Sovini - Value for Money Strategy 2013/2018

Group Value For Money Strategy 2013/2018

Contents Sovini - Value for Money Strategy 2013/2018

Page Foreword 3 - 4

1 Section One – Our Group Structure 1.1 The Sovini Group 5 1.2 Our Vision 6 1.3 Our Corporate Principles 6

2 Section Two – Our VFM Approach 2.1 Our VFM Journey 7 2.2 Our VFM Success 8 2.3 What We Have Achieved 8

3 Section Three – Delivery of this Strategy 3.1 Ensure Our People Deliver Satisfaction and Quality 9 3.2 Deliver Products and Services Seemlessly with Simplicity and Timeliness 9 3.3 Maximise Social Value by Delivering Sustainability within Cost 9

4 Section Four – Our VFM Objectives and Outcomes 4.1 Our Common and Shared VFM Culture 10 4.2 VFM Objective One – Maximise our Social Value 11 4.3 VFM Objective Two – Systematic Analysis of our Assets 12 - 14 4.4 VFM Objective Three – Achieve Regulatory Compliance and Excellence in 15 Governance and Viability 4.5 VFM Objective Four – Achieve Effectiveness through Co-operaion and Collaboration 16 4.6 VFM Objective Five – Maximisation of Procurment Opportunities 17 4.7 VFM Objective Six – Excellent Performance and Customer Satisfaction 18

5 Section Five – Embedding, Montioring and Review of this Strategy 5.1 Embedding, Monitoring and Reporting Processes 19 5.2 Measuring Our VFM Outcomes 20

of 23 Sovini - Value for Money Strategy 2013/2018

Foreword

At the very heart of our activities is a commitment to:

 optimise the use and availability of our assets and resources

 improve the health and economic well-being of our customers through optimisation of our social, economic and environmental returns, and

 re-invest any additional financial capacity that we create to improve services, mitigate risk(s) and to build new, replenish old and/or modernise our homes.

To date we have developed and deployed a robust and challenging approach to the pursuit of value for money (VFM), with £50m of efficiency savings realised at March 2013. This is in addition to the multiple society outcomes achieved through our financial inclusion, employment, apprenticeship and community development activities.

VFM is embedded as a key cross cutting theme within our organisational culture and processes. We have always recognised its importance and necessity, in that it enables us to achieve our strategic aims and objectives. As such, this Strategy has synergy and contributes/complements the outcomes of a number of other Sovini Strategies; the Procurement, Financial Inclusion, Asset Management and Resident Engagement and Involvement Strategies being named as just a few examples.

In producing this Strategy, we recognise the changing risk landscape in which we now exist and the heightened importance of VFM. In particular; how we will measure and report our social, economic and environmental returns and demonstrate best use of our assets. We recognise our strategic and social responsibilities and our committed to ensuring that we do all that we can and extract every penny of value, from the resources that we have at our disposal.

This Strategy outlines our Group approach to VFM and sets out how we will embed and achieve our VFM objectives and outcomes. Particularly, through:

 robust and transparent decisions on the use of our assets and resources

 quantifying, measuring and reporting upon our Return on Investment (ROI)

 ethical and honest procurement and business undertakings

 our commercial activities and the ‘self-delivery’ of services to the multiple Partners within our Group

 the redistribution of Vat , gift aid and other ‘cash releasing’ efficiencies

 deployment of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) principles and practices to assist us to improve our four integrated critical business processes. Also to translate our vision, mission and values into products and services which are valued by our customers and have a positive wider society benefit

 customer and business intelligence systems which is used to allocate resources and inform our priorities

 the continued benchmarking and completion of annual VFM assessments (each service areas), to understand our service costs and to identify/implement improvements

 listening to, implementing and learning from our staff and customer VFM and other suggestions as well as positive learning from complaints, compliments and active customer scrutiny

 risk based diversification planning which considers and sticks the an equilibrium between cost and social benefit

 shaping and informing the future of the wider social housing agenda.

As a Group of collaborative Partners we continue to develop a rigorous and transparent approach to our value for money activities, in order to position the Group for the risks, challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of us.

