Broadacres Housing Association Ltd.

Annual
Performance
Report
2012/13
It’s not just
about the bricks
Broadacres Housing Association
provides a comprehensive range
of services to over 5,500 homes in
North Yorkshire. Established in 1993
Broadacres operates under charitable
rules and has a governing body of ten
board members including four tenants
of the association.
Our headquarters is in Northallerton,
North Yorkshire. We currently have
stock in Hambleton, Richmondshire,
Harrogate, Selby, York, Ryedale,
Scarborough, East Riding of Yorkshire,
Darlington, Redcar and Cleveland,
and Leeds.
We provide homes for rent, shared
ownership and outright sale.
We offer a range of support services
to different client groups including
people with mental health problems,
learning disabilities, older persons,
people with physical disabilities, those
fleeing domestic violence, people
suffering from alcohol and substance
misuse and the homeless.
In addition, we have a home
improvement agency to assist with
property adaptations and repairs to
enable people to continue to live in
their homes.
www.broadacres.org.uk
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Chairman’s introduction
Reading the housing press at the moment can be a
very gloomy pastime: bedroom tax; rising arrears
as a consequence; lack of grants or funding for
development and so on.
Thankfully as Broadacres celebrates its 20th
birthday, I am pleased to say that the organisation
continues to be in good health and well placed to cope with the changes
in government policy and the continued economic fragility of the domestic
economy.
High points of this year have been the acquisition of Mulberry Homes - our own
development company which is now on site at Sowerby Gateway - which will not
only provide for us a considerable number of quality properties for affordable
rent, but also generate an income stream which we can use to build more homes
for our potential customers.
We have also taken ‘in-house’ our repair, maintenance and refurbishment
functions, which will give us greater control over work flow at a more competitive
cost which will, I hope, lead to a higher standard of service and a reduction in
cost.
None of this would have been possible without a dedicated and enthusiastic staff
who have gone the extra mile.
To them, and to the members of the Board of Management, I would like to pay
tribute for their quiet determination to keep Broadacres in the top echelon of
housing providers in the country.
Reverend Canon Brian Mayne
We built new premises for the YMCA in Richmond
We use HouseMark to compare our performance. HouseMark is an independent organisation which
collects and checks information from around 460 housing providers. This enables us to compare
our performance, satisfaction and costs (a process known as benchmarking) to find out where we
can do better. You have asked us to compare our performance with organisations who work in the
same areas as we do. We have, therefore, usually compared our performance with the top 25% of
all organisations working in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East. However for antisocial
behaviour we are members of specific benchmarking clubs and compare our performance with the
best performers in that club.
New homes in Whitby
Further information about how we aim to achieve value for money for all our services is included
in our annual value for money self assessment. You can obtain a copy from our website or by
contacting us.
3
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Customer involvement
What we have done
• We set up a new customer feedback
group to help us consider all the
types of feedback that we get – from
complaints to compliments and
everything in between! The
group look at themes and trends and
recommend how we can improve.
• We held ‘get online’ events in
Northallerton and Great Ayton;
inviting customers to attend one
hour training sessions. We also
provided free wi-fi access to some
tenants in Great Ayton, via a signal
from the common room at
Hollygarth.
• We developed our use of social
media, particularly our Facebook
page which now has 150 ‘likes’.
• We updated our Customer
Involvement Strategy to focus on key
issues highlighted from satisfaction
surveys.
• Our tenants’ liaison group gave
grants to 19 voluntary organisations
to help with a range of projects.
Our performance
• Our Performance and Improvement
Panel (PIP) completed reviews of
customer access (the service that
customers receive when they phone
or visit an office) and estate services
(how we maintain our grass, shrubs
and other landscaped areas) and
started a review of planned
maintenance (replacement of
fixtures such as kitchens and
bathrooms). We implemented the
recommendations that PIP made.
• The Fire Place, a drop-in club for
children and teenagers in Stokesley,
4
reached the northern final of the
Excellence in Youth awards run by
the Tenant Participation Advisory
Service.
• Our annual customer involvement
impact assessment reviews the effect
of your involvement. You can obtain
a copy from our website or by
contacting us.
Value for money
• We employed an additional member
of staff to support customer
involvement, rather than using
external consultants for training and
so on. This will save us money in the
long run.
• We received more than £8,000 in
grants from the Arts Council and
North Yorkshire Music Action.
