The government has published “Planning for the Future”, a white paper to reform planning.

MHCLG-Planning-Consultation

A number of discussions are bring had  within housing organisations as to what the future holds. here are the 2 best summaries we have found – from CIH:

0295 WYNTK about Planning for the future V1

0295 WYNTK about Planning System NEW

These some really helpful information guides as it prepared its response to the Planning white paper.

Thanks to the CIH for the easy read guides:

0295 WYNTK about Planning for the future V1

0295 WYNTK about Planning System NEW

Here is a great guide from front line staff.

It is one of the many great docs from NF ALMOS Best Practice report, this time focusing on homelessness strategy focussed on crisis management, rather than prevention.

The report is based on frontline staff knowledge in their role of managing their LAs statutory homelessness duties:

NFA Homelessness

This new report from HACT and Placeshapers gives an insight into the world of 100 social housing providers, during lockdown and their views suggests the pandemic means that social housing will never be the same again.

This report explores the lessons learned so far from the Covid-19 pandemic, including how local our view of place is and the importance of building strong, trusting partnerships in places.

PlacesAfterThePandemic_FINAL

PlaceShapers Chair Matthew Walker said: “The crisis has reinforced our sense of place and the value we place on our homes and neighbourhoods. A decent, affordable home meant living in comfort during lockdown. It meant space to work from home and home school.”

“The support social landlords offered became a lifeline for many in frightening, isolated times. Up and down the country we heard stories of the difference landlords made and how they worked together in the places they work.”

Thanks to OCS for this briefing

We had another online  packed agenda, with 17 attendees and lots of discussions and sharing – which is what our network is about (now 2.5 hours on line – with a make your own refreshment break 😉

For those who managed to get away on holiday before the 2nd lockdown, if you need the recording – just message me on yvonne@tenantadvisor.net

1.Complaints Handling

Many organisations were giving thought to the Complaints handling Code published by the Housing Ombudsman in July which was one of the main features of our meeting.

Complaint-Handling-Code

…and the RSH and HoS have agreed an MOU for sharing and  collaboration:

HOS_RSH_MOU_August_2020_Final

Here are the slides from the meeting – see the red parts where there are specific actions related to engagement:

Complaint handling S.Net 8.9.20

There are new expectations of an annual return, reviewed by Board and published by 31.12 2020 and every year thereafter The new way of working expects some key matters to be resolved which members are all thinking about and working on:

• pre compliants not included in Complaints Policy stages – which is recommended just for 2 stages now
• resident engagement in complaints is welcome in both lessons learnt and decision making and review of that decision
• an understanding by all staff that an expressed concern may be a complaint, the word does not need to be used and the staff member should be capable of offering the opportunity to go through the complains stage one at that point

A number of great ideas and current experiences were discussed and shared:

• Regenda – SP member on stage 2 of complaints review
• Trafford HT – lessons learnt quarterly with residents  – residents free to choose what to pick and a residents is also free to ask if they can have their complaint reviewed by residents, the group also look at social media, FB and how the complaint was managed surveys
• Plus Dane – already part of Board assurance – many landlords do an annual complaints review to Board
• Leeds CC has bene looking at the language of those who express multiple concerns on line to look harder for substance and evidence
• Berneslai Homes has been playing awareness raising games of complaint definitions, with staff and residents, supported by their dedicated complaints team and also participated in by the scrutiny panel

 2. Digital Involvement – progress and ideas being tested

Most organisations are exploring their best route to digital engagement. Most had already moved to online surveys and comments on draft policies, including more commentary on Facebook

• Weaver Vale are exploring the opportunity to engage with residents and their children during the forthcoming half term and already experience lots of FB traffic from 300 residents who are prepared to comment and 70 members who participate in regular surveys.
• Weaver Vale have an E Voice Platform – using a survey monkey link and undertake closed discussions on FB in a focus group style
• Together HG Scrutiny Panel echoed the views of many SPs that if they went on line – this arrangement would be permanent and the former teamwork being lost. THG have been proactive in getting the right offer to active residents including a new laptop, handset, microphone and in depth training and support.
• THG confirmed there are still concerns about family members being around the Panel members when they are in a meeting, so the code of conduct has bene re-issued along with a letter of encouragement from a senior manager, all of which has helped the Panel to be more confident on IT.

