tonysmiththathousingitguy @HousingITguy

Some thoughts on IT and UK SocialHousing from a unique perspective of over 27+ years working with over 140 RSL's, Councils and social landlord groups in the UK, Ireland & Australia. (c) No reproduction without prior/express permission Available for independent housing RSL implementation, procurement of HMS, Repairs, CRM, EDM, DLO, Financial, Scheduling systems, critical friend etc. In Scotland I work with the folks at Arneil Johnston Check us out on Soundcloud /housingitguy

Thursday, 23 February 2023

One of the Repair Girls

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

It was inspirational last week to read about how Golding Homes have helped diversify their repairs and maintenance team by achieving 23% female representation.

To put this in perspective, social housing staff comprise over 57% females. Overly male representation is common for me to see in teams for assets and maintenance, as it is in the ICT and systems team, I have written previously about this phenomena, which hasn't really improved in many areas.

In a previous life on the supplier dark side, I worked with two excellent female development managers, overseeing twenty-odd developers, as well as in other sectors having some brilliant lady bosses myself in ICT. Closing the door to about half of the labour force can only hold us back, its not just a diversity tick box approach we need.

The Chief Executive at Golding is Stephanie Goad. While females at the top are more often than not the norm these days, the same cannot be generally said in R&M. Why exactly is that then? Well, I would point to the common practice of promoting operatives ‘good on the tools, electricians, plumbers etc’, up to management. With less than 2% of those on the tools being women, you can see the source of the problem. A report was put together (and forwarded by Alison Inman) by Mears back in 2017, that examined why we see that pathetic 2%. Its fair to say that across the whole sector, 13% or so of staff in construction are estimated to be female. Many of these are in project management and design roles, as well as admin.

There are excellent business cases for levelling that up, as many Social Housing managers agree. CEO's clearly would need to drive this from the very top. Tenants who may feel vulnerable with tradesmen due to factors such as prior domestic abuse, or for religious reasons would certainly I'm sure welcome a gas service from a female operative. Why shouldn't our staff properly reflect the demographic of our tenants? Progress is slow, so what are the barriers to females getting on the tools and improving gender balance from bottom up?

A lesser-spotted female trades-person on the tools

Some job stereotyping is still occurring in families, secondary school, college and apprenticeship education, often pushing girls to more admin based than practical and technical vocations. Budget cuts do not help, nor does the current qualification system. Equal pay and equivalent access to promotion/career path is also important. Good support and mentoring is key, as is the development of strong role models for support.

While the traditional path to management clearly needs some attention, as mentioned in the article, Golding Homes have clearly worked to bring in managers from various sources, enriching the team with new skills. These include empathy, soft and customer service skills, which will be as essential as ‘wet trades’, in dealing with the current recent focus on mould and damp.

I have seen this approach myself work well and I have worked on some excellent projects with some housing, but out of R&M sector, female managers, who have absolutely transformed/turned around Asset Management and Repairs teams. Respect from staff they were managing, always was high and generally those managers were very detailed in their approach.

Another pathway I have seen in many projects, is the where female asset & R&M admin staff can be encouraged to train, take external courses and migrate into roles around survey, servicing, asbestos, compliance and data analysis. This can create a new positive dynamic within the team, if a genuine atmosphere of mentoring and support can be provided. These staff can then be positive role models to others joining the organisation.

For sure Golding Homes are a great example to the sector, credit deserved. But there is much to do and even if many of the principles and ideas I have covered here are faithfully executed, I still feel we are decades away from a more gender balanced workforce. With overall a better balance across the whole workforce, we stand a better chance of improving service, hence image and actually addressing more tenant repair issues, correctly first time.

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with data issues,

please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over some lemon drizzle Cake & a brew ☕😋.

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Otha - One of the Girls.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

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Wednesday, 8 February 2023

It’s a fixer-upper...

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

We are all aware of one or two in our neighborhoods I am sure, yes the ‘Fixer-Upper’. Generally a property (or anything else like an ICT system) bought on the cheap purchased with full knowledge that a lot of work, substantial additional time and cash investment would be needed.

That’s all very well with buyers going into that situation with eyes wide open, however what of new renters moving in to a let, then discovering its more a ‘Fixer-Upper’ than a property hitting the landlords ‘Letting standard’ ?

