If you need to report an EMERGENCY repair during this time, please contact our emergency service using callconnect 0845 505 3355 or mobileconnect 0300 111 1133.

We have already been working hard to inform our tenants of how the welfare reforms and bedroom tax could affect them and what options and help is available to them. Our newsletters have featured a series of articles on the Welfare Reforms and our latest edition came with a full supplement with helpful information. This can be viewed on our blog.

We then worked to identify which of our tenants could be affected by the new under occupancy rules, and managed to successfully make contact with over 65% of them. We put together a very detailed and comprehensive survey to decide on the type of assistance we could offer and then developed personal action plans for every one of these tenants who required more intensive support. This involved 121 sessions between Adactus advisors, specifically trained in debt and welfare benefits, and tenants.

This support is available under our ‘Rightsize’ scheme. Through ‘Rightsize’, our tenants can access a personal service for:
• Assistance in claiming discretionary housing payment from local authorities.
• Assistance in applying for various welfare benefits,
• Training in money management,
• Assistance in downsizing if this was requested.

If a tenant chooses to downsize, they may be able to access financial support, available through Adactus, to help complete the move to a property with fewer bedrooms. Our specialist Occupancy Officer can help tenants with this. Our Occupancy Officer can be contacted using Callconnect on 0845 505 3355 or Mobileconnect on 0300 111 1133 or email: LiaqatAli.Shan@adactushousing.co.uk

Click here to download the latest minutes from the SNAP meeting.

If you would like to join the panel then please contact us on 0845 505 3355 (BT Landline) or 0300 111 1133 (Mobile)

Click here to download the latest minutes from the Neston meeting.

If you would like to join the panel then please contact us on 0845 505 3355 (BT Landline) or 0300 111 1133 (Mobile)

The main purpose of the scoping meeting was to give scrutiny panel members the opportunity to look in detail at the key risks to tenants from fire and gas and decide exactly which areas to scrutinise. The key risks chosen were:

- Fire prevention measures/detection equipment aren’t in place or don’t work

- Residents are unable to escape in the event of a fire

Our Internal Affairs team will now gather evidence based on the detailed scope set out by tenants. We will also be conducting two Adactus500 surveys to gather more evidence around people’s perception of fire safety. The scrutiny panel will meet again at the end of June to scrutinise these findings.

Click here to view the notes from last night’s meeting

Click here to view the scoping document for the Scrutiny exercise on tenant safety

For more information about the Scrutiny Panel, visit our information section

Click here to join the Adactus500

Please let us know if you have any comments about this scrutiny exercise below. Your comments will be reported to the scrutiny panel at their next meeting at the end of June 2013.

The judging panel was made up of housing and design experts drawn from the Homes and Communities Agency, the Tenant Participation Advisory Service and five other organisations.  The panel of seven top judges said of Dalton Fold: ‘It fits really well with the existing streetscape.’  Inside Housing published the list on 10 May 2013 in the form of a supplement endorsed by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Dalton Fold off Moor Road, in Croston consists of 24 homes for rent, a mixture of two and three bedroom homes, which are let to local people in consultation with Chorley Council.  The homes developed by Adactus Housing Group in 2012 are managed by Chorley Community Housing.

Adactus’s development team worked closely with Architects Halsall Lloyd Partnership, The Homes and Communities Agency and Chorley Borough Council to ensure that the design of the new homes reflected the village context of traditional terrace housing.

Hilary Roberts, Group Director of Development and Deputy Chief Executive at Adactus said: “More than 36,000 new homes for social housing were built last year, so for Dalton Fold to make the top 50 schemes nationally is quite an achievement.  This award reflects not only the sensitive design by architects Halsall Lloyd but also our Development team’s great work in managing the development process, to ensure that the new homes delivered made best use of the site and blended in with the surrounding properties.”

At Adactus we are very proud of the staff who work for us.  We have been awarded a two-star status in the Best Companies accreditation 2012.  We also made number 26 of The Sunday Times Top 100 ‘Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For’ list published on Sunday 26 Feb 2012.  Our strengths include team unity and personal development.

We are looking for the right combination of people to help drive our business forward. While an interest in social housing is useful, not all our roles require previous experience in this area. What is essential is that all our graduates are people focused ambitious and driven individuals who really want to develop into a leadership role.

We expect our Housing Graduates candidates to have a minimum of a 2:1 degree in any subject area.

