Incommunities 2-year plan update

As we embark on the second year of our 2-year plan, its important to remind ourselves of the progress we’ve made so far. Remember that the focus of this plan is short term so that we ‘fix the basics’ –we must address the issues that led to our governance downgrade and Regulatory Notice from the Regulator; to lay the foundations for improving our performance and services; and to face into muchneeded culture improvements, many of which were identified by you in our Your Voice listening

Whilst we have a lot of work to do before we start seeing the big movements in performance that we need, in this past year we have made great headway by improving clarity about what we need to do, how we need to do it (our processes, policies and systems), and embedding improved visibility and management of how we are performing across the business.

We have also made some initial changes to teams, and appointments to key positions, to complement the existing talent and experience already in the organisation so that we’re in a really strong position to deliver in the future.

Rachael Dennis Chief Executive

A word from Rachael

What we set out to achieve

Our 2 Year Plan was structured around achieving five areas

– Our Big Priorities.

Customer and Communities:

Providing modern customer focused services and community support that reflect our customer needs and aspirations.

In summary we said:

Every customer will be listened to, and every problem, concern or suggestion will be noted and considered.

Everything we learn from listening will help us continue to re-set our culture, so we can better focus on the needs and aspirations of our customers.

People, culture and change:

Being a great employer where our people are enabled and inspired to be the best they can be

In summary we said: We will make our objectives and goals simple and transparent, and align all activity, so our customers, colleagues and stakeholders, or anyone else, can review and measure our progress.

What we set out to achieve

Assets & place:

Ensuring our homes and communities are places where people feel safe and proud.

In summary we said:

We have already made investing in existing and new homes a priority, and our plan is to improve the quality of our current homes as well as refine our development programme, so that we start to build new homes aligned to future customers needs.

Finance, governance and performance:

Being a high performing, financially confident and well-governed organisation.

In summary we said: We will rationalise our business model to ensure we have the financial capacity to maintain and improve our current homes, and build much needed new homes for future customers and generations.

Development & growth:

Building a pipeline of new homes in the region and becoming a partner of choice.

In summary we said:

We will seek to build strong relationships with quality partners, enabling us to deliver real and tangible change for our customers and communities.

Read on to find out what progress we’ve made towards these priorities.

Launched our Customer Voice Strategy and formed our Customer Experience Committee (CEC) to put customers at the heart of everything we do.

See page 7

Promoted our ‘Lightening the Load campaign’ to help those most in need during the cost-of-living crisis.

See page 8

Invested £19.6m in our properties.

See page 11

Were successful in our bid to receive a share of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and made energy efficiency improvements to 111 homes in Wyke.

See page 12

Are on site with over 200 new affordable family homes and are offering options such as Shared Ownership and Right to Buy.

See page 14

Shared our EDI statement of intent, introduced prayer room facilities and a wellbeing and diversity calendar.

See page 17

Introduced a variety of communication channels to keep you informed and to hear what you think.

See page 18

Retained our V1 (financial viability) rating with the regulator.

See page 20

Made progress with our Governance and Regulatory Improvement Plan (GRIP) in readiness for the upcoming In Depth Assessment (IDA).

See page 21

6 Key Themes in our GRIP

Read on to find out more about these and many other achievements!

Providing modern customer focused services and community support that reflect our customer needs and aspirations

CUSTOMER VOICE

We’ve launched our new Customer Voice Strategy and created a Customer Experience Committee (CEC) to put customers at the heart of everything we do.

Customer Voice Strategy

We wanted to make sure that we listen to, and understand, our diverse customers views and that their voice feeds every decision we make.

We have recruited new customers to our CEC, who are now sharing their views and shaping our services so that we meet their needs and expectations. We’re also advertising for more customers to get involved in different ways.

Lara Oyedele

TirivasheMutindimuri

CEC Committee Member

Providing modern customer focused services and community support that reflect our customer

LIGHTENING THE LOAD CAMPAIGN

Our customers have faced enormous difficulties in the past year with the cost-of-living crisis. We needed to help them through this challenging time.

1,926

households have been supported by our Money Matters team.

We offer free, confidential support to all Incommunities customers, with:

Everything is going up

Let us help lighten the load

We launched our ‘Lightening the Load campaign’ to help those most in need with topping up energy meters, helping with food shopping and providing clothing and household items to help them keep warm.

MONEY BENEFITS BILLS DEBT UNIVERSAL CREDIT BUDGETING UTILITIES FURNITURE LOANS FOOD

Helped 368

fuel top ups.

