1. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Northwards Housing Innovate Involve Improve Impact Inspecting for Excellence 28 th April 2009 York Racecourse

2. www.northwardshousing.co.uk About Northwards Governance A partial ALMO established in Dec 2005 to deliver decent homes Managing 12,500 in North Manchester A Board of 12; 3 Local Area Panels and 340 employees Location Cover 8 political wards north from the city centre Communities amongst the most deprived in the country A regeneration area with half the area covered by HMR Pathfinder Our customer profile 12% BME and 39% disabled Challenge From Decent Homes to Decent Neighbourhoods Worklessness - unemployment well above national average Improving services and quality of life Community cohesion

3. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Our objectives Warm, safe and affordable homes Successful communities Quality Services Value for money Safer places to live Promote quality and diversity An attractive environment

4. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Our values C ommitted to our employees S ervice that is top class A ccountable E mbracing equality and diverse communities L ocal services T enant focused

5. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Dd

6. www.northwardshousing.co.uk A snapshot of our success… “ Northwards Housing is an excellent 3 star organisation with excellent prospects for improvement” Audit Commission (November 2008) Easy to access services, information is of a high quality Satisfaction across services is high Customers are effectively engaged across all services and shape delivery Overall appearance of estates is good Addressing community cohesion and delivering responsive ASB services Approach to VFM well developed Performance on gas safety is strong A strong performance culture is in place

7. www.northwardshousing.co.uk A snapshot of our success… Mainstreaming of neighbourhood warden service £10m Extra Care Housing Scheme for older people with MCC Charter Mark re-accreditation for customer service excellence in May 2008 First older persons play area in the country in Jan 2008 Equality Standard (level 2) in May 2007 Launch of Sanctuary Scheme in Dec 2007 IMPACT Partnering Scheme of the year in June 2008 (Housing Excellence) Release of our Tenant Handbook on DVD (October 2008) 500k scheme to install solar panels on multi storey blocks

8. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Developing our Access to Services Strategy How we started – Full Access Review Service User involvement Value for Money E-gov. and new technology Customer Insight and Equality and Diversity Positive Practice Examples

9. www.northwardshousing.co.uk How we started We needed further evidence of taking into account customers’ views Review and update customer service standards A customer profiling strategy Evidence that our contractors are consistent We needed our own Translations Policy More work needed to understand tenants who don’t access the service Need to raise awareness of existing access arrangements / opportunities Need to improve our complaints handling, especially lessons learned Need to capture information on how consultation is driving improvement – “you said, we did”

10. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Customer Insight & Equality and Diversity Developed our Customer Profiling Strategy – six equality strands Customers preferred communication needs At inspection age 82%; Disability 84%; Ethnicity 87%; Gender 96%; Religion 85%; Sexuality 82% - How did we use it? BME, Disability and LGBT Forums Fairground Employee Group Diversity Workbook Single Equality Scheme

11. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Service User Involvement A variety of mechanisms i.e. Area Panels, Tenants groups, service questionnaires Tenant Inspectors Forums – BME, Disability, Resident Involvement, Communications, High Rise Living, Retirement Housing, Leaseholders, Access to Services, LGBT, Repairs & Improvements Complaints Panel – Reviewing Policy, Valuing Complaints e-bulletin, ‘You said, We did’ Social events e.g. fun days, five-a-side tournaments Junior wardens Mystery Shoppers Ask the Board

12. www.northwardshousing.co.uk E-gov and new technology Fully accessible website triple A compliant with 48 interactive sections and around 22,800 visits per month Internet Web kiosks approx 460 visits per month Free phone access Text Messaging Introduction of hand held PDA’s for repairs / satisfaction Digital Signage Tenant Inspectors evaluate website 83% contact us by phone 17% visit a local office 5% Letter / Email 3% Website 10% No contact

13. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Value for Money A value for money review of the call centre  balance between cost and quality  affordable access  benchmarking  investment in technology Local office opening hours  extended opening pilot  customer priorities Tenant Handbook on DVD Review of cash collection service “Value for money is embedded in the organisation; the approach to VFM is well developed. Services are delivered with a focus on VFM and customer priorities” Audit Commission Report January 2009

14. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Positive Practice Diversity workbook Pot of Gold Resource Pool Communication Handbook for Staff Older persons play area ‘Northwards Natter’ newsletter It’s a Northwards Knockout and Tea Mobile

15. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Innovation…

16. www.northwardshousing.co.uk Robin Lawler Chief Executive emailr.lawler@northwardshousing.co.uk tel 0161 227 3020 thank you for listening www.northwardshousing.co.uk/excellence Northwards Housing, Hexagon Tower, 6th Floor, Crumpsall Vale, Blackley, Manchester M9 8ZS Steve Finegan Head of Business Improvement emails.finegan@northwardshousing.co.uk tel 0161 227 3012

17. www.northwardshousing.co.uk 13 May 2009 Sheridan Suite, 371 Oldham Rd Manchester M40 8EA A series of workshops Resident Involvement Access to Services Decent Homes Delivery ASB Partnership and neighbourhood working Value for Money Discovering Excellence Day