Involvement News
Winter 2012
Customers help to shape the future Customers from across the region have been helping shape the future of the Customer Involvement Service at Orbit Heart of England. Find out how on Page 3.
What’s Inside Welcome to this edition and an update on the Customer Involvement Service Review Customers help shape the future of the Customer Involvement Service
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Estate Services Focus Group & Anti-social behaviour workshop Page 4 Getting involved – a customer’s perspective
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Extra Care Steering Group & Stone Farm Local Offer
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Service Standards
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Customer involvement in reviewing rent statements
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What’s coming up & training opportunities
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Scrutiny update
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Value for Money update and an introduction to the ‘Orbit 2020’ project
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Board update & your chance to tell us what you think about Involvement News
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Welcome Welcome to the latest edition of Involvement News. In the last edition, I introduced you to the Service Excellence Team and gave an update on our work so far this year. It has continued to be a really busy year for the team and I’ve been delighted to see so many customers getting involved and helping us to make a difference. In this edition, you’ll find out how customers have been getting involved as well as opportunities for you to get involved over the coming months. These really are exciting times for Customer Involvement within Orbit Heart of England and I hope you’ll continue to help us improve by getting involved and having your say.
Jane Phillips
Jane Phillips, Service Excellence Manager
Service Review update In the last edition of Involvement News, we told you that we’d started to review our Customer Involvement Service. The Service Review is now well underway and staff and customers have been sharing their views on how the service can improve in the future. You can find out more about how customers have been involved on the next page. The project team has been developing some key ‘principles’ for a great Customer Involvement Service, as well as some more detailed recommendations. We will share them with customers who have been involved in the review so far for their feedback and we will then present a report to Senior Managers early in the New Year. The outcomes will help us to update our Customer Involvement Strategy. If you are interested continuing to help shape this work in the New Year, please see page 11 for more details on the ‘Customer Involvement Challenge team’. We will contact all of you in the New Year to let you know the outcome of the review and to keep you informed of the next steps. If you haven’t been involved in the review so far, but would like to find out more and have your say, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact involvement@orbit.org.uk or contact
Julie Clarkson on 01789 404430.
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Customers help shape the future of the Customer Involvement Service also offer their thoughts on what Orbit Group should be doing in the future as part of the ‘Orbit 2020’ project (see page 14 for more details).
When we started our review of how we involve customers in the work that we do at Orbit Heart of England, it was vital that we asked customers for their views. We invited actively involved customers, as well as those who hadn’t been involved for some time, to help us understand how they felt about the current service and what they would like to see us deliver in the future. Twenty five actively involved customers from across the region recently attended a Focus Group at our Stratford office. Customers were asked about the reasons they got involved, what things were good about the current involvement service and what things were not so good. Customers working in groups were invited to:
We also spoke to customers who had not been involved for some time, inviting them to attend two evening Focus Groups in the north and south of the region. During these Focus Groups we asked customers the reasons why they had not been involved recently and also talked about some of the barriers that may prevent customers from getting involved. Again, we asked about offering rewards for being involved, about certificates linked to training and invited their views on what the service may look like in the future. All the feedback has helped shape the plans for the Customer Involvement Service for the future.
• give a frank reflection of how they felt about being involved • comment on some of the plans for the future of the service • comment on suggestions to offer incentives and reward customers for getting involved • share their views on ideas around customer training and providing certificates to customers who have attended training linked to involvement projects. Over lunch, customers were also given an opportunity to be involved in not just shaping the involvement service but
A big thank you for your feedback and ideas so far.
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Estate Services’ customers have their say Customers of Orbit Heart of England have been playing an important role in helping to shape the future of one of the key services provided to customers. A group of customers recently attended a Focus Group as part of a Service Review which is looking at the services we provide on our Estates. Customers who currently receive these services were invited to attend and were given an overview of why the Service Review was taking place and what it aims to achieve. The Group then looked at what areas of the service customers felt were poor and if the service offered was different depending on the type of properties we have. Customers were then asked for feedback on some of the good things that the service offered and what things it could offer going forward. Alex Elsy (Head of Operations for Estates, Leasehold and Commercial) and Tristan Hopper (Operations Manager – Estate Services) set out the next steps for the review and how they expected customers to be involved over the coming months. One customer commented on what he had learned from the day, “I didn’t know about the service being offered before today and I liked the personal contact with staff.” The Focus Group will meet again in the New Year once the proposed new service is ready to share, giving customers a further opportunity to shape the future of Estate Services.
