NEWS Summer edition 2019

Coming soon

The new

Customer App

In this edition..

Coming soon - our new To request this document in a diff erent Customer App language or in larger print, please call 01750 724444 SBTO announce gardening comp winners www.sbha.org.uk SBHA's Board - talk to us www.sbto.org.uk

Welcome! Wishing you a warm UNIVERSAL CREDIT welcome to the Summer IN THIS EDITION edition of our Tenant Newsletter. Did you know, if you wish to We are delighted to bring you get involved to help news about our new “My SBHA” improve services for all Customer App, which will be Tenants, SBHA offers available to you in September. Tenants more than 18 ways This reflects our committment to to participate in decision modernise services and ensure we making? See our website continue to offer easily accessible for further details, or services for all. contact our Tenant We also bring you news of how Participation Manager Alison we will continue to invest in your Notman on 01750 724490. home and your neighbourhood. Perhaps one of the A special mention to longstanding Tenant, Alan Raeburn, easiest and most who tells us what makes Fountainhall a great place to convenient ways of live. having your say is by taking In this edition, we seek your views on an important part in one of the phone or proposed change to remunerate two key positions online surveys carried out within our governance structure. Paying Board by an independent members is becoming more common practice in company, BMG Research. housing as expected levels of skills increase as well as The feedback that you higher levels of responsibility, time commitment and provide allows SBHA to accountability. We see payment as essential in retaining identify and take action to and attracting a high calibre of members to ensure good rectify any issues quickly. governance. Every Tenant household, SBTO and the Customer Audit Team have been busy this over a three-year period, Summer helping us to measure how well our will have the opportunity to services meet our standards. You will find more take part in these surveys. information on this in this Newsletter along with other Participation is entirely examples of ways in which Tenants have helped shape voluntary - and the our services. feedback gathered is Thank you to all Tenants who have taken the time to get completely anonymous to involved and we look forward to continuing to work with SBHA. Please contribute to you to evolve and improve the services we provide. these surveys if you can, and let your voice be heard Julia Mulloy, to help shape services and Chief Executive of SBHA pinpoint where service improvements may be Contents needed. In your area...... p.4-5 We hope you enjoy this edition. SBTO updates...... p.6-7 People update...... p.8-9 Tracey Glover, Co-Chair of Performance update...... p.10 SBTO and on behalf of the Editorial Panel. Consultation...... p.9

2 IMPROVING SERVICES - MY SBHA APP Coming soon... the new 'My SBHA' Customer App!

My SBHA

We are excited to be launching our new self-service Customer App – “My SBHA” – in September.

This new App off ers you access to our services from your mobile devices at a time that is most convenient to you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The design is simple and easy to use – and of course it is free!

The App will allow you to - • check and amend your personal details • check your rent account • make payments • book non-emergency repair appointments.

The App is planned to be available to download from September. Watch our website and social media for details on how to access the App.

HAVE WE GOT YOUR NUMBER?

Help us to keep you informed by making sure that we hold the correct contact details for you. Each time you change your mobile number or email address, please let us know!

LOOKING TO MAKE A MOVE?

p.4-5 Why not join the 500,000 p.6-7 Tenants already registered with p.8-9 Homeswapper? It's the easiest way to swap your home! p.10 Register at www.homeswapper.co.uk p.9

3 CREATING GREAT PLACES TO LIVE

You said - you wanted us to invest in your neighbourhoods.

We did - devolved Neighbourhood budgets that allow our Teams to make a diff erence to your area. Here are some examples of investment we have made to improve neighbourhoods, as suggested by Tenants. “The area looks New planting brilliant now and you in the Loan can see it's being area, maintained and looked after." A Loan area resident

Clean-up at Gala Park

Cleaning up fl y-tipping in Your community needs you! Langlee, Galashiels

Join us on an estate walkabout, and help us decide what we could do to help make your area a great place to live. See page 8 for details of walkabouts coming up in September.