• We retendered the production of
Viewpoint, our tenants’ newsletter,
and will save £2,500 each year.
What we plan to do
• We will build on our ‘get online
events’ to assist more customers to
gain confidence to use information
technology and access the internet.
• We will hold a customer forum to
strengthen the links between our
various involvement activities.
Activities for young people
We continued to support a range of
projects such as youth and boxing
clubs; football and games console
tournaments. We also developed new
activities such as:
• A week of creative activities - urban
art, animation, photography and film
- at the youth centre at Stokesley
secondary school.
The classic albums you may not have in your
collection!
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
• A series of activities with local
schools - to coincide with a new
development scheme in
Osmotherley - around building
homes and communities.
• An animation club at Stokesley
secondary school.
The Fire Place, Stokesley
• Youth on the move – an 18 session
music project.
With the help of Arts Council funding
we employed a Creative Engagement
Facilitator to help us interact with a wider
group of customers. One of his projects
used photography to engage residents
with mental health problems.
Ant and Oriel get online
We gave a grant to Cleveland Search and Rescue
Working with six residents and three staff
at one of our supported schemes they
reproduced classic album covers in a
fun and imaginative way. The topic was
chosen by residents who had a common
interest in listening to music and wanted
to portray a different concept of mental
illness. The result was six large framed
photographs for the scheme and prints
for all involved.
The project introduced a common interest
amongst residents that led to more
social contact with their fellow residents,
collaborative working and a purpose
to meet. The activities led to residents
showing an increase in self confidence
and a desire to get out of their homes and
explore other interests. One resident said,
“it was brilliant, I really enjoyed it, what
are we doing next?”
Holme Lane, Selby
5
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Customer service
What we have done
Our telecare centre answered 95,100
calls, a decrease of 1,300 on the
number in 2011/12. Customers who
were surveyed about the service scored
it 9.2 out of 10.
• In August 2012 we started making
appointments for repairs at the time
that you report the problem.
• Our trained customer mystery
shoppers tested our customer
service centre and our website.
Value for money
We improved how we respond to
emails to encourage more customers to
use this as a way of contacting us. It is
better value for money as we can reply
to emails at times when the phones are
less busy.
• We retained our Customer Service
Excellence accreditation when we
were inspected in September 2012.
Our performance
Our customer service centre received
76,719 phone calls in 2012/13. This was
12,000 more than in 2011/12. The
increase was mainly due to repair calls,
as a result of bringing the repair service
in-house. Although we had anticipated
an increase, it was larger than we
expected and as a result our
performance in the speed of answering
calls was affected, as shown in the chart
below. Our mystery shoppers, however,
rated the quality of the service as good,
very good or excellent 90% of the time.
What we plan to do
We will be working hard to improve
the phone service provided by our
customer service centre.
We will be expanding the ways that you
can contact us, such as online chat.
Broadacres’
Target
2012/13
2011/12
66%
79%
5%
6.3%
4.1 %
Percentage of telecare calls
answered within 60 seconds
97.5%
96.4%
97.1%
Percentage of correspondence
responded to within 5 working days
100%
95%
97%
Percentage of calls answered
within 20 seconds
Percentage of calls abandoned
within 30 seconds
6
75%
Less than
How does
this compare
to last year?
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Our customer service
centre dealt with
76,719 calls and our
telecare centre
answered 95,100 calls.
Green Howards Drive, Richmond
Mulberry Homes’ first scheme will be built at Sowerby
Gateway, near Thirsk
7
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Complaints
What we have done
Value for money
We reviewed the way we handle
complaints to try and simplify the
process and increase the number (in
2012/13 it was 90%) that are resolved
by the first member of staff who
investigates it.
We value complaints as they help us
improve our services. For example, as a
result of complaints:
Our performance
We received 130 complaints compared
to 135 in 2011/12. We also received 48
items of feedback where the customer
does not want to follow the matter
through our complaints process but we
investigate and keep a record. We had
43 items of feedback in 2011/12.
The highest number of complaints
(85%) were about general customer
service, mainly in connection with
repairs, such as not keeping an
appointment or delays with follow up
work.
• We now give out an appointment
card to confirm the date and time
of the gas commission when we sign
up new tenants. This has reduced
the number of missed appointments.
What we plan to do
We will be introducing our revised
complaints process. This includes a new
satisfaction survey which we will send
out with our final written response. We
hope that this will help us get better
feedback to improve your satisfaction
with the handling of the complaints.
