Almond Housing Association
Strategic Plan
2017 - 2018
CONTENTS
Page
Executive summary 3
Our organisation – focussing on the future 4
Our strategy and priorities 2017 – 2018 8
Financial Reporting 10
APPENDICES
a)Annual Operating Plans and Action Plans 2017 – 2018
- Housing Management
- Housing Support team
- Housing Management team
- Asset Management
- Responsive Repairs team
- Capital Project team
- Development team
- Finance and ICT
- Corporate Services
b)Board member profiles
c)Organisational chart
d)‘Positively Almond’ – Almond Housing Association’s Strategic Plan 2015 - 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2016 saw the Association continue to build on its strong reputation – gaining great results in our Tenant Satisfaction Survey, delivering new homes to satisfied tenants, and responding to tenant feedback to ensure that we continued to deliver quality services.
In 2016 we worked positively with our Tenant Focus Groups and our Customer Review Groups to drive our tenants to think differently about us and the services we offer and how and where these can be improved. This approach has enabled us to move forward during our 20+ years and helps us determine our direction for the future. We have already had concrete recommendations from our Customer Review Groups about ways in which we can improve our services and we look forward to working with them in 2017 to make more changes.
We want to provide all of our customers with the very best Social Housing experience. That means offering them a Repairs service that is responsive to their needs, new homes that are energy efficient and fit for the future, Housing staff that listen and understand.
Our actions and activities are underpinned by a genuine desire to achieve value for money in all that we do – this aim was further supported in 2016 by our revised procurement strategy, enabling us to procure goods and services in a more efficient and cost effective manner, the results of which will be seen as we move forward. By ensuring that we operate in an agile manner, we are able to invest more where our customers see the greatest value.
In 2016 we were proud to achieve unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction as evidenced by our Tenant Satisfaction Survey. We will continue to build on these results, delivering quality services and homes throughout 2017 and beyond because we believe that everyone deserves exceptional service, and we are constantly looking to improve on what we do for our customers.
Our values are important to us – they guide how we do business and keep us focussed on why we are here. Our people identify with our values, and understand and appreciate the challenges faced by those who use our services. Our customers want, and expect, to see action. And so our people work hard everyday to ensure that we meet the needs and expectations of those who use our services, turning our values into practical actions and solutions.
AHA has always been a business that believes in, and strives for, better. We want to be a landlord that our tenants can put their trust in. We will continue to create opportunities for growth and pursue them with energy, passion, and commitment for the benefit of our customers, our people, and our communities.
Our strategy will enable us to deliver improved services, greater efficiency and deliver a stronger, more robust and sound business, now and for the future.
We are Positively Almond.
OUR ORGANISATION – FOCUSSING ON THE FUTURE
In this, year three of our current five year plan, we are pleased to acknowledge our achievements and progress towards our stated objectives.
We know that social housing offers a vital service to those in need, and in 2016 we were able to release 9 homes for rent to Almond tenants as a result of the successful completion of our Deans development, adding to the numbers of social housing available within West Lothian.
We also ‘broke ground’ at another new development site in Livingston which will see more homes available for social rent to Almond tenants.
We were approached during the year by The Rock Trust and also by Women’s Aidseekingaid and assistance as they furthered their respective commitments to providing safe and secure housing for young, vulnerable people in the West Lothian area, as well as those who may be fleeing domestic violence with their families. During the period of this plan we will continue to partner with these groups, and others, to see how best we can work with them to ensure that those in need are supported to find and sustain tenancies in the local area.
As well as providing homes for people who want to rent them, we also maintain and improve them and 2016 saw us invest over £1.7 millionin Capital Projects work to ensure our properties are sustainable in the long term.
Going forward we will be investing £2.2million in ensuring our houses become warm, inviting and safe homes, with a key focus being on meeting our SHQS targets. We’ll be building new homes in Craigshill, and we’ll also be providing development services to Kirknewton Community Development Trust to assist in the provision of new housing for older people, enabling them to stay in the Kirknewton community.
Housing Management faced challenges as the roll out of further welfare reforms in the form of Universal Credit hit West Lothian. The impact of Universal Credit will continue to grow, but we have taken a number of steps to make sure that our tenants are aware of how Universal Credit will affect them personally, and what actions they can take.
