Primary
Projects
Below
are details of some of the work that we have undertaken for housing
associations and local authorities. If you'd like to
discuss a little more detail please get in touch. Client confidentiality
will always be observed and details of particular clients will only
be disclosed with the client's permission.
If you would like to talk to our clients about our performance we will be happy to arrange an introduction.
Click on a work description, or scroll down, to see further details:
Transfer
of Engagements
Stock Condition Survey and
Financial Planning
Performance Validation
Management Review
Service Level Agreements
Interim Management
Company Secretarial and Lead
Consultant
Best Value and service
review
Resident Involvement
Charitable Status adoption
Equal Opportunities
Surveys
- Undertaken Transfer of Engagements acting on behalf of the transferor association, working to the Chairman and Board.
- Arranged consideration of cultural fit, terms of transfer and establishment of a transfer group to oversee the first year of operation following transfer.
- Staff and resident consultation.
- Dealing with TUPE issues, maintaining liaison with staff.
- Overseeing arrangements for Special General Meetings.
- Undertaking due diligence enquiries for the transferor association and coordinating responses to the transferring association's due diligence enquiries.
- Liaison with the Housing Corporation and FSA
Stock Condition Survey and Financial Planning
- Partnering with a national construction consultancy undertaking research into the requirements of the Decent Homes Standards and how stock surveys can be utilised to gather information for this and other emerging standards (eg the new Housing Health and Safety Rating System).
- Specification of a stock condition survey having particular regard to the Decent Homes Standard and the need to identify anticipated expenditure over a 25 year period. Using the results to provide a full financial projection and assessing the effects of various scenarios on cash flow.
- Undertaking due diligence of the hard and soft aspects of facilities management included within comprehensive PFI bids on behalf of funders at the ITCD stage of negotiated tendering arrangements.
- Work with HouseMark undertaking External Validation of Performance Indicators at a number of housing associations.
- Work with a local authority validating BVPIs as it prepared for CPA Block Service Assessments.
- Work for an association analysing the reliability of information provided by its repairs and maintenance service provider to give assurance that the data was robust and making recommendations where issues were identified.
- Work with a housing association board as it undertook a review of its management arrangements through services provided by an external management agent, including service specification, tendering for a new managing agent, tender evaluation, appointment of a new managing agent and post implementation review to assess the success of the project.
- A review of arrears procedures for a unitary authority making recommendations based on best practice and a bespoke survey of high performing organisations.
- Contract procurement following the EU procurement requirements.
- An evaluation of contract standing orders, their suitability to meet regulatory requirements and compliance with best practice. Identifying a number of issues and making practical recommendations to address these based on a series of prioritised lists to form an action plan.
- A thorough examination of void management procedures for a local authority operating a choice based lettings scheme. Reviewing the allocations, repairs and housing management aspects of the process, in addition to the inter-relationship with the CBL service provider. Identifying areas for improvement to reduce void periods and maximise rental income during the end to end void process; developing an action plan and assisting with its implementation, including redrafting interlinked procedures.
- A review of sewage treatment plant for an association establishing compliance with discharge consents, developing a comprehensive maintenance schedule in readiness for tendering the maintenance contract.
- SLAs for use by associations and businesses operating in a group structure, covering:
- A Generic Agreement
- Responsive Repairs
- Planned Maintenance
- Fossil Fuel Appliance Servicing
- Cleaning and Caretaking
- Grounds Maintenance
- Interim Manager leading the Strategic Services team for a significant housing association operating in the south as it prepared to form a group structure with other existing associations.
- Managing staff delivering the following functions:
- Continuous improvement
- Public relations and marketing
- Sustainability and innovation
- Research
- Bespoke project work
- Producing a marketing strategy for a development consortium comprising eight associations.
- Leading the workstream, and developing and implementing an action plan, for the PR and media strategies for the new group, including developing the new corporate housestyle, promotional material and website.
- Facilitating a meeting with HR Managers from the new group members to formulate a new PR departmental structure to meet the new organisation's needs.
- Lead on the implementation of corporate project planning software that interlinked the Corporate Plan to departmental work programmes down to individual responsibilities.
- Review of the Corporate Plan and reporting to Board on progress.
- Structural review of resident involvement processes.
- Production of an innovative format of annual report.
Company Secretarial and Lead Consultant
- Full range of secretarial services to a rural housing association for which we act as Company Secretary.
- Lead consultant of three providing the full range of services to the association.
- Contract negotiation and management.
- Undertaking and coordinating all policies and development of a review programme.
- The development of an electronic version of the policies with hyperlinks for easy reference to be issued to Board members and support agencies.
- Communications Review - Critical Friend for two organisations.
- Resident Involvement - Critical Friend.
- Undertaking an assessment of a local authority's Housing Strategy in preparation for its CPA.
- A comprehensive survey of a housing association's Support Service's professional stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and development.
- A survey of tenants who had recently moved into sheltered housing to assess how the process of moving home could be improved.
- Design, delivery and reporting on a tenants' focus group that obtained frank and constructive feedback to inform policy and service development.
- Analysis of the cost of resident involvement and community investments across a group of associations, managing the interpretation of the terms and forming recommendations to improve uniformity.
- A review of resident involvement mechanisms within an association to streamline the process and remove elements that were repetitive and obstructed the timely implementation of new initiatives.
- A survey for a housing association considering charitable status.
- Arrangements for the adoption of new rules at a Special General Meeting.
- Liaising with Board, Housing Corporation and lawyers as necessary.
- Review of compliance with the Race Equality Code of Practice for Housing Associations for two organisations.
- Reviewing an organisation’s position against KLOEs for ‘Access and Customer Care’ and ‘Diversity’, developing a comprehensive action plan to enable the organisation to become one delivering an ‘excellent service’ in line with the KLOE definitions. Working with Board members, residents and staff in the implementation.
- A detailed survey for a private land owner to establish the need for, and mix of, housing required to meet the needs of employees working in the district.
- A resident satisfaction survey based on STATUS methodology, achieving an 84% response rate.
- Professional stakeholders survey to inform service review.
- Tenant survey for an association preparing to become charitable, achieving an 83% return.
- Board member survey to establish satisfaction with services and opportunities for improvement.
Primary Business Support
Tel. 01264 324403