Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2012 Action Plan October 2012

Transcription

1 Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2012 Action Plan October 2012 In addition to the (ongoing) actions set out in the Action Plan response to last year s Tenant Satisfaction Survey (TSS 2011) we have identified the further actions in response to this year s feedback (TSS 2012) Service area You told us that So we have or are going to Tenant Involvement & Contact Only 40% of you are aware of Housing s Service Standards or Local Offers There is a strong link between being kept informed and how satisfied you are with the Housing Service Listening and acting on your views is becoming increasingly important requirement for you. Local Offers or Service standards should be reviewed every 3 years. In 2013 we will work with tenants to review and publicise the Housing Service Standards. Continue to send out our regular correspondence of 2 Local Newsletters per year, 2 Housing News and an Annual report. Review the information on our Housing pages on the Reading website. Develop a Tenant Communication group comprised of tenant s from the sounding board expressing an interest in this type of involvement. Implement the findings of the TP review to encourage a greater number and diversity of tenants to be involved in participating and influencing decision making in the Housing Service. Commence a recruitment campaign to ensure greater awareness and understanding of how to get involved and support and opportunities available. Further develop initiatives such as Your Community Your Cash encouraging tenants to decide priorities in their own neighbourhood In 2013 we will review Local Offers with Tenants Further develop reviews of the Housing Service with the Tenant

2 Over 20% of you found that Getting hold of the right person was difficult. Those from minority ethnic groups were less satisfied with 35% saying it was difficult to get hold of the right person. The same tenants also found that staff was less helpful. Scrutiny Panel and respond to suggestions with detailed action plans. Keep tenants advised of how we have responded to their feedback through reporting and publishing our progress. We will commission our tenant mystery shoppers to carry out an investigation on the experience of getting access to our housing services. This investigation will include telephone calls and visits to both the civic and the advice shops. We will work with our colleagues in the call centre to investigate how we can improve the information and signposting we provide for tenants. Neighbourhood Services Only a very small proportion of older tenants had access to the internet at home. You were dissatisfied with aspects of how we dealt with your complaints including the speed of response, being kept informed of progress and the support you received whilst the complaint was being dealt with. Car parking problems, dog fouling and dealing with rubbish and litter continue to be the most important considerations for good estate management. Ensure that we use a range of channels when we communicate with tenants and target communication channels where appropriate We have asked if TACT, the Tenant Scrutiny Panel would consider carrying out a review of the complaints process We will also contact tenants who have been through the complaints process to try to find out what we can do to improve the experience of making a complaint We will carry out customer care training for some of our key front line staff Dog Fouling: Participate in and assist funding of awareness raising sessions in hotspot estate areas. Look to provide additional dog waste bins in areas where particular problems have been identified. Car Parking & Litter continue with the actions identified in the 2011 improvement plan including the provision of enhanced litter picking service and working with the community to agree local

3 solutions for car parking issues. Anti-Social behaviour continues to be a priority for tenants. A significant proportion of tenants found it difficult to report ASB problems and most of those would be reluctant to report ASB in the future. 41% of you were dissatisfied with the way in which ASB complaints were dealt with. Tenants from a minority ethnic background were more likely to feel that racial harassment is a problem and concern in their neighbourhood. We will continue to promote the ways in which tenants can report ASB to the team, utilising Housing publications like Housing News, the neighbourhood Newsletters. New posters will be put up in blocks, notice boards and in Advice Shops. A new ASB Fact Sheet will be developed to ensure tenants know what the ASB Team do, how ASB can be reported and what actions the team can take to tackle ASB. We will ensure that one reporting number is promoted so that all calls are routed through to the call centre so that your case is allocated to the right team in the first instance. Continue to speak to tenants who have had cases managed by the ASB team to look at how we can improve the service, through closed case surveys. Ensure that the right service deals with your ASB complaints if it isn t a housing ASB issue. Ensure that expectations of the service are set out by the case officer at the beginning of the ASB case so there is an understanding of what we can and cannot do. Work with Affinity to share good practice Review of mechanisms and publicity that encourage reporting including targeted factsheets. Ensure our staff know what to do if an incident is reported to them so that they can support victims of hate crime appropriately

4 Home Repairs and Maintenance Tenancy Lettings and Transfers Housing Services and Overall there is a reduction in your satisfaction with the condition of communal areas from those tenants living in flats. Although overall you are satisfied with the repairs and maintenance service that getting the Repair done right first time and the time taken before work starts are two main areas for improvement. Those tenants under 45 years are least satisfied with how the Housing service supports them in moving home. Although your satisfaction with the Advice provided about claiming Work with TVP and other RBC Stakeholders to investigate potential and benefits of joining STOP HATE UK framework in Reading. Notify TACT of this concern for possible further investigation via Tenant Scrutiny Planned Maintenance and Neighbourhood Teams to work together to review the current frequency of decorating provision for communal areas and look at the possibility of upgrading the quality of communal facilities e.g. signage, floor coverings and fire doors. Continue with the lift improvement programme Work with the Repairs and Planned Maintenance working group (tenants) and the Repairs Quality Forum to investigate how we can better streamline and deliver repairs and improvements, keep tenants better informed and raise standards so that satisfaction levels improve. Review priority times for day to day repairs Review lead in time before repair takes place to identify where and how it could be reduced. Review communication to tenants to see how this can be improved. Target this group to encourage them to complete the sign-up satisfaction survey. Complete further analysis of feedback from the survey to find out why this group are most dissatisfied and agree actions to respond to any dissatisfaction themes Identify this particular group of tenants and make direct

5 Advice welfare and other benefits was high overall; those tenants aged were least satisfied with the provision of welfare advice. A significant proportion of tenants seemed to be unaware of the advice and support available from the debt advice service. contact/target to investigate (with this group) reason for dissatisfaction and the sort of information and advice they require (or is missing ). Review Publicity and ensure tenants are made aware of this service at sign up and ongoing via Housing News. Provide leaflets in all letters and notification of rent increase Remind at every contact re arrears Posters in Advice Shop Reception Case studies in Housing News