But there’s still more for us to work towards.
There is increasing pressure on tenants in social housing, and resulting challenges for the way that Social Landlords respond to these pressures. How we will do that is detailed in this plan where we set out details of what our responses will look like, how we will deliver on our strategic aims, and the benefits we believe we can bring to our customers.
Our focus continues to be to ensure that our actions remain inclusive of quality, value for money and a positive experience for our customers. We have already broadened the services we offered to provide support and value to our customers in different ways, and we will continue to do so because we know, from our customers, that they benefit from this approach.
Our insights into the changing needs of our customers, our strong relationship with our partners, and our improving ability to adapt to and embrace changemeans that we continue to push ourselves forward. We have the structures, management and people in place to enable us to make the right decisions and invest for the future, for the benefit of our customers now, and going forward.
Our strategy for 2017/18 is to continue to broaden our business, offering a more holistic range of services to our tenants and improving and adding new ways for our customers to communicate and engage with us. At the heart of how we will do this is our key approach to how we do business – we will listen to those who use our services, listen to their comments and feedback and their suggestions for how we go forward.
Our Customers
We believe in a customer-centric approach, putting our customers at the very heart of what we do. We will continue to build on the services we provide to our customers, launching our new core IT system which will offer an associated new mobile way of working, allowing and encouraging our frontline staff to be more responsive and accessible than ever before.
The ways in which our customers want to interact with us is also changing and we will continue to react to that, with increased digital interaction leading to improved and more meaningful customer engagement.In 2016 we developed new social media platforms, encouraging customer feedback and greater communication. In 2017/18 we’ll continue to build on that, further developing our website and transforming our customer experience and allowing more customers to interact and engage with us in ways that suit them.
We know that acting responsibly and with our values at the heart of what we do ensures our work has a meaningful impact on our tenants. This has given our group of scrutiny volunteers confidence and motivation to help us spot where our services can be improved and what changes we can make to positively support our customers.
This improved communication, along with the partnership with our Customer Review Groups, allows us to get a better picture. Combining understanding and knowledge of our customers’ needs to influence the range of services we offer, aiming to provide not just a house, but the tools to support our tenants to make a house a home.
As part of this aim, 2016 saw us launch our Starter Pack project – a fully supported initiative to provide essential goods and services to new tenants at point of need. We’re proud to be able to continue this project in 2017/18, ensuring that tenants have the best possible chance at sustaining their tenancy.
We will continue to deliver strong customer results as our tenants continue to respond to the increasing range of services we provide.
We want our customers to have the very best experience when dealing with us, we are therefore focussed on delivering excellent customer services. We are proud of this record and pleased to note the highest ever levels of customer satisfaction in our latest Tenant Satisfaction Survey. We believe that we offer standout service, and were pleased to see this recognised in our results.
We’re now working on an action plan to set out how we can continue to meet the needs, and expectations, of our customers in key areas and will keep our customers advised of our progress. It’s this focus, on the areas that matter to our customers, that drives us to be the best that we can be.
Our People
Our people are fundamental to our success going forward. Our people want to do their best and to be their best and we want to support them in achieving this, creating an inclusive and creative workplace that facilitates new ideas and improved, joined up working practices.
2016 saw us bid a fond farewell to our previous Head of Housing Management, Tony Paterson. Tony headed up the Housing Management section since 1994 when Almond was originally set up and his experience and knowledge of the area contributed greatly to the success of the Association over the last 22 years.He passed the baton on to Sandy Young, who brought with him a great deal of experience as our long standing Housing Manager. Sandy shows great enthusiasm for the challenges ahead as we, and other Social Landlords, look at how we can support our tenants in the face of ongoing welfare reforms.
Following Sandy’s promotion, we also welcomed two new managers to the team here at Almond – Tracey Rogowski, our new Housing Support Manager, and Jonathan Bertram, our new Housing Manager. Tracey leads our newly designed Housing Support team as they provide frontline services to our customers, supporting them beyond traditional housing needs with signposting and practical advice on a wide range of issues. Jonathan will be working closely with our well established team of experienced Housing Officers as they work with our tenants to meet the challenges presented by Universal Credit and other welfare reform measures.
