October 2011
a newsletter for tenants of Crosby Housing Association Welcome to your Autumn Newsletter Inside this edition we have articles on: 10 years CHART success - page 2 Annual Open Meeting - page 3 New Board Member - page 3 Performance Update - page 4 New CHART Manager - page 5 Mersey Ports Master Plan - page 5 Tenants’ computer course - page 5 Gardening Competition - page 6 Charity Shop volunteers - page 6 Waterloo local history - page 7 Tenant Scrutiny Panel - page 7 Puzzle Corner - page 8 New website - page 8 Winners of our 2011 Gardening Competition (page 6). CHART wins Team of the Year at the 2011 Mersey Care NHS Trust
Positive Achievement Awards (left). Dates for Your Diary Thursday 24th November Christmas at Waterloo Interchange 4.00 - 6.00 pm Saturday 3rd December Christmas at Seaforth Bowerdale Park 2.00 - 5.00 pm Christmas fun for all the family.
Crosby Housing Association is an exempt charity incorporated as an Industrial and Provident Society No 19175R
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Annual Open Meeting 2011 - 10 Years of CHART Success This year’s Annual Open Meeting was dedicated to celebrating CHART’s 10th birthday. The CHART team are based at the CHA offices in Church Road, Waterloo, and help people in the Sefton area with severe and enduring mental health problems find suitable accommodation. Key figures involved in CHART’s development over 10 years told how professionalism, flexibility, resourcefulness, contacts and influence had all contributed to the success of the team. Appropriately Tom Massey, who retires as CHART Manager after 10 years, began the story and new CHART Manager, Mina Valentine, finished with a view of the future. Guest speakers Kieran Daly and Elaine Mather congratulated CHART from the viewpoint of healthcare professionals who have been closely involved with the work of the team. Entertainment for the evening was provided by three talented people, pictured below, who have been helped by CHART - Jo (writer), James (DJ) and Rachel (singer/ songwriter).
Mayor joins in birthday celebrations No, not a winner in our Gardening Competition. It’s Mayor of Sefton, Councillor Paul Cummins, joining in the celebrations of CHART’s 10th birthday. Councillor Cummins marked the occasion with a tree-planting ceremony at CHA’s supported housing scheme in Church Road, Waterloo. He spoke of his long association with Crosby Housing and his appreciation of CHART’s work to improve the lives of people with mental illness.
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Annual Open Meeting 2011 - A Review of the Year Chair of CHA, Nick Thompson, welcomed more than 70 tenants, partners and staff to our Annual Open Meeting held at the Waterloo Community Centre on 6th September. Chief Executive, Mandy Elliott, reviewed the past year of Crosby Housing Association with a slide show of the highlights of the past 12 months. Mandy told the stories around the pictures of staff joiners and leavers, office refurbishments, the tenants’ conference, successful working partnerships, Seaforth and Waterloo strategic groups, Christmas events, the new Local Offer, Report to Tenants, CHA’s Values and the launch of the website. Mandy especially thanked the contractors, board members, staff and tenants for their support throughout the year. Nick presented prizes to the winners of the gardening competition and concluded with thanks to everyone who attended the Annual Open Meeting.
Welcome new Board Member - Phil McNulty Phil McNulty brings a wealth of experience to our Board. Most of his working life has been spent in educational and community management. As the head of the Community School and Technology College for Toxteth, he was heavily involved in regeneration initiatives around education, health, employment and housing. Phil has a background in social housing through previous directorships of other Housing Associations. He also currently holds directorships in a number of housing and investment businesses in the private sector. Phil has hands-on experience of housing management and is committed to social opportunity, equality and fairness. He sees the long term future of Crosby Housing Association as an independent organisation continuing to do what it does best - providing excellent services to our tenants. Welcome to the team, Phil. Page 3
Performance Update 1st April - 30 June 2011 Local Offer performance update to 30 June 2011
Target
Actual
100%
98.85%
Are we on target?
Your Home Offer Properties with an up to date gas certificate
Emergency repairs that were completed within target time 100%
100%
Urgent repairs that were completed within target time
99%
100%
Routine repairs that were completed within target time
99%
99.33%
Repairs that were completed right first time
90%
91.85%
Tenants satisfied with the repairs service
99%
98.92%
87 Gas Services - 86 completed in time 16 Emergency repairs all completed within 24 hrs 117 Urgent repairs all completed within 5 working days 448 Routine repairs completed - 445 completed within 1 month Involvement & Empowerment Offer We publish information regarding our goals and targets to a variety of groups including the Board, Scrutiny Panel and in the newsletter. We have responded to all complaints within 10 days. We have held regular Board meetings and have met regularly with the Scrutiny Panel and developed a Terms of Reference for the panel; we continue to meet with the Tenants Advisory Panel as a forum for information exchange. We are developing focus groups for asset management and staff review and continue to ask for feedback on our performance via satisfaction questionnaires. Tenancy Offer Re-letting empty properties Average time it took to re-let empty properties
20 days
35 days
Neighbourhood and Communities Offer We have undertaken monthly block inspections, met with the communal cleaning, gardening and window cleaning contractors and monitored satisfaction levels with those services. Tenant satisfaction with communal cleaning
98%
87%
Tenant satisfaction with gardening
98%
98%
Tenant satisfaction with window cleaning
98%
63%
Block Inspections
monthly
100%
Neighbourhood Offer We have undertaken neighbourhood walkabouts with partner agencies to identify hot spot areas in respect of fly tipping, graffiti etc and have addressed them. We are developing Neighbourhood Plans to ensure that we have a better understanding of our neighbourhoods. Anti Social Behaviour Offer There have been 22 incidents of Anti Social Behaviour received in the first quarter, all of these have been investigated within the target time of 5 days. Page 4
Welcome new CHART Manager - Mina Valentine Following Tom’s retirement and coinciding with CHART’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Mina Valentine has been appointed as the new CHART Manager. Mina has a background in general and mental healthcare and is employed by Mersey Care NHS Trust. She is seconded to manage the CHART team based at Crosby Housing Association’s offices in Church Road, Waterloo. Mina has already settled into the office and is committed to the CHART team continuing and building on its success of the past 10 years.
