve things that need attention. The initial plans will be discussed with residents, formalised and then reviewed annually, with tenants, to gauge progress. How will we boost engagement in our communities? The new structures are designed to bring frontline teams closer to our communities and in doing so, become more engaging and identify more opportunities for residents to get involved. Specifically, the Neighbourhood teams will have targets around engagement and will be encouraged to think creatively about how we deliver this. How will tenants be more involved in Governance given the lack of a Tenant Board Member(s) and the delay in approving the Consultative Panel? Also, why are the Board paid and who decides what they get paid? We have heard your concerns about a lack of Tenant Board Members. Cobalt Board moved to a skill based, rather than traditional representative model some time ago now. We recently advertised some Board Member vacancies and only one tenant has applied. If we have an aspiration for tenant members on our Board, there is plenty of development we can do with people to help them achieve this and in doing so create a system where the tenant board member also has a defined skillset that makes the board function better. We believe this starts with identifying people who have an aspiration to be on our Board. In terms of payment, Board voted to be paid, as many Boards are. An independent company, Altair, set the level of payments in line with sector norm. About the consultative panel, we hope the formal approval will happen before the end of July and we can get on and help this panel establish. There are lots of

benefits to the business and to tenants in having this panel and we apologise for the delay in things moving forward. Finally, AR made the point that the role of Scrutiny Panel should not be underestimated in terms of influencing and helping to guide the company. How will we deliver Residents Involvement in the future given the loss of the RI team? We are committed to resident involvement, we just want to do it differently moving forward. The activities delivered through the RI team currently will be split and given to the best people to deliver them. We will map where the various, panels, associations and working groups plug in to and circulate this with restructure communications but basically; Local groups, resident associations Neighbourhood team and specifically the Customer Lead Corporate governance type activity (Scrutiny and Consultative panels) facilitated by our GAR team Corporate non-governance activity routed through the correct manager one example would be satisfaction surveys which Sarah and Cathy in Solutions will facilitate. The purpose of the change is to bring involvement closer to the whole organisation and to develop the relationships that all our staff members have with residents. Your thoughts should then have a more direct route into service delivery and the direction of the organisation. Action; Map to be developed showing involvement mechanisms and responsible officers (NG) Would Cobalt consider a scheme that rewards good behaviour in tenants and / or communities? There are several reward / loyalty schemes that have been tried over time by landlords. Some tenants love them, some don t. We would be very happy to look at something and would propose that the Consultative Panel look at this as one of their initial pieces of work if they wish to. Action; NG to discuss with Consultative Panel when formed Will we continue to do community grants and how will the process work now? Yes, we will and pretty much exactly as it does now. We will route applications through our regeneration team. Are we supporting Norris Green Community Carnival on 11 th August? Yes, we have part funded the event, in line with our contribution last year. We think it s an excellent event that benefits our tenants in the area. We will have a stand there with members of staff.

Neighbourhood Committee Meetings Can we reinstate the Neighbourhood Committees? We are open to local engagement and will be looking at diverse ways to best involve local groups. If the Neighbourhood Committees are an effective way to engage and take things forward in localities, then we will support them. It s important though that the meeting belongs to residents, not to Cobalt, and that we attend to discuss things where we can add value. Day to day stuff should not be saved up for a meeting when it can be dealt with in real time. Meetings in October We will consider a date and a theme for the October meetings asap and communicate this out as quickly as we can. These meetings will be hosted by the new Neighbourhood Managers with NG and will be held at Cobalt. It has also been agreed that Cobalt will pay for Taxi s if required. Action: NG to provide theme and advertise October sessions asap.