2012-2013 RESIDENT ANNUAL REPORT

I am pleased to present you with the Orbit South 2013 Resident Annual Report on behalf of the Orbit South Resident Engagement Focus Group. The report gives you information on how Orbit South has delivered against the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) regulatory standards and used your feedback to improve services for residents.

Residents play a key role in shaping how Orbit works. Different resident groups partner with

staff to review how things are done and find ways of making things better.

This means we have a real voice within Orbit and as a result, services for everyone are improved.

The Resident Engagement Focus

Group has helped put together this annual report.

You will find key information on how Orbit and residents work

together, how Orbit performed and how residents have helped shape improvements over the last year. We hope you find it interesting!

A few words from Vivien Knibbs, Orbit Living’s Executive Director

Every year, we produce an annual report to keep you, our customers, informed about how we are performing against a set of standards. It is also an opportunity to look back at our achievements and to pinpoint where we could do better.

Over the year we have worked hard to develop more efficient and effective services which support our priority of delivering good quality homes in strong communities. That can be a tricky balancing act, especially during a recession and in the midst of the Government’s biggest welfare reforms for decades. Despite these challenging conditions I am confident we can continue to improve and become a stronger organisation, providing you with quality homes and vibrant neighbourhoods in the future.

This annual report is a great example of collaboration between us and our customers. We are grateful to those of you who helped produce this document and those who have worked with us to help shape our services and let us know how we are doing during the year.

I hope you enjoy reading this report. If you have any comments or thoughts about the annual report, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at orbitsouthcommunications@orbit.org.uk

A warm welcome from Terry Steeples, resident and member of the Orbit South Resident Engagement Focus Group.2

Homes and Communities Agency Consumer StandardsAs a housing association, Orbit South follows national standards set by the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). Throughout the report, we’ll tell you how we’ve measured up in the following areas:

Tenancy• how we rent homes in a

fair and transparent way and make the best use of available housing

• how we meet the aspirations and needs of current and potential residents, contribute to local authorities’ strategic aims and help deliver sustainable communities.

Tenant involvement and empowerment• how we give residents

opportunities to influence housing related policies and how our services are delivered

• how we involve residents in scrutinising performance

• how we manage complaints and improve our services by learning from them.

Homes • how we provide

homes that are warm, weatherproof and have modern facilities

• how we provide a cost effective repairs service that responds to, meets the needs of and offers choice to residents.

Neighbourhoods and community• how we keep

neighbourhoods clean and safe by working with residents and other partners

• how we promote social, environmental and economic well-being in the communities where we work

• how we work with other partners and agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour.

More information about the HCA’s national standards can be found at homesandcommunities.co.uk/ourwork/standards

Contents

Who lives in Orbit South homes?

Working in partnership with residents

Delivering value for money

Tenant involvement and empowerment

Homes

How we rent homes

Neighbourhoods and community

4 and 5

6

7

8 and 9

10 and 11

12 and 13

14 and 15

Pages 3

4

Who lives in Orbit South homes?

A diverse range of people live in Orbit South homes, with different types of families that come in a variety of sizes and from different backgrounds. We value this diversity and work hard to deliver services that are accessible for everyone.

Types of homes we manage

General needs rented 11,562

Homes for older people 1,217 (includes Private Retirement Leasehold)

Supported housing (all ages) 44

Leaseholder and shared owners 2,616(not including Private Retirement Leasehold)

People who live in Orbit South homes

37%of residents

are male

32%of residents are over

the age of 60

63%of re

sidents

are fem

ale

8%of residents are Non-

White British

73%of residents

are White British

15%of re

sidents

have to

ld us

they have

a

disability

19% of residents surveyed did not respond

5

We have increased the ways residents can find out about involvement opportunities and have their say online. Our Involved Residents’ blog has been viewed over 2,800 times since its launch last September. The blog features updates on scrutiny, mystery shopping, Board vacancies, resident events and training opportunities. Visit osinvolvedresidents.org.uk to find out more. We have also launched a neighbourhood Facebook page for Bexley residents. Search ‘Orbit Bexley’ on Facebook to learn more!

How you contact us:

Phone calls answered within 20 seconds

2011

2012

2013

80% 73.5% 147,638 calls

80% 55.0% 164,490 calls

80% 63.8% 175,173 calls

Target Actual

Not only did the number of calls increase last year, but so has our ability to answer them more quickly. We’ve improved the way we work in the Customer Service Centre by managing our resources better and by further adopting a ‘right first time’ customer service approach. We will continue to work hard to improve our response times and make sure we are readily available when you want to reach us.

• I n 2012-13, 70.2% of residents told us they have access to the internet.

