Achieving Success

OUR ANNUAL REVIEW APRIL 2016 - MARCH 2017

ACHIEVING SUCCESS

Looking back on another successful year‌ Page 2 Welcome

Welcome from Jonathon and Linda

Page 4 Vision, mission and strategic objectives Page 5 Our highlights Page 20 Our performance Page 25 Complaints Page 25 Code of governance Page 26 Regulatory assessment Page 26 Offer document promises Page 28 Involving our customers Page 29 Corporate Plan progress Page 31 Our plans for the next few years Page 32 Our Board Page 33 Our Senior Management Team Page 34 Our Money

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At NPT Homes we have always been passionate about our ability to make a positive difference to people’s lives and their communities.

We are extremely proud of the progress we have made throughout 2016-17.

We successfully achieved the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) on 31st March 2017, a major milestone for the organisation. Amongst other home improvements, this has included the installation of over 7,500 kitchens, almost 7,000 bathrooms, 2,300 window replacements and more than 5,500 new

heating systems, all with high tenant satisfaction results.

Achieving WHQS has meant that 111 of the 118 promises made to tenants at Transfer were complete as at 31st March 2017, with 7 in progress.

As a result of these achievements, Board and Members have taken the decision to change the name of the business, reflecting a new phase in the organisation’s development. This supports an exciting opportunity for NPT Homes to stand out within the housing sector, as detailed in our new Corporate Plan for 2017-20. Tenants and staff were involved in choosing the new name and Tai Tarian was selected as the clear favourite. Tarian translates as ‘shield’, invoking themes of strength and protection and reinforcing the fact

that the organisation does not just provide homes but also offers support for our tenants and communities.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with tenants, the Board, employees, contractors and partners over the coming year. These partnerships enable us to carry on doing what we’re passionate about – making a positive difference to the lives of individuals, families and the communities that we work with.

Chair, Jonathon Davies and Chief Executive, Linda Whittaker

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Vision: Making a difference

Mission: We will continually work on understanding and meeting our customers’ needs with courtesy and respect. We have a customer focus but are commercially aware, challenge the norm and strive for development and growth across all aspects of the organisation.

Strategic Objectives for 2014-17 • Be the landlord of choice for customers and the preferred employer for those seeking employment • Have a high performing workforce who challenge the norm and are empowered to provide outstanding services • Continually work to understand our customer needs and deliver services based on ‘what matters’

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• Be commercially aware and strive for development and growth across all aspects of the organisation • Ensure our business is strong and financially secure and our governance arrangements provide the highest level of assurance

Our Highlights

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Our Highlights

Delivery of Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) Improvement Programme Since we were formed six years ago our main focus has been to deliver the promises set out to customers before transfer, which included bringing homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. We’re pleased to announce that we successfully achieved this in March 2017. We will now turn our attention to the external boundaries programme which will see improvements to fencing, walls, paving and other external works.

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Paul Jones who benefitted from the programme said:

I am delighted with the work that’s been carried out on my home which has included a new kitchen. We were consulted every step of the way and we even had input into the design. It was really important that we could choose the style and colour scheme of the kitchen and are really pleased with the outcome.

We’ve also had external wall insulation installed and that has had a dramatic effect on our house and finances. The money we used to spend on heating each day now lasts us four or five days.

Our Highlights

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Our Highlights

Biggest Community Challenge Gives 350 Hours to Projects We completed our biggest ever Community Challenge programme, having a huge impact on eight local projects, including schools, churches and community halls.

School yards were transformed, churches and community halls treated to new kitchens and gallons of paint used to spruce up local facilities.

The partnership programme involved 12 of our main contractors and suppliers, who, as part of their contracts with us commit to giving something back to the community.

They provided their skills and expertise in undertaking the projects and were joined by over 20 of our employees who volunteered their time. In total over 350 hours were spent working on the different projects.

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One of the projects which benefitted from a makeover was Sandfields Methodist Church in Port Talbot.

