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With the crisp fresh air of autumn comes a new season, turning leaves, and change for Camden Housing and Repairs services...
This month, we have launched the Housemark social housing tenant satisfaction survey and carried out an initial analysis of proposed changes to the Allocation scheme. Services have also come together to initiate a DVA points panel and DVA homelessness working group.
Work continues to review our learning and development offer across Housing, and assess gaps and much anticipated improvements to IT systems.
We also hosted a vision-building workshop and the first of our Housing and Repairs bite-size briefings, where Glendine shared her vision for Housing and answered topical questions from the audience. You can watch the recording here.
Showcasing a range of transformation work, we will be holding a Housing and Repairs Open Day 15 November at the Crowndale Centre. Housing and Repairs colleagues, please sign up for this exciting event by following the link below.
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Against the backdrop of the Social Housing (Regulations) Act 2023 and the new regulatory framework around fire and building safety, we have developed a dedicated Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) project in the Repairs team.
Six team members are working within this project, responsible for undertaking specific actions generated from the Fire Risk Assessment and carrying out regular inspections to ensure properties are compliant with standards.
Putting fire safety at the forefront of our agenda, this project and it's team members are everyday improving the safety of buildings to protect residents. The currently area of priority is fire safety work needed in communal areas, stairways, and security grilles on properties.
James Kelly, the FRA Project Manager shared that one of "the biggest challenges faced by the team delivering the FRA Project is around access for works or refusal of works by residents." Despite challenges, this quarter alone the team have successfully undertaken 1638 smoke alarm checks and around a third of annual front entrance door checks in the last three months.
Although Camden has this dedicated project team, it’s useful to remind ourselves that everybody has a part to play in fire safety.
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As the statistics to the left show and many will have no doubt have seen in the media, the housing crisis in London is leading to more and more families and single people who are homeless being placed in temporary accommodation.
Julie Newsam, Housing Placements Service Manager, says that “this is the worst I’ve seen it. We’ve always had increases in homelessness approaches, but we’ve always had temporary accommodation to accommodate them. There has been a steady increase in approaches over the last two years, but the key point here is that there is a lack of temporary accommodation across all forms of temporary accommodation that we use; placing an enormous pressure on officers as they have to manage the expectations our residents and try to find temporary accommodation in Camden or as close to Camden as possible....”
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 The message below was received from Clenton Farquharson who had been travelling back to Euston after a meeting when his wheelchair got caught in a pothole, tipped over, and the front wheel broke. He wanted to pass on a huge thank you to the three colleagues in the Neighbourhoods team who ran out and spent 40 minutes helping to get the wheel fixed and Clenton back on his chair.
"I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for Michael, Jackson and Douglas incredible act of kindness and assistance on the 26th September..."
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Given the changing and often challenging landscape housing services are faced with, what do you think the role of a Neighbourhood Housing Officer should be?
To provide your response to Maria's question, please add a comment on the Essentials page.
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In the style of magazine advice columnists, this is a space to pose a challenge, an idea, or question relating to Housing and Repairs.
Last month, Darren Smith, Repairs Manager, posted a question about how to attract more people into skilled trade employment. The following responses were received:
"I think we should target the borough's secondary schools and recruit school leavers to apprenticeships straight from School. It is easy for school leavers to become lost and spiral into unemployment once they leave school. Not every young person has the confidence or knows how to engage with Kings Cross construction. Directly working with schools means we can engage them through their teachers. Recruiting local children through schools could be a win win." - Tara Cookson
"Have we ever considered joining up with local colleges where they have trade courses, and giving the students a chance to work alongside Camden employed tradesmen/women?" - Bee Sherif
To submit a question to 'Dear Housing and Repairs' click below.
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Continuing our journey to put residents at the heart of what we do.
We’ve come so far in recent years, giving more residents a platform where they can be truly heard, making it easier for residents to reach out to us, and bringing resident voices into the heart of the decisions we make about our services.
Our Housing Repairs Contact Centre is a shining example of all the different ways residents want to interact with us, and our frontline repairs operatives continue to prove again and again their unimpeachable dedication to delivering the best possible service for our residents.
This is just the start though. We are embarking on a great opportunity to build on this success across the whole of Housing and Repairs.
Please get involved in this transformation journey, share your thoughts, and contribute your ideas. Together we can deliver amazing things and truly improve our residents’ lives.
- Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management
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Get in contact to receive an invite to our briefings, sharing updates and insights across services.
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There are a few spaces remaining for our Open Day on 15 Nov at the Crowndale Centre. Sign up below!
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A whole host of community events running until December. Click below for more information.
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 New Essential page
To keep up to date with the Transformation work, please follow the Essentials page.
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 Open Day volunteers
If you are interested in volunteering at our open day, register your interest below.
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 Submit a story
If you have a story or project to be featured in our newsletter get in touch to submit one.
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