Mersey Ports Master Plan In June Mersey Ports launched their Master Plan consultation draft to cover a 20 year strategy for the growth of the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal. The plan includes the expansion of Seaforth Docks. At one of the consultation events held at Crosby Civic Hall, comments were invited on the ambitious plans. After further meetings with various stakeholders at Waterloo and Seaforth strategic groups, CHA Chief Executive Mandy Elliott submitted a response to Mersey Ports. Whilst welcoming the positive messages that the plan proposes e.g. improvements to transport networks and energy production, job creation and recycling opportunities, Mandy highlighted the need to consider the social and environmental impacts of the plan together with the potential loss of amenities. The comments have been received by Mersey Ports and will be followed up at future meetings with them.
Tenants’ computer course Two tenants and one Board member took up the offer in the last edition of Read This to attend a beginner’s computer course at our Church Road offices. Individual computers were set up in the Board Room and CHA’s IT support officer, Steve Evans, provided a gentle guide to setting up a PC, web browsing and digital photography. By request, an extra session is being arranged to specifically cover emails. After the first two sessions, Maureen Ryan (left) commented: “I feel I have achieved such a lot in such a short time. Now I’m hooked. If, like me, you have a fear of computers and get the chance to attend a course - go for it!” Get in touch if you want to know more - if there is enough interest from tenants we will arrange to run more training sessions early in the New Year.
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Gardening Competition 2011 The standard of entries were as high as ever for this year’s gardening competition and the judges were keen to reward the hard work and results of as many entrants as possible. Here are the winners. Thank you to everyone who took part. Roy Larkin, Lenny Jones and Tom O’ Toole - Hanging Baskets
Ken and Pat Hughes Alleyway & Hanging Baskets
Irene Burgess Front/Rear Garden
Robert Warwick Front/Rear Garden
Michelle Horton Front/Rear Garden
George Harrison Front/Rear Garden
Maureen Ryan Front/Rear Garden
Our Charity Shop needs your help If you have some spare time, we could use your help in our Charity Shop. Any time you can give will be greatly appreciated we would particularly like to hear from you if you are available on Wednesday or Thursday. For further information and an application form contact Steph Morris at the Charity Shop, Lorne Road, Waterloo Tel 928 6120. We are also in desperate need of donations, particularly men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. Thanks. Page 6
Local government in Waterloo Tenant Board Member Lee Mattocks gives us another glimpse into our area’s past. The area that we now know as Waterloo originally straddled the boundary between the ancient townships of Litherland and Great Crosby. However, over the years the community established its own identity. Local pressures resulted in the creation of a separate local government district for Waterloo which was carved out of Litherland in 1856 in an early wave of local government reform. The district was governed by Waterloo-with-Seaforth local Board of Health, a body with limited powers. In 1874 boundaries were altered and an area of 54 acres was taken from Great Crosby and added to the district. The council offices were built in Great George’s Road in 1861. The original building was re -constructed and enlarged to become the Town Hall when in 1894 the Board of Health became an Urban District Council with wider powers. This Council controlled the area until 1937 when Waterloo-with Seaforth and Great Crosby combined to form the Borough of Crosby. On 1 April 1974 the Borough of Crosby became part of the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.
An update from our Tenants Scrutiny Panel from Chris Kincart The Tenants Scrutiny Panel meets regularly at the CHA offices in Church Road, Waterloo to review the quality and satisfaction of services to tenants. Over the past few months the panel has been making telephone calls to tenants to check on repair satisfaction levels. We ask all tenants to please return all repair questionnaire slips to the office so that a fuller picture of how we feel about repairs can develop. Recently Lee Mattocks and I went along to the Arena Housing Association for a course run by the TPAS (Tenants Participation Advisory Service) designed to inform panel members on how to get to grips with the business of scrutiny and become more meaningfully involved. The course was well run, informative and did develop our awareness of issues and build up our confidence about knowing which areas to tackle. All tenants who want to get involved with the Scrutiny Panel will be made very welcome. The more tenants that attend these meetings the better it will be in the long run for improving communications with CHA and tenant conditions all round. If you are interested please get in touch through the office. We hope to see some of you at future meetings.
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Puzzle Corner Thank you to tenant Maureen Ryan who has sent in a series of puzzles and articles to challenge and entertain us. The first of these is a word square puzzle.
S
T
K
I
A
M
E
F
H
How many words of 4 letters or more can you make from the letters in the square on the left? All words must contain the middle letter (A) and letters can only be used once in each word. You can have plurals but no names with capital letters or foreign words please. A small prize for the entry with the most words sent into our office by Friday 4th November.
www.crosbyhousing.org.uk Our new website is now up and running. If you are online, please add our web address to your favourites. The website provides an easy way for you to get news and information from us whenever you need it. You can download forms and documents to read or fill-in. You can report repairs, send us messages, reference the Tenants’ Handbook, keep up-to-date with our calendar of events - even read this newsletter online. Of course, we’re always pleased to hear from you if you want to get in touch by phone, letter or a personal visit to our office too.
Out-of-hours Emergency Repair Service 0845 057 7096 If you would like this document in another language or format, or if you require the
CROSBY HOUSING ASSOCIATION
Office Address 10 Church Road, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 5NB Tel. 0151 920 7300 Fax 0151 949 0717 email info@crosby-ha.org.uk www.crosbyhousing.org.uk Page 8