CaH Service Improvement Plan 2022-23 to 2024-25 and Service Delivery Plan 2021-22 Outturn Report CHAP 07 06 22
Renfrewshire Council · 7 June 2022
Back to Communities and Housing Policy Board — 7 June 2022 and its agenda
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Communities and Housing Policy Board On: 7 June 2022 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Communities and Housing Services ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Communities and Housing Services - Service Improvement Plan 2022-23 to 2024/25 and Service Delivery Plan 2021-22 Outturn Report ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The attached Service Improvement Plan for Communities and Housing Services covers the three year period from April 2022 to March 2025. The plan sets out the priorities being addressed; the key tasks to be implemented; the implementation timetable; and our measures of success. The Service Improvement Plan sits beneath the Council Plan, Community Plan, Risk Management Plan and the Workforce Plan to form a suite of documents which provide the strategic direction for the service. This plan is also intended to complement the council-wide Economic Recovery Plan and Social Renewal Plan. The Service Improvement Plan is included as appendix 1 to this report. 1.2 This report also provides an overview of performance against the actions and measures set out in the Service Delivery Plan 2021/22. Service Delivery Plans were implemented for one year only and focused on what each service would delivery to support residents, businesses and communities through the pandemic and into a recovery phase. A detailed outturn report is included as appendix 2. 1.3 A mid-year progress update on the Service Improvement Plan will be submitted to the Communities and Housing Policy Board in autumn 2022. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Communities and Housing Policy Board: (i) approves the attached Service Improvement Plan for Communities and Housing Services;
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(ii) notes the progress made in delivering the Service Delivery Plan 2021/22; and (iii) agrees that mid-year progress with the Service Improvement Plan be reported to this Board in autumn 2022 ___________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 With approximately 430 members of staff, Communities and Housing Services aims to create, develop, support, protect and empower Renfrewshire’s communities. This includes managing and investing in our housing stock of approximately 12,350 properties and providing services to council tenants, alongside housing advice and support, assisting homeless people and those threatened with homelessness and ensuring people have safe and healthy places to live. 3.2 This work links closely with our community protection role safeguarding public health and protecting the environment, consumers, workers and local communities. Within these communities, we encourage people to fulfil their potential and ensure they have equal access to a range of learning and development opportunities. Community Learning and Development teams work to build this capacity in young people and other individuals, families, groups and communities.. 3.3 The Service Improvement Plan is one way in which elected members are able to scrutinise the work of Communities and Housing Services, and to consider and decide upon policy options as necessary. Refreshing service improvement plans annually allows each service to consider the context in which they operate and revise plans where appropriate. 3.4 Importantly, the Service Improvement Plan also links the Council Plan and Community Plan priorities to strategic and operational activity within the service, which supports employees to understand how their role contributes to the Council delivering on its objectives. The priority actions set out in section 6 of the attached Service Improvement Plan detail the specific actions the service will progress in order to support the Council’s immediate priorities and future direction and help deliver improved outcomes for Renfrewshire’s communities. 4. Key Achievements 2021/22 4.1 During 2021/22, key achievements of the service include: Housing Services Housing Investment & Regeneration Following the approval of the Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme by Council on 17 December 2020, an extensive period of consultation with tenants and residents on the proposals for investment in 8 housing areas was completed with the outcomes agreed at the CHAPS board in December 2021 and March 2022.
