Agenda item

The Acting Housing Service Leadpresented the draft Service Plan for the Housing Service covering the period 2019-2020, for consideration by the Board.

The Service Plan was a document produced annually by all EDDC services and set out the key achievements over the past year and the forthcoming issues to be faced by the service.  It linked closely with the Council Plan and the aim of the process was to produce a work plan for the coming year with a realistic view of the challenges and risks ahead.  Producing a service plan presented a good opportunity to look back and reflect and also the ability to forward plan.  A range of service improvements were identified through a number of SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound), performance data reported, consultation proposals outlined, budget information, and so forth.  Performance should be monitored constantly against the ‘live’ document.  The service plan coordinated annually with budget planning.

Key elements of the service plan included:

·           A brief introduction of the service, what we do and how we compare our services.

·           Key achievements from 2018/19.

·           A series of SMART objectives.

·           Looking forward- challenges to be faced over the next 3 years.

·           Options for doing things differently.

·           Performance Indicators- how we will measure our performance.

·           Training and development of our teams.

·           Risk register.

·           Links with corporate objectives, systems thinking and equalities framework.

Headlines from the Housing Service Plan were:

·           Revision of Housing Revenue Account Business Plan

·           A strategic focus- Housing Strategy/Homelessness Strategy

·           Integrated Asset Management contract

·           Development opportunities

·           Your Home, Your wellbeing project

·           A focus on mental health

·           A focus on VFM, considering the real costs of services

·           Home Safeguard expansion- income generation

The draft Service Plan had also been presented to the Tenant Involvement Forum on 22 January 2019.  Their feedback was positive overall and included the following:

·           A pro-active and forward thinking plan, capturing issues they would expect to see.

·           Supportive of the strategic theme, particularly around the role Home Safeguard played for income generation.

·           Supportive of the mention of safeguarding and community development.

·           Good focus on compliance issues, in particular fire safety.

·           Lots of questions around the digital agenda and what this would look like.

·           Discussion and interest around the role of the private sector.

·           Some concern over the mention of service charges.

·           Does contain some jargon

The Acting Housing Service Lead asked the Board what it felt was missing from the service plan, and whether the objectives met the Board’s aspirations.  It was noted that performance indicators for repairs had been omitted.  End to end time for repairs and tenant satisfaction for repairs would be included in the service plan.  Tenants reported that they had not always been receiving repairs response forms from contractors and the Acting Housing Service Lead reported that she would investigate this and ensure that they were being issued on every job.

The Acting Housing Service Lead and housing teams were thanked for producing a thorough service plan.

RECOMMENDED: that Cabinet approve the Housing Service Plan for 2019/20.