• We have set up resident blogs and neighbourhood Facebook pages so that we can have online conversations about issues you want to talk about.

Online

Number of calls received

Overall customer satisfactionOur annual STAR survey (Survey of Tenants and Residents) in 2013 revealed that overall satisfaction with Orbit South has decreased by 1.1% to 82.7%. We continue to work hard to increase resident satisfaction and throughout this report, you will read more about service improvements we are making.

Working in partnership with residents6

One of the most important ways for us to improve is to listen to what you tell us. There are a number of ways that we collect your feedback and use it to make improvements:

Feedback

Resident focus groups, blogs, online research communities, panels,

forums and associationsSTAR survey

Complaints

MOT (moment of

truth) surveys

Neighbourhood Facebook pages

Committee and Board

membership

Resident InspectorsAll of this feedback allows

us to continually learn from what we do. It

tells us what we do well and where we need to

improve, so that we can make positive changes for

all residents.

Get involved!Whether you have a little or a lot of spare time, we are always happy to hear from residents who want to get involved in shaping our services. For more information, please contact a member of our Resident Engagement Team on 0800 678 1221.

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Local offers

Scrutiny panels

Street and Block Voices

Mystery shopping

Community events

Estate inspections

We also had a challenge to see which team could find the best savings and our Planned Works team saved an incredible £351,000 by sourcing outside funding and getting better prices for energy saving improvements and insulation upgrades. Not only does this benefit residents, but it also helps the National Autistic Society who received a £1,000 donation from the team as their prize for winning the challenge.

Delivering value for moneyGetting the best value for money is really important and we constantly look for ways to achieve this in all that we do. Every team at Orbit looks to identify and track savings and then each year, those savings are reinvested into our communities. Through these efforts, last year we saved an additional £535,000 which is being put towards a wide range of community projects.

Investing in our communitiesMaking a difference to communities is one of our top priorities and in the past year, our Community Investment Fund (CIF) has supported over 30 projects using money we’ve saved by making ourselves more efficient. A fantastic 785 people were able to access training using the fund which, for some, has already resulted in full-time work. Those of you who’ve needed a little bit more help managing your money have been able to get it through dedicated CAB money advisors in Thanet, and other support we’ve given has guided residents through Welfare Benefits changes. The CIF has also funded garden clearance, computers for sheltered schemes, youth projects and more.

Members from the Orbit South Scrutiny Panel linked in with other Orbit resident scrutiny panels from the East and Heart of England to discuss our approach to value for money. They made some great suggestions for potential efficiency savings. We’re going through them now to see what we can do to make them a reality.

we listened

you asked

Tenant involvement and empowerment

Resident involvement is about the opportunities we provide for residents to review our performance, influence housing related policies and monitor how services are delivered. It is also about how well we manage complaints and improve our services by learning from them.

We believe that residents should be at the heart of everything we do and that engaging with residents is the best way that we can empower people to help improve our services. There are many different ways that you can engage with us to let us know what you think of our services and how we can improve them for all residents.

Street and Block Voices We have continued to build grassroots resident engagement through our ‘Street and Block Voices’ programme and now have over 60 residents who act as representatives in the South. Residents who act as a Street and Block Voice advocate for their street or block, attend neighbourhood meetings to discuss wider area issues and keep their neighbours informed (through informal meetings or local newsletters). Last year, we held sessions to teach them how to use social media tools like Facebook and blogs.

Focus groupsDifferent resident focus groups help us learn more about our services and make changes to improve them. The Resident Engagement Focus Group, who helped us with this report, reviewed information throughout the year from teams across Orbit and are helping shape our future plans by providing their views on our Orbit 2020 transformation project. They also helped plan and deliver our successful Involved Residents’ Conference in Margate and provided feedback on how they think we should use social media to engage with residents.

We also have a Customer Service Centre Focus Group who work in partnership with staff to identify areas for improvement in our Customer Service Centre and help monitor service delivery. Last year they participated in question and answer sessions with staff where they challenged plans and made suggestions for improving the way our Customer Service Centre manages calls on rent and repair enquires.

69.6%of residents are satisfied that we

take their views into account (down 0.4%

from 2012).

85%of residents think we do a good job of keeping them

informed about things that affect them as

residents (a decrease of 1.4% from 2012).

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Last year our Disability Focus Group received regular performance updates on our Aids and Adaptations service and helped us to improve how we promote the service to residents by supporting the development of a new promotional leaflet. The group also helped shape a new process for ensuring that repairs requests made by vulnerable residents are prioritised.