Broadacres’
Target
2012/13
2011/12
95%
93.3%
97.6%
Less than
69%
70.7%
67%
Satisfaction with the overall handling
of your complaint
75%
66%
78%
Satisfaction with the outcome of
your complaint
75%
74%
70%
Percentage of complaints responded
to within timescales
Percentage of complaints fully or
partly agreed with
8
• We changed the letters that we send
out about rent arrears to show how
much of the debt would be covered
by expected housing benefit. This
made it clearer for the tenant and
reduced the number of queries that
we received.
How does
this compare
to last year?
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Pupils at Richmond Church of England school celebrate
success in Broadacres’ Fabulous Fantasy Gardens Competition
Staff joined a sleep out and raised £500 for SASH
homeless charity
A week in art in Stokesley
Halloween at the Uthie, a youth club in Thirsk
9
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Repairs and improvements
What we have done
We spent more than £7.2 million maintaining and improving properties.
Our main items of expenditure were:
• £1,376,000 on completing day to day repairs.
• £518,000 on repairing 404 empty properties.
• £1,925,000 on replacing 264 kitchens and 227 bathrooms.
• £793,000 on replacing 325 boilers and heating systems.
• £96,000 completing adaptations in 473 homes.
Our performance
Broadacres’
Target
2012/13
How does
this compare
2011/12 to last year?
Percentage of emergency
faults attended to within
24 hours
100%
98.28%
100%
Percentage of
appointments kept
95%
94%
No figure
Percentage of properties
serviced within 12 months
100%
99.99%
99.90%
Value for money
• By bringing our maintenance
services in-house we expect to
achieve savings of more than
£500,000 each year.
99.91%
99.45%
Not measured
100%
• We received £132,000 in external
funding for the installation of 33 air
source heat pumps and installing
more efficient boilers.
Broadacres’
Target
2012/13
2011/12
Average overall satisfaction
with repairs service
8 out
of 10
9.61%
8.89%
Average overall satisfaction
with improvement work
8 out
of 10
9.54%
9.53%
Average overall satisfaction
with annual safety check
8 out
of 10
9.67%
9.41%
10
How does
it compare
to others?
How does
this compare
to last year?
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Broadacres Property Services
In August 2012 we launched Broadacres Property Services –
our new in-house maintenance team. Previously repairs were
carried out by five specialist trade contractors with a small
in-house team working on empty properties. We felt that by
bringing all the work in-house we could save money and
deliver a better service by:
• Having greater flexibility, with one team able to work on all
types of repairs and improvements.
• Using technology to plan the work.
• Getting better prices for materials by concentrating our
purchases through one supplier, Jewson.
• Saving on the VAT and profit that we had to pay a
contractor.
It has been a challenging process. Although we have improved
overall satisfaction with the repairs service, there are some
areas where we could do better. We will be concentrating on:
• Better communication to keep you informed of any changes
to appointments or the progress of follow up work.
• Getting more repairs right first time.
In 2013/14 we will be extending the team to start installing
kitchens and bathrooms and carrying out some boiler and
heating replacements.
11
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
New homes
What we have done
During the year we continued to develop new homes in response to locally
identified need. In total we built 170 new properties.
Number of new homes built by area
Richmondshire
59
52
Ryedale
6
Redcar and Cleveland
Selby
1
7
45
115 of the properties were for rent and
55 were for low cost home ownership
or available on a ‘rent to buy’ basis.
The types of properties we
built
Bungalow
Bedrooms
Number built
2
1
York
Hambleton
Our performance
• We exceeded our target of building
169 new homes and continue to
build more homes in North Yorkshire
than any other local housing
association.
• 90% of all new occupants surveyed
during the year said that they were
satisfied with their new home.
Value for money
House
Bedrooms
Number built
2
3
66
67
Bedrooms
Number built
1
2
5
31
Flat
12
We received, from the Homes and
Communities Agency, grant funding of
£1,873,488 towards the cost of these
new homes. To be eligible for this
funding we had to demonstrate to
them that they offered good value for
money.
What we plan to do
We will continue to provide new homes
for rent and low cost home ownership
and plan to develop a further 167
properties during 2013/14.
90% of all new occupants
surveyed during the year
said that they were satisfied
with their new home.
