Value for Money Self-Assessment 2016/17
Chairman’s Foreword By Dipesh J. Shah, OBE Chairman, Genesis Housing Association I am pleased to present the Genesis Value for Money Self-Assessment for 2016/17, setting out our work as we pursue our targets and seek to evidence doing so.
I will be honest: we have work to do and we are determined to do it. What this Report shows is that we are making progress across a range of the key performance indicators which evidence value for money. We are not, however, always doing so and sometimes that progress is not quick enough. Nevertheless, in key areas, the work done by our staff – and in part by our customers themselves through our resident engagement structures – points to a better and more efficient future. The backdrop against which we are operating is described in this Report, so I won’t labour the point. What I will say is this: any housing association, or indeed any custodian of public money that doesn’t understand the need to tangibly show where money is being saved, simply isn’t reflecting what their customers want to see. Many of the people we serve have had to make economies, sometimes due to welfare changes. When this happens, we do well in supporting these customers – but we also need to reflect the reality of their lives and show that we too are living within our means, with a recognition that those means are usually smaller each year.
That fact that we need to better reflect the lives of the people we are proud to serve is the reason we are a social purpose business. We don’t have profits with a corporate shareholder dividend; we use our surplus to invest in our existing stock and bring more homes to market. This is something our resident shareholders want to see and rightly so.
I make no bones about it, we were hoping for V1. But we have taken the decision as a Board to continue a level of risk in our business planning while optimising value for money in the strategic asset management of our portfolio. The HCA deem that risk acceptable and well managed, as evidenced by our retaining the gold-standard G1 rating.
We significantly increased our spend on repairs and maintenance again in the financial year: a decision which reduces our surplus, but it also means much of our stock will have a longer use and a longer income stream. We make no apology for spending so much on repairs – we have to get better at this core service, and pleasingly, the KPIs show that is what’s happening. The challenge is sustaining that, hence we are reviewing the repairs and maintenance service to assess where further efficiencies and opportunities exist for maximising that positive trend and to improve the customer experience.
I won’t pre-empt your reading of this self-assessment by highlighting specific VfM programmes, of which there are many, but this (mainly online!) publication showcases much to be proud of and a fair amount where we need to re-double our efforts. Through our ongoing business activity and our merger work, we are working to that agenda. I know we can do even better, because we take value for money seriously. I commend this report to you.
This reporting period included an In-Depth Assessment by our regulator, the Homes and Communities Agency. I want to thank all involved in what was a positive but robust process, which led to a compliant G1, V2 grading being issued. www.genesisha.org.uk
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Contents 3 Chairman’s Foreword – Dipesh J. Shah, OBE 5 Introduction to the Genesis 2016/17 VfM self- assessment
Key highlights and areas for focus: 2016/17 6 8 Value-for-Money Governance 9 The Genesis cost base 14 Asset management – a strategy to realise value
15 Digital First – the VfM opportunities, now and in future
16 Involving our residents 17 Tackling fraud, reducing waste, delivering our social purpose
18 Real help for customers, maximising income, sustaining life chances
20 The VfM Plan – 2017/18, our focus for the year ahead
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Introduction This Value for Money self-assessment sets out the journey on which Genesis is embarked as we seek to demonstrate to our customers and stakeholders our progress and work yet-to-do to achieve maximum efficiency and value for money. We have sought to inculcate an ethos within the organisation of “spending money as if it were our own”. Every piece of expenditure matters and needs to support the objectives laid out in our Corporate Strategy. This document outlines our performance across key areas within our business. It celebrates success where it has happened, and talks of the ways in which we will seek to sustain it. However, the picture is mixed, as our Chairman makes clear in his foreword. There are areas of what we do where more work needs to be done to tell a better picture – and those areas are a key
Access to our services will be digital by default
surplus through good budget management Improved customer satisfaction with our services
Investing in at least 5000 new homes
focus for our Senior Leadership Team and Executive. The Genesis Board has clear expectations around value for money: and these are expected to be met. So, this self-assessment tells a story too of where we know we need to improve and what we are going to do to achieve that. We are of course aware that the proposed merger with Notting Hill Housing is an important background factor in the writing of this report and the work that went into its content. This remains and will remain a reality that will drive, shape and change much of the activity that is outlined in this report. That said, our focus remains on that cultural challenge we have set all of our
£70k £4.7m
staff: justify spend, maximise efficiency, reduce waste. This self-assessment is structured by introducing our governance arrangements on VfM, then the specific areas of reporting. The report then outlines the thematic plans and focus for the financial year ahead. It is important to note that in a post-Grenfell world, our focus must be on achieving value. Like all other housing providers, Genesis must invest where we need to so as to meet our obligations – but seeking value in those spending decisions is paramount. It is against that wider context that this report is issued.
