Tenants View Scrutiny Report Date: April 2016 Title: An investigation into the effectiveness of surveying service inspections Scope: This scrutiny exercise looked into the existing policy and procedures, from the point at which a request for a surveyor s inspection is made by a tenant, or a decision is taken by Northwards to schedule an inspection visit. We took into account the views of all parties involved in the process and considered communication, satisfaction and value for money. Where possible, comparisons were made with similar services elsewhere. The exercise considered general surveying visits rather than specialist areas (e.g. gas) and excluded empty homes, legal surveying and disrepair cases. How the scrutiny was carried out: 1. At the start of the exercise we split into four task groups. Task group one (all members of Tenants View who took part in this scrutiny exercise) received a presentation from Helen Walsh and Danny Whitelock, the repairs service managers. We were told how the existing service is organised. We talked about the role of the surveyor, the numbers of staff involved including costs, as well as the policies and procedures for how the service is delivered, and what tenants can expect. This was also an opportunity for us to ask questions and to understand how a typical surveyor inspection is carried out from start to finish and to identify any challenges Northwards are facing. 2. Task Group 2 carried out a short survey of tenants who had recently experienced a surveyor inspection. We listened to a sample of call recordings made to the customer service centre (CSC) that involved a surveyor inspection and we held a focus group with advisors (call handlers) at the CSC to determine the most common issues they face when dealing with surveyor inspection calls. 3. Task Group 3 compared Northwards' service with a number of other organisations and looked at how satisfaction with the surveying service is measured. Page 1
4. Finally, Task Group 4 accompanied the surveyors on inspection visits and held a small focus group with surveyors to listen to their views. We also arranged a further interview with Helen Walsh, repairs service manager and Chris Marriott, senior legal surveyor and contacted a number of tenants two months after the inspection visits to ask about satisfaction. Findings Task Group 1 (all) 5. During the initial presentation, we learned that the equivalent of 4.4 surveyors (four surveyors and one surveyor who carries out inspections two days per week) carry out over 8,300 inspections at Northwards in a 12 month period. On average, that s around 160 inspections per week (around seven or eight inspections per day for each surveyor). There are also surveyors with special responsibilities (SSR). These are senior surveyors involved in carrying out more detailed investigations. 6. All regular inspections are booked mainly through the customer service centre (CSC) whereas more complex inspections, such as structural or serious damp problems which need more detailed investigation by the SSR, are booked by the surveying team. Surveyors have specialist equipment with them, including ladders to access the loft area of properties. There are three SSRs at Northwards and all the surveyors are experienced building surveyors and some hold relevant professional qualifications. 7. Repairs guidance is published on Northwards website and we heard that tenants are given basic advice by the CSC for carrying out simple repairs themselves. If it is not a repair that Northwards carry out, tenants are directed to the handyman service (http://www.northwardshousing.co.uk/repairs/handyman-service/) where they are given a not-for-profit price for the work to be completed. Residents (including non-tenants) over the age of 60 can also contact Manchester Care and Repair (http://www.careandrepair-manchester.org.uk/) who only charge for materials when carrying out work. 8. The CSC is the main point of contact for tenants reporting repairs and inspections. Appointments are booked with two morning (8.00 10.30 and 10.00 12.30) and two afternoon slots (12.00 2.30 and 2.00 5.00) being offered. 9. The repairs service managers and SSRs have responsibility for geographical areas. It can take up to three weeks for an appointment, but more often than not, appointments are within five working days Page 2
and - depending on the circumstances - can sometimes be brought forward to the same working day if the issue is urgent. In some cases tenants themselves request an appointment beyond two weeks. 10. The repairs service managers monitor the workload of the surveyors, as well as any common themes with complaints e.g. they will sometimes attend inspections with the surveyors if there are complaints about the service. The managers and the surveyors also work closely with the home improvement teams and benefit from working in the same office as the main repairs contractor Manchester Working. 11. Surveyors have a responsibility for informing tenants of the outcome of their inspection during the visit or within a maximum of 48 hours if the surveyor needs to seek further advice, or if an appointment is needed for further work. Northwards has a policy of only renewing items that are beyond repair and any repairs costing over 100 need to be authorised by a manager. The repairs service managers audit the team s work trays to check that these standards are being maintained. An individual surveyor s performance is also monitored via annual appraisal and regular one-to-one meetings. 12. Issues of damp and condensation are monitored closely. If high moisture levels are detected, assistance is often sought from the SSR. We were informed that issues around condensation are monitored and usually involve follow on visits to monitor progress every six after the initial visit. 13. We learned that If surveyors don t gain access to a property they will leave a card to say they have visited the property and ask the tenant to call the CSC to arrange a new appointment. We asked for clarification on this issue and were informed that the surveyor leaves a card for the tenant and a photograph is taken of the card next to the house number. When the surveyor returns to the office they will pass the no access information over to the surveying admin team who will check if the tenant has already rebooked the appointment. If one hasn t been booked then they will contact the tenant and attempt to agree a new appointment time. 14. There are a number of repairs that automatically require a surveyor inspection before a repair can be ordered. The customer service advisors are also skilled and use a script to help them correctly determine whether a pre-inspection by the surveyor is required, even when it isn t clear whether a surveyor inspection is needed. Page 3