Customers help shape improvements to the antisocial behaviour service Customers from across the region who had been victims of anti-social behaviour (ASB) were invited to attend a workshop where they could tell us about their experiences and what they thought we could have done better when dealing with their complaint. Customers and staff spent time discussing what ASB was, and the differences between what the Police should deal with (criminal behaviour) and what Orbit Heart of England could deal with as a breach of tenancy. The feedback was a bit surprising and certainly gave staff some food for thought. As a result of this, we are now making sure that we explain these differences to customers in a different way. Customers also highlighted that they had difficulties getting hold of their Community Housing Officer (CHO). As a result, we will be working closely with our Customer Service Centre to look at ways to make this easier. Finally, we spoke about how to let customers know what was going on in a case and how we made the decision as to whether to take enforcement action or not. This information has now been collated and will be fed into the on-going ASB improvement review, along with the results from our staff review and our own scrutiny. We are hopeful that the outcome will be a more customer-focussed service, resulting in improvements to the satisfaction levels of customers who have the need to report incidents of ASB to us.
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Getting involved – a customer’s perspective Philip Coldicott is one of our more actively involved customers at Orbit Heart of England. Here Phil explains, in his own words, why he gets involved and helps to make a difference. How long have you been involved, Phil? I got into customer involvement with Orbit Heart of England soon after getting my house after a major health problem. That was about 12 years ago. To me social homes are a very valuable help to people who cannot buy their own house. How have you got involved over the years? I am on the Readers’ Panel (a panel of customers who review and comment on Orbit Heart of England documents to check they are customer friendly etc.) and was also on the Customer Working Group earlier this year (the group helped develop our Annual Report, reviewed year end performance and helped decide which areas of performance should be reviewed by customers on a regular basis). I have also been a Mystery Shopper (where customers test services against published standards without staff knowing beforehand). How have you been involved recently? My last major project was the Customer Inspector Project in May this year. Our first inspection looked at the service provided by the Customer Service Centre. We had two days training and a tour of the Customer Service Centre and a presentation from the Customer Service Centre Manager. We then started the inspection which involved listening to live calls from Orbit Heart of England customers. The calls varied from new repairs to water leaks. I think the staff at the Customer Service Centre do a very good job and are very helpful. The main problem we found was that the Customer Service Centre have to keep dealing with calls for repairs that have been logged but not been sorted. We also looked at the scripts the Customer Service Centre staff use and made some suggestions for improvement. To me this was a very interesting project and I hope we can get the repair service working better. Why do you enjoy getting involved? I have learned new skills and made new friends. I also feel like I am able to give something back and help to make things better. What would you say to other customers reading this who are interested in getting involved to encourage them? It’s worth doing so we can improve the services we receive and also get the customers’ voice heard. Phil Caldicott
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Extra Care Steering Group update The Extra Care Steering Group held two meetings last year where they looked at the design and the future of our Extra Care development plan. Customers gave us their valued opinion on design, what should be in the schemes and how they may look in the future. Ideas from these meetings have been used to inform the design of two new developments, and have affected some of the changes that we have made to the design and designated use for the communal areas.
meetings for their time and valued input which has helped to shape decisions which have been made for the benefit of other customers in the future. Also it was important to get the views of residents currently living in an Extra Care setting so we spoke to residents from Briar Croft, our first Extra Care development.
The customers who took part came from a wide area. After the second meeting, it was felt that the cost of transporting residents to one venue was costly. We felt that it would provide better Value for Money for us to hold the meetings in areas where we plan to develop new schemes. An example would be our new development, St Bedes, in Bedford. As we have a Private Retirement Leasehold scheme in the same area, we feel it would provide better Value for Money to work closely with residents in that area asking them to comment on design and communal areas.
Working in partnership with the Development Team we organised a residents’ forum at Briar Croft, and asked the residents what they felt worked well and what did not work so well. Working through all the rooms at Briar Croft, we had a lot of feedback about small things, but which matter greatly to someone living in an Extra Care scheme. We have incorporated all the design changes that we collected from both the Extra Care steering group and the residents from Briar Croft. These changes have now been reflected into our two newest developments St Bedes, Bedford, due to open March 2013, and Queensway, Leamington Spa, due to open in January 2015.
