Agenda item

(NOTE: At this point Councillor Josie Paszek left the room.)

7.1

The Committee considered the decision of the Cabinet made on 18^th March 2015, relating to future options for the Housing Repairs and Maintenance Service.

7.2

Signatories

The Lead Signatory to the call-in was Councillor Steve Ayris and the other signatories were Councillors Richard Shaw, Simon Clement-Jones, Penny Baker and Colin Ross.

7.3

Reasons for the Call-In

The signatories had confirmed that they wished to scrutinise the decision relating to future options for the Housing Repairs and Maintenance Service, to ensure that such a significant decision was made in the best interests of tenants and leaseholders who used the service.

7.4

Attendees

·                Councillor Harry Harpham (Cabinet Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods)

·                Janet Sharpe (Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services)

7.5

Councillor Steve Ayris addressed the Committee as Lead Signatory and emphasised the importance of the decision for customers.

7.6

In response, Janet Sharpe stated that customers were always an important part of the Housing, Repairs and Maintenance Service (the Service) with over 200,000 orders being processed each year.  It was important to ensure that the service was clearly integrated and flexible so that duplication was avoided.  She highlighted the need for customers to receive a good quality service and added that work had been undertaken with them in relation to the decision.  An officer team had also undertaken a review of the service.  She considered that the insourcing of the service provided the best opportunity and that any short-term risks were outweighed by the long-term benefits.  Councillor Harry Harpham emphasised the importance of tenants and leaseholders in driving the service. 

7.7

Questions from Members of the Committee

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                A decision needed to be made at this stage on the future of the service due to the timescales for procurement and so that the detailed work in providing a better, stronger service could be undertaken.  It would also run alongside the change being delivered in terms of Housing+.

·                If the contract was retendered, there were risks involved and an insourced service would be more flexible to change.  A strong management team would work with Kier to deliver the service.  Furthermore, an insourced service would have a closer alignment with other Council services.

·                The risks should not stop the Council moving to an insourced service and appropriate risk management would be put in place.

·                Monitoring of the existing contract was undertaken by the client teams and any new structure would be delivered using a strict management and performance management framework.  In addition, the new service would be part of the Council structure.

·                The experience of other authorities going back to the market had been taken into consideration and that of other authorities making similar decisions to this one.  The Association for Public Service Excellence’s Performance Management Framework had also been taken into consideration, as had the experiences of those local authorities who had a successful in-house repairs and maintenance service.  These together had provided an important understanding of costs and performance management.

·                Officers had looked at the sampling in the Association for Public Service Excellence’s report in relation to customer service ratings, with measures being reported for each operative.  In addition, TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations) would apply to ensure a productive workforce and rigorous performance management standards would be adopted.

·                Consultation had been carried out at Area Housing fora, through a partnership group focusing on repairs in connection with the Local Area Partnerships and through the tenant led Future of Council Housing Services Group.  Statutory consultation with leaseholders would also be undertaken. 

·                A workstream was currently looking at customer access through the single call centre.  Over the past few months far more calls had been identified and it was important to ensure that the right number of staff were available to take these calls and also to identify repeat calls.  It was hoped to operate a dedicated housing and repairs call centre.

·                At present, the Council call-handlers got the relevant information from the caller, so they could pass it to the right team.  An appointment would then be made or there would be direct contact with Kier.  It was acknowledged that the passing over process needed improvement.

·                Officers now had more confidence in the information provided about the number of calls received at the Council call centre.

·                The Investment and Repairs Partnership Group, which included tenants and leaseholders, worked on investment issues and reported back in the local areas.  In areas where there was no Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, a broader consultation would take place and could involve the use of drop-in centres.  The Council’s Communication Bus could also be considered for use in the consultation process.  In addition, the Future of Council Housing Group could be involved and the experience of other local authorities who had an insourced repairs and maintenance service could be considered.  Consultation could be tailored to different areas of the City and social media could also be used.

7.8

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report together with the comments made and responses provided;

(b)       notes the decision of the Cabinet made on 18^th March 2015, in relation to the insourcing of the Housing Repairs and Maintenance Service from 1^st April 2017;

(c)        recommends that no action be taken in relation to the call-in decision; and

(d)       requests that:-

(i)          a report be presented to a future meeting of the Committee to include full costings of holding a ballot of tenants and leaseholders on insourcing the Housing Repairs and Maintenance Service, together with other fully costed consultation options; and

(ii)        tenant representatives be invited to the meeting at which the above report is to be considered.