Agenda item

[Julie Haydon, Director, Corporate Services – Wolverhampton Homes, to present report]

The Chair invited Julie Haydon, Director - Corporate Services Wolverhampton Homes), to present the report.

The Director commented that the presentation will provide an update on the development of the customer services offer that is being addressed in collaboration with the overall city approach and supports the delivery of the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Resident Insight Strategy.

The Director commented on the major changes in housing regulations in response to Grenfell and the Awaab Ishak reviews and the publication of the Social Housing Green Paper (2018).

The Government published the Social Housing White Paper – Charter for Social Housing Residents (2020) which sets out the how it plans to ensure that residents feel safe, have a voice, live in good quality homes, and know how to raise complaints.

The Director commented that there is an ongoing commitment to review how services are delivered and to engage positively with customers while looking at identifying efficiencies and new ways of working in response to changes in customer demand.

The Director commented on the background to the development of the city’s Resident Influence and Insight Strategy and progress to date. The strategy sets out a vision for resident engagement which aligns to the priorities of the current Housing Strategy “Better Homes for All” - in particular, the objective of a safe and healthy home.

The Director commented that although work is ongoing, the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 has strengthened powers and all social housing providers must work with tenants and regularly consider ways to improve and tailor their approach to delivering landlord services including tenant engagement.

The Director highlighted that a key outcome from a recent survey there was a clear indication (some 70+%) that customers wanted to be able to contact the service by phone.

The Director commented on the link between housing provision and the core strategic aims of the Council and the added value that it brings to the City of Wolverhampton Council (CWC) and local communities. The range of services delivered by Wolverhampton Homes reflects the changes in the customer base and this has led to a greater understanding of the different needs which will help shape and improve the offer in the future.

The Director commented that in a survey carried out by CWC, it was highlighted that in general for all CWC services, residents felt there was not sufficient engagement. The CWC has highlighted this is a priority for action. In response to this CWC undertook a series of consultation events, online and in person events to discuss how services are provided across all managing agents.

The aim was a develop an agreed approach as part of an overarching strategy for managing agents to tenant and leaseholder engagement.

The Director commented that the feedback had noted a more joined up approach between CWC and the managing agents, highlighting the different policies, for example, grounds maintenance. The issue of ground maintenance contract arrangements had been identified by the Cabinet Member as an example, and there was support from Wolverhampton Homes, wherever possible, that a One City approach to delivering an improved customer service in adopted.

The Director gave details of different customer engagement activity and the work being done to improve communication and to better understand the diverse needs of customers.

The Director outlined details of the aims of the customer engagement strategy and specific actions linked to the key commitments to involve customers in decision making at Wolverhampton Homes. In addition, there has been other research done to consider the behaviours and needs of customers thinking about their individual needs for example in relation for example to the protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. The research work has provided valuable information that will help the service to better tailor its services to meet these individual needs rather than offering blanket provision of services to customers.

The Director commented the service is keen to continue to develop the current digital offer in terms of how customers contact Wolverhampton Homes and highlighted the benefits of speeding up processes for example, for reporting repairs online or using mobile technology. The benefit of this approach will see services for customers who prefer digital for that to be better, but also with the added benefit of releasing resource to support others who cannot or prefer not to use digital services and would want to speak to a representative of Wolverhampton Homes.

The Director commented on the findings from a tenant satisfaction survey in 2022-2023 which has formed some of the insight being used to drive changes in the service and gave examples of work done to improve levels of customer engagement.

The Director commented on the process for developing the customer contact strategy which is aimed at creating opportunities for ensuring the voice of more customers is heard and embracing customer involvement in decision making across the organisation. The aim will be to continue building up on existing work and reviewing how current resources are being used to respond the needs of customers.

The Director commented on the current work of Homes and Communities in providing a presence in the community with tenancy officers working in area.

The vision is to have the ability, where required, to see customers in the community – for those for example who may not be able to travel or who can’t use digital methods to talk about issues. It should be noted that this does already happen. The Director commented on the work being done in collaboration with CWC to use community hub network sites or Councillor surgery sessions and the customer panels to involve customers in the co-production of policies using the expertise of Councillors to support this work.