Classic issues in a Fixer-Upper are often damp, roofing and window issues, what might be more commonly referred to in social housing, as Capital Works. Small patches of damp are often caused by plumbing or roofing/draining issues. Typically tenants may report these issue instances via self-service or a call into an RSL contact service centre.

As we know, Westminster Housing & Communities dept, quite rightly are all over this issue at the moment, as can be seen by the initial report findings.

Top level observations were:

• Landlords relied more heavily on reactive approaches to identifying problems than proactively looking for evidence of damp and mould through surveys of their homes
• had less data or refreshed their data less frequently
• had weaker evidence about their assurance, oversight and understanding of the condition of homes

So how can landlords better use existing or newer Housing Management System solutions, to tackle the above directly?

Well, firstly an emphasis on how complaints and responsive repair requests are diagnosed and progressed. Where damp and mould issues come in as complaints, they should also be logged as a repair request. This is the envelope that can generally encompass pre-inspections, remedy work, post-inspection and follow-up surveys etc. Scripting (the likes of Keyfax, RepairFinder, ActiveHousing etc), can be enhanced around damp and mould, in order to capture additional information. This might include more precise locations in the property for example. IE not just ‘Rear Bedroom’, but in addition precise place(s), eg ‘ceiling next to back wall’, ‘To left of single glazed window’ etc.

Also, capturing extent and images if we can, is important. Tenants should be asked in plain language to determine what size the area is, if they are unable to measure. EG ‘a patch the size of a hand, full length of a wall’ etc.

Where pre-inspections are necessary, these can be specially prioritised and kept within the computer recorded Request. It is likely that an initial inspection will result in work on roof, guttering, plumbing, or other ‘Wet Trades’. I have worked with clients in some of the wettest parts of the UK (yes, wetter even than Manchester!) and generally I have experienced ‘Wet Trade’ operatives to be in short supply, particularly in colder/wetter months.

This can lead to work being deferred or perhaps parked until capital/planned programmes are due, later in the year. To safeguard the chance of the issue not being picked up by these later works, the Request should be kept open. Closing the request in this instance, has not solved the tenants issue, and artificially reports as a successful outcome at the RSL. This is a major danger, particularly if that programmed work on that block/scheme, never takes place or budget is reallocated.

Few asset stock condition surveys that I regularly see in use, actually ask questions specifically around damp & mold. These need to be incorporated if your asset management team have not already done so, in order to direct the surveyors right to it.

Where repeat Requests and customer contact occurs on damp/mould, these point to underlying resident issues not being solved. From the landlords viewpoint, this will no doubt cost more later in damage to the asset. From the tenant viewpoint, service is poor and their health could be placed in danger.

Data, having lots of it current and accurate around condition, is the key to closing out these issues properly and reporting coherently. You would expect by now, the sector was making good use of IOT to monitor properties and heating/ventilation efficiency. We still seem slow to put the Internet Of Things to much use unfortunately. This could be a source of great data. Perhaps a whole future blog there on pioneers doing significant rollouts in 2023.

Recent articles I have read cite ‘Tenant Life style’ as a sometime source of damp and mold issues. While lack of outdoor drying areas, heating/washing habits, occupier behaviours etc, can contribute to these issues, I doubt very much that religious practices and ablutions, rather than poor/expensive heating and noisy/insufficient ventilation, is to blame in many cases.

While we have improved central heating, insulated and double-glazed, we have reduced the amount of default ventilation in our homes too. Some additional communication can be really helpful as regards drying areas, opening windows etc, to tackle those aspects. Residents experiencing challenges in keeping homes sufficiently warm, may also benefit from advice via tenancy sustainment teams. For sure, we are all seeing increased fuel bills, with no early prospect of things normalizing soon. Noting that these types of discussions have taken place in our systems, will be helpful later in better targeting help, with potential reducing budgets.

Our systems can help landlords tackle damp and mould issues from a number of angles. Better the Ukhousing sector starts getting a grip on these issues, way before the regulator, ambulance chasers or God forbid, the coroner comes calling. As ever, remember even the best processes, technology and solutions, requires a good organisation culture too, driven best from the very top.

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with data issues,

please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over some lemon drizzle Cake & a brew ☕😋.

Catch the blog monthly archive at
https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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Its a fixer upper – Yard Act.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here