Agenda item

To consider the Service Plans for 2022 – 2025 and:

a)    Agree any observations to be passed to the Executive

b)    Confirm the reporting cycle to the LSAB

c)    Agree future LSAB agenda items

Annalisa Howson outlined the service plans.  She said each service within the Council had an annual service plan that set out what they wanted to achieve in the coming year.  It was recognised that not everything was completed in a year so they were rolling programs for three years.  In the autumn the housing team reviewed the current service plan and did some horizon scanning about what issues were going to come up in the future.  They took feedback from the tenants panel at their partnership meetings.  They looked at tenants’ feedback from STAR(tenant satisfaction survey) and they looked at compliments and complaints they’d received.  This was all set within the wider context of the Charter for Social Housing Residents White Paper that was released in 2021.  They’d kept the same themes for the service plan. 

The first theme to ensure that the service was financially robust; to have at least two million pounds in reserve to deal with any natural disasters or unforeseen consequences. There were three actions to make sure they were financially robust and there are plans for a strategic review of the HRA Business Plan in the new financial year.  The Asset Management Strategy was in development and it was due to be presented to the board in March. 

The second theme was about meeting the needs of tenants.  That involved communication. They had received STAR results and the consultation feedback from the senior living scheme and wanted to make sure there were lots of opportunities for people to work with them and give feedback so they could make sure that the service met people's needs. 

The third theme was for the service to be professional and put residents at the heart of what they did; to have good retention of staff and make sure that they had the capacity within the team to deal with all the things that were arising.  Also working with the Chartered Institute of Housing looking at the professional attributes that a social housing officer should have and they were working with people to ensure they have access to ongoing learning and development and professionalism. 

The fourth theme for the service plan was to be a recognised partner as they needed to work with other organisations and statutory agencies to improve lives and seek opportunities to promote any initiatives. 

Fifthly they wanted to make sure that our customer experience was good for our residents so they would continue to monitor satisfaction and develop performance management.

The sixth element which was in the Housing Delivery and Community Service Plan was about delivering new homes. 

Overall the team’s priority was to improve responsive repairs.  They had a new contractor starting in April and improve communications

ACTION - The Board would receive service plan updates in the quarterly performance reports but also a more detailed update in six months’ time on progress with all the service plan actions in October

Councillors wanted to know if there was any money in the budget for all the extra work.  Hugh stated that they had three quarters of a million pounds and a line in the budget for fire safety work. There was also money in the development program to build new flats within one of the schemes. There was also quite a lot of money going into the senior living schemes within the 2022/23 budget.

RESOLVED

The Board:

·         considered the service plans for 2022-2025 and agreed with the service plan themes and actions, 

·         confirmed the quarterly reporting cycle with an in depth six month review in October,  and

·         noted any service plan action could be requested as a future LSAB agenda item.