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This programme will deliver an additional investment of £100m over the next 10 years to deliver modern, high quality, energy efficient, affordable Council housing that will improve the quality and performance of tenants homes, contribute to the wider transformation of Renfrewshire as a place, and will be central to the economic and social recovery of Renfrewshire. We completed 95 newbuild homes in Johnstone Castle and a further 80 spacious family and amenity homes in Bishopton. All of our new build homes are built to excellent standards of design and energy efficiency. Work also commenced on site in spring 2021 on 39 new homes at Auchengreoch Road in Johnstone which are nearing completion, and on 101 new homes in Ferguslie Park. A comprehensive review of all statutory landlord compliance activities was completed and a new Compliance Strategy and policy were developed. Additional staff resources have been put in place to support this important area of work. Housing & Homeless Services Housing Services, Homeless Services and Housing Support staff piloted a new digital platform, “Near Me”, which enables face to face contact online, enabling enhanced form filling assistance, face to face interviews and meetings without the need for a customer to travel to an office. Within Homeless and Housing Support Services, we delivered a range of new programmes to support our clients, including - ‘Move-on’, ‘We’re Safe & Well’ and ‘WRAP’. The We’re Safe and Well project was the winner of the COSLA Excellence Award 2022 for Achieving Better Outcomes in Partnership. Our Refugee Resettlement Team continued to support the Council’s refugee resettlement programme throughout 2021/22 and over recent weeks have been intensively involved in the welcome arrangements and resettlement for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. In line with the recommendations to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board in October 2021, we distributed the full Tenants Grant Fund allocation of £214,000 across the private and social rented sectors. Following the recommendations of the Alcohol and Drugs Commission, a new wholistic service to support tenants with addiction or alcohol issues has been developed. Turning Point Scotland have been commissioned to deliver this new wraparound support service. The Tenants Information Service (TIS), which is an organisation set up to promote and inspire innovative tenant participation have been commissioned to review the current approach to customer engagement and produce a new Tenant Participation Strategy. The new strategy will embrace digital technology, to help us reach groups who were not previously involved and a draft strategy will be brought to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board for consideration.
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Housing Services staff continue to assist and support the production of major strategic documents including the Local Housing Strategy and the Local Development Plan. At the March 2022 meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, the draft Renfrewshire Local Housing Strategy 2022-2027 was presented and approval was given to consult for a period of 12 weeks to obtain the views of communities and stakeholders. Communities and Public Protection Front line workers continued to deliver essential services to businesses and residents across all communities throughout the pandemic. In particular, Communities and Public Protection services have been at the forefront in supporting the Council in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on services and communities. During 2021/22 this has included: o recruiting additional Environmental Health Compliance Officers o assisting Public Health with contact tracing in educational establishments o delivery of Community Testing sites to assist with asymptomatic testing o supporting businesses to understand and remain compliant with all relevant Scottish Government COVID-19 legislation and guidance o supporting delivery of safe elections for the Scottish Parliament and Council by providing guidance and staff acting as COVID-19 Marshalls and COVID-19 Supervisors The service delivered and managed the Local Assistance Team (LAT) for calls in relation to self-isolation/vaccinations. Since August 2020, a total of 26,857 individuals who were self isolating have been contacted and approximately 6,000 parents and carers of those that have come into contact with somebody with COVID-19 have been advised to self isolate. The Local Assistance Team completed their final calls on 30 April 2022. The Civil Contingencies team (CCS) played a key role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and supported Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire Council’s as well as the wider Greater Glasgow and Clyde region throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This included supporting the Council management structures dealing with the incident, playing an active role in updating on any local, regional and national issues to share pertinent information and helping support decision making around the various issues arising from the coronavirus pandemic The CCS was also pivotal in the setting up and supporting the COVID-19 vaccination centres and testing centres across Renfrewshire and supporting preparations for the COP26 event held in November 2021. Officers from the Community Development service delivered the only youth led participatory budgeting exercise in Scotland undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered the Get into Summer programme of activities throughout the summer of 2021, with a core programme open to all on a universal basis supported by a number of targeted activities aimed at particular groups or families known to have been particularly impacted during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Over 15,000 people participated and over 200 families received targeted support.