Provided food support to

1,135 customers

CHOICE-BASED LETTINGS

We’ve been running a choice-based lettings pilot with Bradford City Council, ensuring our homes are being let to those customers most in housing need.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

We’ve been doing a lot of work in our Customer Service Centre and have introduced ways for colleagues to share their ideas for improvement. We’ve introduced several ideas already from colleagues such as weekly 20-minute team talks and involving the customer service team in the Quality Assurance Framework.

Providing modern customer focused services and community support that reflect our customer needs and aspirations

Providing modern customer focused services and community support that reflect our customer needs and aspirations

PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Tenant arrears have gone from

Tenant arrears

4.37% 4%

last year to this year

This is down to the increased support we are providing to our customers to help them maintain their rent payments.

Complaints performance has improved significantly from last year in terms of response times and learning from the complaints we receive.

Stage 1 complaints

Stage 2 complaints went from 59% 90% to responded to within the timeframe

from 46% 100% to and

Repairs satisfaction has improved from in August 2021 to in May 2023 thanks to the hard work across all areas of the business.

But satisfaction overall is well below where we need it to be at 72.7% 83.3%

66%

We have a long way to go, and improving this will be a key objective in 2023/24.

Ensuring our homes and communities are places where people feel safe and proud

INVESTMENT IN CUSTOMER’S HOMES

We recognised the under investment in our customers’ homes in the past. We are now committed to ensuring our

homes are improved, safe and enjoyable for customers to live in. We’ve invested £19.6m in our properties.

New block roofs at Fairfax House and Dewhirst Close

1410 Boiler Installs

598 Kitchen renewals

1084 window and door replacements

196 Bathroom renewals

53 Rewires

NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTION PLANS

We’ve created our Neighbourhood Action Plans to bring us closer to getting to know our communities better and be able to make improvements at a local level.

155 House roofs

NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTION PLANS

Ensuring our homes and communities are places where people feel safe and proud

SOCIAL HOUSING DECARBONISATION FUND

We were successful in our bid with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and other Yorkshire based housing providers partners to receive a share of the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding (SHDF) receiving £1.2million.

(SHDF)

We made energy efficiency improvements to 111 Wyke homes with an energy efficient EPC ratings of ‘D’ and below.

We wanted to make our homes: Warmer Cheaper to run

More energy efficient

The overall aim is to reduce fuel poverty.

The properties targeted had energy efficient EPC ratings of ‘D’ and below. A ‘fabric first’ approach was taken, where we focus on insulating and ventilating the properties first, which reduces the chance of damp and mould.

DAMP AND MOULD

We’ve responded to the sector wide challenges of Damp and Mould by creating a dedicated damp response team, a damp app for inspectors, customer communications to educate and advise and we’ve completed a full and thorough review of cases.

Ensuring our homes and communities are places where people feel safe and proud

REVIEW OF STORES AND LOGISTICS

Colleagues didn’t always have the right equipment at the right time to complete the jobs they were attending.

We have made improvements to our inhouse supply chain and goods stores, making sure our repairs teams have the materials they need, when they need it, providing a better service for customers.

BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOMES

Sales policy

SALES AND AFTERCARE – PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST

to improve our sales experience and improve results, so we created dedicated sales, marketing and aftercare teams.

15 Development and Growth

Building a pipeline of new homes in the region and becoming a partner of choice

COMPLIANCE AND CUSTOMER SAFETY

We’ve developed a new compliance structure to ensure we have the right specialist knowledge and expertise and dedicated people in the team to deliver all our compliance regimes.

We can be confident that we are compliant with all new regulation and legislation, ensuring our customers remain safe in their homes.

Compliance against all of our key areas such as electrical and gas safety, is between 99.98% and 100% and we work hard to gain access to those properties to ensure the safety of our customers.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We have a diverse colleague and customer base, who have varying needs. We want to better understand their needs and tailor our services and support to their specific requirements. We are committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We introduced prayer room facilities and a wellbeing and diversity calendar, and launched our EDI statement of intent.

90-DAY CHECK-INS

90-day check ins

All colleagues now have regular performance check-ins, including meaningful conversations focused on their wellbeing and helping them to develop in their role, ensuring a consistent approach to managing performance across the organisation.