REPAIRS POLICY UPDATE

Many thanks to all Tenants who worked with us on reviewing our Repairs and Maintenance Policy. Listening to this feedback, we have developed our “Repairs and Maintenance Standard” which clearly sets out the quality of service Tenants should receive in relation to repairs. A copy of this Standard is available on our website at www.sbha.org.uk and completes our suite of estate management standards including “Property Improvement Works”, “Managing Neighbourhoods” and our “ Lettable Standard”. Your feedback is important to us to help us ensure that we are delivering on our promises and to continuously improve the service. We would encourage you take the opportunity to complete one of our surveys when asked to tell us about your experience. 4 CREATING GREAT PLACES TO LIVE

Our Planned Maintenance Programme Our 2019-20 Planned Maintenance Programme is now well under way. 51 new heating We are currently working in systems Peebles and Langlee, Galashiels. In the fi rst three months of the 34 new bathrooms year we delivered

7 new kitchens

'It was such a pleasure coming home each day to see the work that had been done. I love my new kitchen' Susan Robson, Langlee

We are also well on our way to meeting the Energy Effi ciency in Scottish Social Housing target (EESSH). The Scottish Government requires all social landlords to meet this standard for energy effi ciency by December 2020.

Percentage of SBHA homes meeting EESSH March 2018 March 2019 June 2019

61.9% 77% 82% WHAT MAKES YOUR AREA GREAT? Alan Raeburn thinks that Fountainhall is a great place to live, and having lived here since 1960, he should know! When Alan moved in as a child with his family, the landlord was Mid-Lothian Council, later Ettrick and Lauderdale District Council, then Council and now SBHA. His mother succeeded the tenancy from his father and he then succeeded the tenancy from her. When he fi rst moved in the rent was £40 per year! Alan loves Fountainhall's great location, its accessibility for Galashiels and Edinburgh and enjoys having the new railway link. He likes the country life and beautiful views - it’s a nice friendly place to live. What makes your area great? Contact us at [email protected] 5 LISTENING TO TENANTS

Scrutiny involves SBTO members examining SBHA services to make sure that we're delivering the standards that we say we will. This year’s Tenant Scrutiny Project is SBHA’s Standard for Property Improvement Works, and the Customer Audit Team (CAT) is being supported by summer student intern, Megan Pulman. The CAT has been shadowing SBHA Teams on the planned works and gathering feedback from Tenants on the service received. Look out for an update on the project in your next newsletter. Thank you to all Tenants for taking part in this project. Your feedback will help us to improve services for all. Scrutiny works! Last year the CAT considered SBHA’s Customer Service Standards. They scrutinised SBHA's “The most rewarding part of performance against our Standard set for contact; getting involved in Scrutiny access and information; visiting your home; was seeing fi rst-hand how performance and customer feedback. SBHA staff interact with Tenants, and being part of All recommendations for improvement are now providing observations and being taken forward, helping to make positive recommendations to SBHA changes to SBHA’s services to Tenants. You can senior management." read the full report at www.sbto.org.uk and www.sbha.org.uk Ralph Nichol, CAT member PRIZE WINNERS Congratulations to Keith Johnston of Galashiels, our Spring Newsletter survey winner, who receives a £50 One-4-All voucher, and also to Chris Daly of Walkerburn (right), who is the winner of our Spring Roadshow draw, and receives a £50 store voucher.

BORDERS BOOK FESTIVAL This year SBHA sponsored the Borders Book Festival event, "D Day: the Soldiers' Story", marking 75 years since the D Day landings. SBTO Co-Chair Dominic Brookes, who attended the event, comments: "I enjoyed the event and found it interesting. The author gathered his information from a variety of sources from soldiers that had been there. As a former soldier who made the choice to join up, it moved me to think that these young men didn't have that choice." 6 LISTENING TO TENANTS

SBTO member Gordon Saunders recently caught up with Customer Services Team Leader, Danielle Swaffi eld, who joined SBHA this summer. Hi Danielle! What does your job involve? My role is to provide guidance and support to SBHA's Solutions Team to ensure Tenants receive a high level of service when calling SBHA. What would you like to achieve? I want to ensure that our Team resolves issues at fi rst point of contact as often as possible. If this isn't possible, we'll keep Tenants up to date, with a named point of contact, until the issue is resolved. An early focus for me will be to take forward recommendations for improvement identifi ed by Tenants. What's the most important part of your job? I believe that Team members must build up the trust of our Tenants, through eff ective communication, and meet our Customer Service Standards. And now for the quick-fi re questions.. Favourite fi lm? Pretty Woman Food? Chinese Drink? Rhubarb Gin Hobbies? travel, Irish Football, eating out and socialising with friends. Who do you most admire? Tina Turner because whatever life threw at her she always got back up and became a success and someone to respect. If you could be anybody in the world who would you be? Celine Dion.

