Agenda item

(Director of Housing) To receive a presentation on the progress made by the Repairs Management Contract, originally given to the Housing Scrutiny Panel on 7 August 2012.

The Assistant Director of Housing Services (Property) presented an update report on the Housing Repairs Management Contract, following a number of limited assurance audit reports regarding the stock-taking at the Depot.

The Assistant Director outlined the procedures previously in place before Mears won the Housing Repairs Management contract. Operatives received all work instructions on a paper based format and chose the order in which they were completed. Many tenants were out when the operative visited as not all operatives had council-supplied mobile phones and were not required to phone ahead to see if the tenants were in or it was convenient to turn up. The work tickets did not require the operatives to record the time of the completion, but office based staff had to update the Council’s Housing Management system with the time of completion - which they would not know. Tenants were not required to sign off work tickets to confirm the works orders had been completed and operatives completed a weekly time sheet listing which jobs had been completed on which days. Manual processes were in operation for ordering stores, although operatives were permitted to place direct orders with local suppliers up to a maximum value of £50.

The Assistant Director stated that an analysis was undertaken, in conjunction with Internal Audit, to identify the key controls to focus on in the new system when Mears was appointed as the Council’s Housing Repairs Management contractor. All operatives were issued with mobile phones and hand-held devices, which now enabled much more data to be captured as the devices would time and date stamp every action, and all the unit’s vans had been fitted with tracker devices. A Work Planner post had also been created to control the work allocated to the operatives; this was considered essential to improve productivity. Appointments were now made with tenants in advance to perform works, and text messages were sent to tenants to remind them of their appointments, that the operative was now on route to their property and “You were not in” if the tenant did not answer the door. In addition, the Mears Contract Monitoring software was implemented.

The Assistant Director reported that these measures had led to an increase in productivity, with operatives now completing between four and five jobs a day as opposed to the previous daily average of 1.36. The number of appointments had increased from 2,889 in 2010/11 to an estimated 11,000 for 2012/13. Now, only 1 in 14 appointments were being missed, which compared favourably with the national average of 1 in 12 missed appointments. Real time information was being captured about each job for the use of the office based staff, including tenant satisfaction data, and the operatives were able to produce photographic evidence of their attendance on site as well as the completion of the job.

The Assistant Director informed the Committee that the new measures had led to the Council making considerable savings through reduced staffing and increased productivity. The unit was now employing 10 less staff than before the start of the contract with Mears, and there was less reliance upon the use of Sub-Contractors. There had also been a reduction in the amount of paperwork generated by the operatives. The number of paper work tickets had been reduced by 80% and there was no longer a requirement to issue tenants with pre-paid return envelopes. The hand-held devices also captured the timesheet information previously recorded on paper forms.

The Committee noted that the Housing Repairs Unit had achieved the target for every one of their Key Performance Indicators during the second quarter of 2012/13 for the first time, and now improved (i.e. harder) targets were being set for emergency, urgent and routine repairs in the future. New initiatives were now being considered to improve the service to tenants following the achievement of the contract objectives by Mears. The Repairs Focus Group met on a quarterly basis and had developed a new void standard for empty properties, as well as performing joint void inspections to test quality.

The Assistant Director declared that, following the limited assurance audit report for the stores stock check last year, the decision had been taken to procure a new stores supplier. A procurement exercise was undertaken with three tenders received, and a decision would be taken by the Cabinet in February 2013. The new system would involve stock being held on each operative’s van, which would be replenished periodically by the supplier using data supplied by the hand-held devices about the materials used for each job. The Council would receive a consolidated invoice every two weeks from the supplier but only for those items used by the operatives, and the Council would only pay for the materials taken to replenish the vans. Van stock-checks would be undertaken jointly by the supplier and the Council in the presence of the operative. This would negate the need for the Council to hold a store of stock in the future, and resolve the problems previously experienced in respect of stock-takes.

The Committee enquired about the effects of the changes on the morale of the operatives. The Housing Repairs Manager responded that, since Mears had started working with the Council in May 2011, the operatives had initially been very suspicious of the measures introduced; but this attitude had changed when the operatives realised that the hand-held devices would provide evidence of their attendance at properties and that they had actually carried out the work.

The Housing Repairs Manager stated that the operatives were still using the stock held by the Council. The move to the new system would take place in 2013, which would make it easier to reconcile the parts used for each job and the subsequent stock-takes. The Mears Contract Monitoring software would also integrate with the Council’s Housing Management system (Ohms). The Assistant Director added that the Mears system would only feed data into the Council’s system, there would be no transfer of data back into the Mears system, although the Mears system would be informed when a Council house was sold.

The Assistant Director reassured the Committee that the Council would perform a risk assessment and various financial checks before signing a contract with the Council’s preferred supplier. However, if the preferred supplier went into liquidation, then the Council could purchase supplies from either of the other two tenderers or use Mears’ own supply network. The Council would also be examining the insurance situation regarding stock held in the vans under the new system, following the recent theft of a Council van. It was highlighted that a tenant would be phoned on a landline if they did not have a mobile phone to receive text messages.

The Committee felt that a very successful culture change had been undertaken within the Housing Repairs unit, which could potentially be extended into other areas of the Council that had received limited assurance reports. The Committee acknowledged that some problems with the stock-taking at the Depot would continue until the new system was implemented, but welcomed the enormous amount of work that had been undertaken to greatly improve the service for tenants and achieve positive results with the operatives. The Housing Portfolio Holder welcomed the Committee’s comments and invited the members to join him on a visit to the Depot in early January to see some of the enhancements and new systems that had been implemented.

Resolved:

(1)        That the report by the Assistant Director of Housing Services (Property) on the Housing Repairs Management Contract, following a number of limited assurance audit reports for the stock-taking at the Depot, be noted.