This will require us to be proactive, preventative, proportionate, integrated, educational and supportive in our approach. Thee outcomes delivered through this Strategy will be testament of our success.

Roy Williams Group - Chief Executive Officer

Section One : Our Group Structure

1.1 The Sovini Group

The Sovini Group was established in December 2011, with a view to bringing together like-minded organisations to work in partnership, support each other, achieve better value, better quality of service and, more importantly, exceed the expectations of customers.

Sovini comprises of both not-for-profit and for-profit Partners. Our purpose is to work collaboratively, harnessing the innovation and creativity of our people, customers and stakeholders to deliver improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and to collectively achieve VFM.

We want to maximise the creation of additional financial capacity for re investment in our homes and communities and through the achievement of our corporate objectives, add value and optimise our social, economic and environmental return.

Our Group is designed specifically to harness the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of both the public (not- for- profit) and private sector (for- profit) Partners. Put simply it is about:

 maximising opportunity

 reducing waste, and;

 generating inclusion.

Our Group Structure is illustrated in Diagram One below:

Diagram One – The Sovini Group Structure

1.2 Our Vision

Sovini has created the following Vision:

“Creating the environment for commercial and social success”

Each Partner within our Group is managed as a separate discrete entity, retaining its name (identity) and Board (governance structure), whilst being afforded the protection of an Intra Group Agreement (IGA) to mitigate cross functional risk and protect their housing and other assets.

The Registered Providers (RPs) within the Group have set challenging and ambitious targets for the next three to five years within their Strategic Plans. These include expectations for excellence in governance, viability and full compliance with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Standards.

This Strategy sets out how our RP Partners will adopt a more challenging and robust approach to their VFM activities in the coming years and will put in place improvements to measure and report the outcomes that they achieved through delivery of this Strategy.

It also sets out how the activities of the wider Sovini Group (in particular the Commercial Partners) who will drive efficiency, VAT and other productivity savings through the provision of ‘shared’ and ‘self-delivered’ services to Group Partners and in doing so fulfil their social, economic and environmental responsibilities. It also outlines how these Partners will strive to seek and secure new, profitable external contracts.

1.3 Our Corporate Principles

Underpinning our Vision, we have set and agreed the following corporate principles:

 Collaboration - We will work in true partnership to share knowledge and skills aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness and value for money

 Innovation - Our aim is to create an environment that encourages shared innovation and aspiration, and where employees and customers thrive and realise their full potential

 Motivation - Doing the right things for the right reasons – based on an ethical and honest approach to procurement and conduct of our business activities. We are motivated by excellence and the ambition to continuously improve what we do and how we do it.

Section Two: Our VFM Approach

2.1 Our VFM Journey

We have taken a fresh look at our approach to value for money, following the achievement of £50m of much needed efficiency savings to March 2013.

To date, these new additional resources have been reinvested in our business plans to improve our services, meet our customer expectations, improve our customer experience and to deliver £300m of investment in our existing homes. More recently we have invested a proportion of our resources to build 85 new homes without government grant assistance and have committed resources across the Group to deliver a further 210 homes in the coming three years. These achievements have been recognised by our funders, regulator, and customers and nationally through the various VFM and improvement awards that we have received.

We pride ourselves in the recognition that customer satisfaction with the services we provide has increased from 90% (2006) to 97% (2013). That said, whilst our achievements have been significant, today is a different day and both the Group and our customers are having to exist and survive in more stretching and challenging times, with additional financial and economic constraints, increasing and changing expectations and heightened risk.

As a Group, we operate within some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, some of which are ranked amongst the worst financially and socially deprived in Britain. At national level more than 60% of customers living in our homes and neighbourhoods, are at a higher risk of being financially excluded and/or impacted upon by the changes in Welfare Reform. We acknowledge our responsibilities to help our customers to overcome social, employment, financial and skills barriers and through our social value activities. We aspire to create employment and training opportunities as well as continue to provide “best in class” services and build new homes for future generations.

We understand and recognise that we are a social business, with a social purpose and responsibility. We also recognise that we must be efficient and effective in delivering our business strategies and that we must use our assets and resources wisely, to ensure that we are able to realise the wider society outcomes expected from us. This is sound business sense.