We would like to thank all the customers who attended the two Extra Care Steering Group
Lorraine Mansfield, Business Development Manager, Orbit Independent Living
Stone Farm Local Offer (Hinckley) Customers and staff of the Stone Farm estate in Hinckley have been working together to highlight the things that matter the most to them on their estate; in particular the three areas of land that are designated as play areas. Andrew Davis, the Local Community Housing Officer for the area, has held a number of consultation meetings to understand what customers feel about where they live and areas that customers would want to improve. The majority of customers have said that they would like to see something for the children: a multi use games area (MUGA) on the land in Britten Close, a skate/bike park in Purcell Avenue and improvements in fencing and flooring to the play area in Elgar Close.
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Before Christmas, Andrew will be looking to work with customers and local partners to help deliver a plan of improvements on the estate driven by what customers will have said. This plan will be the Local Offer for the area. Customer will have the opportunity to monitor the progress of the plan and to also see improvements to the area that they live in. Andrew said, “Moving forward with this consultation, I hope to set up a small group of residents to drive the plans and negotiate external funding. Not only do I hope that residents feel empowered to do this, I hope to engage some of the young people on the estate to be part of this group.�
Service Standards Earlier this year, a Customer Working Group looked at the Service Standards that Orbit Heart of England provide to our Customers. The group identified the standards that were most important to them. Below are the 15 service standards (or ‘Local Offers’) that customers wanted to look at more closely. Recently a number of customers have received training on how to understand and challenge our performance against these standards so that we are held to account for the service we provide. Those customers who have received the training and are interested will be invited to form a new ‘Performance Challenge Team’ which will regularly monitor our performance against these standards and challenge on areas of underperformance. If you are interested in attending the next round of training which will be held next year, please contact Julie Clarkson on 01789 404430 or email involvement@orbit.org.uk. Your top 15 Service Standards (Local Offers) voted for by our involved customers 1. Increasing the number of customers involved year on year 2. Customers contacted about their complaint within timescales (urgent and nonurgent cases, ASB) 3. Customer satisfaction with the overall repair service 4. Responsive repairs appointments provided 5. Repair jobs completed on the first visit 6. Customers satisfied with the overall Planned Maintenance (Home Improvements) 7. Customer Service Centre answering calls within 20 seconds 8. Customer satisfaction with the overall service received when they moved into their new home 9. Complaints answered on time 10. Customer satisfaction with how their anti-social behaviour case was handled 11. Customer satisfaction with how their service complaint was handled 12. Collecting information about our customers and using it to improve our services 13. Moving Home – speed of letting our properties 14. Customer satisfaction with the service they received (Customer Service Centre) 15. Service complaints acknowledged on time
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Customers get involved and make a difference to rent statements As part of the rent review in 2010, we carried out a Customer Satisfaction survey where we found that 35% of our customers were indifferent or did not understand their rent statements. There were particular issues highlighted by some of our older customers and, as a result of this, Focus Groups on how to improve the rent statements were held at two Older Persons’ schemes which led to valuable feedback being collected. Views were also obtained from our Readers’ Panel to look into their particular concerns.
easy to understand and that the pack provided all the information that they required. Comments included: “Thank you so much. It is a credit to the people who thought of this way of communicating. It has helped me.” “Easy to understand and being a pensioner I like it being in big writing and a good size book.” “A very useful addition to the helpful information already available.” However, some customers felt there was still room for improvement:
The feedback was used in 2011 to update and re-design the Rent Statement pack which was sent out this year. The changes included:
“Please give me statements of Direct Debit payments so I have a record of what’s been taken out of my bank.”
• An explanation of the difference between a Direct Debit and a Standing Order
“Confusing to use minus signs for credit.” “Could be printed on cheap paper to reduce cost.”
• Providing the Questions & Answers in leaflet form to be sent out once a year instead of four (providing a cost saving)
Overall the new Rent Statement pack has been a success. We will be taking all comments both positive and negative into account as we continue to look at ways to enhance it further as customer requirements change.
• Adding information to the pack about ProPoints and Money Advice • Ensuring that all contact numbers on the pack are clear
The new look Rent Statement leaflets are now available on the Orbit website and on request and in alternative formats if required. They are also issued to all new customers as part of the Customer Information pack.