Reduced operating costs through self-service: £70,000 against a target of £60,000 Savings through our procurement programme: £4.7m against a target of £3.5m
19.98%
Operating Margin: 19.98% against a target of 30%
9.9%
Overall Satisfaction with the repairs service: 79.9% against a target of 75%
474
Starts on site: 474 against a target of 737
Percentage of our
66.2%7 £80.5m
with our services: 66.2% against a target of 67%
Sales revenue: £80.5m against a target of £107.6m
www.genesisha.org.uk
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Highlights/Executive Summary for 2016/17 In summary, this report emphasises three key ‘highlights’: those projects and programmes that are best practice, achieved real results and contributed to our Corporate Strategy outcomes – all while delivering VfM. These are:
Where we have work to do
HACT social value calculation – our work with and among the communities we serve in terms of providing pathways to employment, skills, development and assessment of benefits entitlements. These are helping sustain tenancies and improving resident wellbeing. We tell our story on page 18.
The function of this self-assessment is to achieve transparency about our position, both good and less good – and what we are going to do to sustain the good and improve where we have to.
Fraud – tenancy fraud expends significant internal resource and costs while depriving homes for those who need them most. Our work to identify potential criminal activity has helped free up houses that were subject to fraud and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). Our work is timely and enjoys the active endorsement and support of key stakeholders, while reducing cost to the business and recovering money owed. Read more on page 17. Procurement targets – we believe our procurement team to be among best in class, a fact underscored by the work they are doing with other housing associations to re-shape their own procurement processes. The Genesis team had a tough target to meet to achieve value over the course of 2016/17. That was exceeded. Find out how on page 13
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Three key issues shine out as requiring change and the need for a positive direction of travel. These are: Cost per unit – Genesis needs to do far better on our cost per unit position. Compared with our peers, we continue to prop up the league tables. Genesis does have a Care and Support business and a Temporary Housing business – both are low margin operations, but critical to our social purpose. But our continued focus for 2017/18 on this agenda should see improvements as service efficiency reviews reach their conclusions and are implemented. Also, the improved financial reporting arrangements we have introduced give budget holders the knowledge and foresight to flex budgets and identify early cost pressures and act accordingly. This also includes a strong business development and income element. More detail is on page 10
Operating margin – We know our cost base and the operating margins of our business. Both are priorities for the Executive, Senior Leadership Team and – of course – our Board. Directors are expected to generate efficiencies in-year. Our ‘stretch target’ programme is introducing greater pace and cross-business approach which should yield future positive results. See page 10
Voids loss – Our void loss performance in the reporting period required sustained work to achieve improvements. Those are being delivered. But there is more to do.
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
For Genesis, value-for-money (VfM) is the key imperative driving how we deliver on our business plan using maximum operational efficiency.
That organisation wide campaign focused on ‘The 3Cs’ CONTINUE – to control costs - and embed reduced cost protocols and procedures across Genesis;
We make the best use of resources that we can and plan effectively to reduce the need to increase resource to meet our commitments and deliver our objectives. We look to reduce waste and duplication where it exists.
CHALLENGE – why we do what we do and how we do it delivering efficiency initiatives robustly in small and large areas, in a way that adds value in the short, medium and long term;
Our mantra as a business is simple: if what we are doing does not contribute to delivering our Corporate Strategy goals in ways that deliver value, stop doing it.
CHANGE – our approach to revenue and cash generation, across all products and income streams; working together to improve the delivery and performance reporting across each area each year.
To deliver this commitment, we have:•
Set up a director-level Organisational Efficiency Panel (OEP) to oversee efficiency projects. A Value for Money group, also chaired at director level has led an organisation-wide campaign to raise staff awareness and understanding of VfM and how it can and must be achieved.
•
Our Corporate Strategy prioritises social and environmental benefits through the inclusion of an objective related to improving wellbeing of communities.
We delivered real and significant social and environmental returns. Using the Housing Association Community Trust’s (HACT) recognised model, for 2016/17 we exceeded our own target of achieving social value of £3.6m. We achieved £4.1m of social benefit.
Genesis has a good track record of delivering savings. Over the last six years we successfully delivered £19m of annual operating cost savings as part of the Genesis Way Programme. During 2016/17: We made further reductions to our operating costs of £70,000 through promoting customer self-service. We significantly exceeded our savings target from our procurement activity, achieving real savings and exceeding target (see page 10). By maximising digital technology, we improved access to our services, with customers now able to log on, view and edit the information we hold on them to enable effective round-the-clock customer service. We have taken steps to reduce waste through proactive and sector-leading measures, which have tackled fraud and enabled homes to be regained for those who need them (page 17).