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The work carried out by staff over the last two years, in responding to the pandemic including supporting the childcare hubs, delivering the Get into Summer programme and delivering Participatory Budgeting exercises demonstrates the transferable skills and commitment of staff to the communities of Renfrewshire. Team Up to Clean Up has grown from approximately 1,200 volunteers before the pandemic to over 3,700 active community members. During 2021/22, 4,696 community events took place, 8965, volunteers were involved, and 18,056 bags of litter were uplifted by volunteers. More than half of the 74 Green Spaces projects were delivered by volunteer groups working with Team Up to Clean Up. Almost all funding available via the Greenspaces, Parks and Play Areas and Villages Investment fund has now been allocated (94%) funding with over 70 projects being taken forward by communities across Renfrewshire. It has inspired the creation of 6 newly constituted community groups and 4 groups have purchased tools and containers to boost the Councils grounds maintenance offerings. Fly Tipping has been a priority and historical sites at Sergeantlaw Road and Blackstoun Road have been cleared and secured. During 2021/22, a total of 1,787 fly tipping incidents were reported, which was a 15% reduction in reported incidents compared to 2020/21. Officers from Renfrewshire Council sat on a national group with Food Standards Scotland to ensure consistency across Scotland as a programme of catch - up inspections and recovery plans was developed following the COVID- 19 pandemic. The Business Regulation Service Plan was approved on 25 August 2021 detailing plans for the recovery of the Renfrewshire Food Law inspection programme to ensure full compliance with the Food Law Code of Practice for Scotland. The Renfrewshire Community Learning and Development Strategy for 2021–24 was developed in collaboration with a wide range of partner organisations, third sector groups and individual service users and was approved in August 2021. A Water Safety Working Group was established, and the Renfrewshire Water Safety Policy agreed in January 2022. Public Rescue Equipment has now been placed at key locations across Renfrewshire. The Renfrewshire Antisocial Behaviour Strategy 2022-2025 was updated and approved by board in March 2022. This was developed with a range of statutory, voluntary and community partners and has a comprehensive action plan to help tackle antisocial behaviour. The Financial Harm Strategy was developed and approved by board in March 2022. The Strategy sets out ways partner agencies and communities can work together to prevent financial harm; report it and support those affected. Contaminated Land and Air Quality Management strategies have been reviewed and updated.
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Prevent training and awareness raising has been updated to support the Council’s delivery of Counter Terrorism initiatives. The roll out of Notice-Check- Share training to support local and national priorities remains ongoing. A Home Office led self-assessment review has been completed and demonstrates that Renfrewshire has established good practice in relation to compliance with the UK guidance published in February 2021. 4.2 A more detailed picture of achievements is included in the Service Delivery Plan Outturn Report included as Appendix 2. 5. What do we want to achieve? 5.1 Communities and Housing Services will contribute to the priorities set out in the forthcoming new Council Plan, which will be presented to Council in September 2022. It will also continue to contribute to the achievement of outcomes set in Our Renfrewshire, our 10-year Community Plan, which is also being refreshed this year. 5.2 As well as leading on the £100m Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme for the Council, Communities and Housing Services will also support the delivery of other major infrastructure project including the City Deal projects and the new Library, Museum, Arts Centre and Town Hall projects in Paisley. The service also supports the delivery of other strategic priorities of the Council, including delivering on Tackling Poverty, the Alcohol and Drugs Change Programme and supporting the Council’s ambitious target for Renfrewshire to be Net Zero by 2030. 5.3 Across the service we will support the Council’s response to the situation in Ukraine, including establishing the Welcome Hub at Glasgow airport and help to safely resettle refugees from Ukraine and carry out the necessary checks on homes and people who are volunteering to home refugees. 5.4 During the lifetime of this plan, specific priorities for the service include: Housing Services • Progress the Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme in eight Regeneration Areas. Phase 1 will focus on eight areas across Paisley, Renfrew and Johnstone which have been identified as being in particular need of investment. • Development of around 400 new council homes, including the ongoing developments at Auchengreoch Road, and Ferguslie Park. • We will complete our New Build Housing Zero Carbon Innovation Project guide the development of a standard specification for our new build houses to deliver net zero carbon homes by 2030, taking into account the whole lifecycle of the buildings including embodied carbon in construction, tenants’ use and recycling. • We will progress a major capital investment programme for our 14 Council owned Multi Story Flats.
