3 minute read
Changes to the housing teams
by Sara Hendry and Emma Watkins
Following the recent operations redesign, we have recruited a number of new posts within the income and tenancy Services teams. This will help us work more effectively and support the delivery of our ambitious organisation plan. Below is an outline of some of the chamges in the teams and who is responsible for what!
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Head of Tenancy Services - Sara Hendry
Responsible for:
• Tenancy support team (which includes welfare, benefit, and debt, and tenancy compliance)
• Neighbourhood housing team
• HomePlus team
Tenancy Support Team Leader – Rebecca James
Promoted and appointed in November, Rebecca will form part of the tenancy services management team and will work to deliver the operational tenancy support and compliance service, including dealing with anti-social behaviour.
The tenancy support management team includes Rebecca James, Justine Skitt (Neighbourhood Team Leader) and Leanne Buffin (HomePlus Team Leader).
Income Manager – Emma Watkins
Responsible for:
• Income collection team
• Lettings team
• Service charges
• Allocations and lettings
Regrettably, the recent appointment for a new Income Team Leader did not work out as planned and we are now recruiting again for this post. Until this post is filled, the line management of our Income Collection Advisors, Debt Recovery Officer and Senior Income Accounts Assistant remains with Emma as the Income Manager.
Lettings Team Leader - Hannah Williams
Hannah is responsible for managing our Lettings Assistants who process the allocations and sign-ups. This also includes ensuring compliance with all tenancy related changes are recorded accurately on our systems, such as mutual exchanges, succession, assignment and decants.
Service Charge Advisor – Nicola Beard
From January 2023, Nicola will be taking up a brand-new role to Two Rivers Housing as a Service Charge Advisor. We hope this will allow us to review our current service charges costs.
See the new structure chart for more information on reporting lines within the housing teams.
Emerging priorities
Over the coming weeks, we will be looking to identify areas for improvement with our teams. We will also work to ensure the changes made to reporting and responsibility lines, help us effectively contribute to the delivery of our organisation plan for 2023/2024.
Our key areas of focus:
• Allocations
• Sign-ups.
• Cost-of-living crisis.
• 2023/2024 rent review.
• Safeguarding. • No access for compliance.
• Anti-social behaviour.
• Tree management.
• Pest control.
We will also be working with other teams across the organisation on the reintroduction of estate inspections and creating opportunities for more visibility and joint working with our teams between January to March next year.
Internal changes
To help implement the changes to line management and MIS tasking, we have been working with both IT and the contact centre to introduce new internal folders, emails and teams groups that support the new delivery model. This will be in effect from 1 December 2022.
Emailing the teams
We ask all colleagues to note the following changes to emailing our teams internally:
Tenancy services management team: includes Sara Hendry and her Team Leaders.
HomePlus team: includes Leanne Buffin as Team Leader, Senior Scheme Co-Ordinators and Scheme Co-Ordinators.
Income collection team: includes Emma Watkins, Income Collection Advisors and Senior Income Accounts Assistant.
Lettings team: includes Emma Watkins, Hannah Williams as Team Leader, and Lettings Assistants.
Neighbourhood housing team: includes Justine Skitt as Team Leader and Neighbourhood Advisors.
Tenancy Compliance Officers: includes Tenancy Compliance Officers.
Tenancy support team: includes Rebecca James as Team Leader, Welfare, Benefit and Debt Advisors, and Tenancy Compliance Officers.
Welfare, benefit, and debt advice team - includes our Welfare Benefit and Debt Advisors.
When reviewed and amended, we will share our policies and processes to include the new roles and responsibilities across the organisation. Any further information on changes will be shared accordingly to the relevant teams and customers affected will be consulted.
Healthy Performance has provided all colleauges access to four on-demand health and wellbeing webinars on topics including: nutrition, sleep, cholesterol and becoming active.
To access the webinars, simply click here and enter your name and email address and use the password two2022.
New health and wellbeing Intranet hub
The health and wellbeing group now has it's own hub on the intranet for colleagues to access resources including webinars, newsletters, bulletins and more.
Check out the hub regularly to see the latest updates from the health and wellbeing group.