The Housing Ombudsman Service investigated three cases last year relating to Neighbourhood Services, Responsive Repairs and Private Retirement Leasehold. In all three cases the Ombudsman found there was no maladministration, so no recommendations or orders were made.

We have been closely monitoring complaints and using feedback to make improvements in the way we work, so that we learn from our mistakes and make positive changes that benefit all residents. We have also been making changes to our complaints and compensation policies. They are going through our ‘resident approval’ process now and will be published shortly.

9

2012 Involved Residents’ ConferenceThe Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate provided a stunning seaside backdrop to the Orbit South Residents’ Conference last September. 39 of the residents involved in our various resident groups and panels joined us for a lively day of activities and interesting presentations. At the event, we presented the first ‘Val Walsh, Outstanding Contribution to Resident Engagement Award’, in honour of Val Walsh, who sadly passed away last year and the invaluable contribution she made to resident involvement. It was presented to Rosemary White from Erith in recognition of her support to Orbit’s work and commitment to her local community. Planning is currently underway for the 2013 conference and we are working with residents and staff to ensure the event is bigger and better!

ComplaintsWe want to give residents the best service possible and this is part of our Customer First commitment. However, sometimes things do go wrong and people wish to make a complaint. This can be a good thing, as it helps us understand the customer experience and highlights areas that need improving. Last year, we responded to 295 complaints and these are the service areas they relate to:

Stage one complaints:n Responsive repairs – 45%n Reactive services (gas servicing) – 19%n Neighbourhood Services – 10%n Leasehold Services – 7% n Asset Management – 3%n Development (new homes) – 3%n Estate Services – 2.5%n Income Recovery – 2%n Planned Works – 2%n Supported Housing – 2%n Lettings – 1.5%n Lift breakdowns – 1.5%n Private Retirement Leasehold – 1%n Customer Service Centre – 0.5%

91% of the complaints were resolved at Stage 1 of Orbit’s complaints procedure.

CustomerFirstThe way we work

Residents’ associations and groupsWe work alongside and support resident associations to make a difference to where residents live. We helped a resident who wanted to see more community spirit on her street set up the Stonecross Lea Community Group in Chatham, Kent. Since then, the group has helped build a greater sense of community within the area. Informal meetings are now held every two months where residents have the opportunity to interact with each other and discuss community priorities with Orbit staff. Membership has increased significantly over the last year with over 20 residents now attending the meetings.

Last year the panel completed a review on estate inspections. They focussed on the way inspections are carried out, why there is a lack of residents who attend inspections and how feeding back results of inspections to all residents can be improved. They came up with some great suggestions for improvements which are now being implemented including increased publicity of inspections, training for those who attend and more efficient ways to feedback any outcomes. The panel has just started a review on service charges.

RES

IDENT SCRUTIN

Y PA

NEL

10 Homes This HCA standard is about how well we provide homes that are warm, weatherproof and have modern facilities. It also includes how well we provide a cost effective repairs service that responds to, meets the needs of and offers choice to residents.

86.7%of residents are

satisfied with the overall condition of their home (an increase of 1.2%

from 2012).

of Orbit South homes held a current gas safety certificate as of 31 March 2013. According to Housemark, we ranked joint first out of 274 providers.

100%Gas safety

Our Neighbourhood teams saved £6,600 last year by applying for gas service access injunctions directly instead of paying solicitors.

50,400repairs completed

98.5% within targettimescales

Repairs49 community activities such as play area projects, financial advice sessions and craft projects

Together last year in the East and South we delivered:

287days and 1,145 staff hours dedicated to community investment

560 residents took training courses

Our partnership with MITIE, who work across South and East, not only provides repair and maintenance services for resident homes, but MITIE also reinvested £102,000 back into our communities to help residents learn news skills to search for work, get practical information to help them look after their home as well as meet new people from different backgrounds.

Since the start of our partnership, 8 residents have completed a MITIE apprenticeship and there are 6 more residents taking part right now.

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Getting homes ready for new residents

After residents moved out, we prepared 796 homes to be re-let to new residents who need them.

It took us an average of 18.3 days to complete the works to get each home ready for new residents. According to Housemark, we ranked 67th out of 210 providers.

The Orbit South Resident Scrutiny Panel worked in partnership with Orbit East Scrutiny Panel members and staff to review our Void Property service standard. A range of suggestions for improvements were made and incorporated into the revised standard such as renaming the standard ‘Lettable Standard’, and as part of the review of sheltered homes with the Orbit South Resident Scrutiny Panel, we are introducing checklists for cleaning and labelling where stops taps are located within properties.

