The Council’s Strategic
Director for My Place (MP), Assistant Construction Director (ACD)
for Be First and Head of Major Works (MW) at BDTP presented a
general progress update regarding working with residents affected
by capital works, based on feedback previously received from the
Committee at its 2 December 2020 meeting (minute 30 refers). Report
authors had acknowledged this feedback and reviewed how the
Council’s stock investment programme was delivered and how
customer satisfaction data was collected and assessed, to ensure
that a proper improvement programme was in place.
The Council’s One Borough
Voice system was to be employed to ensure that customer
satisfaction data was collected and assessed via the Council, and
not through contracted companies. The teams were also working with
residents and contractors to understand any concerns that they may
have had around Covid-19 and putting in means to alleviate these,
such as through using the same operatives to deliver all works in
any particular property. When sub-contractors were appointed, their
experience of working during the Covid-19 pandemic was now also
essential, to ensure that they understood all precautions
needed.
Updates were also provided on
the work and projects undertaken, and it was noted that whilst good
progress had been made in relation to work undertaken by the teams,
Covid-19 had impacted on the ability to deliver all works
envisioned.
In response to questions from
Members, the MP stated that:
- My Place needed to
take more ownership and responsibility for managing customer
satisfaction, as this was a major priority for the service. The new
digital customer satisfaction surveys would be better way of
achieving this, instead of relying on the contractor to collect
this data. Through the new digital surveys, residents who had work
completed on their properties would likely feel more able to
provide honest feedback, rather than under pressure to provide good
feedback to the contractors who undertook the work.
- My Place would aim to
receive an 85 percent satisfaction rate for works completed, which
was a good rate to receive when looking across the board at other
local authorities and areas. Once an 85 percent satisfaction rate
was achieved, the service would aim to get higher percentage
scores.
- The Council had a
very large spending power and this came
with a lot of scrutiny to ensure that procurement was undertaken
properly. With every contract procured, My Place had to undertake
extensive checks on aspects such as an organisation’s
insurance, liability and working practices, and could not just
employ any company to undertake their works.
- Where costs were
high, My Place scrutinised these. The MP also regularly spoke to
the Council’s Head of Property Management to discuss how the
Council could achieve greater value for money from these contracts,
such as through social value through contracts that would generate
apprenticeships and more jobs for local
residents. The Council also looked for good quality work at
industry-standard prices, employing extensive checks and scrutiny.
Regardless of which organisation the Council used, there would
always be an industry-standard payment, a mechanism for paying, and
a separate cost for each known as a ‘schedule of rates’
to be paid in each instance. The scale of works procured by the
Council, and the amount of work it had that could fluctuate up and
down by trade, meant that there was always going to be an element
of risk and that whilst some areas were high cost, the Council was
able to get better costs for others.
The Committee recommended that
residents also receive the opportunity to provide feedback in the
three to four weeks following works undertaken to their properties
through the new digital surveys, as opposed to this coming through
Councillor casework. This would ensure that customer feedback was
better understood by the services, who could then more quickly
respond to these residents. The Committee also emphasised the need
for residents to be able to provide any feedback via paper
questionnaire if they wished, as not all residents had access to
the Internet.