We have developed this Strategy, with the support and input of all our people and our customers and believe that the outcomes achieved through its implementation will be far reaching.

2.2 Our VFM Successes

Since inception we have tracked our VFM outcomes and cash releasing and non cash releasing savings. We have also sepertately tracked the impact of VFM in delivery of our recurring Management costs (operational service delivery costs e.g. staffing and overhead costs). This has seen our managment costs reduce cumulatively year on year and satisfaction with our service delivery increase to levels in excess of top quartile performance.

We have proacitively used our savings and inceased efficiency to help us to mitigate our known/inherent risks, improve our services and service offering, strethen our financial inclusion and commuity development roles and responsibilites, utlilising any spare capcity we have left to build new homes for future generations.

2.3 What We Have Achieved

A summary of our VFM achievements is provided below and the key themes and trends are presented graphically in Appendix One attached.

 Invested £300m in improving and refurbishing our existing homes

 Achieved 100% Decency in OVH homes and 96% in PCHA homes

 Reduced our recurring management costs by 24% (OVH) and 45% (PCHA)

 Generated £50m of cumulative efficiency savings since 2006

 Built 85 new homes in 2012 and 2013

 Committed resources via our Business Plans to build a further 210 new home from 2013 to 2016

 Quality Accredited Services achieved by all Members of the Group

 Plan to invest £55m regenerating OVHs high rise in Greenfields Place and Kings Park

 Delivered £5.6m (OVH) in Neighbourhood Plan Priorities in 2012/13

 Identified £2.3m of resources to assist those customers in most need of assistance due to the impact of Welfare Reform, in addition to increasing our bad debt assumptions

 Increased Customer Satisfaction from 90 % to 97%

 Reduced the turnaround time of our voids from 48 days in 2008 to 21 days in 2012 and are working proactively to negate the current impact of welfare reform upon our in year targets

 Created our European award winning and accredited Customer Service Centre to improve the access and availability of our services to customers

 Outperformed our Business Plan and Annual Budget targets each and every year

 Increased SAP rating of our homes from 69 to 72

 Secured £10m of additional unclaimed benefits for our customers since 2007

 Assisted 35 customers and residents back to work and created 12 apprenticeship places since 2009 generating NEET and other outcomes

 Contributed towards the achievement of £15.7m of NEET gains (in the North West) through our joint work as a member of the Airport Group

 Secured £2.7m so far in energy efficiency grants and reinvested these resources into insulation and other energy efficiency interventions to assist our customers and are in the process of creating a longer term energy partnership with Eon and other partners

 Strengthened our Financial Inclusion, Community Development, Employment, Youth and Community Safety teams with additional resources put in place for diversionary and other community based projects.

Section Three : Delivery of this Strategy

In delivering this Strategy we will:

3.1 Ensure that our people deliver Satisfaction and Quality

 Satisfaction means we want to do what we say we will, when we say we will do it

 Quality means we will set high standards and expectations of services which we will adhere to and achieve. We want to set and then meet our customers’ expectations, every time we do something for them. When we are doing these things we will identify alongside our customers where we need to improve our standards further and the opportunities available to us to give our customers a better/ improved service offering.

3.2 Deliver our products and services seamlessly with Simplicity and Timeliness

 Simplicity means we want to get things right first time, and make our business processes and customer interactions seamless, making accessibility to our services as easy and efficient as they possibly can be

 Timeliness means that on those occasions where things go wrong, we will strive to resolve our customer and stakeholder issues and concerns, promptly and properly and measure our customer satisfaction with how we handled/addressed their concern.

3.3 Strive to maximise our social value, by delivering Sustainability within our Costs

 Sustainability means taking a long term view (whole life) of what we do and how we do it, looking to deliver on our diversity, social, economic and environmental responsibilities

 Costs means understanding the prices of everything that we buy and the costs of the products and services that we provide. More importantly it is about understanding the whole life cost of our activities, including the time spent by our people, the focus of our priorities, our productivity and performance, how we can best harness and invest effectively in new technologies and systems to automate processes and reduce waste for the benefit of all Partners and our customers.

