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Cabinet
Wednesday, 3rd September, 2003

APPENDIX 1

Report to Directors Group

Date

July 2003

Reporting Area

Housing & Supported Living

Lead Director

Jane Ashman

SCOPE OF REPORTING AREA:

Housing & Supported Living encompasses Housing Services; the Council's strategic housing role; the Supporting People Programme; and provision of residential care and extra care housing for older people.

The work of Housing Services includes area renewal, private sector housing grants and enforcement, home energy efficiency, bringing empty properties back into use, homelessness, housing advice and the Homeseekers register. The strategic housing role includes enabling the development of affordable housing for rent and shared ownership and leading the development of the Council's Housing Strategy. The Council's registered residential care homes for older people are now managed alongside St Johns Court sheltered and extra care housing scheme, provision of care at The Orchard (an extra care housing scheme) and the Community Alarms Service.

Housing is involved in cross-service working including Supporting People, the Local Strategic Partnership and Community Strategy, social inclusion, empty properties, community safety, the Local Plan and customer access.

1. PROGRESS/ISSUE REPORTING

 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Leadership

Updates on Previous report

Action plans formulated and being implemented to address key issues raised in the staff feedback survey.

  

Jane Shayler

  

Leadership

New items

Six potential RSL partners for the EPH Re-provision project have been shortlisted and tender documents have been issued. The successful RSL will manage the `extra care' elements of the new "Centres of Excellence" with care being provided by Council staff.

      

People Management

Updates on Previous report

The review of the Community Alarm Service has been completed, report due to portfolio holder in August with a decision in late August/September.

Management Structure for frontline services established and working well.

Office accommodation still requires rationalisation to bring all frontline housing staff from North Parade Buildings to Lewis House.

  

Aug 2003
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

People Management

New items

All operational housing staff received training on Making a reality of equality and Getting to grips with the Race Relations (Amendments) Act 2000.

      

Policy and Strategy

Updates on Previous report items

The backlog of voids in the Homeseekers Register has been cleared. A review of the pilot is due later in the year.

A feedback meeting has taken place with GOSW regarding the Housing Strategy for Bath & North East Somerset 2002-2011. Whilst the Strategy achieved an "above average" rating, it did not meet all the "Fit For Purpose" criteria. In fact, due to limited guidance on the way that FFP would be assessed, only one local housing authority in the Country met all the FFP criteria. The work required to achieve the criteria and a submission date for a revised Strategy have been agreed with GOSW.

The Review of Homelessness and the Homelessness Strategy document will be completed and published at the end of July 2003

The `affordable housing strategy' is on schedule, work is on-going and due for completion in Sept 2003 Discussions and investigations underway as to how Overview & Scrutiny can be involved in this policy development.

Requirement to submit a housing strategy for the Drug Action Team by the end of July, work on course

Jane Shayler

Annalise

Elliott

Ann Robins

Sept 2003

Sept 2003

April 2004

July 2003

July 2003

Policy and Strategy

New items

Social & Housing Services, Somer Housing Group and Bath & North East Somerset PCT are considering the possibility of piloting the use of a sheltered housing scheme as a central point for broader community provision for older people in the locality.

Good progress has been made to reduce the number of outstanding nominations under the Choice Based lettings Pilot. The policy is now being reviewed and the system refined to simplify processes.

Discussions about resourcing this pilot are still to take place.

Jane Shayler

  
 

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Resources

Updates on Previous report items

The increase in the Supporting People administration grant has been used to resource monthly payment runs to providers and individual financial assessments.

Following the withdrawal for the Local Authority Social Housing Grant at the end of March 2003, transitional funding arrangements have been introduced by the ODPM. Bath & North East Somerset has not yet been advised of the funding allocated to the authority under the transitional arrangements.

    

Resources

New items

The Housing Corporation has awarded Bath & North East Somerset £2.4m Social Housing Grant for 2003/04. This is an increase of £0.5m on last year's allocation.

This year's target of £3.3m spent on affordable housing has been achieved. Seventy eight units of accommodation were completed on time, the remaining 22 were underway by March and are now completed. This brings the total to 369 since the stock transfer in 1999.

      

Process

Updates on Previous report items

The Supporting People reviews are underway in accordance with the agreed timetable.

The Supporting People Best Value Action Plan review is underway, due to be finalised by end Sept 03

Inspection of the Supporting People Programme due March 2005.