In 2016 we were also able to secure the services of an experienced Communications Officer, Brita Ingebrigtsen. Our customers increasingly want to interact with us online and Brita has worked with us tirelessly to get our social media streams up and running and we are pleased to note that in the course of 2016 we managed to engage informally with many, many tenants via Twitter and Facebook. In 2017 we’ll be doing more to engage with our customers online, and we’ll also be seeing the results of Brita’s efforts in bringing our website up to date with a fresh, modern look that we hope will be more responsive and will encourage greater usage.
The entire organisation will benefit from the implementation of our new core IT system, allowing us to share resources in a way that has not previously existed, accelerating our progress and encouraging our ambitions.
We will also continue to support our managers to develop and grow into future leaders, taking ownership and responsibility for business critical operational issues. In 2016/17 we initiated a programme of Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) – a forum for our managers to evidence their progress against key strategic objectives. These QBRs will continue in 2017/18 and will be supported by further activities to improve and increase the people, planning, and operational skills of our middle managers.
We are working together to become more efficient and more effective, building a better and stronger organisation for the future, supported by excellent customer service, because these are the things that are really important to our people and our customers.
Our Communities
We value the opportunity we have to reach beyond our business to make a positive impact on the communities we serve.
Making our communities places where people feel safe, comfortable and proud to belong is central to this and we will continue with our digital and financial inclusion activities to support this to become a reality.
In Positively Almond 2015-2020 we spoke of our intention to focus on digital inclusion as a specific area of work. To date we have made significant inroads with digital classes, drop in surgeries, partnerships with West Lothian College, Reuse IT, and others providing a range of education, equipment and accessibility solutions. We believe that connecting people to the digital world makes life better for them and we are committed to making this happen for as many of our customers as possible.
We will continue with our ambitious digital inclusion programme throughout 2017/18, reaching as many of our customers as we can.
In 2017 we will also continue to focus on broadening out our services to offer more to our customers and address more of their needs, going beyond traditional housing provision services and further supporting our aim of becoming a landlord that is trusted and supported by those who use our services.
Early in 2017 we will work with partner agencies to develop funding bids to secure a financial inclusion service for our customers. We have previously been successful in this area, working with CAB to deliver a Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) funded service since 2015. Now the challenge is on to see how we take the lessons learned forward into a new and different project that can meet the changing needs of our customers.
As the pressures on our customers have increased we, and other local community organisations, have tried to respond via sponsorships and donations. This has proven to be hugely valuable to local groups and good causes and so 2017 will see us formalise arrangements for how we distribute these funds to help address some of the problems faced by those in need.
OUR STRATEGY AND PRIORITIES 2017 - 2018
Our consistent, long term performance is the result of a clear strategy, and the combined efforts of the whole AHA team.
Our strategy is focussed on ensuring that AHA remains at the forefront of social housing in West Lothian. Providing homes for those in need, as well as valued and valuable services to support our customers with others aspects of their lives to ensure that they can remain in a home that is warm, safe and secure for as long as they wish.
In ‘Positively Almond’ we set out our strategic priorities for the period 2015 – 2020 (appendix d). We will continue to strive to achieve these targets, and the steps we’ll take in 2017 are detailed in the various Operating and Action Plans attached at appendix a.
FINANCIAL REPORTING
The success of our approach is demonstrated in the sustained financial performance and strong financial management of the organisation.
This section provides some background detail to the 2017/2018 budget and the financial forecast for the following four years – 2018/2019 to 2021/22.
Key Assumptions
Developments
During the 5 years of the forecast there are 5 developments projected to be on site, with all completing during the period. This represents 115 new properties to let. This includes 2 developments that we will undertake for our partners in the WLDA (36 properties). The capital spend for all projects is £14.238m with £7.433m of public subsidy and £6.805 of cash/private finance.
Staffing
During 2017/18, the Association is projecting no recruitment of additional new staff, however will continue with temporary staff cover for staff seconded onto our IT project.
Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and Energy Efficiency Standard Social Housing (EESSH) – revenue costs
We are assuming that we will spend £1.895.1m on maintaining the SHQS standard / component replacements for all stock and will continue to improve our stock in preparation of the Energy Efficiency Target of 2020. The Association will continue to report healthy surpluses during the period of an average 155% interest cover. This level allows an element of headroom over our loan covenant over the period, and provides sufficient funds for future investment in our stock.