Presented by Sue Hanlon, Interim Director of Housing Assets & Repairs.
Minutes:
The Chair introduced the item and invited the Interim Director of Housing Assets & Repairs to address the Panel verbally.
The Interim Director of Housing Assets & Repairs updated the Panel that following the February meeting, a cleansing exercise of the repairs information on the Northgate IT system had been completed to ensure the data was accurate.
The Interim Director highlighted that less than 5% of duplicated cases were found in the cleansing process. The system was now cleansed and the KPI information going forward would be an accurate reflection of the service provided by the contractors (Wates, Mears and K&T Heating).
The Interim Director also added that the Contact Centre had made significant improvements in the last few months. The first cohort of newly recruited staff had training in April and started taking calls at the end of May. The second cohort joined the team in May and started taking calls in June. The call wait time now had reduced to 48 seconds, and fewer calls were abandoned.
Earlier this month, the management of contact centre had been transferred to the Head of Contact Centre. Residents had positive feedback particularly over the past six weeks.
In response to questions from Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:
· The average call answered was 48 seconds in June. During the day when there was no wait time the calls were picked up immediately.
· The average time the contact centre handled a call was 5 mins 30 secs.
· For calls that were chasing for repairs updates (non-value calls), they were circa 65% of all calls received in January 2024. In June it was reduced to around 30%.
· The team had circa 220 overdue repairs and the oldest repair was logged in March 2024. There were specific reasons for that repair being outstanding. Most overdue repairs were overdue by less than two weeks.
· All repair cases mentioned were the cases raised after 1st August 2023 since the new contract went live.
· Repairs were logged on the system at the point of contact.
o The tenant calling the contact centre would be given a repair log number, appointment and target completion date for the repair. They would also receive an SMS text message following the call with this information.
o Repairs could be also raised during an estate inspection, where Housing Officers would note the repairs. Caretakers could also note repairs while they were on site. A repair order number would be confirmed and noted.
o The team do not offer appointments for communal repairs but do offer a target completion date.
· The KPIs after cleansing would be shared with the performance monitoring group.
· As a part of the new contract centre training, an IT system (Repair Finder) was introduced in June 2024 with the training of the permanent staff to support them in diagnosing repairs. Part of the training also included access to the contractors’ systems to schedule appointments in diaries.
· The feedback from the strategic core group meeting with contractors and contact centre last week was that some new staff joined recently did not have the licence to access Wates’ system. But overall, staff had access to the systems required.
· K&T heating repairs were included in the 220 overdue repairs figure, but not the landlord gas safety records. Gas safety check records were reported separately and there were currently 16 overdue records as of 30 July 2024.
· Walkabout repairs identified on the estate inspection forms were recorded by Housing Officers and reviewed by the Interim Director.
· For emergency/health and safety repairs (e.g. falling brick wall), the bricks would be removed within a day. Rebuilding of the wall would be considered as planned works (not a responsive repair). This would be completed in 90 days.
· The categorisation of priorities was listed on the website:
o 24 hours for an emergency repair
o 5 days for an urgent repair
o 28 days for a routine repair
o 56 days or 90 days for the planned works
Members of the Panel NOTED the update.