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
VfM Governance It is the role of the Organisational Efficiency Panel (OEP) and the Vale for Money Group (both led by directors) to operationalise these objectives. The OEP oversees delivery (on-time and on-budget) of cross-cutting projects which will seek to deliver pre-identified efficiencies and savings. The VfM Group monitors, collates and communicates VfM initiatives and good practise to enable the embedding of a VfM culture, in line with The 3Cs Campaign, referenced on the previous page.
The Genesis Board has set three VfM goals:
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1.
Use resources wisely;
2.
Reduce waste;
3.
Avoid duplication.
The Board receives an annual report that compares performance in a number of cost and service quality areas with our G15 peers. Genesis is proactively taking part in the development of the sector scorecard and plans to use it to compare performance in 2017-18. Monthly management accounts are reported to the Board. These clearly show the rationale for variances in costs and service performance. Underperformance and scope to improve efficiency is challenged and acted on.
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
About the Genesis Value for Money journey and our cost base Our customers include many households facing severe challenges – some financial, others because of vulnerability or caring responsibilities. For that reason, and to deliver our social purpose, we provide not only mixed tenure housing products at different prices to meet need, but also a Care and Support business across a wide geographical footprint. Figure 1 below sets out the mix of our stock.
Figure 1: Our stock Such a wide footprint and a wide tenure mix results in almost-unique challenges in terms of securing maximum efficiencies and value for money across the piece. But that goal is a key plank of our Corporate Strategy. While that asset base present challenges, there are also significant opportunities. Successful strategic asset management of that base provides VfM outcomes which are reinvested back into the business. That is a core commitment within our new Assets and Investment strategy. Realising the value in our portfolio is a core component of our VfM approach. We know that our social landlord model generates low returns compared with other providers (Figure 2), and that our core operations interest cover and
Our stock: General Needs - Affordable and Social Rents
15,559
Intermediate Rents
615
Key Workers
1,393
Leasehold & Shared Owners
7,123
Market Rents
911
Supported Housing
3,572
Temporary Housing
2,665
Non-Residential Total operating margins are both in the lower quartile when compared with similar organisations. Our temporary housing business stream generated an operating loss of ÂŁ4.3m and our Care and Support activities operated at a minimal surplus of
243 32,081 ÂŁ0.3m in 2016-17. The operating margin from our social housing base stands at 20%. But that figure increases significantly to 33% if we exclude our Temporary Housing and Care and Support business.
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Figure 2: Social Housing Costs
Operating efficiencies Headline social housing cost per unit
2015-16 Top quartile for Social Housing 2015-16
Average for G15 15-16
2016-17 Social Housing 2016-17 All Social less Care & Care & Support Housing Support
£6,746.10 *(£4,937.97)
n/a
£4,690
£6,727.65 *(£5,304.11)
£1,273.57
£5,454.08
£2,527.84
£968.69
£1,278
£2,589.12
£604.24
£1,984.88
Service Charge cost per unit
£775.74
£483.00
£613
£921.55
£394.95
£526.60
Maintenance cost per unit
£762.36
£836.00
£1,084
£843.91
£118.15
£725.76
Major repairs cost per unit
£815.86
n/a
£855
£843.91
£135.98
£707.93
£1,762.13 *(£56.17)
n/a
£860
£1,529.17 *(£105.62)
£20.25
£1,508.92 *(£105.62)
Management cost per unit
Other social housing cost per unit
*Costs excludes the payments we make to Landlords in relation to Temporary Housing Provision. Without these costs (which most Housing Associations do not incur as they do not provide Temporary Accommodation, our Headline social housing cost per unit will be £4,938 bringing it more in line with comparable providers.
Operating Margin The high service charge costs within our Care and Support properties, along with the Supporting People Grant that boosts income levels but not the surplus, has the effect of reducing operating margin as a percentage. This is because so much of what we do in that part of the organisation has a zero-profit margin. (The reality is that £18m (50%) of our Care & Support activities fall into that bracket).
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The operating margin for Genesis (19.98%), includes our temporary housing units which in 2016-17 made a loss of £4m, affecting overall performance, however operating margin is 2% higher than in 2015-16.
carried out in 2016/17, and some review actions are ongoing. We are working with our local authority partners to address the profitability of contracts and reduce void times which will help further reduce costs per unit.
Efficiency savings across all income stream areas and overheads are being sought. Service reviews in the Care & Support area, as well as Temporary Housing were
In 2017/18, an in-year efficiency savings target of £5.7m was set to further focus corporate attention on reducing costs and improving revenue streams. Figure 3 below sets out our current costs by business operation.