During the 2 year housing graduate programme our Housing Graduates rotate around our customer contact centre, anti-social behaviour & tenancy management teams (Corporate Services),  responsive repairs, planned maintenance & allocations and lettings (Asset Management), (Sheltered/Supported), complaints & project management (Internal Affairs), neighbourhood development & resident involvement (Development), income & collection (Finance). You will be given responsibilities and a clearly defined job role as you rotate between each discipline; as well as receiving ongoing training and development to enable you to reach your full potential.

By the end of year two, we will help you to identify your preferred department and support you in securing permanent employment within your chosen area  by helping you to build practical and relevant skills, getting involved in longer term projects and gaining in depth knowledge of the specific discipline.

Throughout the programme, you will enjoy a tailored development plan with clear milestones, feedback and mentoring from our dedicated Employment & Skills Manager.

You’ll also benefit from a support network of fellow graduates.

Click here to download the roles & responsibilities of our graduate trainees.

If you would like to discuss anything regarding our graduate recruitment scheme please feel free to contact:

Jayne Allison – Employment & Skills Manager
0845 505 3355 (BT Landline) or 0300 111 1133 (Mobile)
jayne.allison@adactushousing.co.uk

Please click here for more information regarding our graduate training scheme

The table within the image gallery presents key performance information for Adactus Housing Association for the final quarter of the financial year January-March 2013, along with target and trend information (e.g. whether performance is improving, remaining stable or declining).

Performance in quarter 4 has again been extremely encouraging, with each of the key targets met. For the second quarter in succession, the target for letting vacant properties – measured as the rent lost while the property is empty – was achieved.

Repairs and contact centre performance remain encouragingly strong. Rent collection is always a crucial measure and the Income Team managed to improve the collection rate in quarter 4, putting the company in a good position financially as the changes in the welfare system take effect.

Focus on: Repairs satisfaction

Each quarter we focus on a different area of service delivery.  This quarter the focus is how we measure satisfaction with our responsive repairs service.

The new financial year marks a change in the way we measure satisfaction with the service.  In the past we have measured this using a simple survey on the operatives’ mobile PDA device which the tenant was asked to complete at the time of the repair (or, if they wished to complete a paper copy of this survey, this was provided for their completion and return).  This was resulting in consistently very high levels of satisfaction which led some to question the reliability and validity of this method.  A measure is said to be reliable and valid if the same or similar results are obtained when the measure is replicated with the same respondent or if the results are independently verified.  In addition, some residents had told us they felt uncomfortable filling out the satisfaction forms in front of the operative and many simply couldn’t find the time to complete and return the paper versions.

As a result we decided to introduce a new method of measuring satisfaction which was introduced at the end of Quarter 4.  We wanted a method that enabled tenants to be completely honest, was convenient and provided good value for money.

Now, when a tenant has had a repair, they receive a phone call asking them to indicate whether they are completely satisfied by pressing 1.  However, if they are not completely satisfied they are asked to press 9.  They will then receive a call from our Contact Centre to discuss their issues and, if the problem is with the quality of work/staff performance, the Contact Centre will pass this on to a Manager who will contact them to confirm the action taken (or to arrange an inspection of the work).  Calls are made between 11am and 6.40pm.  Tenants who do not wish to receive such a call can indicate this to the operative at the time of the repair.

So far, satisfaction levels have remained high (91.09% for March) and has been consistently high across the different local authorities we work in, as illustrated in Chart 1 within the image gallery.  However, for those dissatisfied customers we have had to telephone, these calls have enabled us to get a better understanding of how we can improve our repairs service (see Chart 2 within the image gallery) with the main area of dissatisfaction being that the repair was not fixed at first visit (often the case for more complex repairs where additional/ specialist materials, tools or skills are required).  Encouragingly, less than a fifth of those expressing dissatisfaction have actually been dissatisfied with the quality of the work and less than 10% have been dissatisfied with the conduct of staff.  Using this new approach, we can now be more confident in the reliability of the results (which still illustrate that tenants are extremely satisfied with the standard of the repairs service) and get an important insight into how we can continue to provide a better and better service for our customers!

The table within the image gallery presents key performance information for Beech Housing Association for the final quarter of the financial year, January-March 2013, along with target and trend information (e.g. whether performance is improving, remaining stable or declining).

Focus on: Repairs satisfaction

Each quarter we focus on a different area of service delivery.  This quarter the focus is how we measure satisfaction with our responsive repairs service.

The new financial year marks a change in the way we measure satisfaction with the service.  In the past we have measured this using a simple survey on the operatives’ mobile PDA device which the tenant was asked to complete at the time of the repair (or, if they wished to complete a paper copy of this survey, this was provided for their completion and return).  This was resulting in consistently very high levels of satisfaction which led some to question the reliability and validity of this method.  A measure is said to be reliable and valid if the same or similar results are obtained when the measure is replicated with the same respondent or if the results are independently verified.  In addition, some residents had told us they felt uncomfortable filling out the satisfaction forms in front of the operative and many simply couldn’t find the time to complete and return the paper versions.

