Residents Annual Review 2013/14

Residents Annual Review 2013 -2014

Residents Annual Report 2013 - 2014

Welcome

Message from Chief Executive Tim Sweeting

Housing Standards

Involvement and Empowerment

Home

Neighbourhood and Community

Tenancy

Value for Money

Governance and Financial Viability

Rent

Dear tenant,

The aim of this report is to tell you how we

performed, the areas where we need to Improve

and what we will do next year so the service gets

better. This is all set within standards that the

government says we need to meet and report to you

on for the year April 2013—March 2014.

We couldn’t have written this report without you telling us

what you think of the service. We want to spend time on the

areas that are important to you, and we know what these

areas are because 91 of you took the time to give us

feedback. Whenever you tell us what is going well, and what

is not going so well, we use it to make sure that we are doing

the best we can, for you.

We hope that you find this report helpful, and if you have any

feedback, we would love to hear it. Please get in touch.

Best wishes

Tim



Involvement & Empowerment How we give you a voice

What we have done

We said in 2013-2014 we would:

Hold annual client focus groups during visits to each

service by the Quality Assurance and Compliance

department.

– This was achieved.

Implement ‘you said, we did’ tenant notice boards in

supported housing services.


Consult with young people on team annual plans

produced by each service.


Create resident representatives to lead on resident

meetings.


Involve young people in the planning for the

Engagement Committee.


Launch a ‘shout out’ email system to enable

concerns/compliments to reach the Chief Executive of

YMCA Norfolk.


Involve young people in the AGM and Christmas event

attended by the public, stakeholders, staff and other

young people across the services.



Involvement & Empowerment How we give you a voice

What we will do in 2014-15

We will use the results from an annual survey and

other feedback forms to inform service improvement.

We will launch the Co-production Strategy to provide

consistency of approach and higher level participation

of young people in service and organisational

operations.

We will improve young people’s involvement in

governance. Ensuring that young people have regular

opportunities to express their views to the Trustees,

Committees & YMCA Board of Trustees. This will be

through the development of the Engagement

Committee.

We will actively involve young people in our Quality

Assurance processes. Ensuring young people’s

contributions continue to contribute to the internal

scrutiny process through feedback received.

We will involve young people in the review of relevant

policies and procedures.

We will consult with residents on the support they

receive and use the feedback to re-shape the support

framework across YMCA Norfolk.

Develop the way we tell residents what happens at

meetings and how their involvement can make a

difference.


Involvement & Empowerment How we deal with your complaints

Category of Complaints 2013-14 A total of 27 complaints were received across our Housing

service.

What this means: 74% of complaints were handled within policy timescales.

What we have done: We said in 2013-2014 we would:

Renew our Complaints policy.

- This was achieved. was achieved

What we will do in 2014-2015: Issue new guidance on how to deal with complaints in the

Autumn 2014. This will offer a range of ways to express a

complaint and detail what to do if unhappy with the outcome

of the complaint.

Improve how we collect information on complaints.

Publish information annually on the number, type and

outcome of complaints.

Review how effective the new complaints procedure is by

monitoring the number and category of complaints received.

Monitor complaints information to learn from complaints and

make improvements.

Consult with young people as to how they would like to give

compliments and feedback



Involvement & Empowerment How satisfied you were

89% - Feel support sessions are effective.

94% - Felt their licensing agreement, rights and

responsibilities were explained clearly.

73% - Satisfaction with repairs service.

91% - Expressed satisfaction that the service received

provided the support needed to help towards

independent living.

What this means: There were 91 annual surveys completed by residents

which have helped inform the results seen here. The

results of the survey will be shared with each service to

help inform continued service development to enable us

to sustain and improve our service.

What we have done: We said in 2013-2014 we would

Design a new annual survey of all our residents to

provide us with a better way of understanding

resident satisfaction with their homes and services.


Implement feedback forms for every project

delivered by the organisation to enable us to

measure satisfaction and make improvements.


Review our exit survey to collect feedback from

residents on leaving the service.


What we will do in 2014-2015: Continue to review the way we collect satisfaction

feedback, so that we learn more from our to

improve our services.

What you said

81% felt opportunities to input and have a say in the

service are available

78% agreed they have a say through residents

meetings

85% agree they are given an opportunity to

contribute to the improvement of

the service


Involvement & Empowerment How open and inclusive we are

57% of residents moving in were male, we aim for this to be 50%

male/50% female.