From May 2012 the new look Rent Statement Packs were sent out to all Orbit Heart of England customers. Each pack contained a survey form so that ALL customers could have a say in how they felt about the changes which had been made and whether the changes had been successful. 89% of the survey forms that were returned were very positive and people liked the new style layout. Customers also thought the statement letter was
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Understanding your Quarterly Account Statement
What’s coming up and training opportunities One of the big improvements which we’ve already made as a result of customer feedback as part of the Service Review is to provide advance notice of any involvement opportunities. Rather than waiting until the end of the Service Review, we thought we could quickly implement this. Below is a list of some of the exciting opportunities that customers will be able to get involved in in the New Year and the training opportunities available to help you get involved and make a difference. A more detailed list will follow in January along with dates for all the activities. Remember, not all these opportunities will involve coming along to meetings! If you are interested, let us know and we will work out the best way to ensure you can get involved.
Proposed Date
Involvement activity
How you can make a difference
2013
Various Service Improvement Groups
We are considering setting up groups where you will receive training to help us improve some of our key service areas
January - March 2013
Estate Services Improvement Group
Receive training; then help us choose the contractors who will deliver services on our Estates in the future
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Proposed Date
Involvement activity
How you can make a difference
February 2013
Performance Challenge Team
If you’ve attended the training in November, this is your opportunity to put those skills into practice and challenge us on our performance in the areas that matter most to you
January – March 2013
Internet access, technology and social media
An opportunity to join an online community across the whole of the Orbit Group to help shape our future plans
March 2013
Customer Inspectors
Join our team of Inspectors to take a closer look at our services and see if we are meeting our standards
March 2013 onwards
Improving Value for Money Group
Receive training and help us develop an approach to involving customers in ensuring we offer Value for Money across all our services
January 2013
Community Investment Panel
Review ‘bids’ submitted to our Community Investment Fund and help decide which projects are awarded money
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Proposed Date
Involvement activity
How you can make a difference
February 2013 onwards
Orbit 2020 project – planning for the future
The Orbit Group is planning for the future – help us to shape the detailed plans
2013
Customer Involvement Challenge Team
Help us to shape the future of the Customer Involvement service and monitor progress against our action plans
January – March 2013
Board Recruitment
Express your interest in becoming a Customer Board member (see page 15 for more information)
23 January 2013
Training opportunity - involving residents in achieving Value for Money
If you are interested in joining our Value for Money group, find out more about VFM by attending this training course
w/c 22 January 2013
Half day energy awareness training session
Receive energy awareness training and find out how you can get involved to help us make sure our customers’ homes remain affordable in the future
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New members for Customer Scrutiny Group Learning Equals Partnership (LEP) training on scrutiny
There has been a lot of activity over the summer and early autumn in promoting the opportunity to join the Customer Scrutiny Group (CSG). As well as sending details directly to those who had let us know that they may be interested, it has been publicised via Heart of the Matter and our website. Two promotional events have also been held where customers could come along and find out a bit more about scrutiny.
As part of the CSG’s on-going development, Maurice AbneyHastings from the current CSG attended a course run by LEP. This included looking at best practice from around the sector, how to select areas which need to be looked into as well as updates on regulation. Maurice’s summary of the day was, “There were lots of interesting points which we can consider for use in the future, but I was reassured that what we have developed so far in Orbit Heart of England is up there with the best when looking at other Housing Associations.”
The current Customer Scrutiny Group members have been actively involved throughout, attending the promotional events to ‘tell it as it is’ from a customer perspective, helping to short-list the application forms through to being part of the interview panel.
Promoting scrutiny in Orbit Heart of England
By the time you read this, the interviews will have been completed and we hope to have a number of new scrutiny recruits to strengthen the team further.
We have been able to share our experiences on what is working well with our approach to Scrutiny in Orbit Heart of England with other landlords and customers. We hope this will help them as they develop their own approaches to Scrutiny.
Early in the New Year there will be a full induction programme for the new team which will include selecting their next project.
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Irene Ashton, from our CSG, went along to a well-attended workshop at Hinckley & Bosworth Council who are starting to set up their scrutiny arrangements. The workshop involved customers, councillors and staff. We were able to offer some good advice about our early days, including how we approached improvements to the way scrutiny projects were completed.
1. Improving the communication between the Customer Service Centre and the Property Matters Team. 2. Looking at the standard stock held on the vans so that the repair can be fixed on the first visit. 3. Improving arrangements for making and keeping appointments.