As a result we decided to introduce a new method of measuring satisfaction which was introduced at the end of Quarter 4.  We wanted a method that enabled tenants to be completely honest, was convenient and provided good value for money.

Now, when a tenant has had a repair, they receive a phone call asking them to indicate whether they are completely satisfied by pressing 1.  However, if they are not completely satisfied they are asked to press 9.  They will then receive a call from our Contact Centre to discuss their issues and, if the problem is with the quality of work/staff performance, the Contact Centre will pass this on to a Manager who will contact them to confirm the action taken (or to arrange an inspection of the work).  Calls are made between 11am and 6.40pm.  Tenants who do not wish to receive such a call can indicate this to the operative at the time of the repair.

So far, satisfaction levels have remained high (91.09% for March) and has been consistently high across the different local authorities we work in, as illustrated in Chart 1 within the image gallery.  However, for those dissatisfied customers we have had to telephone, these calls have enabled us to get a better understanding of how we can improve our repairs service (see Chart 2 within the image gallery) with the main area of dissatisfaction being that the repair was not fixed at first visit (often the case for more complex repairs where additional/ specialist materials, tools or skills are required).  Encouragingly, less than a fifth of those expressing dissatisfaction have actually been dissatisfied with the quality of the work and less than 10% have been dissatisfied with the conduct of staff.  Using this new approach, we can now be more confident in the reliability of the results (which still illustrate that tenants are extremely satisfied with the standard of the repairs service) and get an important insight into how we can continue to provide a better and better service for our customers!

The table within the image gallery presents key performance information for Chorley for the final quarter of the financial year, January-March 2013, along with target and trend information (e.g. whether performance is improving, remaining stable or declining).

Performance in quarter 4 has again been encouraging, with each of the key targets met. For the second time in consecutive quarters, the target for letting vacant properties – measured as the rent lost while the property is empty – was comfortably achieved.

Repairs and contact centre performance remain strong. Rent collection is always a crucial measure and the Income Team managed to improve the collection rate in quarter 4, putting the company in a good position financially as the changes in the welfare system take effect.

Focus on: Repairs satisfaction

Each quarter we focus on a different area of service delivery.  This quarter the focus is how we measure satisfaction with our responsive repairs service.

The new financial year marks a change in the way we measure satisfaction with the service.  In the past we have measured this using a simple survey on the operatives’ mobile PDA device which the tenant was asked to complete at the time of the repair (or, if they wished to complete a paper copy of this survey, this was provided for their completion and return).  This was resulting in consistently very high levels of satisfaction which led some to question the reliability and validity of this method.  A measure is said to be reliable and valid if the same or similar results are obtained when the measure is replicated with the same respondent or if the results are independently verified.  In addition, some residents had told us they felt uncomfortable filling out the satisfaction forms in front of the operative and many simply couldn’t find the time to complete and return the paper versions.

As a result we decided to introduce a new method of measuring satisfaction which was introduced at the end of Quarter 4.  We wanted a method that enabled tenants to be completely honest, was convenient and provided good value for money.

Now, when a tenant has had a repair, they receive a phone call asking them to indicate whether they are completely satisfied by pressing 1.  However, if they are not completely satisfied they are asked to press 9.  They will then receive a call from our Contact Centre to discuss their issues and, if the problem is with the quality of work/staff performance, the Contact Centre will pass this on to a Manager who will contact them to confirm the action taken (or to arrange an inspection of the work).  Calls are made between 11am and 6.40pm.  Tenants who do not wish to receive such a call can indicate this to the operative at the time of the repair.

So far, satisfaction levels have remained high (91.09% for March) and has been consistently high across the different local authorities we work in, as illustrated in Chart 1 within the image gallery.  However, for those dissatisfied customers we have had to telephone, these calls have enabled us to get a better understanding of how we can improve our repairs service (see Chart 2 within the image gallery ) with the main area of dissatisfaction being that the repair was not fixed at first visit (often the case for more complex repairs where additional/ specialist materials, tools or skills are required).  Encouragingly, less than a fifth of those expressing dissatisfaction have actually been dissatisfied with the quality of the work and less than 10% have been dissatisfied with the conduct of staff.  Using this new approach, we can now be more confident in the reliability of the results (which still illustrate that tenants are extremely satisfied with the standard of the repairs service) and get an important insight into how we can continue to provide a better and better service for our customers!