Most of our residents (77.9%) are in the age category of 18-24 years old.

7% of the residents that moved in were from a BME community – our

target is 7.5%.

How we respond to diverse needs What you said 73% agreed information and opportunities are made

available to support cultural needs.

72% agreed information and opportunities are available for

exploring faith & spirituality.

87% agreed information/support is available to support

lifestyle needs.

87% agreed information/signposting is provided to support

physical, mental & sexual health.

81% felt opportunities were available to feedback on the

quality of information.

What this means: We collect information about our residents to ensure we

are delivering services to everyone who needs them and

that we do not exclude or discriminate against anyone.

What we will do in 2014-2015: We will improve our reporting on disability and conditions.

We will ensure all staff are trained on Equality, Diversity

and Inclusion.

We will improve our data on people making complaints by

resident profile.

56.6%

43.4%

21.4%

64.2%

13.7%

0.8%

91.2%

2.0%

5.2%

1.6%

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%

100.0%

120.0%

Gender Age Ethnicity

Profile of new residents during 2013-14

Not Known

BME

White Other

White British

31-45

22-25

18-21

16-17

Female

Male

Profile of new residents during 2013-14


Home How we look after your home

73% of residents felt the maintenance service

received was acceptable.

The repairs target is 96% of completions within

target times. In 2013-14 we met the target at

98%.


Complete a programme of works worth £120,000 –including

health and safety and unplanned issues.

Ensure all work carried out is undertaken in a timely and

satisfactory manner.

Work carried out in 2013-2014 included: Re-carpeted 27 bedrooms across three hostels.

- This was achieved.

Re-carpeted the communal lounges in 3 hostels.


Fitted new blinds/curtains in communal lounges at 4 hostels.


Installation of new cooker range.


Installation of additional cooker for young people in 1 of our

training kitchens at largest hostel.


* Data represents 7 services


Home How we look after your home

What we will do in 2014-2015: A programme of planned works of £110,000 is planned for all sites in 2014-

2015, including health and safety issues and unplanned work.

Produce an approved contractors list to ensure we are obtaining value for

money from all our approved contractors.

Continue to look at energy savings, including registering with Department

of Energy and Climate change for the Electricity Demand Reduction Pilot

Scheme and making a bid later this year to replace lighting in two hostels to

LED lighting though-out the building.

Produce a new hand book for all our Umbrella tenants including information

to tenants about repairs and expected time scales.

Improve our reporting on repairs. This will enable us to report on % of

emergency, urgent and routine repairs completed on time.

Improve our performance on void properties.

Works planned for 2014-2015: New fire alarm systems for 7 shared houses.

Upgrade fire detection in 40 rooms of our largest hostel.

New shower rooms in three properties.

Undertake a Legionella Water Risk Assessment in all our buildings to meet

legal requirements.

New CCTV installation to communal hallway at our umbrella property.


Neighbourhood & Community How we create a safe place

What this means: We are required to keep the communal areas of your homes clean and safe

and work in partnership with tenants to do this. We will also work with others

to help promote positive wellbeing in the properties we own. We will work in

partnership with other agencies to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour in

the neighbourhoods where we own homes.


Review our Anti-Social Behaviour policy.

– This was achieved in December 2013.

Implement a Restorative Practice Policy to address breaches of tenancy

or relationship breakdowns.

– This was achieved in December 2013.

Review the safeguarding procedure.

– This was achieved in February 2014.

Create a duty manager rota to allow a 24/7 response to safety issues

raised by residents.

– This was achieved in February 2014.

What we will do in 2014-2015: Develop our Residents Charter.

Create a mechanism to make reporting Anti-social behaviour (ASB)

easier.

Train all housing managers in mediation skills.

Embed restorative approaches in all housing teams.

Continue to promote a positive image of our residents’ through the

collection of stories and images.

88% of residents feel safe in their

accommodation

94% of residents feel able to report health &

safety concerns

86% of residents feel fire evacuation

procedures are explained clearly

83% of residents feel emergency call-out


92% of residents feel out of hours


Tenancy How we manage your stay

What this means:

This refers to the number of applications we process,

people we accommodate and residents who move

on.

What we have done: Recognised a need to review timescales for

handling applications and ensure these are

clearly laid out within Resident Charter.


Reviewed the assessment process at Central.


What we will do in 2014-2015:

We will review our ‘Lettings, Referrals and

Allocations Policy’.

We will review the timescales to respond to

applications in line with our residents’ charter.