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Figure 3: Our costs Over the next five years our business plan is designed to deliver an improvement in both operating margins and operating interest cover. We have already started improving our temporary housing service provision and are maximising our digital offer through our ‘Digital First’ initiative. Overheads as a percentage of turnover Overheads as a percentage of turnover stood at 12.96% in 2015/16, which was in the middle of the G15 group with slightly higher than average costs. Encouragingly, the figure was further reduced to 12.43% in 2016/17. Although there has been that reduction, Genesis still has relatively high costs in key areas, such as – for example - high costs in IT, due to the high level of work on projects and programming, with a number of project analysts, project managers and programmers who are not part of the ‘business as usual’ functions within the directorate. This is a strategic investment decision to help drive long term efficiency outcomes. Genesis will continue to invest in relevant IT projects, which may well result in increased costs in the short term but as the projects bed in, anticipated reasonable returns on investment will be expected with these projects serving as strong platforms for further efficiencies to be achieved across the organisation, while being clear that post-Grenfell, we must be adequately resourced to fulfil our obligations.
Level 1: Sub-Category Housing Management Human Resources & Organisational Development
Spend £
£1.7m
£1.6m
£463k
£11.3m
£2.6m £11m
£11.3m
£2.6m
Professional Services
£9.75m
Statutory Payments
£6.9m
Utilities
£5.4m
Information Communication Technology
£5.4m
Legal Services
£2.75m
Facilities & Management Services
£2.6m
Financial Services
£2.6m
Marketing & Media Serv ices
£1.7m
Catering
£1.6m
Memberhip & Subscriptions
£463k
£2.75m
£5.4m £11m
£5.4m
£6.9m £9.75m
Staff Costs (Social Housing) Staffing costs continue to reduce year on year, despite increased pension costs. Genesis reduced staffing costs from £52.3m in 2015/16 to £50.2m in 2016/17. Going forward, we hope to achieve further savings of £5.2m through further efficiencies.
That said, we know that several key performance metrics related to value for money, although improving, need to head in a better direction. This includes void loss, operating margin and management costs per unit. But there are positive stories to tell to offset this, especially within our sector-leading Procurement function.
STAFF COSTS
52.3m 50.2m 2015/16
2016/17
www.genesisha.org.uk
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Against a savings target of £3.5m for 2016/17 our Procurement Team delivered savings of £4.7m. Approximately 90 projects were delivered, ranging from complex OJEU procurements to low level tenders, including deploying Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) to key strategic suppliers. In addition, all procurement metrics are trending positively in comparison to both the previous financial year and to wider procurement benchmarking metrics. Examples of key procurement VfM achievements in the year include: The Building & Property Category achieved savings of £3.5m. These were mainly derived from the procurement of contractors and architects under the GHA development framework (£2.5m), Security and Concierge Services (£349k) and the re-procurement of the estate services contracts (£614k), which has also delivered significant operational efficiencies and social value. The Corporate & Professional Services Category achieved savings of £1.2m. These were mainly derived from the business rates/council tax rebate project (£570k), VAT recovery (£451k) and various IT related efficiency projects. There also exists a significant revenue opportunity in 2017/18 for the Procurement team to provide services to other Registered Providers, not only through its “Framework” offering but also on a consultative basis.
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3.5m target savings
4.7m
delivered savings
90
projects delivered
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Figure 4: Procurement Key Performance Indicators 2016 Total Spend:
2015 Trend
£209m
£184m
1118
1258
£175m
£146m
83.9%
79.3%
£187,512
£146,364
No of Transactions
130699
119892
£ Average PO Value
£1611.09
£1535.77
0.24%
0.27%
Number of Suppliers Spend with the top 5% of suppliers % Spend with top 5% suppliers Average spend per supplier
Cost of Procurement as a Percentage of Spend
Looking Forward – Procurement and Business Efficiencies Figure 4 shows the strong performance of the Procurement function in delivering VfM against targets, across the range of business activities and when compared against previous years. The focus for 2017/18 will be on “Value” rather than “Savings”. That does not mean savings are not crucial – quite the reverse. In procurement terms, driving savings is concomitant with driving VfM. But value can also be about other deliverables – such as helping to improve internal efficiency and driving innovation. It is those which will bea significant focus of the Procurement team’s service delivery plans for the coming year.