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Guru Naidoo, Broadacres’ Director of Corporate Services, was
named 2012 Tees Valley Housing Diversity Champion
Ouseacres - our first new homes in York
Scheme Manager, Sarah Beniams, volunteered as a
Gamesmaker at the Olympics
13
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Allocations
What we have done
Number of properties let by area
• Along with our partners, we
reviewed the North Yorkshire Home
Choice scheme and housing
allocation policy. The Joseph
Rowntree Foundation completed an
independent review, involving
surveys and meetings with
customers, and found that generally
customers appreciated the
additional choice offered through
the scheme.
• We launched an online mutual
exchange system (where you can
swap your home with another
tenant). As a result the number of
tenants who exchanged increased
from 54 to 78.
Value for money
We now offer appointments to
customers who want advice about their
housing options and help to complete
their application to North Yorkshire
Home Choice. We gather all the
supporting evidence at the
appointment which saves time and
money on following up queries and
missing information.
What we plan to do
• Following the review, we will be
introducing changes to the North
Yorkshire housing allocation policy.
• We will be reviewing our processes
for letting homes to improve our
performance.
Darlington 1
Ryedale 38
Scarborough 5
Selby 46
Redcar and Cleveland 8
Richmondshire 25
Harrogate 6
York 1
East Riding of Yorkshire 1
Hambleton 342
We were living in a very large
house with a lot of stairs, and I
really couldn’t cope because of
my disabilities. My daughter and
I had run out of money and we
were threatened with being made
homeless. We were both completely
stressed out and thought that we’d
have to move into a tent with our
dog! The Housing Officer, Christine
Norman, came to visit us and
was very kind, sympathetic and
supportive. She helped us to register
on North Yorkshire Home Choice
and within weeks we got a lovely
bungalow in Tollerton. We have
settled in nicely to this cosy, peaceful
village. It’s fabulous to not have
any stairs and my health, and my
daughter’s, has improved because
of it. I can even sometimes walk
without a walking stick! We really
appreciate Broadacres’ help.
Starra Angelle
14
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Our performance
We let 473 properties including 115 new homes as follows (these figures do not include our
women’s refuge).
Average time to
relet a property
Average satisfaction
of new tenants
Broadacres’
Target
2012/13
How does
this compare
2011/12 to last year?
How does
it compare
to others?
21 days
28 days
21 days
33 days
8 out
of 10
9.47
9.3
No comparison
Number of properties let by
property type
Bungalow
Bedrooms
1
2
Number let
65
53
Bedrooms
1
2
3
4
Number let
10
96
109
2
Bedrooms
1
2
Number let
76
62
House
Children from Osmotherley and Swainby and Potto CofE primary schools build a
Viking roundhouse
Flat
Number of properties let by
occupancy
Occupancy
Single/couples over 60
112
Single people
110
Couples with no children
Our tenants named the streets at a new development in Aiskew
Number
Families
46
205
15
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Rent and arrears
What we have done
What we plan to do
• In the light of changes to welfare
benefits we contacted almost 500
tenants to advise them of how they
would be affected.
• We will be making further contact
with those affected by the welfare
changes and have employed
additional staff to provide support
and advice.
• We provided regular information in
Viewpoint and produced a You Tube
video for our website to inform
customers of the welfare reform
changes.
• Our money advisors helped 70
customers obtain more than
£523,000 in benefits and grants.
• We will be reviewing the ways in
which you can pay your rent,
including offering more flexibility for
direct debit payments.
• We will be implementing the
findings from our rent service review.
• We began reviewing our rent service
– how we prevent and tackle rent
arrears – and held focus groups with
some tenants who had arrears,
receiving valuable feedback from
them.
Our performance
Our current rent arrears increased by
£76,000 to £521,000. In order to
benchmark our performance with other
providers we measure our rent arrears
as a percentage of the total rent income
due (the debit). Our arrears increased
from 1.99% to 2.19% of the debit. This is
not as good as the best performers in
the region whose arrears were 1.86%
(this figure may include some
outstanding Housing Benefit). The
amount owed by former tenant arrears
increased by £29,000 to £288,000.
Broadacres and its partners set up Hambleton FoodShare to
provide emergency food parcels
Value for money
Our former tenant debt specialist
collected £63,000. We, therefore,
decided to employ another person so
that we can increase the amount we
collect.
Our furniture store supplies good quality used furniture
16
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Our money advisors
helped 70 customers
obtain more than
£523,000 in benefits
and grants.