Speaking on their behalf, Peter Davies said:

The work completed by NPT Homes and their partners has been wonderful. The new kitchen we received has given the church a new lease of life and means that we can now become a hub for many community activities.

Our Highlights

Hive of Activity at HQ 30,000 bees took up residency at our head office as part of a wider health and wellbeing strategy which will benefit the local community.

The initiative will see local primary schools take an active part in the project. They will benefit from educational talks about bees and the chance to enhance their habitat by making bug houses, with support from our apprentices.

Swansea and District Beekeepers Society so that he can tend to the bees. Jonathan said:

We had brand new hives installed last summer and ever since we have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of these bees. Through looking after and nurturing them, we expect they will produce their own honey later in the year.

Employee Jonathan Morris has undergone a bee keeping course at OUR ANNUAL REVIEW APRIL 2016 - MARCH 2017 | 9

Our Highlights

Dementia Friendly Sign Up We made strides to better care for tenants and staff who may be suffering from dementia by signing up to become a dementia friendly organisation.

Several employees have become ‘dementia friends’ to give them an understanding of the personal impact of dementia and what they can do to help. Staff will also undergo training in how to recognise the signs and symptoms of the disease.

This commitment follows us appointing the Alzheimer’s Society as our chosen 10 | ACHIEVING SUCCESS

charity in 2016 and raising over £2,700 for the organisation.

Chris Stokes from the Alzheimer’s Society said:

NPT Homes has long been a supporter of people living with dementia, firstly through their fundraising efforts during 2016 and now through aiming to become a dementia friendly organisation. We are thrilled to be working with them on this project and supporting them as they aim to achieve this goal.

Our Highlights

Apprentice Tally Doubles After taking on 5 apprentices in early 2016 this figure doubled later in the year, when we took on an additional 5 level 2 building maintenance operative apprentices.

The multi trade qualification will include skills in carpentry, plastering, bricklaying, plumbing, painting, roofing and labouring work.

When qualified, the five will be equipped to enjoy a varied and engaging work environment, carrying out a wide range of repair and maintenance work in both occupied and empty properties.

New apprentice Calum Powell said:

I applied to the apprenticeship scheme with NPT Homes as I wanted to gain that hands on experience in a working environment. I feel lucky that I’ve managed to have such a great opportunity so close to home.

Once fully qualified I would love to gain a full-time position within NPT Homes so I can continue to develop.

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Our Highlights

Apprentice Wins National Competition Apprentice Lynsey Davies celebrated after coming out on top at Community Housing Cymru’s (CHC’s) Welsh Apprentice Challenge 2016.

The challenge saw three teams of apprentices work together to undertake a series of tasks and presentations over the course of two days at CHC’s annual conference in Cardiff.

It was double delight for us when another of our apprentices, Rory Diplock, also made the final. Despite an impressive effort from Rory’s team they were just pipped at the post by Lynsey.

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On winning the competition, Lynsey said: It was a tough two days, working really hard to come up with ideas and solutions for our task and then reporting back to senior housing professionals in the conference.

I’m really proud of the effort my team put in and delighted to have come out on top. I am so thankful to NPT Homes for nominating me to represent them in the contest and really enjoyed the experience.

As a result of the competition I have been asked to give talks in schools about women in construction and I hope I can inspire young girls to consider a career in the industry.

Our Highlights

Unique Training Facility Offered to Fire Service Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service were given a unique training environment at our disused Cartref residential complex in Skewen.

Prior to its demolition, the Fire Service used the buildings for training purposes, using synthetic smoke and a carefully controlled fire to simulate the conditions they encounter when tackling house fires.

Simon Pearson of the Fire Service said:

This is one of the most realistic forms of training that we can reproduce in a safe and controlled environment.

We do not get much opportunity to train with real fire and smoke and so we are grateful to NPT Homes for allowing us to use Cartref for this purpose.

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Our Highlights

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Our Highlights

Funding Creates New Memorial Garden for Local School A new outdoor learning space and community garden was opened at St Joseph’s School in Port Talbot thanks to a £5,000 grant from our Community Development Fund.