There are specialist teams dedicated to offer face to face advice and support locally. The positive work of the Money Smart team (Wolverhampton Homes) over the past 12 months was highlighted as example of supporting customers. There are also two members of Wolverhampton Homes based at the Civic Centre who can offer face to face advice and support to customers. WH currently see around 90 enquiries a week with the vast majority related to issues to do with homelessness and lettings. The average wait time for customers in the Civic Centre is around nine minutes. There is a commitment to maintain the current level of resource and to consider providing surgery type events, similar to the CWC.

The Director commented on the performance of the service against KPI targets and highlighted the high levels of customer satisfaction scores when people speak to a member of the contact centre, while accepting the struggle to meet the KPI standards for answering customer calls. The Director commented on the ongoing plans to improve the situation, which has already seen a vast improvement with call waiting times being reduced, with additional staff being recruited.

The panel were invited to comment on the report.

A panel member queried plans for using libraries or community centres to provide local venues for customer in addition to existing offer from Community Hub sites. The Director advised the panel that there are discussions ongoing with the Council and other agencies about extending the offer to other venues. In addition, tenancy officers are already being used to provide access for customers wanting a face-to-face meeting.

The Director added that Wolverhampton Homes is investigating how, by investing in technology customers can call in and schedule a meeting at more convenient location across the City that better meet their needs.

A panel member queried the days that Wolverhampton Homes would have a representative at the Civic Centre.

The Director advised the panel the service is currently available daily between 10am and 3pm and the analysis of data about the types of enquiries will be used to help shape the service in the future.

A panel member shared concerns about the need to escalate issues to a senior manager in Wolverhampton Homes on behalf of residents rather getting them earlier resolved earlier with the tenancy officer. The importance of offering face-to-face contacts was highlighted, particularly for people who are vulnerable and are not comfortable contacting the service online or by telephone.

The value of tenants and residents’ association groups was highlighted as a good way of communicating with tenants. A panel member wanted evidence to be presented to a future meeting showing the impact of the changes detailed in the presentation aimed at increasing customer engagement and satisfaction with the service.

The Director reassured the panel that the service is aware of those areas highlighted and that work is ongoing to address each of them. Work is ongoing in relation to association groups etc., and opportunities for tenants to be involved in various ways – not only Tenants and Residents Associations. The Director offered to attend future meetings of the panel to give regular updates on progress. The Director accepted that Councillors should not have to involve senior directors to get issues resolved on behalf of residents and that data analysis will help to improve the service and identify ward specific issues.

A panel member commented on long telephone waiting times and residents being disconnected without being able to report a housing issue, which has led to frustration about the situation. A panel member queried what advice given to residents on managing properties with damp.

The Director advised the panel that Wolverhampton Homes has recently appointed three Healthy Homes Advisors to support tenants with advice about managing damp in their home and proactively engaging with them on housing issues.

The Director commented that staffing levels in the customer contact centre has increased from 23 to 30 and the situation is being kept under constant review. There has been an improvement in reducing call waiting times and this has been made available in the Annual Report. The Director offered to share the latest results with the panel and advised that subject matter experts were available to deal with customer queries such as repairs. The repairs team is co-located with the contact centre staff. A high percentage of calls to the contact centre relate to property repairs.

A panel member commented about the lack of detail in the data on call waiting times and call abandonment rates which have been raised previously and expressed concern about the poor performance of the customer contact centre. The panel member queried the work being done to bring the necessary change in culture of the organisation and the measures being used to assess the effectiveness of the service.

The Director commented in response that the presentation set out a programme of work that is being undertaken that has seen significant improvements. This programme of work continues and focuses on reviewing how Wolverhampton Homes works and delivers its services.

A key part of the programme is the recent investment in customer services training for staff which has started in the customer contact centre. The training will then be rolled out across the service. This work also sees the continual review of call waiting times, abandonment rates and the use of digital to support some of the transformation.