Diagram Two – Bridge of Delivery

Section Four: Our VFM Objectives and Outcomes

4.1 Our Common and Shared VFM Culture

Demand for our services is increasing and our resources are limited, which means we must constantly strive to achieve more for less, improve quality and be well-managed and highly efficient and effective in our operations.

For our RP Partners, demonstrating VFM is a Regulatory requirement. The HCA introduced the revised Economic Standard in 2012 and this sets out firmly the VFM expectations of the regulator and our RPs will publish their first VFM Self-Assessment in September 2013.

As an innovative and creative Group, we advocate a collaborative and progressive approach to VFM by all Partners including those for profit entities. As such, we have agreed a common and shared view on the Groups VFM culture and objectives.

To focus our minds and embed appropriately and consistently our VFM culture, this Strategy outlines through six VFM objectives, the priorities, actions and outcomes that we intend to realise in the coming years, to measure and report our VFM successes and achievements. These are linked to our Corporate Strategy and Corporate Governance and Financial Frameworks.

Diagram Three - Our Common and Shared VFM Objectives

4.2 VFM Objective One - Maximise our Social Value

We have considered our approach and determined how we intend to report and measure the social, economic and environment returns that we generate. We will utilise a number of national and local indicators and proxies to assess and quantify the multiplier impact on society of our social value activities.

A working party of multi-disciplinary Officers (reflecting the composite of the various Partners in the Group) has been established to co-ordinate and embed our responses, led by each of the Operations Directors.

It is intended that by September 2013, we will be in a position to publish our half year outcomes and finalise /report against our targets.

We will demonstrate achievement of this objective by:

 Ensuring that our social , economic and environmental return methodology is embedded consistently across the Groups, to enable us to measure the society outcomes and returns that we generate  Continuing to work in partnership with the other members of the Airport Group to deliver continued and sustained employment and skills opportunities in the North West of England (£15.7m of NEET returns achieved collectively at March 2013)  Positively create and encourage employment and enterprise through e.g. our externally awarded contracts, Sovini Property Services (SPS) our ‘self-service’ delivery vehicle, our directly employed

employment/skills officers, our commitment to fund various community grants and projects, as well as our volunteering and apprenticeship placements  Achieve a Group target of £3m NEET and other employment returns by 2018, based on the creation of circa 60 new employment opportunities during 2013/14 and a commitment to fund circa 12 apprenticeships per annum in the coming five years  Implement our Customer Involvement and Youth Engagement Strategies and seek to involve and work alongside our customers and younger people to develop and deliver local solutions to transform and sustain our neighbourhoods  Increase community resilience and neighbourhood sustainability through deployment of excellent, intelligent, accessible and co-ordinated housing management and maintenance services, ensuring that cross functional service risks and potential exclusion barriers are overcome and where possible mitigated  Continue to utilise our customer profiling and business intelligence information to determine our priorities, scrutinise our activities and respond proportionally with our interventions  Have in place efficient and effective referral services with our key partners and third sector agencies to ensure that where at all possible we minimise the wider society, access, economic and resource impacts for these organisations, through SMART referral processes and effective communication channels and relationships  Providing learning and training opportunities for our customers and residents focussed at improving quality of life, irradiating financial exclusion and improving technology skills.

Diagram Four – Our Social Impact Measurements

4.3 VFM Objective Two - Systematic Analysis of our Assets (Our Homes, Our People, Our Resources)

We will achieve this by:

 Implementing a whole life approach to how we manage and prioritise the use of all of our assets. Including how we:

 procure and deliver our products and services

 measure our carbon footprint and other environmental impacts

 utilise local labour via self-delivery of services within the Group

 employ, train and retain our people and apprenticeships

 allocate our resources through use of zero based budgeting and customer intelligence and profiling data. Constantly reviewing and aligning our resources so that we continue to meet and where possible exceed our customers priorities and expectations

 measure and report on our Return on Investment (ROI) for our Housing Assets

 continue to carry out annual VFM Assessments of all of our functional /service areas to compare our costs, how we perform and are perceived by our customers and to identify proactively

service and other improvement actions to continually improve how we deliver our products and services

Continued...