The initiative provides local people with the opportunity to apply for funding to make improvements to the community’s environment, improve social, cultural and recreational opportunities or create innovative approaches to crime prevention, crime reduction and safety.

Assistant Headteacher at St Joseph’s School, Mr Steven Jones, said:

This new garden is a vibrant, interactive space for students to learn and develop. We are thankful to NPT Homes for the funding they provided through their Community Development Fund.

The 2016 fund saw £18,000 awarded to five different projects in the Borough.

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Our Highlights

Energy Efficient Improvements Lead to Prestigious Award for NPT Homes

Graham Wellington of Skewen was one of the tenants to benefit from the improvements. He said:

We scooped silverware in the Regional Housing Association category at the Energy Efficiency and Healthy Homes Awards ceremony.This recognised our WHQS programme and the additional benefits this has given tenants.

The difference the work has made to my home is incredible. The house feels so much warmer now thanks to the insulation that’s been installed and as an added bonus, I’m also saving money on my energy bills.

The judges were particularly impressed by the large-scale work carried out to make our homes as energy efficient as possible with cavity extraction, external wall insulation, new heating systems, re-wires and new windows.

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Our Highlights

NPT Homes Ranked Among Top UK Landlords In a prestigious list of the top UK landlords, NPT Homes has been ranked number 28.

Judges from 24 Housing magazine were impressed with the progress we have made to enhance our properties and the support which has seen the organisation secure millions in unclaimed benefits for tenants. Also noted was that for every £1 we spend on our major works programme £1.99 is reinvested in the community, as well as the partnership work our dedicated Universal Credit team is doing to help influence future developments.

We were one of just nine Welsh social housing providers to make the top 50.

Chief Executive at NPT Homes, Linda Whittaker, said:

To be ranked as the 28th best landlord in the UK is a fantastic achievement when you consider the number of housing providers that operate across the UK. It is great credit to our tenants, staff, Board members and stakeholders whose commitment and passion allows us to make a difference to people and communities across Neath Port Talbot.

As a forward thinking organisation our aim is to progress even further in years to come and climb higher up 24 Housing’s list!

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Our Highlights

Three Employees in 24 Housing’s Top 30 Under 30’s list Kirsty Jefferies, Carla Thomas and Nadine Sacchi were all recognised by 24 Housing magazine, in a UK wide search to find the brightest young talent that will be the housing leaders of the future.

Nadine stood out for being a hugely compassionate individual while judges were equally impressed with Carla’s innovative ideas and Kirsty’s desire to build relationships and improve working practices.

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NPT Homes’ Chief Executive Linda Whittaker said:

All three individuals are extremely passionate about social housing.

They all see the value in thinking innovatively to improve the lives of our tenants.

We are very proud that this has been recognised in a UK wide competition, well done!

Our Highlights

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Our Performance Community Reinvestment Using the Welsh Government’s Value Wales Toolkit we have been able to demonstrate that for every £1 spent on our major works programme £1.99 is reinvested in our local communities out of a maximum £2 achievable.

Financial Inclusion and Universal Credit Our financial inclusion team provides advice and support to customers experiencing financial difficulties.

Working jointly with our income team they provide support on benefit changes, budgeting and digital support. Tenants are also supported to claim and manage their universal credit, we expect this support to increase significantly in 2017 as universal credit is rolled out to more customers.

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£3.2m 93% 675

in additional benefits and Direct Housing Payments for our Tenants

benefit appeal success rate

surgery appointments

1,875

home visits

Repairs We want our customers to feel proud of their homes. Our dedicated staff and contractors are committed to delivering a high quality repairs service.

6,872 7,150 17,073

Emergency Repairs

Urgent Repairs

Non-Urgent Repairs

93.9%

100% Gas Safe Homes

90.8%

Customers felt the repair was completed right first time

customers felt the repair was completed within a reasonable time

78

satisfaction % Customer with how we deal with

repairs and maintenance

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What Our Customers Have Said “Everyone who has worked in my home has been excellent, I am really pleased with my new kitchen. Thank you.”