Investing in great quality homesWe continue to work hard across Orbit South and Orbit East to make improvements to our homes through our Complete Home Improvement Property Plan (CHIPP). Last year, we invested over £17million to upgrade homes so that they are more modern, comfortable and energy efficient. This includes:

1,896 homes had cyclical decoration improvements

1,141 improvements to kitchens, bathrooms and electrics

423 boilers replaced

268 homes had windows and doors upgraded or replaced

124 homes received disabled adaptations

124 homes had insulation improvements

£2,516,000 spent on fire safety improvements

Keeping track of all of our trees!Managing the trees on all our properties is a massive challenge so the Estate Services team has just started work on a project to catalogue every one of them. Expected to take about five years to complete, the project will give us detailed information on the species of our trees, their location, age and condition. The first step in this project was to create a new ‘tree management policy’ outlining clear guidelines about how trees in our communities are managed.

Our Orbit South Resident Engagement Focus Group reviewed the policy and gave it the ‘customer approved’ thumbs up.

In partnership with residents, we tendered two new contracts for grounds maintenance in Surrey and Medway with Groundscapes Ltd. as well as Pinnacle psg in Thanet. They started last January and over the next five years, will save over £220,000.

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The tenancy standard is about how well we rent homes in a fair and transparent way and make the best use of available housing. It is also about how well we meet the aspirations and needs of current and potential residents, contribute to local authorities’ strategic aims and help deliver sustainable communities. We also must charge rents in accordance with government guidelines.

Tenancy

(£1,963,603) (£2,727,692)

2012-132012-13

3.39%4.61%

(£2,033,706) (£2,765,474)

2011-122011-12

3.04%4.22%

1,308 new tenancies were started last year

Gross rent arrears(rent before Housing Benefit payment)

Net rent arrears (rent after Housing Benefit payment)

According to Housemark, we ranked 33rd out of 115 providers when it comes to rent collection

New five year tenanciesWe have successfully introduced a five year fixed term tenancy for some of the new residents who are moving into our homes. Before the end of the five years, we review the tenancy to make sure the home is still suitable and if not, explore other available options. This ensures that we can make the best use of the homes we have available whilst helping residents achieve their housing aspirations.

You can find out about the many different ways to pay your rent by visiting our

website on orbitsouth.org.uk or by contacting our

Customer Service Centre on 0800 678 1221.

It took us on average 20 days to let our general needs properties, a reduction of seven days since 2012

It took us on average 43.1 days to let our sheltered and very sheltered properties, a reduction of 19.1 days since 2012

In Rother, East Sussex, we partnered with other agencies with the aim of reducing poverty among older people in the area. 44 Orbit residents were visited and given assistance on claiming benefits, reducing their fuel bills and increased support for any housing issues. Over £70,000 has been claimed by these residents from new, better or reinstated benefits!

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Work is well under way with our large scale regeneration of Erith Park, formerly Larner Road, in Bexley, South London. We helped over 400 residents living in the tower blocks move into alternate housing so that demolition work could begin. In April, we marked this milestone with a community event to launch the new look and name of the community. The first new homes will be ready in early 2015.

1,078 Orbit South households were identified by their local authority as being affected by the new Welfare Reforms including 845 residents who were under occupying. We saw 117 residents directly and wrote to all 1,078 households with further information.

To help you understand the new Welfare Reform Changes, we’ve published regular articles in our In 2 Orbit resident magazine and sent all residents a copy of our handy ‘Guide to Welfare Reform’ last September.

We have also added three new sketch animations to our website to give you a visual way of accessing information so you can check to see if any of the reforms affect you. Go to orbitsouth.org.uk and follow the link from our homepage to find out more.

We have three specialist Welfare Benefit Advisors who can help guide you if you have any questions about the changes. Contact us on 0800 678 1221 to learn more.

Our Neighbourhoods and Lettings Teams worked closely with Epsom and Ewell Council in Surrey regarding two new developments in the borough, Jubilee House and Windsor Court. A proactive approach was taken to tackle the issue of under-occupation in households which would be affected by the changes to housing benefit as part of the Welfare Reforms. Each Orbit South resident in the borough that had been identified as being at risk, was visited by an Orbit Neighbourhood Officer and a member of staff from Epsom and Ewell to discuss their specific circumstances. Residents were given the opportunity to view both new developments with a view to downsizing from their larger family home into smaller more affordable apartments. The result was that we were able to help two families move, resulting in a further two families being rehoused and a total of four families being helped into a home that best suits them.

We opened a new 20 home rural affordable housing scheme called Maws Meadow in West Kingsdown near Sevenoaks in Kent. Homes were made available to people with a local connection on an affordable rent basis or through shared ownership. Eugene Conaghan is the single father of three young girls who moved into one of the new homes. He says; “We’re so grateful to live here. It has lifted me up and given me hope for the future and my children have a home they are proud to live in. We’re one happy family!”