 Seek recognition for excellence in everything that we do, accepting that there are times when things can and do go wrong. On these occasions we will ensure that we priorities and consider our customers experience and put in place proactive interventions to right our mistakes, ensuring that any learning is feedback to improve our processes and reduce reoccurrence  Conducting a systematic analysis of the longer term performance and return on investment of our housing assets, including working with a number of other independent institutions to determine the proxies and measures which we will use to capture and report our outcomes  Procuring a new asset management system which we intend to use to facilitate robust asset management planning and scenario analysis. We currently have Codeman and have identified some areas of weaknesses/inefficiency. We hope to have fully deployed this replacement system in Autumn 2013 and be in a position to utilise the data extracted from this system to inform our 2014/15 Business Plan and Regeneration Programme update/findings  Commission an independent review and appraisal of our non-refurbished high rise stock with a view of informing any potential reconfiguration/use of these assets. This includes examining use of these assets for complimentary or ancillary services such as extra care etc.  Strengthening our Asset Management Team. We hope to utilise the skills and experience of these Officers to refine and deploy our approach/methodology for ROI reporting. We currently have profitability assessments for each of our 18 neighbourhoods. These assessments identify how much income (rent) has been collected per neighbourhood compared to the level of resources invested (management, maintenance and major repairs/investment). This date is able to be mapped and overlaid with our customer profiling, demand, letting and intervention data. This facilitates a visual representation of our ROI at neighbourhood level and informs our interventions and resource allocations/priorities  Completing independent funding review in conjunction with our Treasury Advisors (David Tolson Partnership) to review our current RP loan and funding arrangements, to ensure that they are robust and “fit for purpose”. It is also to identify and consider the impacts of any unutilised borrowing facilities that may be unlocked from the value tied up in our existing housing assets. This is to ensure that we are, where we can, utilising our full borrowing capacity and investing these resources to address PR priorities and provide new affordable housing  Conducting independent and regular Benchmarking of our product and service costs. Measuring and reporting our performance, so we can all (customers, people and stakeholders) fully understand our differences to that of our Piers. Also to communicate what we do well, where we fall short and how we can put in place improvements to increase productivity, realign and stretch performance, obtain right quality, increase or maintain satisfaction and where relevant reduce cost  Ensuring that we achieve the EFQM Accreditation (OVH initially) and continue to deploy and embed this systematic approach to the achievement of excellence within our organisational culture

 Communicating and promoting our VFM Ideas and Suggestions Scheme. Ensuring that all approved suggestions are implemented and that any cross functional/organisations benefits are assessed and achieved. Also by tracking and reporting our cash releasing and non-cash releasing savings.

Continued...

 Embedding and training our people, customers and stakeholders to strive for, identify and secure VFM as part of their core roles and responsibilities. Ensuring that appropriate skills and competencies are developed and deployed and that our processes and systems are SMART and effective. Particular attention will be paid to:

 Leadership and management skills

 360 Degree Appraisals

 Budgeting and cost management

 Project Management

 Linking VFM into our Golden Thread.

Diagram Five – How we Utilise and Deploy our Resources and Drive our Processes to Maximise our Social Value Outcomes.

4.4 VFM Objective Three - Achieve Regulatory Compliance and Customer Involvement

Under the Homes and Communities Agency Economic ‘Value for Money’ Standard, Registered providers shall:

 have a robust approach to making decisions on the use of resources to deliver the provider’s objectives, including an understanding of the trade-offs and opportunity costs of its decisions  understand the return on its assets, and have a strategy for optimising the future returns on assets – including rigorous appraisal of all potential options for improving value for money including the potential benefits in alternative delivery models - measured against the organisation’s purpose and objectives  have performance management and scrutiny functions which are effective at driving and delivering improved value for money performance  understand the costs and outcomes of delivering specific services and which underlying factors influence these costs and how they do so.

 Setting the highest possible standards for regulatory compliance and achieving excellence in Governance for our RP Partners, culminating in the award by the HCA of a Governance One and Viability One for each Partner (as relevant).

 Having strong, effective and committed Board structures/ Board Members in place, who are focussed on strategic objectives and risk management activities.

 Having robust Board Member appraisal framework and active Board Development and Succession Planning.

 Continuing to ensuring that the Group has effective Resident Involvement and Community Governance and that proactive and preventative Customer Scrutiny is embedded as a key process requirement across the Group.

