1. Achieving excellence through meaningful tenant involvement Liz Haworth – Director of Neighbourhoods Sandra Binns – Chair of CEP Jenny Williams – CEP member Nichola Bremner – Young Inspector 7 th June 2011

2. TSA - Meaningful engagement “We expect providers to engage meaningfully with tenants and offer them opportunities to agree how service delivery against the TSA standards can be tailored to reflect local priorities.” - TSA

3. Co-regulation Source: Housemark

4. Helena Partnerships Stock transfer association – 2002 St Helens, Merseyside Manage approx. 13000 homes 674 staff including 268 trades people in our Propertycare division.

5. Developing the Helena Homes brand Satisfaction with quality of home ASB Repairs service Involvement and communication Neighbourhood

6. Understanding what drives satisfaction Consultation with tenants, residents and stakeholders: –Face to face interviews –Telephone survey with 400 tenants –Focus groups and questionnaires –Tenant Panel (One Voice) survey –Mystery shops and customer inspections –Series of service specific listening days

7. What drives satisfaction? Quality of home Responsive repairs service Face to face contact with our people Customer contact eg telephone, email, SMS Dealing with ASB Taking tenants’ views into account Keeping tenants informed Value for money

8. What drives dissatisfaction? Young people Car parking Litter and rubbish Drug misuse Noise Rowdy behaviour Pets

9. AAaAAa Hi (60) Med (42.5) Lo (25) Hi (50)Low (25)Med (37.5) Importance (impact of issue on overall satisfaction with each aspect of service) Performance Lower Leverage Issues (Re-deploy) Key Strengths (maintain) Low Priority Issues (Monitor) Critical Improvement Issues (Improve) Key Driver Analysis A Enquiry handling B Property in general C Home improvement work D Repairs and maintenance E Rent handling F Helena making neighbourhood better and safer G Helena handling neighbour nuisance and ASB H Helena’s role in involving and engaging the community I Ensuring customers adhere to tenancy rules J Process for letting and exchanging homes K Process for handling complaints L General communications KEY: C EA B D G I K L F H J (2ndary improvement) Adjusted R-squared (fit of the model) is 52% i.e. good fit

10. Our target To increase the percentage of very satisfied tenants by 25% by 2012.

11. Corporate Target Target achieved 2 years early! Target Trend % satisfied with overall services provided

12. Aims of engagement Ensure that we: –Understand and deliver ‘what matters most’ –service standards meet individual needs –are accountable to customers –Learn from and listen to customers –TSA standards came later – but our approach fits in well!

13. Opportunities for Involvement Service improvement Accountability Community Engagement

14. Mechanisms Service improvement Customer Excellence Panel One Voice Tenant inspectors Focus groups Specialist forums and listening days Feedback and complaints Editorial group Accountability Tenant board members Resident Involvement Monitoring Group Community Engagement Communities Together Community events TRA’s and buddy groups Estate Champions and environmental inspectors Diversity BME GLBT Young People Older People Disability

15. Key milestones Understanding who our customers are Understand what’s working and what’s not? How can we go the extra mile - what is excellence? Do service standards meet expectations? How can we better involve customers? How can we be more accountable, And ensure regular feedback to tenants?

16. Embedding Challenge Tenant Scrutiny Mystery Shoppers One Voice tenant panel Young Inspectors RIMG

17. Customer Scrutiny Role The Customer Excellence Panel (CEP)

18. About CEP Provides an enhanced scrutiny role. Helps ensure high quality services. Added a new dimension to Helena’s decision-making process. Maximum of 16 places –Tenants only

19. What CEP isn’t A consultation group ‘Rubber stamp’ of policy and procedural changes –CEP review wider feedback gathered and ensure that Helena is acting on the views of our customers

20. Establishing CEP Interviews for CEP members Welcome meeting and independent training programme Appointment of Vice Chair Links with One Voice, Mystery Shoppers and Board formalised External Consultants appointed – Independent recruitment Chair of Panel appointed by Board (18month placement) All tenants invited to attend ‘Taster Day’. 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 Dec 2008 June 2009

21. External consultant role Benefits: –Critical friend –Open and transparent –Independent recruitment process –Training not biased in Helena’s favour –Learn from best practice

22. Recruitment Every tenant invited to attend ‘taster day’ Menu of scrutiny opportunities Interview process Bespoke training tailored to our needs

23. Links to Board Chair and Vice Chair attend Board to provide quarterly updates on: –Basket of Performance Indicators –Outcomes of service reviews

24. Approach to CEP reviews What matters most to tenants? Do our service standards reflect this? How are we performing? (including cost and value for money) Are we monitoring the right things? What improvements do tenants want?

25. CEP Service Reviews Scrutinise performance & feedback Agree Customer Excellence KPIs Review service standards Recommend improvement & identify actions Consider value for money and are we delivering excellent services to tenants and residents?

26. Links – Customer Inspectors Review timetable complements CEP review schedule CEP may request further inspections Inspectors invited to present findings to CEP. Inspectors will receive CEP reports outlining outcomes

27. Links – Young Inspectors Mystery shop our services Ensure meet the needs of young people Training to develop skills and capacity build Improve CV and provide experience transferable into employment

28. Links – One Voice Quarterly surveys to feed into reviews CEP can ask additional questions in One Voice surveys as part of review process. One Voice will be kept informed of progress via Chorus newsletter

29. Resident Involvement Monitoring Group (RIMG) Umbrella group of residents Reviews impact of resident involvement Rates all activities in regards to impact and value for money Ensures that Helena is listening Holds Helena to account

30. Link – Complaints appeals panel Stage 3 – complaints appeal Tenant representatives In line with proposed introduction of ‘democratic filter’

31. Outcomes TSA Co Regulation Champions

32. CEP Outcomes Identified £80k efficiency savings Introduced new service standards Extended repairs appointments Improved communication –ASB Changed complaints process Reviewed empty property standards

33. Basket of Customer Excellence KPIs Customer Charter - Service standards that reflect what matters most to tenants. Customer orientated improvement plans. Effective monitoring mechanisms established Improved services that provide value for money. Culture of Customer Excellence embedded throughout Helena. CEP Outcomes

34. Can evidence clearly how customer views have influenced service delivery KPI framework has been revised ensuring cost, time and quality indicators incorporated for all service areas. Satisfaction is improving CSE Award

35. Top tips Be creative when recruiting Don’t underestimate your tenants Build relations between all groups involved in scrutiny activities.

36. Next steps Peer Reviews – are you interested? Launch our new website Accredited scrutiny training

37. Find out more at…. www.excellenceathelena.co.uk Email: scrutiny@helenapartnerships.co.uk Available from 10 th June 2011

38. Any questions?