Agenda item

6.1  The Chair referred members of the sub-committee to the draft scrutiny review report which was circulated with the supplementary agenda.

6.2  He briefly summarised the recommendations set out in the report and invited comments, suggestions and additions from members of the sub-committee with a view to agreeing the report (with any changes) at this meeting.

6.3  Generally, members of the sub-committee were pleased with the report and felt it was an important milestone in starting to improve the repairs service so that work was done in a timely manner.

6.4  The following suggested amendments were made by the sub-committee

-  Recommendation 9 – It should be made clear that the text message confirming that a repair has been completed should go back to the housing department and not to the contractor. It would be housing that would need to follow it up if a “yes” text was not received.

-  The issue of language problems amongst residents needed to be addressed too, as this could be the reason for not responding. Perhaps non-respondents could be spot-checked through the satisfaction survey?

-  Recommendation 10 (a)  - The option “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” should be removed from the satisfaction survey

-  Section 13.1 should be revisited to be made clearer

-  An additional recommendation should be made – that implementation of the recommendations in the report be reviewed.

-  A public digest summarising the report should be prepared

-  Recommendation 3 – The cabinet member for housing should be a member of the “core group” but should not chair that group as it made it too political.

-  The fact that a repair should have a single number was agreed, but it was acknowledged that this would be difficult to do because of repairs switching between departments etc.

-  Several references were made in the report to “i-world”. This is a council system, not just one used by the contractors. This should be made clear in the report.

6.5  The strategic director of housing services commented that it would be possible for the department to add to the recommendations. The sub-committee agreed that the scrutiny report was intended as a catalyst for a wide range of changes in housing repairs and was a starting point rather than a definitive list of all the changes needed.

6.6  Housing officers confirmed the commitment of the cabinet officer for housing to the full implementation of the recommendations in the report.

6.7  Councillors made reference to a repairs finder booklet that helped in communication between the customer service centre and tenants. It was confirmed that a new booklet had been produced and sent out to all tenants. It was agreed that a copy of this booklet should also be sent to each councillor for their use.

6.8  The Chair confirmed that the agreed changes would be made to the report and it would then be re-circulated to members of the sub-committee as the finalised version.

6.9  The sub-committee thanked all officers who had contributed to the report, in particular Christian O’Mahoney, Catherine Spence and Karen Harris.