3. Scrutiny Offer August 2020_Preferences Form

4. Scrutiny Offer August 2020_Q&A document (1)

2. Scrutiny Offer August 2020_Proposal_FINAL

• THG have undertaken over 4000 surveys during lockdown and 400 telephone surveys. the IT service desk has supported residents. THG have a Virtual Voice Group of 2,500 members for surveys which are sent to a core online Group of residents. Surveys are targeted – for example at Young Tenants,  using SMART Survey software. THG have just completed 2,500 service charge survey, backed up by  a non-digital a telephone survey. the time to call took 3 willing officers and 3 residents, 2-3 weeks to complete. other surveys are completed by resident involvement staff on behalf of the SP.
• THG have undertaken 12,000 welfare calls to their 38,000 residents during lockdown
• PlusDane have increased their SP members to 17 from 7 during lockdown. They have their own MS Teams Chanel, there is no Chair of the panel, this is supported by Irene as the express contact staff member. they meet at 6pm for no more than 1 hour and 30 mins to maintain concentration and interest.
• PlusDane have 2000 online PD Voices as well as staff suggestions to support scrutiny by residents
• Wythenshawe CHG have shared their opportunities for engagement of their website, including all consultation work. Their Tenant Committee runs on line (80-90% of residents have managed to achieve this with ease). WCHG is now thinking of moving digital engagement to TARAs
• Great Places are now on line with the SP and are now trying this with other Panels
• Your HG have their involved residents on Teams for Focus Groups, which it was generally agreed was not the easiest platform for residents. Many landlords will not enable Zoom or Google meets which are much easier for residents to use. YHG have devised a 4 steps to get on line with Teams and a 7 steps for residents when you are in it.

Customer Workshops Guidance – Rent

• YHG  have tried virtual coffee mornings first to ease involved residents into Teams – a social evert Tuesday with all engaged residents. They are working on an App and have yet to get to testing stage. They inviting different senior staff and Board members to the early parts of their socials to introduce themselves and get to know their residents.
• Leeds CC Engagement Team have been testing Engagement HQ and are recommending purchase to the Council. they will demo this to a future S.net meeting. They have moved from Skype Scrutiny and Strategic Panel meetings to Zoom, which is more tenant friendly
• Cobalt have moved their Consultative Panel on line, but their Scrutiny Panel are not choosing to meet in line

                                                                                      3. On the Couch!

Our ever popular feature – where you bring your issues for  advice and discussion at the meeting this month included:

Editorial panels – how do you engage residents in newsletters and review communication etc?

• Cobalt have an editorial panel – which is now done by e mail and zoom
• Great Places have completed a Scrutiny Review of Communications, they have used their SP as a sounding board for communications during CV19,

Consultation in major change projects – definitions and procedures

There have been a number of projects undertaken recently by Leeds Jewish and Incommunities on major change projects for residents, from regeneration to a rechargeable repairs review.

Here is some summary advice for a procedure from Yvonne:

1. First, some sharing of the proposal with early views taken into account with a resident group
2. A defined and expressed change introduced in writing which includes:

• The nature of changes and why you are doing this
• The expected effects of the changes on all (or some) households
• Any other matters which are likely to affect all or some residents as a result from the change ( I guess does this knock on impact other services)

3. Complete an Equality assessment on the new policy/change

4. Share within this consultation with residents in a way which demonstrates you have considered the positive impact  and negative impact (or advantages and disadvantages) of those changes, including:

• The costs or income benefits for this for the landlord
• The impact on staffing resources at the landlord
• How it links with your strategic and business aims/objectives/corporate plan or similar
• The visible changes to residents that the residents might see
• Any assistance you can offer to those who will be impacted by this change – like the referral to yours  or someone else’s hardship fund to mitigate any unforeseen impact of charging in advance for those most vulnerable and those who might be unsafe without that work being done etc
• Ensure you cover the short and long term impact on costs and quality of services
• You may need a named officer for queries or just your info@ address?
1. Ideally share this with a residents group to see if they understand your consultation doc by e mail and comment
2. Share the summary results of consultation with the inspectors and help them to make recommendations to whoever will approve this (EMT or Committee), to go with the report for approval
3. Share the results with those who commented (and separately all residents) with a start date

Clearly this is consultation, the landlord must hear and take demonstrate that they have taken the views into account.