 Ensuring the Scrutiny Panel Reviews and recommendation are reported to the appropriate RP Board and monitored and implemented through the Group Business Assurance Committee (GBAC)

 Ensuring that we retain the TPAS Accreditation as recognition of our excellence in Consumer Governance and that in June 2013 that OVH become the first RP in the Country to achieve the Quality Assured Scrutiny Accreditation in recognition of our embedded and recognised best practice approach to customer involvement and scrutiny functions.

 Completing and publishing our first VFM Self-Assessment (September 2013) and demonstrating ongoing full compliance with the HCA’s requirements.

Diagram Six – The EFQM RADAR Model

4.5 VFM Objective Four - Achieve Effectiveness through Co-operation and Collaboration

 Involving and listening to our people and customers and using the data and intelligence received to improve our processes and customer experience  Seeking recognition for excellence within the housing sector, attracting new RP and other charitable organisations into our Group, to work collaboratively and share VFM , VAT and other efficiencies as well as the skills, experience and resources of all our Group Partners  Expanding the service offering of our Sovini Partners by reviewing our supply chain , through vertical, horizontal, complimentary or diversionary realignment and putting in place self-delivery vehicles to provide these services e.g.

 Increasing existing self-delivered services e.g. repairs and maintenance to the Groups new for- profit Partners (Roger Haydocks and Sovini Homes)  Realigning complimentary services and in sourcing for future self-delivery (grounds maintenance and cleaning services).

Diagram Seven – The Customer Wheel

4.6 VFM Objective Five - Maximisation of Procurement Opportunities

The Group has a separate Procurement Strategy in place to determine and prioritise its Procurement objectives and requirements. Our VFM approach recognises the importance of procurement in achieving VFM and meeting the Groups requirements of the Public Services Act, moving forward in terms of embedding social value within our procurement processes and Framework. .

In recognition of this, the following Procurement actions and outcomes will be achieved through implementation of the VFM and Procurement Strategies.

 Measuring, tracking and reporting in line with the requirements of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 the social value outcomes we achieve through our tendered and externally procured contracts e.g. specialist constructor partners, specialist consultants, utility suppliers and other suppliers and contractors  Annual review of our Financial Regulations to ensure they remain “fit for purpose” and facilitate the continued needs of the organisation and ensure that our people are process compliance in terms of observing procurement limits, requirements and expectations

 Having in place robust and transparent procurement processes, systems and evaluation assessment criterion  Regularly reviewing our suppliers, their pricing strategies and reviewing and monitoring our contracts register in terms of criticality (risk, volume and duration) and social and environmental impact (locality, size, ethics, carbon footprint)  Completing spend analysis as part of our VFM Assessment and using the findings to determine our procurement or in sourcing route/opportunities  Utilising modern and efficient procurement tools e.g. e auctions, e purchasing, BACS etc.  Maintaining strong, open, honest and transparent relationships with our suppliers and business advisers  Compiling and publicising our ethical and environmental standards and embedding these in our procurement processes and practices  Having effective Procurement Frameworks in place which enable us to discharge our statutory and legal procurement responsibilities  Actively seeking opportunities to identify and self-deliver products and services, to assist to optimise our training and employment opportunities  Listening to and involving our customers and partner representatives in all procurement projects and tenders to ensure that their views are considered and reflected  Promoting and facilitating customer scrutiny, review and inspection of our self-delivered and externally procured services to ensure that quality and standards of service are challenged and where relevant, improved to continue to meet our organisational and customer standards and expectations.

4.7 VFM Objective Six – Excellent Performance and Customer Satisfaction through Business Transformation and Service Improvement

 Obtaining the EFQM Accreditation (OVH initially) and deploying this approach in our pursuit for excellence

 Undertaking fundamental, end-to-end service reviews of our core process to highlight and address cost, performance, satisfaction and/or service access weaknesses.

 Continued use of Balance Scorecards and Strategy Maps to track and report our ‘in period’ and ‘cumulative’ performance via our Covalent web based Performance Management System using ‘direction of travel’ assessments to determine areas of further review, risk based intervention(s) and comparison with pier groups.