SBTO ANNUAL GARDENING COMPETITION Thank you to everyone who participated in, or nominated someone for this year's SBTO Gardening competition. As ever, the quality of entries was outstanding!

2nd

Hazel White, Newcastleton

Congratulations to overall winner Patricia 1st Alexander of Selkirk, pictured here with Prize for her grandson being presented with the Eric best use Kelly Memorial Trophy by SBTO Vice Chair of space - David Todd, Torwoodlee David Cartledge. 7 OUR PEOPLE

Who's my Neighbourhood Housing Offi cer? Fiona Mallin, Guy Shillinglaw, Bev Richardson, Galashiels Jedburgh, Hawick Ancrum

Rebecca Hilferty, Steven Flint, Elaine Brotherstone, Burnfoot, Hawick, Innerleithen, Ashkirk Newcastleton, Walkerburn, Newmill Clovernfords, Fountainhall, Heriot, Stow, Traquair Laura Appleby, Debbie Morrison, Susan Falconer, Melrose, Peebles, Skirling, Selkirk, St Boswells, Blyth Bridge, Yarrowford, Bowden, Maxton, Broughton, Ettrickbridge Darnick, Lauder, Eddleston, Earlston, Eshiels, Manor, Gattonside Romanno Bridge, West Linton Helen Bulman, Kelly Mitchell, Kaye Forsyth, Kelso, Ednam, Langlee Hawick, Kirk Yetholm, Denholm, , Bonchester, , South Dean, Smailholm, Lilliesleaf Sprouston Find out how to contact your Neighbourhood Housing Offi cer on our website – www.sbha.org.uk ESTATE WALKABOUTS - SEPTEMBER Peebles, North Street and George Terrace areas with Debbie Morrison. Meet 3 at North St, 2pm. Hawick, Howdenbank with Beverley Richardson. Meet 2.30pm. 12 Galashiels, Balmoral Avenue and Forest Road areas with Fiona Mallin. Meet outside Nikki's bar, 2pm. 17 Hawick, Ramsay Road with Steven Flint. Meet 2pm. Selkirk, Shawburn area with Susan Falconer. Meet at the shop at 18 Balnagowan Road, 10.30am.

24 Galashiels, Netherdale area with Kelly Mitchell. Meet at 2pm. Jedburgh, Priors Court, Priors Meadow, Well House, Upper Bongate Gardens 25 with Guy Shillinglaw. Meet at 2pm. Hawick, Burnfoot with Rebecca Hilferty. Meet at Kenilworth shops, 10am. 26 Hawick, Overhall Crescent, Overhall Road, Whitehaugh Road, Deanfi eld Court, Wellington Court with Kaye Forsyth. Meet at 2pm. 8 OUR PEOPLE

SBHA's Board - Tenant consultation You may recall during 2016, we carried out a fundamental review of our governance arrangements which led to a change to SBHA’s overall governance structure and size, and the composition of the Board. One of the outcomes of this review was that SBHA moved to a skills-based Board.

A new regulatory framework came into force on the 1st April 2019, the Scottish Housing Regulator’s new requirements place a greater responsibility on Board and Committee members of RSLs to ensure that their organisations are achieving and maintaining compliance with the regulatory standards. These are challenging times for the housing sector and strong, robust governance is key.

Currently our 12 Board members and the additional 4 members of our Sub-Committees are all volunteers. They are expected to have increased levels of skills and even higher levels of responsibility, time commitment and accountability than before. As part of our ongoing commitment to eff ective governance, we are proposing to introduce payment for two key positions within our governance structure: Board of Management Chair and the Convener of Audit and Compliance Sub-Committee for the role they carry out and the responsibilities they hold. We see payment as an essential tool for achieving excellence in our governance, Find out how to contact your Neighbourhood Housing Offi cer on our website – www.sbha.org.uk retaining and attracting high calibre members, and to be competitive. Paying Board members is becoming more common practice within the Scottish housing sector and is proven to strengthen governance.