We were concerned about the welfare of one of our
tenants when we couldn’t get access to carry out
the annual gas safety check. Our Money Advice
Team made contact and found that Andrew* had
not had any income for six months – due to his
mental health he had not understood the letters
from the Department of Work and Pensions and
had not signed on. He had sold belongings to pay
for food, which he cooked on a small camping
stove as he had no gas or electric, and had run up
a lot of debt and not paid his rent.
Our Money Adviser rapidly got his job seekers
allowance reinstated and successfully got his
benefit backdated so that he could pay off
his debts. We arranged for Andrew to attend
Learn Direct for training which has gained him
qualifications and helped him meet other people.
He is now looking forward to being able to search
and apply for jobs online.
* Not his real name.
It’s just like watching Brazil - the annual Footyfest
Our annual golf tournament raised £3,000 for the Northallerton and
Dales branch of Mencap
17
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
Antisocial behaviour
What we have done
• We extended an independent
mediation service to all areas in which
we operate.
• Lee Godfrey, our Tenancy Relations
Co-ordinator, together with Karen
Rigby, one of our tenants, won
awards at the North Yorkshire Police
Safer Neighbourhood awards for
their work in tackling antisocial
behaviour.
• We continued to lead on monthly
meetings with a range of partners –
the Police, Community Safety
Partnership, Youth Service, Youth
Justice Service, Children and Adult
Safeguarding Teams and schools - to
prevent and tackle antisocial
behaviour.
We obtained three injunctions (court
orders) which were successful in
stopping the behaviour.
We took action in respect of an existing
injunction which had been broken. The
tenant was given a seven day
suspended prison sentence and
subsequently left the property.
We started legal action to gain
possession of seven properties and the
initial warning notice was successful
and no further action was required.
We signed seven ‘acceptable behaviour
contracts’ with people who had carried
out antisocial behaviour (or their
parents). This contract lists the
antisocial activities the person agrees
not to continue. During 2012/13, four
came to an end. In all cases no further
action had been required.
Our performance
The number of complaints about antisocial behaviour decreased from 211 to 193
as follows.
Complaint
2012/13
2011/12
Suspected drugs or criminal behaviour
13
6
Noise
105
117
Vehicle related nuisance
3
3
Misuse of communal areas
3
3
Untidy gardens
4
3
Intimidation
8
23
Harassment
5
0
Verbal abuse
26
15
Pets and animals
10
12
Youth nuisance
11
28
Alcohol abuse
5
0
Great Ayton boxing club
Urban street art in Stokesley
18
Annual Performance Report 2012/13
70% of customers who had experienced antisocial behaviour replied to our surveys.
The results were as follows.
Customer
satisfaction with:
How does
this compare
to last year?
How does this
compare to
others?
2012/13
2011/12
How easy is it to report
the complaint
94.2%
87.7%
94%
Being kept informed
92.7%
94.5%
93%
The support provided
95.5%
92.9%
92%
The handling of the case
94.1%
94.6%
92%
The outcome
92.6%
92.7%
89%
Value for money
• We spent £7,000 on activities for
young people and had a decrease of
60% (from 28 to 11 reports) in
nuisance from youths.
• We combined into one, and
simplified the information previously
contained in several leaflets, about
antisocial behaviour. This saves us
£1,200 in printing costs.
• We referred 16 cases – mainly minor
disputes between neighbours – to
our independent mediation service.
These can be time consuming for our
staff to deal with. Mediation results
in a better outcome and allows our
staff to concentrate on more
serious complaints.
What we plan to do
• We will be monitoring the
Government’s proposals for a new
set of legal tools and powers to
tackle antisocial behaviour. These
are likely to be implemented in 2014
and we will prepare so that we can
make effective use of them.
• We will review the charter we
developed with Victim Support to
ensure the service provides the
support required.
Mr & Mrs Ryan* and Mr & Mrs Brown* live next door to each other. They were
complaining about each other – noise, nuisance from visitors and general
disagreements. We got Unite, our independent mediation service, involved. A
mediator spoke to both parties separately and then arranged a joint meeting.
With the help of the mediator the tenants made an agreement about their future
behaviour. We received no further complaints and Mrs Ryan contacted us several
weeks later to thank us for involving Unite. All the issues had disappeared and the two
families had now become friends.
* not their real names
19
Broadacres Housing Association
Mount View • Standard Way • Northallerton • DL6 2YD
Phone: 01609 767900 • Fax: 01609 777017
E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.broadacres.org.uk
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