We will also:➢➢ Expect to yield £1m savings via a number of projects from the review of strategic contracts (such as legal, recruitment, professional services); ➢➢ Seek ISO27001 accreditation, improving our supply chain processes and providing security against breaches data and information which would be costly in financial and reputational terms; ➢➢ Review our current arrangements with Capita to identify further savings and value-generation opportunities; ➢➢ Push forward with our work on identification of incorrect statutory payments: in the last 16 months alone, this project has generated £1.3million back into the business – a further £200,000 is expected in 2017/18; ➢➢ Review our catering services to ensure that we have the most efficient and VfM model in place, instead of a current fragmented blend of outsourced and self-delivery models; ➢➢ Deliver savings on security and concierge costs following a review which concluded that operations are currently delivered through numerous suppliers; ➢➢ Expect £2million in savings through our Property Services function delivering a re-procurement of gas servicing contracts, among others.
www.genesisha.org.uk
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Asset Management – a strategy to realise value Genesis has been a strong voice in the debate on the importance of realising value inherent within the asset base which can be deployed for investment in more homes for those in need and in our repairs and maintenance work. Our geographical footprint is vast: with a mixed tenure of properties and a blend of property sizes and potential value – either as a retained asset or as a disposal possibility to deliver income for investment. We operate in over 80 local authorities, spread over a wide geographical area. This means we are not able to provide the real focus and attention to all of our ‘peripheral’ areas as we would like.
Genesis’ new asset management methodology, the All Borough Assessment Model (ABAM) helps to further refine our Investment and Divestment strategies at the local borough level. This model is more sophisticated, taking account of Genesis’ stock levels and development pipeline, the expected population growth and development expansion locally, Local Authority housing needs and their Local Plans, along with data about potential house price increases and competitive activity from other RPs. This makes it easier to assess development opportunities in the round, offering VfM opportunities throughout the business cycle.
Our strategy in this regard is therefore twofold:
We will deliver or exceed/reduce our targets and enlarge our development pipeline in accordance with the Investment Strategy, with ‘Value for Money’ as a guiding principle
a) We are actively exiting areas outside of London, Essex and Hertfordshire to focus our efforts within a cost-efficient footprint and growing our presence, offer and We will achieve this through: improvements in service in our core areas ➢➢ Refocusing our Asset Intensification b) We are rationalising stock within our core strategy to bring forward viable footprint with Negative (Net present opportunities for new homes to be Value) NPV and other indicators of poor developed on land already owned by us; performance or low resident satisfaction. ➢➢ Reviewing the operation and As a result, during 2016/17 Genesis performance to date of our achieved a net surplus of £18m from Architects and Contractor’s the rationalisation of existing properties Framework to encourage which is invested in our mission to deliver strategic engagement new homes. leading to closer collaboration and ‘win-win’ We aim to achieve a net surplus of £28m outcomes; from our stock rationalisation activities in 2017/18. That surplus enables us to invest ➢➢ As appropriate, the use of innovative procurement arrangements such as Joint in our existing properties and build new Ventures; homes, in line with our social purpose.
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➢➢ Reviewing current development procedures to ensure they are up to date and represent best practice in the sector, particularly in respect of projects transitioning from New Business into Development, and from Development into Sales/Management; ➢➢ Reviewing monitoring and reporting arrangements on individual projects and programmes to ensure adherence to KPIs, the early identification and mitigation of risk factors and delivery of successful outcomes.
2016/17 net surplus
£18m
from rationalisation of stock
2017/18 TARGET net surplus
£28m
from rationalisation of stock
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Digital First – opportunities for VfM through technological solutions The Genesis Corporate Strategy includes a high-level objective on Digital Transformation: we will look to provide services Digital First. The concept is to re-develop Genesis service delivery as being direct, digital and self-service first, by taking advantage of new digital (blended with traditional) technology and building new business processes and systems together, with digital technology at the core. The outcome will be a more self-sufficient customer service environment with VfM opportunities manifold throughout. We aim to help make the Genesis self-service and online experience so appealing that customers will use it ahead of existing services. Through this change, Genesis will be enabled to become a very-cost efficient and high performing business. The strategy will change the Genesis relationship with its customers to give them more control over how and when they interact with us, helping to improve our customer satisfaction. The digital strategy focuses on an approach utilising a single Customer Relationship Management system, housing, asset management and one Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
System together with Apps and Portal(s) to provide self-service approaches. The new services will: ➢➢ Give customers information on their property or service, for example; showing rent information, pay rent, service charges, book repairs and show the schedule for routine maintenance: all of which reduces calls in to the organisation and duplicate effort to provide the information;
➢➢ Sign-post one-to-one support services when a customer requires special attention and has additional needs; ➢➢ Target customers’ needs through intelligence and business based decisions; ➢➢ Improve staff engagement and allow focus on our communities and customers through less manual processes.
