Council housing - local offers to customers

We have been working closely with customers, RotherFed and other key partners to develop a series of local service standards which reflect the priorities of all our communities.

In 2010, for the first time, the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) introduced a requirement for all landlords and housing management agencies to adopt a national framework of six standards, and to develop local standards against these national headings, although the sixth standard does not apply to ALMOs.

In total, our customers have developed 58 new standards under the following headings:

Tenant involvement and empowerment

We will:

• Make sure staff contact details, including wearing name badges in the office and on site, and their roles are up to date and that every Neighbourhood Office has a family tree showing all the members of staff at that office. This information will also be available on the website and regularly updated.
• Respond to all complaints within prescribed timescales: demonstrating learning outcomes:
  Stage 1 = 10 working days
  Stage 2 = 20 working days
  Stage 3 = 20 working days
• Respond to all Councillor surgeries within 10 working days and look at learning outcomes
• Respond to all Freedom of Information requests within 20 working days.
• Respond in full to all letters/telephone enquiries within 10 working days (with the exception of complex, multi-agency issues).
• Answer telephones stating our name and location, within 7 rings
• See you in private within 10 minutes when you visit us. If we cannot see you within this time we will tell you how long you may be waiting and offer you an appointment for another time.
• Ensure our reception areas are clean and tidy and that opening times meet local needs
• Consult with customers on an annual basis on the development and review of Local
  Offers (the services you request for your area) to local standards
• Undertake annual consultation with customers on our Resident Involvement Strategy and review and amend our approach based on feedback to ensure that priorities and objectives are being achieved
• Robustly collect, collate and utilise information on our customers to inform and shape service delivery in particular for customers with specific needs
• Publish a Monthly Calendar of Consultation on the website and in all Neighbourhood Offices, and in Local District News via Champions
• Give you a minimum of 14 days written notice for consultation events
• Provide a wide variety of methods to consult and involve customers and ensure that feedback is recorded and acted upon
• Develop a newsletter every three months to keep you informed about changes, activities, performance and satisfaction rates

Home

We will:

• Ensure that contractors keep all appointments where access is required to your home to carry out a repair and provide proof of identity
• Ensure that contractors complete all emergency repairs within 24 hours
• Ensure that contractors complete all urgent repairs within five working days
• Ensure that contractors complete all non-urgent responsive repairs within four weeks
• Ensure that contractors complete your repair on the first visit
• Ensure that contractors ask permission to use electricity, water, your toilet and use over shoes were necessary. We will explain who we are, why we are visiting your home and what we will be doing
• Ensure that contractors, following repairs, leave the work area clean and tidy with all work related rubbish removed or collected within 24 hours and leave a feedback card and be polite and courteous at all times and not use offensive language
• Ensure that a quality control process and specific quality assurance
  compliance in relation to gas safety and servicing are in place
• Ensure that contractors provide customers with a scope of works letter before programmed work is started in their homes
• Provide clear written timescales, on sign up, with start dates on work
  completion dates and achieve these targets
• Deliver improvements to the Rotherham Decent Homes Standard and aim to achieve high levels of satisfaction with the service you have received (time, cost and quality)
• Quality check a minimum of 10% of completed properties
• Ensure that an accurate, a) up to date asbestos register is maintained and checks are undertaken on relevant repairs jobs and b) a gas safety register is maintained

Tenancy

We will:

• Let empty homes in accordance with agreed targets
• Carry out an accompanied viewing of the property with you whilst it is empty and give you a date when the property will be ready for you to move in, or enable you to move in, with minor works outstanding. This would be confirmed in writing
• Explain your Tenancy Agreement before you sign it and provide you with a copy (taking into account the needs of the new tenant)
• Offer to help you complete any housing and council tax benefit claim forms during the sign-up process, if you need help to pay your rent, or signpost you to the relevant department and check take up on following visit
• Ensure that the Houseproud standard is adhered to including service information, standards and resident involvement opportunities
• Work together with Key Choices to analyse and reduce refusals
• Visit you at least once every five years to check your tenancy details and also to inspect the condition of the property and gardens
• Carry out patch walkabouts every six weeks giving adequate notice and ensure that feedback is provided
• Inspect garage sites and communal areas of flats once a month and take appropriate steps to keep them clean and safe
• Ensure that the service specification in relation to window cleaning and communal cleaning will be adhered to 
• Offer an automated telephone and internet payment service
• Provide tenants, who require it, with a rent statement every 13 weeks by their preferred method
• Provide appointments on request regarding rent queries
• Comply with best practice pre-action protocols with regard to rent arrears
• Ensure leaseholders receive an annual service charge statement by October each year which will include a clear and understandable breakdown of charges
• Ensure that a property survey is conducted to determine possible repair and maintenance costs over a five year period which we will use to set the leaseholders service charge for that period
• Undertake a leaseholder satisfaction survey each year
• Ensure every leaseholder has a handbook and that it is updated regularly

Neighbourhood and community

We will:

• Contact complainants reporting Category 2 anti-social behaviour relating to council tenants within five working days of receiving the report
• Contact complainants reporting Category 1 cases of anti-social behaviour relating to council tenants within one working day of receiving the report
• Tell you what action we intend to take and keep you informed of the case progress by contacting you, at least, on a fortnightly basis until the case is closed and we will confirm closure in writing
• Work closely with other agencies to ensure that appropriate action is taken in relation to anti-social behaviour
• Contact those on the vulnerable tenants gardening scheme to arrange an appointment at least three days before carrying out works to the garden, provide you with a receipt for your payment and carry out at least 3 visits per year to those registered on the scheme
• Cut your grass, trim hedges that are no higher than two metres and remove all gardening related rubbish on each visit for those on the gardening scheme
• Make service referrals to the Community Protection Unit about environmental health issues within 2 hours of receiving your report, during office hours, and provide advice on response times
• Work with partners to remove drug litter within 2 hours of the report being received
• Work with partners to remove racist, obscene and offensive graffiti within one working day of receiving the report (non-offensive graffiti within four working days)
• Visit all tenancies where there are reported breaches of tenancy within five working days and take prompt action, keeping complainants informed

Value for money

We will:

• Maintain an Efficiency Register highlighting value for money savings and key achievements and report this in Round Your Place
• Undertake staff training on value for money on an annual cycle as part of continued professional development

Last update: 16/06/11