Make the decision not only based on those views, make sure you record the discussion in meeting minutes

Supporting residents into employment – the role of involvement teams in this

• Incommunities have a Resilience Team which is not within the engagement team
• Cobalt have a similar team working on employment, welfare and health initiatives – in the Community Development team
• THG have a separate arm of the Group – New Ground, with its own Board which undertakes the same work
• Weaver Vale have a Work and Enterprise team (new)
• Trafford HT have debt and Welfare advisors which are very active at sign up of new tenants, including Grounds Maintenance, Home and Domestic care and Caretaking staff, supported for local employment within THT

Does anyone DBS check their involved tenants?

Generally resident have been asked to under take research from their landlords premises and not to enter homes etc. No DBS check is then necessary as they are always accompanied by staff.

How is satisfaction monitored in the organisation. And by who?

• Trafford HT use residents as Touchpoints for satisfaction and reporting is bi monthly across a range of services and a survey of 2000-3000 residents a year. They are exploring a new app for this
• Together HG use Rant and Rave for text scoring on the evening of the day of the service, low scores get a direct call the following day from a manager
• Together HG Customer Insight coordinator is very happy to speak to anyone interested in knowing more about Rant & Rave and give them a demonstration and talk through the pros and cons etc. His email is matthew.higgins@togetherhousing.co.uk

THG Rant and Rave

• The majority use post service satisfaction surveys on new tenants, ASB and complaints – usually by staff call but sometimes by a 3rd party – most review as staff but some have used local panels to delve deeper into dissatisfaction.

Date of next meetings

14th October, 22nd November and 27th January – on line (10-12.30 )

……as an when we see a white paper – a tenant unconference will happen!,

14th October agenda:

• New Building regulations and resident engagement
• Draft NHF Code of Conduct and resident engagement
• Review of Consumer Regulation – lessons learnt (just published)

If not we will get residents together anyway for an unconference on engagement changes since CV19 and a general Policy update

The constuction leadership Council has released its own CV19 recovery plan.

It employers on construction projects (including public sector employers) to push forward with projects and stimulate the construction industry.

These are their recommendations:

• Employers should open as many sites as possible where it is safe to do so under the Government guidelines.
• Public sector employers should use the relief measures provided in PPN 02/20 to support supply chains and extend working hours on-site wherever possible
• The Government should accelerate consideration of business cases from public sectors to expedite new procurements, accelerate their Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) and non-ACM cladding remediation programmes, make apprenticeship levies more flexible to ensure that new talent is still entering the industry, and delay new VAT rules (which make payment of tax the responsibility of the employer rather than the contractor) until 2021 to help with cash flow.

The construction sector plays a critical role in the UK economy (the CLC estimate it accounts for 8.6% of GDP) and investment in projects such as significant new infrastructure is one approach governments can take to mitigate economic downturn. Equally though, individually construction projects involve significant risk and uncertainty meaning it is important that employers make informed and risk-balanced decisions to move their projects forward, particularly when considering the relief measures referred to.

By now, most employers will have reopened project-sites but may be under some pressure from contractors to offer them some of the relief measures set out in the various PPNs (such as making advanced payments or making “normal” payments despite service disruption). As these measures shift commercial risk onto the employer, we recommend taking a measured approach to determining whether that level of extra risk is something employers can realistically take.

Housing Association Charitable Trust (HACT) surveyed an heard that 41 HAs (representing just under a quarter of the total housing association stock in the UK), made 250,301 welfare calls to residents in March and April 2020.

