Update from the engagement panel 10 August 2023

Next engagement panel meeting: Tuesday 12th September 2023 5 pm – 6.30 pm

Repairs update

Luke Mitchell, Head of Homes Services joined the panel meeting to give an update on the repairs service. In May an internal restructure took place, and a new Homes Directorate was created, bringing four areas together – Development, Planned works, Repairs and Compliance. As part of the restructure, we’ve been able to identify which areas need more resources. We have, we’ve recruited new surveyors and are currently advertising for a new Damp & Mould surveyor. There is ongoing support from other areas of the new Home’s directorate. This is to allow for some of the backlog within the repairs & voids (empty homes) to be managed e.g., damp & mould cases, complaints, and disrepair.

Luke shared performance information from Alliance Homes Repairs Service (HRS) which shows how they are performing against targets and also in comparison to previous quarters. Luke advised that the current service agreement with HRS is not specific enough and we are looking into improving this, as well as improving turnaround time for repairs and appointments.

Anti-social behavior (ASB) 

Simon Gray, ASB Manager, joined the meeting to give an overview of the functions of the team after the panel requested more information about this service area. Simon talked about the following areas:

• What is /isn’t ASB?
• Tools to tackle ASB
• Improving satisfaction
• Performance statistics

He also gave some examples of how we record ASB incidents; allocating them by priority of low, high, and urgent levels. Simon also shared ASB performance information from previous years to this year and statistics around trend analysis.

Customer Experience Committee (CEC) 

Danielle Jones Senior Customer Engagement Officer gave an update on the CEC. Following a review by Governance, it was identified that we needed to increase the committee numbers to reflect Board members to 4. This has now resulted in the committee being made up of 7 (4 Board members and 3 residents).

The CEC is a main subcommittee of the Board, which has some delegated responsibilities directly from the Board and must make key responsibilities and proposals to the Board.

This also ties in with our other committees in terms of all Board members sitting on 2 committees, and when we have committees with other non-board members, they are in the minority with only 1-2 members for the same reason. Further communication will be shared with residents in September.

If any resident is interested in the panel meetings and would like to attend as an observer at one, please do contact a member of our engagement team. All residents are welcome.  

Mike Sheppard – Panel Member