Resident standards:

We will have a service that is shaped by our residents, for our residents.

Our priority this year:

Create an excellent customer service culture throughout ccha and design a new customer service delivery model.
Deliver an effective repairs service which meets resident expectations.

of residents were satisfied with the services they received (target 74%).

Getting you involved

Last year we adopted the Together with Tenants charter which aims to strengthen the relationship between residents and housing organisations. It includes the commitments outlined below. We are really pleased to see an increase in the number of residents who want to help us improve our services. We hope that the work we do with them leads to a higher standard of service for all our residents.

Commitments	What we have done
Relationships: The housing association will treat all residents with respect in all of their interactions. Relationships between residents and the housing association will be based on openness, honesty and transparency.	We have been living our CARE values and ensuring we recruit those with the same values. We publish performance information on our website each quarter and in publications like these to ensure transparency. We know that 78% of residents are satisfied that we treat them fairly and with respect.
Communication: Residents will receive clear, accessible and timely information from their housing association on the issues that matter to them, including important information about their homes and local community, how the organisation is working to address problems, how the organisation is run, and information about performance on key issues.	Our service level agreements and quarterly statistics for how we are doing are shared on our website. We have a bi-annual newsletter that goes out to all residents and have been working with them on what they want to see in it. A focus for this has been around what is going on in our communities, staff updates and information about your home. We regularly post to our social media accounts and on our website with updates, information and resources for residents. This includes providing regular Money Matters articles, focusing on key areas which are affecting residents around their income or benefits. This year we created dedicated pages on our website for the Tenant Satisfaction Measures and updated our complaints page to include performance information. We shared planned and cyclical works for 2023-24 with staff to ensure accurate information is passed to residents. We also shared information on window cleaning dates on our website for residents to see. We know that 74% of residents are satisfied that we keep them informed.
Voice and influence: the housing association will seek and value the views of residents, and will use this information to inform decisions. Every individual resident will feel listened to by their housing association on the issues that matter to them and can speak without fear.	We have reached out to residents to consult on our anti-social behaviour policy and repairs service, reviewing the feedback before publishing or making changes. Our resident panel has opportunities to give feedback on our service through mystery shopping, surveys or workshops. Our partners, Acuity, complete our satisfaction surveys over the phone, giving residents a chance to voice their thoughts on our services. We have been out door knocking some of our residents’ homes to make sure we capture feedback from those who don’t use email, and have that important face-to-face interaction. We have increased our presence on site through estate action days, open events and coffee mornings, giving residents more opportunities to speak with us and voice their thoughts. We know that 61% of residents are satisfied that we listen to their views and act on them.
Accountability: Collectively, residents will work in partnership with their housing association to independently scrutinise and hold their housing association to account for the decisions that affect the quality of their homes and services.	We currently have 32 residents who sit on our resident panel, with around 10 active members at each session. Workshops and mystery shopping from this year have focused on repairs and communication.
Quality: Residents can expect their homes to be good quality, well maintained, safe and well managed.	We have maintained high levels of compliance, which you can read about here.
When things go wrong: Residents will have simple and accessible routes for raising issues, making complaints and seeking redress. Residents will receive timely advice and support when things go wrong.	With changes to the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, we have completed our self-assessment against it, updated our policy and procedure to align with it and updated our complaints page on our website. Residents can make complaints over the phone, in writing, by email, on our website or in person. We know that 35% of residents are satisfied with how we handle their complaints and we are working to improve this.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: The housing association will be an inclusive organisation which seeks views from all groups. Approaches to resident involvement will be inclusive by engaging with residents from a range of backgrounds and experiences. Consultations with residents will include outreach to underrepresented communities, including through targeted communications.	We began to collect data as part of the Customer Needs Review so we can tailor our services to our residents. This will also help us ensure that our staff and Board are representative of our residents. We will be looking at this data over the next year or so to see how to better serve our residents and their needs.

“I wanted to pass on my thanks and to compliment Glenda and Donna on their professional, understanding, warm and empathetic dealings with my friend. They really listened, explained everything clearly and treated her like an individual.”

ccha resident

More time out and about

We know how important face-to-face interactions can be, so this year we have increased our presence in communities through various days out.

Our Neighbourhood Service Team held seven estate action days, with other teams and alongside our contractors Axis, Chequers and Predator. These events gave us an ideal opportunity to meet residents, answer queries and pick up any outstanding issues.

They also gave us a better understanding of what we can do in the longer term to improve where you live. We look forward to increasing our visits next year, with 16 already planned in for 2024/25.

Our Housing Services Team set up coffee mornings at some of our older persons properties providing a space to meet staff, hear from external agencies about important issues and give them an opportunity to raise any queries. More than 67 residents took part in these events, giving feedback and suggestions for future coffee mornings or events.

Estate inspections are carried out monthly, and we have reviewed our inspection forms to be more comprehensive so that we can ensure our housing teams capture better information during estate visits. They have also been looking at what improvements can be made to homes and have promoted the President’s Fund which helps to fund community projects.