In Sussex, Surrey and London, we spent almost £80,000 through the Residents’ Forum Budget to deliver projects residents asked for. This includes; improved security including installing CCTV cameras, grounds maintenance and gardening projects and providing residents with bicycle storage facilities.

Neighbourhoods and communityThis standard is about how well we keep neighbourhoods clean and safe by working with residents and other partners. It is also about how well we promote social, environmental and economic wellbeing in the communities where we work. Affordable housing providers must also work with other partners and agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour in areas where we own and manage homes.

Sustaining our communitiesWe are committed to helping build strong and stable communities, creating places and neighbourhoods where people want to live, feel at home and get a real head start in life. We also have a responsibility to support our residents through these particularly challenging economic times and are providing a wide range of training and employment opportunities and inspire everyone to reach their full potential.

Last year in Orbit East and Orbit South…

Six ‘graduating’ apprentices joined Orbit and partners MITIE, Southern Land Services, Outsource Training and National Apprenticeships Service to celebrate the completion of their successful programme.

We partnered with the National Trust and Hadlow College on a unique apprenticeship project that offered residents a series of days in the countryside and hands on taster experiences at National Trust sites in Kent. From this, two residents were offered bursaries and were selected to take part in apprenticeship programmes at Hadlow College. The project even caught the attention of BBC’s Countryfile, who came down for a day and spent time interviewing residents for their television show!

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apprentices developed their skills in office administration, construction, sports/fitness and grounds maintenance

residents completed training and/or obtained a qualification

30 840

Anti-social behaviourWe have a key role to play in creating safe and thriving communities. We achieve this by working in partnership with local authorities, the police and other key local agencies.

We use a range of methods to deal with anti-social behaviour. These include tenancy agreements and terms, written warnings, action plans, starter tenancies, acceptable behaviour contracts, mediation, anti-social behaviour orders, anti-social behaviour injunctions and legal action where necessary, which can include possession proceedings including eviction or demotion of tenancy.

In Orbit South last year...

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477 anti-social behaviour cases were reported 93 early interventions by our

Neighbourhoods Team 12 cases of mediation

122 written warnings issued, along with 14 verbal warnings

1 injunction issued with the power of arrest 8 evictions

We also work together with partners in order to prevent anti-social behaviour and to address persistent cases. There are a number of options/tools only directly available to local authorities or the police. However, we support those initiatives using our influence through existing partnership arrangements. This includes crack house closures, family intervention projects, parenting orders, premises closure orders and environmental anti-social behaviour.

Through our Community Investment Fund which supports local projects in our communities, we purchased six bicycles for the Metropolitan Police Service Safer Neighbourhoods Team in Bexley. The bikes help them combat crime in the area by allowing officers to reach any part of the ward within 10 minutes. The bicycles also give them a much more visible presence in the community.

At Arthur Street in Bexley, we’ve worked hard to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). We’ve partnered with other agencies to introduce a new ASB hotline, a new local lettings plan, CCTV monitoring and a new Dispersal Zone with the Metropolitan Police. We’ve also set up a new Bexley Facebook page so that we can have online conversations with residents about local issues. Search ‘Orbit South Bexley’ to find out more.

www.orbitsouth.org.uk

Second FloorHorizon HouseEclipse ParkSittingbourne RoadMaidstoneKentME14 3EN

Tel: 0800 678 1221

Let’s communicate…Our aim is to ensure that all of our customers have equal access to information produced by Orbit Group.

Please contact us if you have difficulty in understanding any of the information we provide or need it in a different format such as:• Large print• Audio• Braille• Translations - written or verbal• Signed interpretation

For telephone interpretation, we use ‘thebigword’. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. To speak to us via an interpreter, please call our Customer Service Centre on 0800 678 1221.

Homes & Communities Agency Reg. No. L4060. Industrial and Provident Societies Act, 1965.Registered No. 27802R (Exempt Charity) Orbit South Housing Association Ltd.Registered Office: Foy House, 27-29 High Street, Margate, Kent CT9 1DL Part of the Orbit Group. Orbit Group Ltd, Orbit South Housing Association Ltd and Heart of England Housing Association Ltd are exempt charities. Designed by www.watermarkdesign.co.uk

We are committed to delivering a great level of service to all our customers and making sure that residents are truly at the heart of every decision we make. Your feedback is very important to us, so if you have any comments or thoughts about the resident annual report, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at orbitsouthcommunications@orbit.org.uk