Of the residents contacted, 26% requested some form of support from their landlord.

HAs identified 121,656 vulnerable residents and gave advice and guidance to 37,552, supported 7,556 food interventions. Collectively, HAs delivered an average of £3,618 per landlord in landlord support. The HAs identified and supported 15,620 households at risk of arrears during this period.

Good news – as a sector, we can use this to promote our work. The NHF agrees.

Poplar HARCA have a fabulous initiative to supporting their residents to get on lone with confidence, by partnering with Primary Schools.

Many housing and involvement officers have had some success during CV19, but we have a big help to fill,

Here is an excellent article from Poplar HARCA in Inside Housing:

“COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the digital divide and the effects of digital exclusion on low-income communities. It is an issue which has been talked about for a long time, but we found an urgent need to address this when schools closed and overnight the digital divide became the gap between children who can and cannot access learning.

The concept of Universal Basic Services is rapidly gaining traction, and as essentials such as education and health care move increasingly online, we must consider access to broadband as a basic service that should be universally available, to enable everyone to be on a level playing field.

National research shows that in the most deprived schools, only 16% of pupils are taking part in lessons online every day, worsening an already significant attainment gap between the poorest and richest children. On our doorstep, in many schools across Tower Hamlets, over half of pupils do not have access to a device to carry out essential home learning and interact with their teachers. There are many families where siblings have had to take turns trying to watch lessons on a parent’s phone, unable to properly participate.

Poplar HARCA launched a new digital inclusion programme, working with LETTA Trust, local primary schools and the council, to provide free devices, good quality internet connection and digital skills training for parents. The aim is to prevent children with poor access to online learning falling further behind, and minimise the impact of the pandemic on educational achievement, which has profound implications for the future of this generation.

Poplar HARCA alongside London Borough of Tower Hamlets, LETTA Trust and the East End Community Foundation have each contributed £20,000 funding.

Community Fibre is providing free full-fibre broadband connections for at least a year, and with further funding from Morgan Stanley and the Lehman Foundation, we are supporting 200 families initially. Through increased partnership working, we have ambitions to expand the programme to up to 10,000 across the borough over the next year, such is the level of need locally.

The move to ’digital first’ services is evident across our lives, and has rapidly been sped up by recent events. While this presents many opportunities for how housing associations operate, we have to make sure everyone can benefit from the transformational shift.

What is becoming clear is that people may have smartphones and use social media but still lack the digital skills required for work or life. Simply giving people a tablet is not going to solve the problem. We are making sure these devices are set up to be as easy as possible to use, pre-loaded with relevant apps, as well as offering digital training from experienced volunteers and staff, covering essential skills. This will allow everyone to easily and swiftly unlock the services they need most at this time, whether that’s home-schooling, medication, food deliveries, paying bills, medical advice or even GP appointments.

Our staff have been reaching out to vulnerable residents throughout lockdown and we are concerned about the impact the growing digital divide will have on our community, between those who can and cannot access services based on whether they can afford a device or internet connectivity in their home.

We know of hundreds of families and individuals who don’t have any access to the internet and we need to make sure that this crisis doesn’t leave anyone behind. Being excluded from what has been – for most of the nation – an almost exclusively digital coping response to the isolation imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown, is having both practical and emotional impacts on people locked in poverty.

We are calling on everyone to work together as a community to give all our residents access to the opportunities and support they need, and good internet access is the key to unlocking so much. Between us we have the potential to have a life-changing effect on those living in poverty as we all adjust to a new way of life, by making sure these basic services are available to all”

Babu Bhattacherjee, is the Director of Communities and Neighbourhoodsat Poplar HARCA

In facilitating the regulator of social housing yesterday, at the marvellous HDN Board Excellence Programme, for new and existing ambitious BMs:

HDN Board Excellence Programme

Maxine Loftus, Director of Regulation suggested a good all round read on risk management can be found in the public sector orientated Orange Book.

Here is the latest version:

6.6266_HMT_Orange_Book_Update_v6_WEB