15. We also had the opportunity of speaking with Andy Wood, head of responsive repairs and servicing at Northwards. He provided some further information on how Northwards compares to other organisations and whether, in his opinion, the service provides value for money. 16. Surveyors are paid scale 5 ( 20,253 24,472) with SSR s up to scale 6 27,123 plus pension contributions. The majority of building surveyors don t have a professional qualification, although they do have substantial trade experience. Qualifications for the SSRs and some surveyors include HNC and City and Guilds. 17. We were told that it is difficult to separate out surveying from the overall repairs service when it comes to measuring satisfaction and also when comparing Northwards to other organisations (also see task group 3 below). The surveying team complete a small telephone satisfaction survey every three months with a random sample of 15/20 tenants who have had a surveyor inspection. We have seen the results for the first six months of 2015/16 which are positive, albeit the sample is very small. We were told that the results of these satisfaction surveys are not shared outside the team. 18. Northwards compare their performance with other housing providers via an organisation called Housemark, who collect information from a wide range of organisations. 19. In 2014/15 in comparison with other ALMOs (Arm s Length Management Organisations) like Northwards Housing we learned the following: The total cost of the repairs service per property, including surveying, is 430 per year, placing Northwards in the top 25% of the best performing housing organisations. The median average (i.e. the middle value of surveying and repairs costs in other organisations) was 498. The % of very or fairly satisfied tenants with the overall service is 80%, which is in the lower middle of 25-50% of organisations. The middle value for other organisations is 83.1%. We were told that tenants are more satisfied with a renewal rather than a repair and this can impact on the overall satisfaction rating. Northwards carried out 65,000 repairs/surveying transactions in the year and less than 0.25% (160) resulted in formal complaints. Even fewer resulted in enquiries from local councillors on behalf of tenants. Page 4
20. Finally, we were advised that damp is a common reason for requesting a surveyor inspection, especially during the winter months. Condensation is a particular issue compared to the 1960-70 s when it was rarely a problem. The move away from coal fires to central heating systems, combined with less natural ventilation, is the main cause. The solution is often to advise tenants to use their homes in a way that achieves a better balance between moisture production and ventilation, this can be a real challenge, particularly with the increasing cost of gas and electricity, making it more difficult for people to be able to afford to heat their home properly. Task Group 2 (Bev, Marina and Donna) 21. We carried out a small telephone survey of 15 tenants who had recently had a surveyor inspection. We also listened to a sample of 18 telephone calls from the customer service centre to find out what prompts a surveyor inspection to be ordered and we held a focus group with the staff at the customer service centre. 22. From the tenants we contacted about their recent surveyor inspection, the majority of people had requested a repair rather than a surveyor s inspection. The tenants were happy with the time taken to get an appointment (between one and two weeks) but some of the tenants had issues after the visit and were not sure what was happening next e.g. A tenant was informed by a surveyor that they needed new radiators in the downstairs of the property due to damp and would need to be included on a home improvement scheme but no time frame was given. A tenant had a leak in the bathroom. A week after the second surveyor s visit, the leak stopped. The tenant found out by chance from the caretaker that there had been a larger problem in the building with the soil pipe and a number of flats had been affected. The tenant felt there was a lack of communication between Northwards and the tenants. 23. As part of the work looking into satisfaction, members of task group 4 (see later) also carried out a telephone survey with the tenants they had visited while they were shadowing the surveyors. Just over half of the tenants spoken to said they still had a problem following the inspection. The remainder were satisfied with the surveying visit, as well as the follow up repair. Those who were dissatisfied complained for the following reasons: Page 5