“All the workmen who carried out the improvements were lovely, polite and always pleasant and happy to answer any queries I had.

Love the improvements to my home. Thank you very much for all your hard work.”

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“All the tradesmen were very polite and helpful. I was kept up to speed on all the work done and I was always told what work was going to be carried out. An amazing job.”

“We are pleased with the work done by the gardeners and would recommend the team for future work to be undertaken.”

“Excellent job, absolutely thrilled with the work carried out. What a lovely polite gentleman.”

Customer Satisfaction

80% TRUST US

79%

say we provide the service customers expect

say our rent provides value for money

neighbourhood satisfaction

y of their alit

90 %

me ho

89%

84% Qu

90%

would recommend us to family and friends

88%

overall service satisfaction

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Our People

84.4%

of our staff stayed with us throughout the year.

Turnover is low We sponsored 115 EMPLOYEES to embark on a qualification in their specialist areas.

For 97 of these we secured funding from the Welsh Government.

Our staff are

more engaged than staff in 60% of comparable organisations.

TRAINING DAYS: ONLINE

We are passionate about developing our employees and invested

ÂŁ219,000 in the last year.

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393 DAYS

FACE-TO-FACE

1,072 DAYS

74%

of employees live locally.

We have made significant savings this year as we have invested more in online learning.

Complaints We want to hear from our customers when things go wrong and aim to resolve problems as quickly as possible. Our staff are here to help deal with issues as they arise and in most cases we are able to resolve complaints at first point of contact.

When customers remain dissatisfied a formal complaint can be raised.

Compliance with CHC Code of Governance Community Housing Cymru’s Code of Governance sets standards and practices that boards and their members must adhere to. It has been designed to help housing associations to develop good governance structures and support continuous service improvement for customers.

90

resolved at % Complaints first point of contact

99

responded % Complaints to in time

It demonstrates our business is strong and financially secure and our governance arrangements provide the highest level of assurance.

An internal review of our compliance with the Code was undertaken by the Corporate Services Team in November 2016 as part of our self-evaluation, the review confirmed our ongoing compliance.

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Seal of approval from Welsh Government Welsh Government assessed how we had been performing over the past year as ‘Standard’ – the highest possible rating.

that there are robust processes in place to assess performance and that measures are being taken to continually improve the services offered to customers.

The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that the organisation is well governed, with good levels of tenant involvement. It also determines if risks facing the business are well managed,

The assessment also looked at our financial performance to ensure that we are financially sound and delivering value for money in all areas of the business.

Keeping Our Promises The Transfer Offer Document outlined 118 promises, 111 of which have been completed. The remaining seven promises are due for completion in 2017/18.

31st March 2017

31st March 2016

Complete In progress

111 7

105 13

Total

118

118

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The majority of the promises kept in the last year were around WHQS:

100% complete

Our PVC door and window renewal programme has been completed 2,264 properties upgraded.

100% complete

The kitchen replacement programme has been completed - 7,517 properties upgraded.

Heating

100% complete

The heating system programme has been completed - 5,523 properties upgraded.

Bathrooms

100% complete

The bathroom replacement programme has been completed 6,992 properties upgraded.

Roofs

100% complete

The roof repair programme has been completed - 2,293 properties upgraded.

100% complete

We have worked in partnership with our tenants and other stakeholders to complete a co-design review of our anti-social behaviour policy and procedure. The policy was approved

by Board in February 2017 and the procedure/toolkit launched in April.

Windows and doors

Kitchens

Developing expertise in managing ASB and tenancy breaches

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Involving our Customers Our Academy, which is mostly comprised of our customers, assists us in assessing how we’ve performed.

By working jointly with our staff, reviewing performance information and carrying out surveys, our Academy helps us to develop a set of improvement actions, all of which are set out in our Making a Difference Storyboards. Our Academy also reports their findings to Board before being published on our website.

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Our Academy plays an important role in our self-evaluation which helps us to continually improve services to our customers.

Academy member Eddie Rawles said:

I feel as though I’m an integral part of NPT Homes. There is a willingness to take feedback on board and deal with it.