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Involving our residents in VfM Work with our customers directly influences our approach to value for money in a demonstrable way. We see the views, ideas and challenge of our customers on VfM as central to our strategy. As service users, many customers are service experts with knowledge which can be brought to bear to dispassionately review how Genesis does things. Recent work involving residents has yielded real results: ➢➢ Our Customer Scrutiny Panel undertakes in-depth and regularly reviews of specific parts of our services. The Panel makes recommendations for improvement which highlight opportunities for cost savings and more effective working. oo A recent review focused on voids with recommendations made and a robust action plan put in place to make sure resources are appropriately allocated and utilised. That scrutiny and recommendations has helped deliver early improvements in this area of our offer to customers. ➢➢ During the procurement of our new estate services contract, which itself has been designed to reduce costs and end the previous fragmented approach involving 50 or more different on the ground providers across our footprint, customers were invited to focus on what was most important to them to ensure 16
that the new contract provided value for money for both Genesis and the customer and a high level of customer service. oo This process drove real results in terms of contract specification and design, which in itself enabled VfM and savings down the line. ➢➢ Our customers took a leading role in testing our new customer App in ‘beta’ mode (i.e. pre- launch). That test group identified a series of improvements to design and process before the product launch, saving the organisation both time and money as well as ensuring that the App met customer specifications and was in line with what customers would use and want. ➢➢ A similar proactive approach was taken with testing of the new Genesis website: significant numbers (well over 500) of residents and customers tested new services and reviewed page designs. Customers gave feedback early in the web build process to ensure that services were designed around customer needs, as opposed to an assumption of them, reducing to zero the need to make post-launch changes due to mis-understanding of what residents and customers needed from our web presence. ➢➢ To facilitate the resident participation process in service design, scrutiny and VfM assessment, the Genesis
Customer Involvement team introduced changes to the way in which our customers’ views and ideas can enrich service design propositions. Some of these changes include: oo Introducing an online social media platform, which allows more customers to be involved and give feedback on service issues: in addition to improving engagement the platform saved staff time and costs which would otherwise have been spent on setting up meetings, catering and reimbursing customer travel expenses; oo Providing more in-house training for customers on the sort of questions to ask and the answers they should expect; oo Following a review with customers, the formal customer engagement structure was reduced in size to reduce bureaucracy and duplication - instead a formal Customer Services Committee has been formed where customers with expertise can be co-opted and engaged in reviewing specific services and taking a more strategic role in all matters relating to customer facing services.
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Tackling fraud, reducing waste, delivering our social purpose v
Tenancy Fraud Genesis currently has one dedicated tenancy fraud officer, a post which concentrates on recovering properties where there is proven fraudulent activity. Often unlawfully sublet properties are associated with criminal activities such as such as money laundering, ASB and other related behaviours which cause distress and nuisance to neighbours. In 2016/17, Genesis recovered 13 properties where there was suspected tenancy fraud. Using the former Audit Commission figures, a recovery of 13 properties translates into notional savings of £234,000, (in 2009 the former Audit Commission identified an average notional cost of £18,000 a year to keep a family in temporary accommodation). Further work in 2017/18 has included earmarking two recovered properties for disposal at a value of £650,000 & £625,000 respectively. Work will also look at tenancy audits, which will include evening visits to properties assessed as being at high risk of tenancy fraud and tenancy fraud awareness training for staff will take place in September 2017.
RECOVERED 13 PROPERTIES USED AS A BASE FOR FRAU
SAVINGS ACHIEVED
£234,000
Genesis originally housed a resident and her two young children in a three-bedroom property in 1997 in a London borough. Recently, the Neighbourhood Manager had been trying to get in contact with the resident to discuss her arrears which were over £2,000. The neighbourhood Manager had written to, and visited, on several occasions and left calling cards but there was no response. Neighbours told the Genesis Neighbourhood Manager that they had not seen the tenant but there had been lots of different people coming and going from the property. tThe Neighbourhood Manager made a referral to Genesis’ Tenancy Fraud Officer (TFO), and from his investigations, a link to a property in Southend was established. Initially, in a telephone call the resident
stated they were living in the Genesis property concerned. The TFO asked about the Southend property and explained about the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013. tThe TFO gave the resident a couple of days to think about their next steps. A couple of days later the resident wrote and confirmed they would be terminating the tenancy of the property. The time elapsed from the TFO receiving the referral to recovering the property took two months, which is an efficient turnaround time. Fundamental reviews of services and staff structures have identified even further potential efficiencies too. The property concerned was soon after providing a new home for a family who urgently needed good quality housing.