BOOSTING COLLEAGUE RETENTION AND REDUCING ABSENCES

Prayer room

We’ve seen a gradual decrease in turnover over the year, from its highest point in June 22 at 25% to 19.2% by the end of March 23. We’ve also seen a steady improvement in sickness absence, from its highest point in June 22, averaging 15 days per employee to 13.34 days by the end of March 23.”

Being a great employer where our people are enabled and inspired to be the best they can be

COLLEAGUE COMMUNICATION

Colleagues told us that they didn’t get regular updates on what was going on, and didn’t know how to share their views, so we now have regular face to face meetings in the form of Let’s Connect and all colleague conferences, have monthly updates on email (your News) and video updates

(Friday takeaways) on Workplace We created the employee forum and Hive feedback surveys to listen to what you have to say.

Friday Take-Away

Being a great employer where our people are enabled and inspired to be the best they can be

PEOPLE SUPPORT

We have a new people support team, with a system in place that helps us respond and support you, our colleagues, more effectively.

REPORTING ACCIDENTS

We’ve improved our accident, incident and near miss reporting by introducing an electronic system. We can now see trends quickly and work with departments to help reduce the risks to colleagues.

LAUNCH OF INCONNECT

MONTHLY PAY

We listened and took action to address the feedback from colleagues that they wanted to be paid monthly rather than every 4 weeks, so we gave all existing colleagues a choice.

Colleagues were finding it difficult to find documents and helpful information needed to do perform

4 weeks Monthly

Accident, incident and near miss report

Being a great employer where our people are enabled and inspired to be the best they can be

Being a high performing, financially confident and well-governed

RETAINED V1 RATING

We retained our V1 (financial viability) rating with the regulator. This gives assurance to customers, colleagues, board and wider stakeholders that we are managing our finances and are well prepared to respond to changes in the future.

This is a great achievement, recognising the hard work of colleagues across the business. V1

IN DEPTH ASSESSMENT (IDA)

G1

July –Sept IDA

We’ve been working hard on embedding our governance improvements with the aim of achieving a G1 rating at our next In Depth Assessment (IDA) in Q2 (July – Sept) of this year.

GOVERNANCE AND REGULATORY IMPROVEMENT PLAN (GRIP)

We have a detailed Governance and Regulatory Improvement Plan (GRIP) in place which is overseen by our Board and have undertaken a readiness review with external partners to make sure we are well prepared for the Regulator.

6 Key Themes in our GRIP

Strengthen our risk management and control framework

Improve oversight and governance arrangements

Improve data quality and reliability across key data sets

Rent and service charges compliance

Homes England audit and accountability compliance

Landlord Health and Safety compliance and good practice

BUDGETS

We took a new approach to budgets for 23/24, which were built from the ground up instead of being based on previous years. Budget Heads and Directors were actively involved in budgeting to support the plans and priorities for their areas.

The Budgets and Business Plan have been approved by the Board to allow us to now deliver the priorities set out in our two-year plan.

Being a high performing, financially confident and well-governed organisation

Managing change

Our 2 Year Plan was an ambitious change agenda to deliver, and you told us that there was so much change happening it was hard to keep up. With the help of our business change team, we’ve now got clear sight of all the activity and are taking a planned approach to when things will be happening, making sure that the right people are involved from the start.

We’re also working hard to balance the changes we need to make in the longer term with the need to keep day to day services and operations running.

We know that our approach might not be perfect, but we’re working hard to make the changes we need to make happen and to make sure you are involved at the right time. We’ve looked at what we need to deliver in year two we’ll be updating you on that soon!

next…

As we look to the year ahead, the outcome of our IDA and making progress with our governance improvements is important, so we need to continue working hard to show that we are a well governed organisation. We’ll be embedding and further strengthening our governance framework and managing risk more effectively.

At the core of our improvements in year 2 is putting our customers central to everything we do, and we’ll start to deliver our Customer Voice Strategy and many more customers will be getting involved in shaping decisions. We’ll continue to work on our Neighbourhood plans and take a more local approach.

Also, in the year ahead will be a focus on performance and addressing underperformance. We’ll be looking at some initial and urgent system improvements and working on improving the quality of our data and reporting. We’ll be doing a lot of work on creating a great culture and looking at our leadership and management capabilities to ensure we “live it”.

More on all of this to follow!

What’s Customer Voice Strategy Year 2 update

Remember the THREE KEY MESSAGES from our Stay Connected Summer 2023 sessions

2

PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY DON’T WALK BY

USE YOUR INITIATIVE AND BE CREATIVE

Remember the THREE KEY MESSAGES from our Stay Connected Summer 2023 sessions