Connections Autumn 2018
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ISSUE 1 WINTER 2018 THE TOPICS THAT MATTER TO YOU Building a new organisation with you Our resident promise – pg 4 Resident involvement news – pg 8 Welcome from Carl Byrne Group director of housing elcome to Connections, the new-look resident Wmagazine for Notting Hill Genesis. We are keen to keep you fully informed as we continue to integrate and the best way to do that is to sign up to the email version of this magazine (see back page to register). The e-magazine will be circulated more regularly and provide you with greater opportunities We will to get involved. make the It has been an incredibly busy time since we formally merged in April and started the process of changes creating an organisation that works for our residents you have and for London and the south east. In this edition we outline our resident promise asked for (page 4), which has been created after listening and you to the views of residents during the merger consultation. We know how important it is to will be at improve our repairs service, to make it easier for the heart you to understand your service charges, to offer a personalised service with a named contact, and to of our create more modern digital services. business We will make the changes you have asked for and you will be at the heart of our business overseeing overseeing these services. We want to hear your views and you can find out these how to get involved in helping to shape our future services. on page 8. Please enjoy this edition of Connections, and don’t forget to register online for our regular newsletters. If there is anything you would like us to cover in future editions, please let us know on [email protected]. SUMMER OF FUN PAGE 24 Contents P4 MERGER NEWS P8 GETTING INVOLVED P14 YOU AND YOUR HOME P20 IN YOUR COMMUNITY P29 BUILDING NEW HOMES P16 CHANGE TO OUT-OF-HOURS NUMBER If you are a former Notting Hill Housing resident the way to contact us out-of- hours, for issues such as repairs, is changing. From now on, you can P20 contact Call Response 24/7 by calling the general switchboard number, 020 3815 0000 and choosing option one. If you are a former Genesis resident then you should continue to call P28 033 3000 3000. / Winter 2018 3 Our resident promise Since we officially merged in April, our focus has been on working to ensure that The residents are at the heart of Theresident resident shaping services. We have promisepromise is is our our built our plans around the pledgepledge that: that: new resident promise, to MERGER NEWS MERGER ensure we’re delivering on • Your tenancy or lease agreement our pledges. will not change • Residents will be at the heart of Some key themes came up during shaping our services the merger consultation process. • We will build more homes at You told us you were concerned low-cost rent because of the about increases in rents and service merger charges, that we would become too • We will not use the merger as big and impersonal, and that the a reason to increase rents and merger would not deliver service service charges improvements. • Residents will not be asked to We captured all of your feedback move home because of the and the resident promise sets out merger our commitment to addressing it. • We will deliver service The full version of the resident improvements especially in our promise is on our website and repairs and maintenance service, we will work in partnership with in the way we recover costs residents to refine and deliver on through service charges, and it. Our progress in meeting the by ensuring that our services promise will be regularly shared are easy to access, local and with residents and our board. personalised. 4 www.nhggroup.org.uk MERGER NEWS MERGER What’s happened so far? • We’ve been speaking to residents about how we involve them in Resident feedback scrutinising and shaping our should be at the services. We’ve held several heart of designing workshops with residents who new services are already involved and back in May we held an involvement day for others who would like to become involved. We’ve used this feedback to design the new resident involvement model (see • In designing the new housing more about this on page 8). model we’ve been led by the • Residents on our health and resident promise, and the insight disability group have been we have on the things you told us working with staff as we review you valued (or didn’t), to improve our accommodation needs. They things. We now have a vision of are helping us to ensure that what that service will look like: office spaces used by the public a resourceful, empowered and meet the diverse needs of all accountable local officer who residents. knows their residents, their history • Residents have been helping us and their area. to review how we deal with anti- • We’ve held a series of workshops social behaviour (ASB). This has as part of developing the new included tasks such as reviewing service model and some residents the staff training programme, have been working alongside staff interviewing staff and ASB on service areas such as the way victims and carrying out mystery we handle complaints. shopping. / Winter 2018 5 You want services to be easy to access, personal and local You want our services to improve • Great progress has been made on developing a new online self- service system as part of our WorkWise programme. Ultimately, the new system will enable you to access a range of services in • We are extending the Household this way. Staff have been testing MERGER NEWS MERGER Member scheme to former booking repairs through the Genesis residents. The scheme new system and we are about gives adult household members to introduce it for testing by the opportunity to move into residents at our Bolney Meadow their own, separate one-bedroom estate in Lambeth, before rolling it property, if the family home is out further. either too big or too small for • We have also started to take rent the family. More information payments via the new system. about this will be available on our We’re ensuring that these options website soon. are all built into the new service • We are seeking more volunteers design. to help us monitor the quality • Easy access for residents who of services such as cleaning and don’t or can’t use online systems gardening and help us ensure is also really important. The new that communal area repairs are housing management model is reported and completed in a built around having a resourceful timely manner – see page 9. and accountable named contact, • We will also be advertising estate focused on getting things done. inspections in advance so that Staff will be supported by a range you have the opportunity to talk of back-office teams to ensure to staff on their walkabout if you we even out fluctuations in the wish to. service. 6 www.nhggroup.org.uk MERGER NEWS MERGER What’s next? We will continue to ensure that residents are involved in each stage as our work develops: • We will be seeking resident volunteers to undertake activities such as monitoring the quality There’s a lot to do to make all of estate services and reporting of this happen but work is well communal repairs. underway. In the coming months, • We will be testing the new digital we’ll tell you more about how we’ll repairs system in one area before move people into the new service. we start rolling it out. Some things can, of course, • We will be speaking to residents happen quicker, and we’re making about how we deliver services changes to bring things together locally, including the opportunities for residents now wherever for getting involved at a local level. possible – the extension of the • We will be looking at how we Household Member scheme is a measure customer satisfaction, good example. starting with a baseline survey across all tenures. As we roll out the changes, we’ll be able to know we’re impacting on the things you value. • We will be opening up opportunities for all residents to get involved in several different ways and will let you know about these via our regular bulletins. / Winter 2018 7 Resident involvement news Resident Local services committee In September, we presented the new resident involvement model to Board residents who have been working with us to help shape it. During the consultation events that we have been having ever since the merger, you told us that: • You wanted more opportunities We have taken all of this feedback to get involved and said that our on board and believe that the approach should be more flexible. new model is local, inclusive and • What happens at the local connected. Resident involvement scheme, estate or street is is open to all Notting Hill Genesis GETTING INVOLVED important to most people, and residents regardless of tenure type. residents we spoke to wanted This way of working will help us more opportunities to work with ensure that the feedback coming local staff to get issues resolved. through at a local level through • You wanted the opportunity to resident associations, local forums get involved in issues that are of and resident meetings is learned interest to you and want to work from and drives real improvement alongside staff in coming up for the things you value.