  

Sept 03

March 05

Process

New Items

The consultation exercise on the Housing Renewal Policy has been completed.

The comments received were generally positive, however the response rate was disappointing

The proposed installation of Homeseekers kiosks in Bath, Keynsham and Midsomer Norton have been delayed due to problems with the computer systems.

    

Glossary: ODPM = Office Deputy Prime Minister; GOSW = Government of the South West

2. RESULTS AGAINST TARGETS

Reporting on commitments made in the Council Strategy and Performance Plan.

Summary of Performance

Performance Targets

No

%

Green

4

57%

Amber

3

43%

Red

-

  

Ref

Indicator

Top 25%

2001/02 Actual

2002/03
Actual

2003/04
Plan

2003/04
Progress to Date

Status

Comment

62

% of unfit private sector dwellings made fit or demolished as a direct result of B&NES action

4.2%

1.4%

1.7%

1.75%

0.26%

(end of May-03)

Amber

Cost of repairs, particularly to Georgian properties, can be excessive. A great deal of the stock is listed and subject to stringent rules & regulations. Thus these targets are extremely challenging for B&NES

64

Amended

Number of private sector vacant dwellings returned to occupation or demolished

N/a

10

8

8

1

(to 20/6/3)

Amber

183

NEW

Homeless households (a) average time in B&B, households with children

(b) average time in hostels, households with children

N/a

N/a

(a) 7.5 weeks

(b) 10.2

weeks

(a) 4 weeks

(b) 10

weeks

(a) 6.3 weeks

(b) 15.1

weeks

Amber

2003/04: progress to date figures may change once data is verified at the end of June

Local 8

New affordable housing units

N/a

92

78

110

154

Green

Figure for 2003/04: progress to date is the number planned, most are funded but none are complete.

Local 9

% of affordable housing on brownfield sites

N/a

84%

91%

60%

85%

Green

Figure for 2003/04: progress to date is from information available on 88 of 154 planned for 03/04.

Local 90

% of new Registered Social Landlord homes to required lifetime standards

N/a

84%

54%

50%

58%

Green

Figure for 2003/04: progress to date is from information available on 112 of 154 planned for 03/04.

Local 91

Number of new call alarms provided to elderly and vulnerable people

N/a

311

315

250

50

(up to end of May-03)

Green

  

3. Disability and Ethnicity - Reporting on Staff and Service Users

Staff

 

No of Staff

% of workforce

Target

Grade
       

Lowest

Highest

Disabled Staff

31

3%

5% (2005)

Man 1

G

Disabled Staff (DDA definition)

22

2%

5%(2005)

Man 1

G

Black and minority ethnic staff

39

3%

2.8%

(5% 2005)

Man 1

I

"Other White" minority ethnic staff

23

2%

N/A

Man 1

I

Access to Services by BME and Disabled People

We have the following information on access to services:

· 2.8% of people applying for and receiving Disabled Facilities Grants come from BME backgrounds

· 2.8% of people applying for and receiving Discretionary Grants come from BME backgrounds

· 6% of people who apply as homeless come from BME backgrounds

· 6% of people accepted for re-housing under homelessness legislation come from BME backgrounds

· 3% of people accessing the Homeseekers Register come from BME backgrounds

· 26% of people accessing the Homeseekers Register consider themselves disabled

It should be noted that the applications and acceptances of people from a BME background represents the African-Caribbean and Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) community. Despite being the largest non-white ethnic group in Bath & North East Somerset, the Chinese community is not represented. This is also a feature of Social Services access-monitoring.

In order to ensure Housing & Supported Living services are accessible to all sections of the community, we propose to monitor the following by ethnic background and disability:

· Numbers of people accessing the housing register

· Numbers of people nominated to vacant properties

· Numbers of people offered properties

· Numbers of people applying as homeless

· Numbers of people accepted as homeless

· Numbers of people applying for grants (DFG's and Discretionary)

· Numbers of people receiving grants (DFG's and Discretionary)

· Numbers of people accessing the advice service

Additionally:

· Joint actions should be identified by Social & Housing services to address the under-representation of the Chinese community across all services.

· The underlying reasons for the over-representation of African-Caribbean people in the homelessness applications and acceptances need to be examined. Targets for reducing this over-representation need to be identified.