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Real help for customers, maximising income and life-chances, sustaining tenancies The social value activities which we commission or deliver ourselves make a real difference to the lives of customers with whom we work. It is central to us as a social purpose business. We are proud of the programmes themselves - and the outcomes achieved. Our focus is on achieving resident wellbeing, which in turn leads to better life-chances and sustained tenancies. Hence, we work hard to engage with residents and invest in supporting them to improve. The desired longer-term outcome is that residents are supported to become self-reliant through securing employment or starting their own business. Wellbeing activities are also delivered in partnership with third sector organisations, mainstream services and local educational colleges to garner local expertise and knowledge to maximise our impact and achieve value for money. Specific activities are: •
Employment support
•
Apprenticeships
•
Volunteering
•
Training and upskilling
•
Enterprise and business start-up support
•
Work placements
•
Money management workshops and 121 support
•
Reducing residents debt
•
Residents accessing health related services
18
195 RESIDENTS INTO EMPLOYMENT
44
•
The following outputs were achieved in 2016/17: •
195 residents into employment
•
44 Apprenticeship starts
•
823 residents into training (Includes additional training delivered as part of our Social and Economic Programmes)
•
809 residents into volunteering
•
11 new business start-ups launched
•
71 residents into work experience opportunities
•
53 residents on business start-up capacity building programme
•
220 residents accessing money management services
•
209 residents accessing health related services.
•
11 customers were supported into apprenticeships through the Kier contract.
APPRENTICESHIP STARTS
823
RESIDENTS INTO TR AINING
809
RESIDENTS INTO VOLUNTEERING
11
NEW BUSINESS START-UPS
Capacity building programmes which support Community Development Trusts, and Community Interest Companies to deliver sustainable programmes on our regeneration and development schemes.
We signpost our young residents to Barclays apprenticeship opportunities, and Barclays also support our Work Experience Programme, by providing staff to deliver employability workshops through their Life Skills programme which includes CV writing and interview techniques.
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Youth Engagement Solutions Genesis has partnered with Youth Engagement Solutions (YES!) to deliver an enterprise / business start-up programme to a younger cohort of residents who would like to become entrepreneurs. This programme is available to people aged between the ages 16 – 30. This project alone has had six residents move into employment, three business start-ups and two residents moved into volunteering. Residents have also received one-to-one sessions to support them with starting their own business. The project is on track to be a real success and has some exciting events planned which include training sessions and workshops being delivered in partnership with John Lewis.
6
RESIDENTS INTO EMPLOYMENT
3 2
BUSINESS START-UPS
RESIDENTS INTO VOLUNTEERING
Financial Inclusion ➢➢ 2016/17 was our second year of partnership with London Plus Credit Union; providing a single, consistent banking offer to all residents. Access to banking services is increasingly essential, helping residents to deal with Welfare Reform, gain employment, access services and information and lower household expenditure. During the year we grew the number of Genesis credit union memberships by exactly 50, giving a total of 191. The value of the ethical loans outstanding attached to Genesis memberships is now in excess of £56k (up £27k on the year) and savings balances have grown to
a little over £86k (up over £55k on the year). ➢➢ The East London Citizen’s Advice Bureaux were commissioned to deliver debt and welfare benefits advice to Genesis residents on Woodberry Down, Hackney. The project directly supported 198 residents, with a total reduction in debt of £123,206, and a total of £104,970.28 benefits gained for residents. ➢➢ Our Financial Inclusion Officers worked with 215 new referrals last year, 103 of which were Universal Credit customers, and gained over £43k in the form of backdates and charitable grants. Welfare Benefit
Advisors assisted 499 customers in 2016/17 and gained over £138k in the form of Housing Benefit and other benefit backdates. ➢➢ 84% of the cases closed by the Genesis Tenancy Support Team support team had arrears at referral and 77% of these had a decreased or static account balance at case closure. The total reduction of these account balances was £124,957 (an increase on the previous year) with £178,069 in additional income gained for customers. This positive performance was delivered with a redesigned TST staffing structure enabling a saving on staff costs of around £175,000.
www.genesisha.org.uk
19
Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Our Focus for 2017/18 Collated VfM Plan: 2017/18 To deliver our mission statement of ‘Creating and Sustaining Thriving Communities’, we have set out seven objectives which were launched in 2015 in our five-year Corporate Strategy. Our aim is that Value for Money (VfM) is achieved within and through each of our corporate objectives, which are: ➢➢ Improved customer satisfaction with our services. ➢➢ Improved well-being of the communities we serve. ➢➢ Concentrating on our core areas by moving out of some the peripheral locations within our portfolio. ➢➢ Investing in at least 5,000 new homes.
