At Derwent Living we're always looking at how we can improve the services we provide to residents. Feedback last year was telling us that customers were very keen to compare their housing schemes and local community to those of others, ensuring we were offering a consistent level of service from area to area.
We know from experience that the best way to do that is to get input into what our customers think at all stages of service delivery and the regulator at the time was also keen to push active participation from customers. The customer feedback combined with regulatory steer was enough for us to begin drawing up plans for a new community-based project. The idea would be loosely based on mystery shopping work which had worked well for us previously.
A new team would be formed consisting of volunteers who would visit our housing schemes unannounced and rate the cleanliness and environmental appeal of each one on a pre-determined scale. The scheme reports could then be analysed and action plans developed to tackle issues, allocate spend and identify opportunities for improvement.
Before we went ahead with the concept, we needed to find out if we had the relevant resident buy-in needed to get the project off the ground. We set up a one-off training session with charity Keep Britain Tidy, inviting a number of residents along to look at different scenarios which had been set up on various housing schemes.
These scenarios ranged from small blocks of flats and inner city developments right up to sprawling family estates. The idea was to discuss what needed to be improved upon and to identify issues in each situation. After the session, a large number of residents were really interested in doing something a bit more in-depth and wanted to commit to the larger project we had in mind.
Shortly after, the community volunteer project was officially launched, and with volunteers on board, we could begin setting up the processes, training and promotion required. We also began putting together lists of estates which we wanted the volunteer inspectors to visit.
Training, as ever, was vital in ensuring that residents knew what they were looking for and what we expected of them. It was conducted one-to-one ensuring any questions or concerns could be managed and responded to properly. We also went on a practice visit first, before the team began inspecting properties and estates for themselves.
The community volunteer project has now been up and running for over twelve months. In this time residents have inspected and reported on 51 schemes across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. The volunteers have been instrumental in helping us to identify areas where litter, graffiti and fly-tipping are recurring problems. The team's feedback has also influenced how we deliver estate improvements and made us more accountable when it comes to delivering a customer focused service.
The team grade the schemes from A to D and, so far, 56% of schemes inspected have received an A grade, 41% of schemes a B grade whilst only 3% of schemes have received a C grade.
The programme has seen a number of changes and developments since its inception, including the introduction of CRB checks for residents taking part and a league table of schemes. We are also rolling out training to allow the team to inspect paintwork and void properties. A full void inspection programme is expected in the near future once scoping and preliminary work has been carried out.
The initiative overall has proved really popular amongst residents both on the team and in the local community. The number of high grades we have been given has reinforced our belief that Derwent Living is doing well in terms of listening to customers and service delivery. It's great to be able to see our services through the eyes of our customers and we hope that the feedback we receive will continue to be positive.
Sue Williams, is a resident involvement officer at Derwent Living
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