On the road to success

The journey from zero stars to a high-performing two star organisation is filled with obstacles but South Liverpool Housing Group (SLH) has managed to successfully negotiate this rocky road with chief executive Julie Fadden at the wheel

Set up in 1999 following a large scale voluntary transfer from Liverpool City Council the organisation was in her own words “a real mess” when Fadden took over the reins five years ago. It has come a long way since then and last year transferred an additional 220 units from Arena Housing Group and Servite Houses – a fitting tribute to just how far it has progressed, with more in the pipeline this year.

“We could never have hoped for a stock transfer five years ago because we had the business to turn around and make viable again but now we are recognised for providing quality services and have got staff who want to do a fantastic job,” says Fadden. “The quality bar that we can prove to other organisations makes us an attractive prospect to transfer stock and services over to as we are able to prove that we provide high quality services at very reasonable prices to the customers who are paying for them.”

Having the right calibre of staff is crucial as Fadden explains: “The journey we are on is not like the bus trip in the film “Speed” where you are held hostage and you can’t get off. If this isn’t the kind of journey that you want to be on then you need to make your own choices. We have been absolutely explicit about where we want people to generate their efforts and that is for the tenants, so if they are not in it for the tenants, they need to follow their dream somewhere else, because we are not going to achieve what we want without the right people on the SLH bus.”

Staff training is important and SLH, through its strategic partnership with the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) ensures that all employees have accredited professional qualifications, but while training is high on the agenda, having a workforce with the right attitude is imperative, as Fadden
explains: “If you enjoy what you do you are going to do it all the better, if you are happy you are going to be meeting the customer with a smile, not a scowl, and that is just about mindset and attitude, so although we encourage training and qualifications the important thing for me is attitude
– everyone can choose their attitude and anyone working at SLH needs to choose the right one.”

Following an Audit Commission short notice inspection in January, SLH was praised for its “customer-focused” repair reporting and ordering systems and performance in completing repairs within challenging target timescales.

The praise was particularly welcome as the repairs system didn’t fare well in a previous inspection and customer satisfaction survey. It was overhauled following tenant consultation and the results speak for themselves, as Fadden explains: “We listened to our customers who questioned why we had huge firms running local contracts and why as a small company we needed a massive company where we don’t figure in their strategic priorities,” explains Fadden.

The organisation secured a contract with Liverpool-based Penny Lane Builders, who offer a bespoke service tailored to meet the needs of SLH tenants. “By listening to the customer we actually saved half a million pounds and the lesson that we have learnt is that if you listen to the people that you are providing the services to and for you will find that there are actually better ways of doing it,” says Fadden.

“It doesn’t take the professional all of the time to make the right decision, it is a combination of those skills around the table but you need to be willing to listen and discuss on both sides to come to the best conclusion. It is not that the tenants are in charge or we are in charge, we are a partnership, and the SLHomeserve Partnership has been born as a result – our tenants call us ‘Team SLH’.”

The inspection was not all rosy and SLH did come in for criticism over inflexible appointment times, rent arrears and “not targeting its work to reduce debt.”

Fadden says that while criticism is always welcomed as a challenge to make improvements, some of the Audit Commission’s comments were unjustified.

She said that appointment times are available outside of working hours where required but to have extended hours of service built into the contract would have major cost implications. She explains: “All of these things have a price, so do tenants want us to save money and have more money to spend on additional improvements for their homes or do they want us to spend it on something that may or not be used? You can only spend the pound once – this approach has earned us a three star rating for value for money.

“The message from our tenants is that they would rather we were spending the money wisely and as long as people know when you are coming out they are quite prepared to make themselves available for that appointment because it saves money and enables them to have more outcomes from the service in the long run, quite simply, if our tenants want us to do it – then we will, as they pay the bills and therefore direct our actions.”

With regards to the debt, Fadden feels that the Audit Commission should focus on how far the organisation has come. “We inherited 1.2million debt from the city council when we took over the stock 10 years ago and although we have recovered £700,000 of that the reality is there is still half a million pounds that pushes our arrears higher than they would have been,” she says. “There needs to be a realisation that all organisations aren’t the same and they aren’t measuring apples with apples, organisations are different and that is a common sense issue.

“If you look at our performance and how we have brought the arrears down year on year and you look at the commitment from our team then you see a totally different picture, you can’t just look at the bottom line, you have to look at how you get there – especially when you are collecting debt in the most deprived ward in the country – people need help and support and you don’t recover the money by simply evicting people – when the tenant leaves it is virtually impossible to recover the
debt, you have a far better chance whilst they are still a customer.” Tenants play a major role in determining how services are run through groups including the Neighbourhood Panel, which looks at performance, mystery shoppers, tenant auditors and a reader’s panel.

There is of course, tenant representation on the Board, and a Junior Board made up of young people aged 12 to 24.

Plans are in the pipeline to amalgamate the forums into a tenants’ assembly. “What we don’t want is lots of different groups with the same people on them because you are not challenging what you are doing properly if you just talk to the same group of people and miss out on embracing the views of those who do not always get involved. It is really important that we have an assembly of people who want to be involved and from that central assembly they choose the avenue that they are best suited to as opposed to trying to be on everything – you don’t get the best out of people if you wear them out.”

SLH is also committed to youth involvement in its governance structure with the inclusion of its innovative Junior Board. The Junior Board has a Youth Squad that sits beneath it and carries out environmental improvements and clean ups, as well giving talks in schools about citizenship. There is also a theatre production company and a dance troupe.

“If you stigmatise a young person that is all they will ever be, if you invest in them and support them then it is surprising the payback that you get,” says Fadden. “The people involved in the Junior Board are fantastic and quite able to challenge. If they think something isn’t right they will say so and we will have a debate about it and put right what is wrong.” SLH’s mission statement is about “making South Liverpool, the place to be” – a place of choice, and its staff are all committed to its aim of turning Speke, one of the most deprived wards in the country into “paradise” – a bold aim that they don’t shy away from.

SLH has a monthly walkabout, where all staff go out onto the streets and chat to tenants, with four people appointed to each of the 26 patches and they have full responsibility for resolving any issues that they come across, working with neighbourhood staff in the intervening time to take ownership of problems and work with the whole team to resolve them.

Staff also take part in an annual “Community Challenge” – using a minimal budget of £100 to make a huge difference in the neighbourhoods served by SLH. Examples of work within the community have included clearing up an overgrown garden for an isolated elderly man and helping him to build links with neighbours and get re-engaged with his family, and complete renovation of a community building.

“It is lovely when you can engage in projects like that as you are changing lives,” says Fadden. “People talk about the KLOEs – the key lines of enquiry that the Audit Commission have – but there are no key lines of enquiry for working in the community in the way we do, you have just got to see it from the customer’s point of view, there is no one telling you what you need to do, to be honest – it’s just common sense.”

It is this unswerving dedication to customers and communities that will be the focus of SLH in years to come, as Fadden explains: “These organisations that are chasing funding for “flavour of the month” opportunities that have got no lasting impact are wasting their efforts and pulling away from what they are there to do, which is to focus on their customers’ needs, spend the money that they collect from them wisely and use it to benefit the neighbourhoods they serve – it’s not about PR – it’s about delivery.

“It is about sticking to what you are good at, playing to your strengths and making sure you have got the right people on board. You need to make sure that your people share the vision, have the passion and focus, and want to stay on the SLH bus because if they are on the wrong journey they need to get off and find the right one for them.”