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• Develop our strategy for delivery of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH2) milestones and planning for the decarbonisation of social housing. • We will complete a review of estate management and put in place an enhanced management programme to improve the upkeep and appearance of housing areas. • We will continue to develop our Refugee Resettlement Service and manage the Welcome Hub at Glasgow airport and support the safe resettlement of refugees from Ukraine. • We will deliver the Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan, moving to a housing first approach and reducing the use of temporary furnished accommodation to permanent housing with appropriate wrap around support. • We will enhance our Sheltered Housing and Health & Wellbeing service – expanding this to provide this service to older tenants not in sheltered housing. • Our new holistic support service ‘MYLA’ (My Life Ahead) in partnership with Turning Point Scotland, with funding from Alcohol & Drug Commission Programme Board launched on 6 May 2022. The project has capacity to support up to 30 individuals at a time, and will support households regardless of tenure, whose life is being affected by alcohol/drugs, and build on the concept that in order to have good health, you need to have a safe and settled home. Turning Point Scotland has been appointed to provide this bespoke support intervention and will deploy a therapeutic and trauma informed approach, with support being centred and tailored around the individual, to help sustain their settled housing and stabilise their lives. Communities and Public Protection • We will complete the ongoing service reviews and restructures within Communities and Public Protection to support the delivery of effective services. • Through the Community Safety Partnership, working closely with Housing Services the service will lead in delivering the Antisocial Behaviour Strategy and provide an annual update on progress to the Communities and Housing Policy Board • Under the Licensing Order, local authorities in Scotland will have to establish a licensing scheme for short term lets by 1 October 2022 and similar to the private rented sector housing standards, regulation and enforcement will be integrated into Communities and Public Protection’s duties. • A process to ensure all regulated private water supplies are identified, sampled and risk assessed to meet regulatory requirements will be established and implemented. • In line with Counter Terrorism responsibilities, Prevent Referrals, training and awareness raising will continue to be delivered and necessary actions will be taken to ensure compliance with the forthcoming Protect Duty legislation announced in May 2022.
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• A review of Litter Control Areas across Renfrewshire that are in place has been undertaken in collaboration with colleagues in Legal and Democratic Services . In 2022/23, Officers will be assessing if the use of the Litter Control Areas under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is the best way to achieve compliance in certain areas of Renfrewshire. • The Civil Contingencies Service will support training and awareness raising to update Council procedures in relation to Council Incident Officer training and development, to support robust arrangements for continued delivery of essential services in the event of high-level risks such as a widespread power outage and in relation to Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime particularly Cybercrime. • The reshaped CLD service will play a critical role in developing the locality model to act as bridge between local communities, Local Partnerships and services. Through the Community Learning and Development Strategy the focus will be on developing Individual and family capacity, building community capacity and digital enabling to ensuring everyone can benefit from digital technology. We will also support our communities through Participatory Budgeting exercises and Community Asset Transfer/Ownership opportunities. • A new Environmental taskforce will be introduced to help tackle issues relating to fly tipping investigation and enforcement. It will tie in with Renfrewshire projects such as Team Up To Clean Up and liaise with national organisations such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to support and assist in delivering Scotland wide projects within Renfrewshire. Greater detail of the specific actions the service will progress can be found in Section 6 of the Service Improvement Plan included as Appendix 1 to this report. 6. Monitoring progress 6.1 Progress on the implementation of the Service Improvement Plan will regularly be monitored by the Senior Management Team every quarter and will be reported to elected members on a six-monthly basis. A review of progress will be brought to this Board in autumn 2022. 6.2 As well as performance measures with targets, the Service Improvement Plan also includes some additional management information as additional context. This includes those indicators which are part of the Local Government Benchmarking Framework. Indicators which are for information only are not featured on the performance scorecard but will be reported on as part of the outturn. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial - The Service Improvement Plan highlights resourcing pressures arising from increasing demand for services and the current financial environment
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2. HR & Organisational Development – – All council services are reviewing ways of working in light of the changes resulting from the pandemic. Any changes will be reflected through reports to elected members 3. Community/Council Planning – the report details a range of activities which reflect local council and community planning themes. 4. Legal – none 5. Property/Assets – Council services are reviewing ways of working in light of the changes resulting from the pandemic, and this includes how buildings are utilised. Any changes will be reflected through reports to elected members. 6. Information Technology – Digital resources are now key to supporting the delivery of services and strategies are in place to manage this. 7. Equality & Human Rights - The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety –.none. 9. Procurement – none. 10. Risk – Risks related to the delivery and management of services are regularly monitored and included in Renfrewshire Council’s Corporate and Strategic Risk Registers. 11. Privacy Impact - none 12. COSLA Policy Position – none. 13. Climate Risk - The report continues a number of actions directly related to addressing the impact of climate change. ________________________________________________________________ List of Background Papers: Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, 16 March 2021 - Service Delivery Plan 2021/22: Communities and Housing Service - Report by Director of Communities and Housing Services (Agenda item 5a) Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, 26 October 2021 - Service Delivery Plan 2021/22 Mid Year Monitoring Report - Communities & Housing Services - Report by Director of Communities & Housing Services (Agenda item 5c)