If payment is agreed for the two positions identifi ed, individuals will be required to sign a Service Agreement setting out their contractual obligations and responsibilities to SBHA. Each member would be accountable under this agreement and be required to have an annual review of their performance. As a charitable registered provider of social housing we would only make payment in line with housing sector levels, which would be subject to regular review and published annually. Basic, essential expenses would continue to be paid, as they are now. If payment is approved this will not have an impact on the services our customers receive. This is an important change for SBHA and customers are asked to feedback on their thoughts. Our consultation is open until the 16th September and we welcome any thoughts or comments that you may have. You can call us with your views on 01750 724444, email [email protected] or write to the Director of Business Support at South Bridge House, Whinfi eld Road, Selkirk TD7 5DT. We look forward to hearing from you.

9 HOW ARE WE DOING?

Performance update Average time to complete Average time to complete non- emergency repairs emergency repairs

6.72 days 6.65 days 1 hr 49 mins 2 hrs 17 mins

Jan to March Jan to March Jan to March Jan to March 2018 2019 2018 2019 Complaints Repairs and maintenance 61%

total Rent collection 4% complaints complaints by type 79 Tenancy management 4% complaints Reception and Gas / upheld - 31 Customer service 3% heating Applications/ 14% Allocations 4% Neighbour Estate dispute 1% management 10% Call handling Jan to March 2019 Jan to March 2018 Calls received 17404 16499

Calls resolved at fi rst 55% 15% point of contact

Percentage collected of rent due Days to re-let empty homes

98.38 98.31

46 57 Jan to March Jan to March Jan to March Jan to March 2019 2018 2019 2018 BMG Surveys - fi gures from July 2019, compared with previous year 78% of you 76% of you 83% of you are feel that SBHA feel satisfi ed satisfi ed with is good at with your a repair you’ve keeping you opportunities had carried informed to participate out in the last (down from (up from 12 months (up 81%) 71%) from 80%) 10 PUZZLEPUZZLES PRIZE PAGE PAGE

t s batvmplssgreptoi Find the hidden, awuezqskcetkhdrifc holiday-related words in xacnaiefjpsubaocae the puzzle. Words may be vertical, igdsgnimmiwsvaikec horizontal, diagonal, itvxslamedhetcrewr backwards forwards, up or snalypaptnl immstee down! lthanegsesactiuswa aroerdchsanxaesevm sunglasses icecream nhtci jmnoequvznabs suitcases tickets doenmlnkjrsihtgfee aeroplane travel aclqrsrtuossmminsa passport holiday ijihgeucbpassports sunburn station rkmpowbvzlqteacbai island campsite pnmspvnoeagnss S e t d seaside airport hotel oabcdeuzynxwvuitie taxi swimming disco racampsiteseizdeou tssmghtdejkldnopna svtuhol idayfeuemne

Find Felix!

Where is our furry friend Solutions to our Spring puzzle hanging out on such a fi ne sunny day? Across Down 1. cabaret 1. carried 4. eerie 2. badge 7. radar 3. toucan 9. upright 4. error 10. inertia 5. regular 11. ruler 6. enter Send us your entries - we’ll choose one 12. despot 8. ratio completed crossword and one correct ‘Find 14. cleric 13. support Felix’, which will each win a 18. ample 15. logic £10 voucher. 20. haggard 16. cadenza Send to SBHA, South Bridge House, 22. sporran 17. change Whinfi eld Road, Selkirk TD7 5DT 23. crown 18. aisle 24. entry 19. early 25. echidna 21. aloud 1111 Tear Off and Tell Us

We are in the process of reviewing SBHA’s Strategic Plan and would like your views on what you would like to see SBHA doing to enhance and improve our services for younger people over the next 5 years. Let us know by emailing us at [email protected] or return this completed form to SBHA, South Bridge House, Whinfi eld Road, Selkirk TD7 5DT. As a thank you for taking part, all responses will be entered into a draw, and one lucky person will win either an Amazon Kindle Fire or a £50 One4All voucher.

1. What challenges do you feel face our young people (16-25) in your neighbourhood?

......

......

2. What do you think would help to address these challenges?

......

......

3. Thinking about your answer to Q.2, how do you think SBHA could contribute to making things better for young people?

......

......

4. If you are between 16 and 25, would you be interested in talking to us about how we could help to make things better for young people in your area?

Yes No

Name:......

Address:......

...... Post Code:...... Tel No.:...... Email Address:......

Talk to us! If you wish to see anything covered in future newsletters, want to leave some feedback on this newsletter, or are interested in learning more about SBTO and ways to get involved, please contact our Tenant Participation Manager Alison Notman on 01750 724490. THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK 12

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