We have also had an article published in the East Midlands Tenant Participation Forum (EMTPF) newsletter which goes out to a large number of organisations across the East Midlands. Word is certainly getting out about the work of the CSG. www.emtpf.co.uk Update on scrutiny projects The latest scrutiny project report (that looked into why customers have to chase up repairs which have already been reported) was presented to the Orbit Heart of England Board in August. The report included a range of recommendations which included:
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There certainly have been very few quiet moments for the team this year. Immediately following the well-received Board presentation, the latest performance results were reviewed and the area for the next scrutiny project was selected. The aim is to look into why satisfaction levels have fallen for customers who are moving into their new home. It will look specifically at how well the agreed empty property standard is being adhered to as well as how the properties are shown to new customers. They will again be working closely with our Customer Inspection team. Regular updates on the projects will be provided by the CSG group via our website: www. orbitheartofengland.org.uk/scrutiny
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Value for Money Making sure we achieve Value for Money for our customers is something that all teams within Orbit Heart of England are working towards. You may remember that in the last edition of Involvement News, we asked you whether you would like to continue to receive it and if so how. This was prompted by the large increases in postage costs announced earlier in the year by Royal Mail; previously copies were always sent out by post.
Following this exercise some customers will be receiving copies via e-mail and accessing it directly from our website, as well as receiving it by post. A number of customers have also decided that they no longer wish to receive it. Compared to the edition in the Spring we have managed to reduce the cost of Involvement News by over £2,000.
Orbit 2020 We don’t have a crystal ball at Orbit. But by understanding what might happen in the future will help us to be more prepared for the challenges ahead. As part of the ‘Orbit 2020’ project, we have asked researchers and experts to help us understand what society, the economy and housing might look like in the year 2020. We have also trained some customers to become researchers and they asked customers across the country for their views on what was important to them for the future. We have recently asked our involved customers for their views and there will be more opportunities in the New Year for you to help shape Orbit’s future. If you haven’t already had your say or would like to find out more, visit our website
www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk/2020 or contact us at involvement@orbit.org.uk or contact Julie Clarkson on 01789 404430
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Board update and Board recruitment news Resident Reward Offer
However, if you would like to find out more and/or express your interest, please contact involvement@orbit.org.uk or contact Phil Tudor on 01789 404421 or Jane Phillips on 01789 404552. www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk/ boardvacancy
The Board recently received an update on the second year of the resident reward scheme (ProPoints) which is a 3 year pilot project. The scheme aims to give rewards to customers who manage their tenancies well. The Board were impressed with the results so far and felt that with the pending changes to benefits, Orbit Heart of England had a scheme that would encourage customers to pay their rent.
Customer satisfaction with Involvement News
Customer Involvement Framework
The Board were given a brief report on the Orbit Group-wide Customer Involvement Framework. The purpose of the framework is to show how Orbit aims to not just provide a ‘good’ involvement service but a ‘great’ one to its customers. The Board were shown some of the great achievements made through customer involvement across the Orbit Partnership. The framework also set out the challenges that Orbit Heart of England faces regarding involving customers in the future and ensuring that they are at the heart of shaping the business as we move forward.
Board Recruitment
One of our Customer Board members is due to stand down and, as a result, we will have a vacancy for a new Customer Board member. More information can be found on our website and on a special insert in the next edition of Heart of the Matter.
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Over the next few weeks we will be contacting a selection of customers by phone to find out how they feel about Involvement News. Involvement News is the main method we currently use to let customers know about how customers have been involved in changing services. We want to know if the current format is getting it right or if we can make some improvements. If you have any comments about the current Involvement News newsletter, we would love to hear your views. So if you receive a call from us, let us know what you think. This telephone survey will take around 5 minutes to complete. Alternatively, please let us know by sending your comments to involvement@orbit.org.uk or write to us at Customer Involvement, FREEPOST RRXZ-RSUR-SHLA, Orbit Heart of England, 10 Greenhill Street, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6LG otherwise we may contact you shortly.
Please note: If you need this document translated (or in a different format, large print, Braille or audio) please contact our Customer Service Centre on 0345 8 500 500 or e-mail us at info@orbit.org.uk Portuguese Se necessitar deste documento traduzido (ou em formato diferente, impressรฃo de maior formato, Braille ou รกudio), contacte o centro de apoio a clientes em 0345 8 500 500 ou envie uma mensagem de correio electrรณnico para info@orbit.org.uk
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