We had 463 new residents move

into our accommodation between 1st April

2013 and 31st March 2014.

100% of applications were processed

73.8% of move-ons from our

accommodation were positive

(200 out of 271) between 1st April 2013

and 31st March 2014 (target 75%).


Value for Money How we manage your rent

What this means: Rent and service charges owed by residents who have not paid is

known as ‘arrears’ – this is either owed by ‘current’ residents or

‘former’ residents who have moved out.

After we have made every effort to trace and collect arrears from

former residents, these arrears become known as ‘bad debts’.

If rent and service charges are not collected, it could have a serious

effect on the quality of the service delivered at the YMCA.

There are targets for our services to meet to make sure that current

and former residents pay their rent and do not owe too much money;

this is because all of the services, staff, bills and repairs are paid for

from rent and service charges.

What we have done: Provided residents with YMCA England information on benefit

changes.

What we will do in 2014-2015: Work to inform residents about changes to the welfare system.

Provide information and guidance to staff to ensure all are

prepared for welfare reform and residents are supported.

Review how YMCA Norfolk works to ensure

value for money. Work with our services to address issues with the collections of

Former Tenant Arrears.

Adopt the new Rent Standard ensuring that rent is affordable

and does not increase annually by more than CPI (Consumer

Price Index) +1%.

Provide clear information to tenants which explains how their

rent and service charges are set.

Publish annually, a self-assessment which sets out to residents

how we are achieving value for money.

Source accommodation where rent costs are within local

housing allowance rates to give employed young people access

to affordable housing.

Continue to ensure residents are supported with budgeting.

3.7% of rent and service charges was owed by

Current residents in 2013-2014. This equals £78k and the target is 6%.

2.3% rent is still owed by residents who have moved

on. This equals £49k and the target is 2%.

2.1% arrears were lost as ‘bad debt’. This equals £41k and the target is 2.5%.



Governance How YMCA Norfolk is run

What we have done in 2013-3014:

Committee members undertook an assessment of

where YMCA Norfolk were against the Governance

& Financial Viability Standards.


Put an action plan in place to improve Governance

& Financial Viability Standard.


What we will do in 2014-15:

Develop our business plan.

Implement a new Income Recovery Policy.

Proactively manage bad debts.

Improve our financial forecasts.

Maintain the risk register.

What this means:

Governance means the way

that the YMCA is run – we

monitor this to make sure

things run well.

Financial viability means

making sure that money is

spent in the right way.

YMCA Norfolk have a Finance

and Resource committee which

meets every two months.

Registered Charity No. 801606

Registered in England No. 2067523 HCA Registration No. H3868

www.ymca-norfolk.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: twitter.com/ymcanorfolk

facebook.com/ymcanorfolk

Any questions about his report?

Interested in developing this report for next year? If so, please speak with a

member of the Engagement Committee.

“The YMCA has provided support, safety

and the ability to grow, in my case. My

lodging provider is very supportive and

encourages me to be successful and is

there when I need anything. My support

worker is especially helpful and I know if I

need anything, I can count on them for

support. It has been a life changing

experience for myself.”

“The service provided by YMCAN has

completely helped me to get my life back on

track. I came in here with no job and no home

and I am now training, I have learned and

been helped with budgeting and debt

management and am hopeful With the help of

my support worker and the rest of the friendly

helpful staff to move to independent living

and get back into employment soon.”

“I am lucky to have my own flat at MyPlace

and to have a varied selection of very helpful support staff available to me. When I

move on from MyPlace, the biggest thing that I will remember is knowing that at my lowest point, there were staff who believed

in me and saw in me what I could not.” “YMCA has been lifesaving. Without you

guys, I would still be sleeping in the streets

or sofa surfing.”

“I feel YMCA has helped me a lot while being here and made me a happier

person.”

“It has been hugely helpful

with loads of people ready to help and listen. They

have helped to transform my life and get me ready

for independent living and going to university.”

“The safeguarding used within YMCA is really good and they go

out their way to make sure that

they safety of each individual is insured.”

“The biggest thing for me is

knowing that there is someone here to talk to 24hrs a day. All

of the staff have different strengths which is great. It’s

good to know, that all staff know my own support needs.”

“YMCA is awesome, with the support slowly helping me to

achieve and be where I want to be.”

http://www.twitter.com/ymcanorfolk

http://www.facebook.com/ymcanorfolk

Residents Annual Review 2013/14

Documents

Transcript of Residents Annual Review 2013/14