 Use of Housemark and other benchmarking services to identify our strengths, weaknesses (cost and performance) and areas of difference.

 Utilisation of Business Transformation principles through deployment of our specialist business analyst team, to engineer and transform strategically, tactically and operationally our processes (automating and streamlining) with productivity, additional financial capacity and other efficiency savings.

 Implementation of our ambitious and challenging IT Strategy which will see the transformation of our current IT infrastructure, systems and processes. This will require all of our existing systems to be reviewed, overhauled and built “in house” to our specification and IT needs. This is a major project that will require intensive resources and management. However, the qualitative and quantitative outcomes to the Group (especially the RP Partners) are anticipated to be unparalleled and will result in significant reductions in recurring management costs and productivity levels (initial £0.5m per annum).

 Implementing and promoting adherence with our Project Management Framework, to ensure that cross functional resources are identified and outcome quantified, measured and reported to evidence project successes, lessons learnt and any efficiency or other savings/outcomes.

Diagram Eight – Improvement Strategies

Section Five : Embedding, Monitoring and Reviewing this Strategy

5.1 Embedding, Monitoring and Reporting Processes

This Strategy recognises that as a business, customer, stakeholder or individual employee, we all have a positive and proactive contribution to make to achieve VFM and that through communication, co-operation and collaboration we can continuously improve:

 what we do  how we do it  the social and added value that we generate, and  the efficiency (productivity, cash and non-cash releasing efficiencies and quality) that we achieve.

This Strategy will be communicated to our People as part of their induction to our business. Its emphasis and impedes will be embedded and maintained through our Golden Thread as each employee will understand how their personal objectives relate to the identification and achievement of VFM and the Groups Corporate Objectives.

VFM will be a key theme included in all team meeting and briefing sessions and our outcomes and cash realising savings will be tracked and communicated through various forms to our people, customers and stakeholders.

Progress made in achieving the outcomes of this Strategy will be reported to and monitored by our:

 Executive Management Team  The VFM Steering Group (which includes two involved tenants)  The Sovini Group Business Assurance Committee (GBAC)  Staff Briefings , team meetings and newsletters  Staff appraisals and service based VFM Assessments  In Vision and other Customer communication mechanisms  Annual Report  VFM Self-Assessment in our Statutory Accounts.

Regular briefings and team talk sessions our provided to our people to keep them informed of our progress and to report the tracked efficiencies that we have generated. This includes face to face presentation of the outcome of their annual service VFM Assessment and their engagement and involvement in putting forward suggestions and improvements to increase the qualitative and quantitative outcomes of their teams or service areas.

An annual VFM Action Plan (including as relevant any cross cutting service improvement, procurement or project e.g. IT Strategy impacts) will be loaded into Covalent our Performance Monitoring System to track and report our progress including our annual and cumulative efficiency gains and return on social investment (forward and backward looking).

Continued…

Diagram Nine - The Sovini Value for Money Culture

5.2 Measuring our VFM Outcomes

The outcomes of this Strategy will also be evidenced based and measured through a number of indicators which encompass the following:

 Relevant LAA/MAA/LEP targets  Return on Investment – KPI’s  Environmental KPI’s  Annual and cumulative efficiency savings (cash releasing and non-cash releasing)  The Regulatory Judgements awarded by our Regulator  Our Annual RP VFM Self-Assessment  The outcomes attained by our Financial Inclusion, Community Development and Safety Teams  Reporting and monitoring of the Value £’s of Unclaimed Benefits KPI  Collaborative work and outcomes achieved via the Airport Group  Equality Impact Assessments  Financial Impact Assessments  Average SAP Rating of our homes  Our Annual VFM Assessments and Benchmarking results (each service area)  The number of new homes built and funded from our additional financial capacity  Training and employment outcomes – customers, residents and our people  Awareness campaigns, events and the outcomes from our VFM Suggestion Scheme.

Also through our ability to:

 Attract and incept new RP and not for profit Partners into our Group, with resultant increases in VFM outcomes  Retain and increase our external contracts, generating profit and gift aid opportunities  Grow and expand our activities and services though measured diversification  Realise new financial capacity and direct to fund new and replacement affordable homes.