the tenant wanted a renewal of a kitchen cupboard rather than a repair the suggested treatment for condensation hadn t worked and the tenant had wasted money decorating and fitting new carpets the work ordered by the surveyor was carried out incorrectly by the contractor and had to be done again a tenant was waiting for a further visit from either the surveyor or the housing officer following treatment for mould, but still hadn t heard anything a plastering job turned out to be bigger than the one the surveyor had ordered but the surveyor had to visit a second time to authorise the work following the visit by a surveyor, the tenant was still waiting to hear what would happen next a tenant requested a surveyor visit but no one turned up on the day 24. We cannot draw any firm conclusions from the above list of bullet points. We do think they highlight the challenge for Northwards in managing tenants expectations (e.g. tenants are not keen that they have to wait for a renewal as part of a future home improvement scheme). Communication could also be improved as some tenants claim to have waited longer than expected to hear back from surveyors following an inspection (e.g. in one instance, a tenant said they had waited for seven weeks because a surveyor was on leave. It then took six months to complete the actual work). 25. We listened to a random sample of 18 recorded telephone calls from the customer service centre involving a surveyor inspection. We discovered that 16 of the tenants who had called in hadn t in fact requested a surveyor inspection and were asking for a repair/renewal. We reviewed the two scripts being used by the CSC. One for ordering a repair and the process that is triggered automatically for a surveyor inspection when the advisor attempts to order a particular type of repair. We did hear a tenant being informed that advisors are not allowed to spend too long on calls. Overall though, we felt the quality of phone handling was good, but some of the calls stood out as being particularly good with several advisors going out of their way to help the customer and asking if there was anything else they could help with. 26. During the telephone calls, we also noticed that there appears to be a short delay when booking surveyor appointments and checking the diaries on the computer. In some cases, customers were waiting and the reason for the delay wasn t explained to them. Others were kept informed and reassured during the waiting time of several minutes so that they didn t think they had been cut off. We also identified some inconsistency with the booking of appointments. Some advisors made a note of all the issues raised by the tenant during the call, whereas others Page 6
were less thorough. On two calls we listened to, the tenants were informed that only a maximum of three repairs could be booked in a 24 hour period (e.g. when a carer called on behalf of a relative who had more than three issues to report but was only allowed to report three). In our opinion, where all the issues are not noted, this increased the chance of problems during the actual inspection visit, as the surveyor isn t prepared and may not have sufficient time to deal with all the issues in the one visit. We learned of several tenants who had multiple visits by surveyors before the issues weren t resolved. 27. We noted on several occasions that it was not always clear if the appointment being made was with a surveyor or a tradesperson and some tenants were unhappy with their repair generating a surveyors visit due to the extra time it would take to get the repair completed. 28. We held a focus group with several advisors at the CSC. The main findings from the focus group are: The advisors said the most common inspection booked was for damp and mould. It can take anything between 3 ½ and 5 ½ minutes to book an appointment on the computer system. The advisors are trained to chat to the tenant and keep them informed of what they are doing. The surveyors have 15 minute slots in the diary for each visit. However, advisors can book up to 3 of these slots for one visit providing the slots are available. In the case of an urgent situation, the advisors can call the surveying team to arrange a visit as soon as possible, and sometimes the same day if necessary. The advisors felt they received unnecessary calls from tenants after they had received a surveyor s visit asking what would happen next. They felt this was down to a lack of communication, for example, if the repair is to be included on a future home improvement scheme, then it appears no letter is sent or a call made to communicate this to the tenant. The advisors also said that, after a visit, sometimes the computer system is not updated with the outcome, so if a tenant calls to query what is Page 7
happening with the repair, the information is not to hand for the advisor and they have to chase around to find out. Another issue for advisors is that tenants have phoned up as a sorry I have missed you card has been put through the letter box but the tenant has been waiting in for the appointment. Even though the surveyor couldn t be that far away from the property, in the advisor s experience, the surveyors won t return to the property and a further appointment will need to be booked for the tenant. Task Group 3 (Colin and Maria) 29. We contacted a number of organisations in the area to find out how their surveying service compares to Northwards Housing. The questions we asked and the organisations we contacted are listed in appendix 1 of this report. 30. The answers given do not differ greatly from the service that Northwards offers to its tenants. None of the organisations contacted keep figures on the different types of inspections carried out, but all confirmed that the main reason for a surveyors inspection is damp and condensation. 31. All organisations have some surveyors who are qualified but the majority of organisations also have surveying staff who are not qualified but are highly experienced. 32. The time slots offered to tenants for inspections are mainly AM and PM slots, with one organisation offering an early bird appointment (prior to 8:00am) or a late inspection (after 4:00pm) and two organisations taking requests to avoid school drop offs and collection times. 33. None of the organisations contacted measure satisfaction specifically on surveyors visits, so we have no information to compare Northwards results to. Task Group 4 (Charlotte, Jessica and Christine) 34. Members of task group 4 accompanied four surveyors on 32 surveyor inspections so we could get a good understanding of the issues they face on the ground. We also held a focus group with members of the surveying team to get their feedback on the service and we supported task group 2 in a telephone satisfaction survey. 35. We found that all surveyor inspections were within three weeks of the tenants initial report and in most cases, within one or two weeks. Around 30% of the Page 8
