A ten year vision for housing contracts

PROJECT BRIEF

The Challenge

To help the borough procure a set of decade long contracts from 2020 onwards for key services that affect the daily lives of thousands of residents across the borough.

  • But the borough didn’t just want business as usual: they wanted the new contracts to deliver fundamental improvements to these vital services. 

    This included putting residents at the heart of designing these new contracts in order that they became more responsive to the needs of the borough’s tenants and leaseholders.

    Time was also a factor: the older contracts were coming to an end. The borough needed the work wrapped up over a 12 month period.

    Key services included in this challenge were:

    • Repairs

    • Major works

    • Cleaning and concierge services on estate and street properties.

Key Service Provisions

  • Procurement

  • Resident Empowerment

  • Asset Management

  • Direct Labour and Repairs Contract Management

  • Strategy

Key Facts

  • The borough has more than 33,000 properties, with 26,000 council tenants and 6,000 leaseholders.

  • Contract values in excess of £500 million.

  • 200 strong workforce withing the housing department.

OUR METHODS AND OUTCOMES

Putting residents at the heart of the solutions

The project required high levels of resident engagement. To achieve this:

  • A resident procurement group was set up to advise on the delivery of the new contracts – it was a representative body drawn from all parts of the borough.

  • A series of “focus groups” were held to stress test different ideas and options.

  • Research and interviews were conducted more broadly with residents to get their ideas on what services should look like.

Strategic working across the Council

In parallel with the resident involvement, we adopted a strategic approach across the council that built a collaborative team, with participants from both Just Housing Group and the Council.

Leadership

This was not a straightforward challenge: these were big contracts involving hundreds of staff and tens of thousands of residents. It needed a firm grip on the different streams, especially in terms of budget and time constraints, as well as managing the political dimensions: councillors expected constant feedback about the progress of this vital work.

  • This included:

    • A deep dive assessment of statistical data and performance KPIs with the relevant Council teams to establish what worked and what did not.

    • Direct feedback was obtained from frontline staff: our approach was to learn about how the existing services worked from the people who delivered them on the ground — and what they felt needed to change.

    • Close working with elected councillors to establish their corporate and strategic objectives — and how they saw this being applied to the new contracts.

    • Drawing together working groups that covered the different relevant parts of the local authority, including not just housing staff, but the legal, procurement, finance and political administration departments.

    • Stress testing new proposals as they emerged with key teams, stakeholders and politicians to ensure the final product met the needs of the borough.

  • To achieve this:

    • Clear project management with regular briefings for staff and project leads, including databases and structures to record key decisions, actions and project plans.

    • Regular feedback sessions were arranged with councilors on all aspects of the work.

    • Building ownership in the staff team was a priority: discussion was vital to every part of this process.

PROJECT SUCCESSES

  • Project delivered on time and on budget with a new suite of services rolled out: cost efficiencies also made on time

  • Improved management and operational systems delivered for the launch of the project in 2020.

  • Launch of a new inhouse minor repairs team.

  • Savings of £3 million made across the contract on an annual basis.

“I engaged Just Housing to review, bench mark and advise on possible operating models for the company’s 200 multi trade DLO. Just Housing had an insightful and analytical approach that supported the subsequent restructure.”

— John Holman, Director of Property and Development Bron, Afon Community Housing Association

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