Corporate Plan Progress During the year we have worked to complete our Corporate Plan for 2014-17 and the Top 10 Priority Projects which supported delivery of the Corporate Plan. Two of the projects were completed in 2015/16 and key achievements against the remaining eight are shown below. Where appropriate some actions will continue as part of our new Corporate Plan for 2017-20.

Project

Progress

Accurate Records and Core Systems

• Completed update to critical property and tenancy information • Core data inputting procedures finalised and staff trained to ensure ongoing accuracy • Essence of commerciality and value for money presented to all staff • Implemented new defined contribution pension and revised core terms and conditions of employment for new starters from 1st April 2016 • Revised procurement strategy enabling delivery of value for money across the organisation • Making a Difference Dialogue (MADD) employee performance process introduced • Completed roll out of E-Learning training for all office staff • Leadership programme established providing a clear framework for managers to use

Commerciality

Organisational Development

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Project

Progress

Customer Experience

• Development of Customer Experience Vision and Service Standards • Completed roll out of telephone training • Revised consultation process for major works, repairs and maintenance • Service charges for 2017/18 better reflect tenanted property charges • Insurance savings for leaseholders following policy renewal • Targeted buy back of individual leaseholder properties underway – 11 completed in the year • Potential development land holdings assessment completed • New build developments agreed, comprising of 23 homes across three locations • De-pooling of rent and service charges completed • Proportion of costs recovered through service charges improved to over 80% • Universal Credit (UC) team has been expanded and dealt with over 100 UC cases • Development of training and communication strategies to assist in the roll out and understanding of UC • Traffic light approach to arrears management now fully implemented

Leaseholder Management

Development Opportunities

Service Charges

Supporting Sustainable Tenancies

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Our plans for the future have been set out in our new Corporate Plan titled Focus on our Future.

Vision: Making a difference

Mission: Great Homes Great Communities

Strategic Objectives • Continue to invest in our homes and communities • Develop our workforce to improve effectiveness of service delivery • Maximise our use of technology to deliver what matters to customers • Pursue opportunities for growth

The plan is available on www.taitarian.co.uk

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Who are our Board?

We are governed by a voluntary Board made up of tenants, Council nominees and independent members.

The Board has overall responsibility for: • Ensuring the organisation is accountable to tenants and other stakeholders • Approving and monitoring policies to support the Corporate Plan • Monitoring our performance and ensuring the organisation is meeting the outcomes set in the Corporate Plan

Board Members

(*as at time of going to print July 2017)

Daniel Smith Tenant Member

Jonathon Davies Chair and Independent Member

Samantha Jones Tenant Member

Shelley Bosson Vice-Chair Co-optee Member

Steve Mundy Independent Member

Denise Davies Tenant Member

Harry Lloyd Independent Member

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Helen James Independent Member

Annette Wingrave Council Nominee

Rosalyn Davies Council Nominee

Peter Maggs Co-optee Member

Alan Lockyer Council Nominee

Mike Jones Co-optee Member

Steffan ap Dafydd Council Nominee

Resigned Board Members Carol Clement Williams (Council Nominee) John Rogers (Council Nominee)

Our Senior Management Team Linda Whittaker Chief Executive

Claire Maimone Director of Housing

John Andrew Director of Finance & Corporate Services, Company Secretary

Steve Tucker Interim Director of Assets

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Our Money On 1st April 2016 we had total cash of …

We had money coming in from …

£27.5m

Rents Service charges Grants from Welsh Government and Local Authority Property sales - Right to Buy and other Other income

£36.5m £1.8m £6.7m £1m £0.5m

Total

£46.5m

We spent it on…

Improving and repairing your homes and communities Buying and building more homes for rent Service costs Tenancy management and support services Interest payments and other finance costs

£50.1m £0.6m £2.1m £9.1m £6.6m

Total

To do this we had to borrow…

This left us with total cash at 31st March 2017 of…

£68.5m

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£17.2m £22.7m

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For our Highlights video of our annual review visit www.taitarian.co.uk