➢➢ An engaged and high performing staff team. ➢➢ Access to our services will be digital by default. ➢➢ Improved financial surplus through good budget management, being efficient and delivering value for money. While VfM runs as a golden thread through each objective, it has been enshrined in the seventh goal. We aim to achieve these targets through streamlining our systems and processes, procurement savings, effective budget management, improved revenue generation, efficient asset management of our portfolio, investing in our social and community initiatives and improved customer service.
To underline the need for delivery on these targets, the Genesis Board approved a £5.7m ‘stretch target’ in March 2017 for the 2017/18 financial year. The aim of this new initiative is to support Genesis’ drive towards increased financial resilience, embedding efficiencies and other improvements by ensuring that budget holders across the business build flexibility and realistic and effective budget-setting, a process which can be monitored and challenged throughout the budget life-cycle. The Senior Leadership Team of Directors will lead this agenda by challenging, monitoring, and recommending cross functional operational effectiveness and efficiency.
Figure 5: The Genesis VfM Plan 2017/18 Corporate Targets 2017/18 Measure
Baseline 2016/17
Operating Margin (%) - all activities
19.98%
100% Income Collection - all activities
100.2%
Current Tenant Arrears (%) - all activities
20
4.2%
Target 2017/18
Comments
This is the performance target which excludes other property sales. During the year we will review our approach to our repairs and maintenance spend by becoming more efficient while delivering the same 20.47% level of service. It is anticipated that cost reduction will positively impact on the operating margin Given the £5.7m stretch savings target, an operating margin of 22.8% could be achieved. 100%
We continue to aim for a 100% income collection across all revenue streams
4.2% This target is gross of housing benefit
Genesis Housing Association Annual Report & Financial Statements 2016/17
Corporate Targets 2017/18 Measure
Voids Loss %
Management costs per unit - social housing activities
Baseline 2016/17
Target 2017/18
2.01%
We are working towards improving our void turnaround performance. By being more efficient in managing the voids process and letting properties more quickly, we 1.94% aim to reduce the voids loss %. This will also impact on the operating margin with improved revenue generation
£2,589
The work on stretch targets and our Digital First Decrease agenda supports savings delivery. Teams are to identify efficiency savings circa 2% of annual budgets.
Maintenance costs per unit - social housing activities (this includes costs that are recoverable as a result of the Care and Support services we provide).
£844
Decrease
Major Repairs per unit - social housing activities
£844
Decrease
Stretch Target (Savings)
Customer Satisfaction
Comments
An 18 months Maintenance and Major Repairs programme is starting in 2017/18 which will lead to a reduction in costs, improve services as well as meet our decent homes agenda.
-
This is a Board- approved target to be delivered largely from a reduction in management and maintenance costs. It is also anticipated that increased revenue generation and other VfM improvements will £5.7m contribute to the stretch target. Achievement of the stretch target will lead to a 27% operating margin and 150% interest cover. A Senior Leadership Team Operational Efficiency Panel was set up this year to oversee the delivery of the stretch target.
66.2%
We are working towards improving our customers’ experience, which will involve using technology by offering an improved suite of customer transactional opportunities. Our improvement programme 69.0% continues to focus on the reliability, consistency and helpfulness of our staff. We will continue working with an independent survey methodology company to ask our customers on how they feel about the homes and services we provide.
www.genesisha.org.uk
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Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Corporate Targets 2017/18 Measure
Baseline 2016/17
Target 2017/18
Comments
This represents new homes completed and handed over in the year. We are working towards a significant upswing in completions across multiple tenures, 237 matching the needs of our existing and future customer base and making an important contribution to tackling the housing crisis.
New Homes Completed
195
New homes under Construction
474
1,287
44
Increase
We are working towards increasing our apprenticeship opportunities.
781
Increase
We will continue to support our customers into new jobs by offering training and volunteering initiatives.
14.9%
Increase
We will continue to support our customers in helping them to find work through several initiatives we run.
Staff engagement
70%
70%
We continue to work on staff engagement so that we have an engaged and high performing workforce.
Staff with Individual Learning Plans
66%
We want to improve on the outcome in 2016/17, 85% where 66% of our staff now have approved personal development plans.
Number of apprenticeships secured Number of customers benefitting from training Employment rate of our customers (who receive support from us) (%)
22
This target represents homes on site under construction at the end of the financial year.
Genesis Housing Association, Atelier House, 64 Pratt Street, London, NW1 0DL www.genesisha.org.uk @GenesisHousing
Creating and sustaining thriving communities
Genesis Housing Association Ltd is a Cooperative and Community Benefit Society (No 31241R) Genesis is a registered provider of social housing. Homes and Communities Agency No L4655
GHA1999