True partners

Partnership working is not unusual in the social housing sector but getting the right balance is not as easy as it sounds.

For Inspace Partnerships, ALMO Berneslai Homes and Barnsley Council, however, that is not a problem and the trio have hit new heights

The Audit Commission has awarded the Barnsleybased ALMO three stars with “excellent prospects” and the partners are “ecstatic” with the result, which they say highlights the hard work of everyone involved.

The Barnsley story starts in November 2002 but for Inspace Partnerships its introduction to the social housing sector came six years previously. Originally Willmott Dixon Property Services, part of the Willmott Dixon Group, the Inspace Partnerships brand was born in 2003 before the company was floated on the stock market in 2005. It was then re-acquired by the Willmott Dixon Group early last year.

“We are now back in the fold as the Group’s social housing specialist,” says managing director of Inspace Partnerships Mick Williamson. “We cover all aspects - new build, regeneration schemes, repairs, maintenance, capital, Decent Homes and planned maintenance, anything to do with the fabric of the house really.”

Its first social housing contract was with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets but it was its work in Barnsley that truly changed the face of the company, which has a national presence.

As Williamson explains: “At that time it was a very modern form of procurement, real partnering as opposed to quasi-partnering.”

Berneslai Homes, which has a stock of 19,500 properties, was formed in 2002 and Inspace won the tender to do repairs, maintenance and capital work to one third of the borough, with the direct labour organisation (DLO) - Construction Services - being responsible for the remaining two thirds.

The Decent Homes programme is on track to hit its 2010 target and just under 95 per cent of the stock now meets the standard.

There are many aspects of this partnership that make it stand out including its open book arrangement and the fact that the DLO works alongside the private sector company.

As chief executive of Berneslai Homes, Helen Jaggar explains: “You don’t find that public/private sector split that often. It allows a DLO enterprise to be equal to a private sector company, working closely with each other but also competing and learning from each other, driving up productivity and efficiency.”

The way in which Inspace sets up its regional offices is also quite different. “We secure the customer before we secure the base. We set up a dedicated local branch with a team focused solely on that customer when we secure long-term work – we literally take Inspace direct to the customers,” says Williamson.

The three-star status is testament to the strength of the partnership, Jaggar said: “It is a step change to go from two to three stars and we recognise that you can’t just do that on your own. You need a good board and effective partnership working.”

Steve Jagger, assistant executive director for Housing at Barnsley Council said he is delighted with the outcome. He added: “It is just recognition of a lot of hard work over a number of years. Clearly
there are challenges ahead that we will continue to tackle as a partnership to make sure that we have the best services in place for the benefit of the people of Barnsley.”

Williamson adds: “People use the word partner but I think it is an inclusive arrangement, a way of doing business which benefits everyone. Residents benefit as they are getting a far better service, their homes are in a better state and they have got a landlord that has been recognised as one of the best in the country.”

Jim Marler, head of partnering at Inspace believes it is the “passion of all the partners” and the “determination to go the extra mile” that has made the partnership shine.

But successful partnership working is not easy as Jaggar explains:, “People sometimes fall into the old contract/client approach which can lead to a breakdown in communications and a blame culture. For us, maintaining good relationships is about accepting that sometimes things go wrong but working together to put them right so it is about trust, having a shared vision and common goals and being able to respond to changing circumstances and emergency situations.”

The ALMO achieved praise from the Audit Commission inspectors across the board but one area that was singled out for particular praise was its vulnerability strategy, aimed at early detection of possible social problems and called “Something Doesn’t Look Right”.

“Because our officers are out there on the estates day in and day out, going into people’s homes, we spot things at an earlier stage,” says Jaggar. “When these things get to social services or the police they have often gone too far so with this strategy we have picked up on our unique position to identify early warning signs.”

The inspectors were also complimentary about the local management of services through the impact teams and steering groups and Berneslai Homes’ response to domestic violence and hate crime, as well as its use of renewable energy and bid to reduce its carbon footprint.

Since the last inspection in 2005 significant progress has been made around supported and sheltered housing following a fundamental review of how such schemes are managed, allocations, lettings, introducing a choice based lettings scheme and stock investment and repairs. Resident involvement was also flagged up as an area of good practice.

The turnaround time for void properties has been greatly improved by the partners from about 30 days to an average of 8.5. “There were a lot of empty properties which took a long time to turn around meaning rent was lost and presenting an opportunity for vandalism The partners have worked to revisit the void standard, to get a lettable property that can be turned around efficiently and everybody has benefited,” said Williamson.

The vast majority of the partnership’s work is carried out in occupied properties and tenants are at the heart of the partnership. Williamson continues: “The one thing that most contractors miss
is that we are working in people’s homes, not on a building site.”

“Working in somebody’s home is the hardest part of the Decent Homes work and any other capital works that we do,” says Jaggar. “Getting it right can be difficult, but we look at communication – always making sure the customer is kept in the loop and keeping that disruption down to a minimum.”

Inspace is built around its tradespeople. As Williamson says: “Tradespeople are our ambassadors, they are the face of Inspace. The chance of residents meeting the directors is slim and if they did they wouldn’t care, what they do care about is the electrician coming into their house when their electricity has gone down.”

Customer care is high on the training agenda at Inspace and the company offers as many modules on issues such as behavioural training, equality and diversity and how to deal with difficult situations as
they do on the skills side.

Jaggar says: “Both Construction Services and Inspace have an excellent record of staff training and providing apprenticeships. When our operatives are out there it needs to be seamless so they might
have a different van or uniform but the service standards that customers receive need to be the same.”

The ALMO carries out personal development reviews, has a leadership development programme for managers and is a founder member of the Housing e-Academy, online training management system. While at Inspace Williamson addresses the board annually to present 12-month personal
development and training plans for every person in the business.

A new service has been introduced by Inspace, which involves texts to tenants asking them to grade repairs on their homes, and every complaint and compliment raised against each branch is detailed in a monthly report.

Technology has always been at the forefront for Inspace which introduced PDA systems from day one of the Barnsley contract. The company has now introduced Global Live trackers to pinpoint operatives’ exact locations, allowing them to utilise the workforce more efficiently.

“It is a tracker in its base form but is far more than that,” Williamson says. “It stores the data forever, so in five years time if we wanted to look at what an engineer was doing today we could.”

Of course, for any social housing provider their role is about much more than bricks and mortar and the partnership is no different. “Berneslai Homes have geared up their strategy to complement and achieve the key ambitions of Barnsley as a place, addressing issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, worklessness, crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour,” says Marler. “Their focus is about adding value to the wider community and our role is to support them.”

The company has shown its continued commitment to community involvement with its pledge to ensure all staff will have done one day’s work in the community by the end of 2010. Already the
partnership has done its bit to help people back to work in what was once a thriving mining community through its training academy. “The council contributed the property and we renovated and redeveloped it as a training school. We have had hundreds of people going through the facility including three ex-miners from Selby who were retrained and employed by Inspace,” says Williamson.

The environment is key for many organisations but at as well as a comprehensive environmental and sustainability agenda Inspace has a managing director dedicated to green issues.

Williamson believes that the partnership is well placed for a strong future because of its wide ranging remit. “We are primarily a responsive repairs and maintenance deliverer, we do lots of other things but that is our forte. Going forward I want to grow that, to do what we do but better,” he says. “We are always testing ourselves as there is always room for improvement, and you never get to the end of the journey.” There is no doubt that wherever Inspace’s journey leads, its customers will be at its side.