Agenda item

To receive the report of Martin Greenway, Head of Repairs & Estate Services.

RECEIVED the report of Martin Greenway, Head of Repairs & Estate Services.

NOTED

1.    Key points of the report were highlighted by Councillor George Savva, Cabinet Member for Social Housing.

2.    Members were invited to raise questions and comments.

3.    In response to Members’ questions regarding the introduction of the service, Officers explained that the service was launched in May 2020. In arriving at this decision, Cabinet considered the wider feedback from service users which included residents wanting to register their repair to polite, helpful staff who could diagnose their problems accurately and a book a convenient appointment slot with minimum customer effort. There was also a need to achieve a higher rate of ‘first time fix’ as well as communicating better to satisfactorily resolve repair issues including improving the handling of escalations and complaint casework.

4.    Officers provided an overview of the Repairs Team outlining how functions are organised. The structure is predicated on maximising efficiency so there are several functions brought together or share common resources.

5.    Regarding the establishment of the Housing Resolution Centre officers explained that one of the key drivers of creating a dedicated Contact Centre for Housing repairs was to improve the customer journey and have the process from ‘telephone to screwdriver’ all in one team. As agreed in the plan a Housing Resolution Centre was established in January 2022.

6.    In response to Members’ concerns regarding the efficiency of contractors, officers advised that the service fields 80,000 calls per annum resulting in 49,000 repair orders being raised. (30,000 of which pass through Enfield Repairs Direct (ERD)). The service is based at Edmonton Green and co-located with technical staff and staff from other teams in Housing to develop more of a joined-up approach. Core repair services are still in-house meaning that there is still a need to rely on external specialist contractors where there’s not a business case to take in-house (e.g. a roofing repair).

7.    The department is in the process of procuring new contractors which will provide the ability to consolidate what is already in place. However, it is currently a very difficult market as material and labour costs continue to increase therefore companies are not coming forward with tenders. Therefore, as many repairs as possible are being covered in-house with the skills available and external contractors are only used for very specialised jobs.

8.    Officers went on to say that the in-house repairs operation is of critical importance to the future success of the service as having to over-rely on contractors has been a problem in the past. Instead the vision is to create a dedicated in-house workforce with trained and knowledgeable tradespeople, with apprenticeship programmes and succession planning. The benefit of an in-house service is that there is greater control and accountability for the standard of work. A training programme has been agreed which will enable staff to work safely, understand the systems used and to receive further trade skill training.

9.    To improve the quality of service provided to customers and to reduce call volumes officers advised that a digital shift plan has been devised. While offering a comprehensive telephone service, residents should be able to book routine repairs online and engage in more digital interactions. Reflecting societal shifts in behaviour, it is anticipated that there will be a year on year tapering down in telephone demand and a corresponding increase in digital transactions.

10. Members asked how this newly devised service would work and officers clarified that it would be implemented over three phases, the first being improving the website content, the second phase would develop additional functionality on the website to embed live repairs diaries on the website and allow for customers to book and cancel routine repairs. And finally phase 3 would involve expanding digital options. The target date for this service to be fully up and running is April 2023.

11. In response to a question raised regarding the budget shortfall eluded to on page 13 paragraph 28 of the report, officers clarified the urgent actions which would be taken to further reduce expenditure, one of which is completing contractual repairs only.

12. Further information was provided on efficiency indicators, including mechanisms in place to improve productivity from an average of 3.5 jobs per day to an average of 4 which will enable the service to derive greater efficiency from its staff. Discussions also took place regarding the tracking of missed appointments and how these are monitored.

13. In response to a suggestion regarding the possibility of ‘virtual site visits’ it was agreed that officers would investigate this further and feedback accordingly.

Action: Martin Greenway, Head of Repairs & Estate Services