Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Housing Services.

The report of the Head of Housing Services providing information on the work of the Community Housing Service with regard to tenant profiling was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The information was presented following the submission of an internal audit report to the Audit and Governance Committee meeting of 23 July, 2019 which raised the lack of tenant profiling as an “Issue/Risk.” The Committee had requested that the Head of Housing Services attend its next meeting to provide an update on the tenant profiling position.

The Head of Housing Services reported that he appreciated the Committee’s concern that not as much progress as hoped for had been made with tenant profiling and that there were valid reasons why this was so. The Officer accepted that making sure that the information which the Service holds regarding its tenants is current and up to date is vitally important in ensuring that the services provided are appropriate and meet the needs of tenants.

The Service Manager (Community Housing) informed the Committee that each council property is recorded on the Service’s Orchard Client Relationship Management System and as well as holding information about each tenant, the Orchard system also captures tenancy history, arrears information, officer interactions, tenancy breach recording and financial inclusion analysis. Having accurate tenant profiling can support the department to develop future services alongside existing services, such as the response to Universal Credit. Operationally, tenant profiling is the responsibility of the customer service team which consists of six full time equivalent officers who deal with day to day maintenance response queries, first contact response for housing allocations, and homelessness in addition to tenant profiling. Customer care staffing levels have fluctuated throughout the year which has been a barrier to capturing tenant profiling on a continuous basis. Homelessness presentation levels have increased thus resulting in more incoming calls to the customer care team in order to support those who are, or are threatened with becoming homeless. Also, the customer service team currently operates from two offices split into three officers at each location per working day. Working from two offices is viewed as a challenge; having a dispersed team with fluctuating staffing levels means that the team’s priority has been responding to incoming calls. Going forward, the Housing Senior Management team has agreed to have the Customer Care team working from one location with discussions underway to determine the most suitable office in the long-term. Once the team is settled in a single location, one officer will concentrate on profiling per day. The majority of tenants continue to contact Housing Services by phone meaning the service is continuously reactive to calls. From January, 2020, the focus will be on a 2 year plan whereby tenants will be able to report issues and manage their tenancies on a digital platform linked to the Orchard system. As further assurance to the Committee, Housing Services work closely with the Department for Works and Pensions, the O’Toole Centre and Citizens Advice on issues in connection with Universal Credit. The Council has commissioned policy into practice reports three times per year which flags up Universal Credit hot spot areas and the Universal Credit hub has been refreshed to focus on post-implementation UC factors including sharing information, intelligence data and information gathering in connection with those affected by the change in benefit circumstances.

The Officer referred to the approaches taken to tenant profiling pre-June 2019 prior to the audit review and subsequently post-June, 2019 following the audit review. Future tenant profiling approaches will include developing a tenant profiling strategy; launching the strategy internally and work on mainstreaming tenant profiling with housing services; launching the strategy externally with tenants, emphasising the importance both of tenant profiling and of keeping the Housing Service updated on changes to profile; encouraging tenants to complete their own profile on the digital tenant portal from January 2020 onwards and customer care officers targeting tenants through increasing visibility on housing estates.

The Head of Housing Services also clarified in the interest of providing assurance that the issue is not whether the Service has information about its tenant population – which it has, but whether the information it holds is as complete and current as it could be. The Service has a programme for increasing its tenant profile information including asking new tenants to complete and bring their profiling questionnaire to a property sign-up and, given that the Orchard system has regular updates and has only this month produced a workflow to facilitate tenant profiling, it is hoped that tenant profiling will now become an integral part of day to day work. Housing Services are committed to improving tenant profiling in order to support their services, and once the Customer Care team is located in one location, measures will be in place to ensure a more proactive approach to profiling. Additionally the Service reports on performance to the Housing Services Board and intends to include profiling as one of the areas reported on.

The Committee in welcoming the report - and in particular the intended development of a tenant profiling strategy -  as addressing its concerns from the previous meeting,  sought clarification of how the Service saw progress with tenant profiling six months hence. The Service Manager (Community Housing) said that realistically, and in light of the prioritisation of work on the STAR Customer Survey recently, it is envisaged that with a further mailshot to all tenants in the next few weeks the tenant profile position can be improved by 8% by the end of the year.

It was resolved that the Audit and Governance Committee –

•           Accepts that measures are in place to improve tenant profiling within the Housing Department;

•           Agrees that a tenant profiling strategy needs to be developed to ensure this aspect is mainstreamed within the department; and

•           Agrees also that tenant profiling needs to be reviewed by the internal Housing Services Board on a quarterly basis for an initial 12 month period.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTIONS WERE PROPOSED