Consulting with Residents

We are always working hard to ensure the services we provide to residents are at a high standard.

We regularly consult with My Digital Voice, our digital survey group, to give us regular feedback however we occasionally need to get feedback from all residents. We award points for the surveys you take part in. Each survey will earn you around 10 points, depending on the length. From 100 points, you can cash in for a £10 shopping voucher. You will also be entered into a quarterly prize draw to win an Amazon Kindle.

 

Updating the Repairs Service

Take part in the survey now and you will be entered into a prize draw to win one of three £25 shopping vouchers. The consultation will close at 12pm on Thursday 31st May.

Background

In 2018, we will be tendering the repairs contract. There will be resident representatives from the Federation of Estuary Residents involved in this process to select the contractor. We know having a good repairs service is a high priority for residents and the tendering process enables us to make changes to improve the service. We want to do this by offering the chance to feed back on the appointments available and by simplifying repairs into two categories rather than the current three.  

Proposed Changes

We are proposing to make changes to the appointment arrival times available; this will ensure no residents have their time wasted by having to wait in for contractors who are unable to get to them.

We are also proposing to change the repairs categories from Emergency, Urgent, and Routine to just Emergency and Routine. This will allow for better allocation of appointment times.

Current Appointments

We operate two hour appointments where the contractor can arrive anytime within a two-hour slot. Two hour appointment slots are challenging and can be misleading as they only give a window of the time the contractor will arrive and not the length of time it may take to carry out the repair and leave your home.

Below are two examples of why two-hour appointments are sometimes not the best option:

Example 1

Ms J’s appointment is between 8am-10am. The contractor arrives at 9am, but due to the nature of the repair it takes 2½ hours. Ms J has had to be available from 8am until 11.30am for the repair to be completed.

Example 2

Mr T’s appointment is 2pm-4pm. He has to pick his children up from school at 3.30pm. The operative attends at 2.00pm but is unable to complete the job before Mr T is due to leave. So the repair is not complete and requires a further appointment.

While the two hour appointment slots work for deliveries, you can see from the examples that the real time taken to complete the repairs is often greater than two hours. We know repairs is an important service, so we propose to improve appointments by offering a range of options that help residents to plan their day and improve the performance of the contractor.

Proposal

Rather than one size fits all, we would like you to consider which of the following would be the best option:

1. Anytime start time – 8am-6pm
   Suitable for residents who have someone at home all day so do not mind what time the contractor arrives. Residents would be contacted 1 hour before the contractor arrives.
2. Half day start time - 8am-12pm or 12pm-6pm.  Residents can choose between a morning and afternoon arrival time. 
3. A combination of the above. There will be a limited amount of one hour arrival slots available in advance, residents would still be able to choose a morning or afternoon start time or could choose anytime if they can be flexible.

Estuary believes that option C offers the best choice for both residents and the contractor. This option would reduce any non-productive time for the contractor, and allows the flexibility to get more repairs completed each day.

The benefits for Ms J and Mr T using the examples A and B are:

Ms J could be offered a half day or all day appointment so is able to arrange the repair for a day that better suits her diary.

Mr T could opt for an arrival time anytime from 10am, so he could be sure to be free for the school run that afternoon.

There is a further benefit for residents who are available all day and are happy to have the repair done at any time during the day, so long as they are advised 1 hour beforehand.

Repairs Categories

We are also reviewing the standard categories of repairs. When repairs are reported they are categorised into one of the following:

• Emergency (diagnosis and patch within 24 hours)
• Urgent (completed within 5 working days )
• Routine (completed within 20 working days)

These categories have never been reviewed; we believe simplifying these categories will improve the service.

The contractor plans all work for the day; however they must block some time to respond to emergencies repairs. For example; based on a 10 hour day only 40% of the time is available for routine work, yet the majority of jobs are routine.

This means routine repairs are pushed back so that emergency and urgent works are done within time the contracted time.

For emergency repairs, the contractor attends to diagnose the problem and patch the work i.e. solve the immediate issue. Sometimes the repair can be completed on the day, but if it cannot, for example in the case of a major leak, the leak will be capped off and a further job ticket will be raised but for the repair to be completed as a routine job.

We believe some of the urgent work is either an emergency or is a routine repair, so we propose to increase the number of appointments for routine repairs by removing the urgent category. We will review the jobs that fall within the urgent category and they will be re-categorised as either an emergency or routine job. Over time, roughly 2-3 years, we expect to see the average time taken to complete all repairs reduce to 10 days or less.

Advantages

• By reviewing and re-categorising urgent repairs in to either an emergency or routines means there is greater availability for routine appointments
• A simplified category also means that the residents can choose a time that suits them. So if they are away, they can choose an appointment towards the end of the month so they don’t need to call back after their holiday.

 

• Over time we expect to see the average time for all repairs reduce to less than 10 days.

Disadvantages

• Initially in the first year residents may experience a longer wait, however over the contract the average repairs time should reduce to less than 10 days.
• It may take time for residents to get used to the new system, however staff will provide advice on the repairs over the phone.

Take part in the survey now.

The consultation will close at 12pm on Thursday 31st May.

The Government published the Social Housing Green Paper, A New Deal for Social Housing, in August 2014. Estuary Housing will be putting together a response to this consultation with the Federation of Estuary Residents and using feedback from residents.

The green paper sets out 5 core themes:

• Tackling stigma and celebrating thriving communities
• Expanding supply and supporting home ownership
• Effective resolution of complaints
• Empowering residents and strengthening the regulator
• Ensuring homes are safe and decent

You are able to take part in the full government consultation (68 questions long) on the gov.uk website. Alternatively, Estuary have put together a reduced version of this consultationfor residents that is just 18 questions long, to gather your feedback and influence our answers. You can take part in this here and it has been emailed out to every household that we hold an email address for.

There may be some terms that you are not familiar with, so we have produced a glossary of terms used in the green paper for your information.

Green paper glossary.docx [docx] 18KB

This survey will close at 12pm on Monday 24th September.