visits were about damp/condensation or leaks and we learned that damp and condensation are the most common problems during the winter months. The remaining inspections covered a multitude of repair issues. 36. We found tenants reported a number of problems to the surveyors who always took the time to explain to tenants what they were planning to do. This included informing the tenant if no further appointment or repair was required and making sure they had the correct contact details and availability where a further appointment was needed. Tenants were advised they would be updated with a follow up appointment for a repair the same day or within a few days. Advice was given to tenants in a leaflet if they were experiencing problems with condensation. Where needed, the surveyor said they would pass on information to the admin officer and if the tenant failed to keep an appointment, they left a card asking the tenant to rebook the appointment. 37. There were several cases where the proposed repair cost was over 100 and this needed authorisation from the repairs service manager. We learned in the focus group that this was a source of frustration for the surveyors and could add a small delay. However, we also understand from the repairs service manager that on average this only applies to 16 repair jobs per week (0.02% of weekly repairs) and is a way of controlling higher value renewals. The repairs service manager confirmed that jobs rarely get refused but some may be added to a planned home improvement scheme for example roofing or replacement front doors. The repairs service manager told us the figure of 100 would only be reviewed if the cost of the work charged by the contractor was to change. 38. During the focus group, we also became aware that only the surveyor with special responsibilities and the legal team had a moisture meter for testing moisture levels in walls to help with the diagnosis for damp. We were told this was because the moisture meter only measures the amount of surface water rather than the cause of damp. In addition, the results are unreliable if used without more invasive testing, such as drilling walls and taking samples of the brickwork to test the moisture content. We were advised that, ordinarily, a visual inspection alone was a sufficiently reliable method, along with a discussion with the tenant about possible causes. We understand it is important to avoid carrying out the installation of a damp proof course, with considerable inconvenience to the tenant and expense to Northwards, unless it is absolutely necessary. Invasive testing alone can take up to an hour, so this work is therefore kept to a minimum. Between April 2015 and March 2016, Northwards carried out 85 damp proof courses. Northwards don t keep a record of the number of properties tested. Page 9
39. We were advised that some of the surveyor inspections are requested because a tenant needs permission to carry out their own improvement work or there is a need to inspect and approve the work once it s completed. Although surveyor inspections booked by the customer service centre are checked by managers before being assigned to surveyors, we were told a very small number relate to tenants improvements and it isn t clear from the description whether this type of inspection is always appropriate. The CSC manager told us they do not book any surveyors appointments for a tenants own improvements and their only involvement would be to send out a form requesting permission to carry out the improvement work. There appears to be some inconsistency here. Apparently the housing officer receives the completed form and only for certain types of improvements would a surveyor become involved e.g. a new bathroom. In that case, an SSR would arrange to visit the tenant and make recommendations to the housing officer on whether the works should be approved. Post inspection work after the job has been completed is also carried out by the SSR. 40. We were informed during the focus group with surveyors that recording information about rechargeable repairs to tenants on the Rehousing Review List (RRL) recently became one of their responsibilities. On average, this is about one case every two weeks. Surveyors also post-inspect 10% of repairs that cost over 200. 41. We spent some time understanding how the appointment system works because there seems to be some confusion about the scheduling of them by the CSC and some surveyors suggested double slots need to be booked in the diary where there are multiple repairs to inspect. All appointments are different and can take on average between 5 15 minutes to complete. The diary assumes 35 minutes per appointment including travelling time and follow on work at the office. The surveyors are allocated up to 13 appointments per day and taking into account no access rates, on average, each surveyor completes around 11 surveys per day. We understand that inspections that take a long time to complete only require a further visit if they are going to take much longer, or if completing the inspection on one visit would cause a delay for other appointments that are due to be completed on the same day. In those cases, we were told a further appointment is arranged by the surveyor. 42. Overall, we were impressed by the professionalism and patience shown by the surveyors who we accompanied on the visits. We think, from our observations, they provide an excellent service during their initial visit. They left no access calling cards where needed, they checked the contact details of the tenant during Page 10