Members of our Board have also been getting out and about to visit residents as part of the Leadership estate tours. They try to go out regularly throughout the year to see for themselves what is going on, speak to residents and identify what longer term improvements can be made.

"I think it’s brilliant that ccha are doing visits. It really does mean the care is there, especially with people like yourself from the Customer Service and Investment team.”

ccha resident

Understanding your needs

As a key part of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, we have been working on collecting more information about our residents to fully understand what your needs are.

This information helps us:

Have up to date information about you and your family
Understand your communication requirements and preferences
Tailor services to meet your individual needs
Monitor services and ensure you receive a fair and equal service
Recruit staff who are representative of our residents
Identify prejudice-related incidents and practices and ensure they are dealt with effectively

We have started to collect this information, with around 20% of you completing forms so far. We will be analysing the data towards the end of 2024-25 to see how we can improve and tailor our services.

“Just want to say thank you to Vincent for your effort at the time of my crisis. You kept your word and ensured Smith and Byford attended our home at night. You and Romy are great!”

ccha resident

Leading on customer service delivery

This year, we have invested in our Customer Service Team, bringing in three new roles from August 2023 to help you get a better service when you call or email us. These people will be your first point of contact, trained to handle your enquiries, whether this is through finding the information and getting back to you or directing you to the right person.

of residents found it easy to contact us (target 80%).

of residents were satisfied that we keep them informed (target 82%).

of residents were satisfied with how we handled their query (target 80%).

of residents were satisfied with the final outcome of their query (target 75%).

The team has also been producing monthly reports for other teams, calling back residents whose calls we have missed, and rigorously monitoring our customer service standards to ensure we are responding to you in the correct timeframes. We are working with the IT team to get accurate results for the other standards.

Customer service standards	Target	2023/24
To acknowledge residents’ phone calls by calling back within two working days.	95%	89%
Resident feedback – ccha is easy to deal with	73%	68%
Resident feedback – ccha treats residents fairly and with respect	83%	78%

Having your say about your repairs service

59% of residents were overall satisfied with the repairs service (target 75%).

66% of residents were satisfied with repairs completed in the last 12 months (target 80%).

Your feedback is essential in helping us shape our service and we know that repairs is an area you need us to improve on. From this, we have reshaped our Property Services Team to give you a better service. Compliance and responsive repairs were split into two roles, allowing them to dedicate more time to those important areas.

Through this focus, we successfully reduced overdue repairs and maintained this throughout the year with regular monitoring.

We also consulted with residents on our repairs service. In November 2023, we surveyed 273 residents who had repairs in the last 12 months. From this, 61% were satisfied with the overall service, with 71% satisfied with the worker’s performance but only 57% were satisfied with how they were kept informed. We also held workshops to hear your thoughts on the service, which saw us meeting 14 residents in a workshop and a further six surveys completed.

The main feedback we received was around outstanding or forgotten repairs, the timescale to complete the repairs, communication, and quality of the work. We will be considering all your comments when planning our repairs service delivery from April 2025.

of residents were satisfied with the time taken to complete their last repair (target 76%).

of emergency repairs were carried out within target time (24 hours).

of non-emergency repairs were completed within target time (28 days).

“I had three workers in my home today from Axis. They were all very professional, extremely helpful and all did perfect jobs. Thank you!”

ccha resident

Tackling damp and mould

Identifying damp and mould issues in our resident’s homes and tackling it head on has been a focus for us this year. Staff were trained to make #EveryVisitCount, whether this be a home visit, a contractor doing a repair, a resident calling for a different issue or emailing with a mention of damp or mould related issues.

Acuity, who do our satisfaction survey calls, will also flag if a resident mentions damp or mould, and will send this information to our Property Services Team to action.

We have been encouraging residents to report it and have provided tips on how to prevent damp and mould through the Healthy Homes Campaign, led by PlaceShapers.

We have a strict process in place which means we don’t close a case of damp or mould until we know it has been fully resolved. Six-month checks are done to ensure it hasn’t returned, and we continue these until the problem is sorted.

Looking to the future

Our aim is to improve the energy efficiency of our homes by getting all of our properties to a rating of EPC C or above. This year, 90.2% of our homes have reached this rating. We did this by:

Installing PV panels – 31 properties had PV panels installed this year.
Installing new boilers when needed, ensuring they are more efficient – 29 boilers were replaced this year.
Replacing or repairing items in homes with more sustainable materials or to ensure longevity.
Working with consultants to ensure our data is accurate and up to date.
Using Asprey software to ensure better management of stock.

We are now working towards our target of 95% of stock being EPC C or above by March 2025.

Our five-year and 30-year asset management programme is now set, detailing how many kitchens and bathrooms we will replace. This works alongside our seven-year cyclical programme, which details how many internal or external communal decorations we will do, as well as improving/clearing guttering at the same time to ensure cost efficiency. These may change, depending on demand and our stock condition reports but this has helped us understand our upcoming spend better.

Year 1 of the cyclical programme is now complete, and we are on track for next year.