In response to the raft of new regulations there has been a programme of development for all managers to help improve the service. The Director added that there are monthly meetings with heads of service across to review the complaints and feedback from customers about the service and to ensure that learning from complaints for example is embedded into the business. The information is used to review current processes and redesign services where required.

The Director offered to provide statistics on call waiting times and abandonment rates for the customer contact centre to a future meeting. The Director commented that the findings from a customer services survey before the pandemic which reported that about around 73 per cent of customers wanted to be contacted by phone – but it is important that the phones are answered in a timely manner. Training and awareness raising with the team has been delivered to support improvements to the service.

The Director commented on the recruitment challenges and labour shortages that are current for the UK, and these of course challenge WH however, there is a regular programme of recruitment activity and adverts.

The Director commented on the improvement in reducing call waiting times. The average call wait time is now around 7 minutes compared to around 32 minutes for the same period last year.

The Director commented that call abandonment rate are monitored – and this can be increased on occasion, for example as a result of efforts to direct customer service calls to online support services to have their enquiry resolved, i.e., lettings and repairs. 

A panel member queried the method used to engage with residents as part of the customer services survey. The Director advised the panel that face to face, telephone and online methods were used – these were based on industry norms and WH had seen a very good response to recent survey’s. There was a higher response to the online survey.

A panel member expressed concern about the use of apps and online methods to consult and communicate with residents and highlighted the challenges to people who may be visually impaired and older people who still prefer face to face contact.  There was also concern about the suitability of venues for engagement who may be unable to travel and queried how the views of this group would be collected.

The Director commented that there is a commitment from Wolverhampton Homes to increase the way employee resources are available in the community - to meet the needs of people who want face to face contact. Face to face contact is available now and is utilised.

The service will also be working with colleagues in the Housing Strategy team to share information and intelligence to help better understand the health concerns of customers. The Director offered to present details on the communication plan to a future meeting of the panel.

A panel member highlighted previous concerns about the reference to ‘customers’ in reports from Wolverhampton Homes and suggested that the term should be replaced with ‘residents’ to reflect the fundamental difference between it and companies with a commercial ethos. The importance of listening to the voice of residents was highlighted and this issue was also identified in the findings from the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Hackitt review where concerns of residents about building safety were not properly acted upon.

It is recognised that for Wolverhampton Homes, there are customers of the service, and tenants, however, comments were noted from the panel member. Also work is underway to recruit the Customer Influence Panel that will develop the customer voice, in accordance with the City’s strategy.

There was concern from the panel that the long call waiting times to customer services was resulting in more enquiries to local councillors who were able to contact senior key people at Wolverhampton Homes directly to get the issue resolved on behalf of the resident.

The Director assured the panel of the work underway to continue to reduce call waiting times.

A panel member wanted better liaison with local ward councillors in advance when tenancy officers are planning walk around the housing estates to provide the opportunity for them to attend to report issues of concern. A panel member suggested the use of interpreters would be helpful when meeting residents.

John Roseblade, Director of Resident Services, advised the panel that a report was presented to Scrutiny Board on proposed changes to the management relationship arrangements between the Council and Wolverhampton Homes. The Director commented on the improvements in the repairs housing maintenance and tenant satisfaction rates and how favourably Wolverhampton Homes compares nationally.

The Director, Corporate Services, thanked the panel for the comments on the report and presentation and acknowledged the comments made.  The Director commented on the benefits of using technology and the plans of the city’s digital strategy, and reassured the panel that the option for face-to face contact would continue and the service would continue to work with partners to make best use of local resources.

The Director noted the comment about notifying Cllrs about planned visits by tenancy officers and reaffirmed the commitment to ensure staff fully understand that the customer voice is key in developing services.

The Director added that this approach was being done with councillors and members of the Homes and Communities team.

The Chair thanked the presenter for the report.

Resolved

1.    The panel agreed that a six-month progress report on the customer engagement strategy be presented to a future meeting.

2.    The panel comments on the report and presentation to be noted and information requested shared when available.