the inspection visits and when arranging for work to be done, they asked about times that were convenient for the tenant. 43. We believe the surveying team is a committed team providing a very good service. We found some areas about the inspection process and the work carried out by the surveyors that we think could be improved and these are summarised below. 44. We would like to thank Northwards staff and the customer service centre for their help and support in carrying out this scrutiny exercise, especially the surveying team who have been very helpful. Summary and Recommendations 1. By far the biggest cause of concern for tenants when reporting damp is to be told the cause is probably condensation. This can lead to monitoring for between six weeks and six months and we heard of a number of cases that get worse during that time, sometimes at considerable inconvenience and cost to tenants. We acknowledge the small number of complaints received by Northwards about the repairs service, but 160 complaints received over the year is not insignificant and a number of these relate to damp. Recommendation We would like Northwards to review the way reports of damp are handled and to provide reassurance that the existing procedures are adequate and that nothing further can be done to improve the situation for those tenants affected by this problem. We would also like assurance that the team have access to enough moisture meters to avoid unnecessary delays to tenants reporting a problem. 2. We believe Northwards are planning to introduce portable devices for surveyors so they can update their records electronically when they are out of the office. This will save time, reduce paper work and in some cases enable tenants to be updated during the first inspection visit about the timescale for any further work. Recommendation We think Northwards should implement portable devices for surveyors as a priority. 3. At the moment the updating of the RRL (Rehousing Review List) by the surveying team is a very small part of their workload. Recommendation We think it would be wise for Northwards to review the updating of the RRL Page 11
by surveyors in the next 6 12 months. This is to check the existing procedure is not putting an unnecessary burden on the surveying team given their already busy workload. 4. We know that any repair costs over 100 have to be authorised by a manager. We understand the need to control expenditure but we also learned that requests to spend more than this amount are rarely turned down, but it can still cause a delay as the tenant has to wait for up to 48 hours to find out what is happening and when. A higher limit of 150-200 might help to minimise any delay. Recommendation We recommend the policy of requiring authorisation from a manager is reviewed and consideration be given to setting a higher limit. 5. We don t see any value in the surveying team measuring customer satisfaction with a very small sample of customers every three months, especially as it isn t reported anywhere. In considering alternatives, we don t think asking this question a long time after the work has been done will be helpful either, as people often forget. When we contacted other housing organisations, no one else measures satisfaction with the surveying service and instead they focus on reporting the overall satisfaction with the repairs service. Recommendation We recommend Northwards considers if there is a more effective way of measuring and reporting satisfaction with the work carried out by the surveying team. 6. During the scrutiny exercise we became aware that some tenants did not know what action was being taken after the inspection visit. Recommendation Even if the follow-on work involves a delay, we think tenants should always be updated within the agreed timescale of up to 48 hours. If work is added to a future home improvement scheme, this should be explained in a letter and - if possible - follow on work, including a description of the work ordered with a job number, should be sent to the tenant in a manner of their choosing (e.g. text message). 7. We found inconsistencies in the way calls were handled by the customer service centre (CSC) from listening to both calls and feedback from customers. The best calls were courteous and these advisors asked more probing questions of the tenant to obtain as much information as possible to make sure the surveyor visit went well e.g. asking about access arrangements in case someone has a disability, or finding out about all the repair issues so the surveyor had a comprehensive list of problems to inspect. Those advisers who took the time to Page 12
chat to customers, especially while they were updating the computer system, provided the best service. Recommendation We don t think it is always clear to the tenant why a surveyor inspection is necessary and this should be fully explained during the call. We think refresher training might be helpful to ensure all the customer service advisors provide the same high standards of service when booking surveyor inspections. The possibility of a joint training session between the customer service advisors and the surveyors might also be worth exploring so they can appreciate one another s perspectives. Page 13
Appendix 1 Wigan & Leigh Housing Salix Homes Bolton at Home Six Town Housing Stockport Homes 1) Do you employ staff that carry out inspections prior to certain repairs? 2) If you answered Yes to Question 1. Are these members of staff qualified surveyors? - If yes, are you able to tell me what their qualifications are? - Do your surveyors specialise in one or more repair type? 3) Can you let me know how long a customer would typically wait for an appointment slot for a Surveyors visit? 4) Do you offer timeslots for your Surveyors Inspections? 5) If you answered Yes to Question 4, what time slots do you have? 6) Do you keep stats/records of the type of inspections that are carried out e.g. damp, condensation, leaks and if you do, can you tell me what your top 5 are? Can we have a copy that sets out the difference between damp and condensation? 7) Do you carry out Satisfaction Surveys on Surveyors Visits? 7a) If you answered Yes to question 7, can you share with me the questions that you ask and also the results. 7b) If you answered No to Question 7, do you measure satisfaction of Surveyors visit in any other way? 8) Can you tell us how many complaints your organisation received 2014/2015? If you can break it down do you know how many of these complaints related to repairs? 9) Do all your surveyors carry moisture meters? Page 14