Social Housing providers adopt Covalent to respond to TSA and Short Notice Inspection regimes

Published by Covalent_Software for Covalent Software in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

A rapidly growing number of Social Housing provider organisations are turning to Covalent to help them respond to the challenges posed by the new performance framework from the Tenant Services Authority, which came into full force in April. Improved standards of service delivery, effective tenant involvement and empowerment, the delivery of decent homes and neighbourhoods and evidence that organisations are being well run and delivering value for money are essential.

Similarly, the prospect of being subject to a Short Notice Inspection by the Audit Commission means that more than ever, all RSLs, ALMOs and Local Authority Housing providers need to ensure they foster a culture of strong corporate performance. There is now a need to be "ever ready", to ensure that when the phone call comes, they have their performance “house in order”. Inspectors will be looking for numerous things, including evidence that organisations are making the best use of resources, evidence of consultation before decisions and involvement, proof of listening and acting and proof of tackling tough issues, evidence of value for money and of resident involvement - with evidence of impact and influence and of who they are securing feedback from.

Some 45 Social Housing providers are now using Covalent to address the TSA framework and Short Notice Inspection regime (2009 saw 16 new RSL and ALMO customers for Covalent, with several more signing up in early 2010). Covalent is the most functionally rich performance management solution available in the sector, covering not just KPI monitoring, tracking of action/improvement plans, management of corporate risks, self assessment and inspection management against TSA standards, offers and KLOEs, but also uniquely encompassing tenant feedback and consultation event management.

The key to successful performance against the TSA framework and a positive outcome to a Short Notice Inspection is the ability to have a single integrated view of all these performance elements, with linkages between them, offering a holistic view of performance across the organisation. One constant challenge is that posed by having the various information and data relating to corporate performance in separate systems, whether it be Excel, Word or BI or departmental systems (and maybe even good old
fashioned paper files!) These systems are inevitably not linked together, resulting in difficulties in the effective management of performance and an inability to obtain a total picture with drill down to relevant supporting information.

As a 2009 survey by Tribal Consulting found, only 44% of Social Housing providers said that they can get an integrated view of performance combining PIs, actions and risks, with just 16% saying they had any sort of integrated system for doing so. Customer feedback and consultations tend to be handled elsewhere, exacerbating the problem.

Nick White, Director of Finance and Corporate Services for Colchester Borough Homes, explained its decision to adopt Covalent: “With the Tenant Services Authority and Short Notice Inspections, it is more important than ever that we can bring together our action planning, KPIs, and customer feedback into one system across the company.”

Jon Theobald of Paradigm Homes echoed this in saying, “The attraction of Covalent is the underlying integration of the modules. This allows us to gain a much better perspective of the performance of the whole organisation. Through better management of our self-assessment, action plans, risks and PIs, Covalent is an ideal tool to utilise in our pursuit of excellence.”

High Peak Community Housing added, "The aim was to have a transparent system to assist service managers in seeing exactly how their business areas were performing and delivering, with all that  information being fed into a strategic view for Board. Covalent addressed these issues and gave the added bonus of being able to link all actions and performance indicators to a self-assessment  framework against the Key Lines of Enquiry. I would definitely recommend Covalent to other potential users. The ability to link all performance measures, actions and risks is an amazing business monitoring tool and it is simple to use and very 'easy on the eye."

"Johnnie" Johnson Housing Trust commented, "Covalent’s functionality has benefited the Trust considerably. For example, by linking related actions to organisational objectives further embedding our ‘Golden Thread’ approach to ensure strategic alignment of everything we do to ensure better outcomes for our residents and customers. Overall, the software has improved the quality, robustness and accuracy of our performance data. It is effectively a one-stop-shop for all elements of performance, risk and project management."

For more information on how Covalent can help you respond to the TSA framework and ready your organisation for Short Notice Inspections, please click here.