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___________________________________________________________________ Author Douglas Morrison, Service Planning & Policy Development Manager, Email: douglas.morrison@renfrewshire.gov.uk
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1 Appendix 1 Communities and Housing Services Service Improvement Plan 2022-2025
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2 1. Introduction 1.1 This Service Improvement Plan (SIP) for Communities and Housing Services covers the period from 2022/23 to 2024/25. The plan outlines what the service intends to achieve over the next three years based on the resources expected to be available. 1.2 In 2021/22, in recognition of the considerable impact of the pandemic, services produced a single-year Service Delivery Plan (SDP), which was focused on actions required to manage the response to and recovery from the coronavirus as well as continuing to provide essential services to individuals, communities and businesses across Renfrewshire . An outturn report detailing the progress on all actions and performance indicators within the SDP is presented to this board in a separate report. 1.3 As restrictions continue to ease and public services can have a greater focus again on business as usual, the council is once again producing three-year Service Improvement Plans. 1.4 Council services continue to operate in a challenging context. The ongoing recovery form the pandemic and its effects continue to be felt by individuals, businesses, communities and the public sector. Councils have a role to play in supporting people through the current cost of living crisis by focusing on tackling inequalities and working to improve wellbeing. There are numerous legislative requirements relating to that work, including duties in relation to child poverty, the public sector equality duty and community empowerment. External events, such as the UK’s departure from the EU and the war in Ukraine, are exacerbating supply chain issues and inflationary pressures and these have an impact on the Council’s key strategic projects. Councils are also navigating an increasingly complex funding landscape resulting from increased demands and increasing costs but also arising from the introduction of new funding streams such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 1.5 The Council Plan clearly articulates the Council’s priorities for Renfrewshire, and along with the Community Plan, sets out an ambitious programme of work. A new Council Plan is developed every five years, aligned with the cycle of local government elections. Renfrewshire’s new Council Plan is currently being developed and will be presented to elected members after the summer recess later this year. It will set out the high-level strategic outcome the Council intends to achieve and detail the steps needed to delivery on these. Future Service Improvement Plans will align to those high level outcomes; for now, key actions are grouped under four themes:
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3 Place People Sustainability Living Our Values 1.6 The Community Plan is a ten-year plan and the current Renfrewshire Plan runs from 2017 to 2027. It is good practice to review these plans regularly to ensure they remain ambitious and fit for purpose. The Renfrewshire Community Plan is currently being reviewed and this will involve engagement with key stakeholders. A revised Community Plan will be presented to elected members and the Community Planning Partnership after the summer recess. 1.7 Service Improvement Plans informs each service’s Workforce Plan and Risk Register and are the overarching documents which sets the programme of development and improvement activity within the service as well as providing context for budget decisions. 1.8 A mid-year progress update on the Service Improvement Plan will be presented to board in autumn 2022, and an outturn report in May 2023. Early in 2023, Communities and Housing Services will review this plan and produce a revised version to reflect both progress and any changing priorities. 2. What we do 2.1 With approximately 430 members of staff, Communities and Housing Services aims to create, develop, support, protect and empower Renfrewshire’s communities. This includes managing and investing in our housing stock of approximately 12,216 properties and providing services to council tenants, alongside housing advice and support, assisting homeless people and those threatened with homelessness and ensuring people have safe and healthy places to live. 2.2 This work links closely with our community protection role safeguarding public health and protecting the environment, consumers, workers and local communities. Within these communities, we encourage people to fulfil their potential and ensure they have equal access to a range of learning and development opportunities. Community Learning and Development teams work to build this capacity in young people and other individuals, families, groups and communities.
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4 3. Overview of Achievements 2021/22 3.1 As part of the council’s approach to managing the pandemic response, council services each produced a one-year Service Delivery Plan in 2021. These focused on the actions necessary to manage the response and the recovery from the pandemic. A full outturn report on that Service Delivery Plan is also being presented to this cycle of this Board. The outturn details the achievements of Communities and Housing Services during 2021/22 and sets out progress against actions and performance targets. 3.2 As well as having a focus on responding to COVID-19 and supporting communities and businesses during this period, Communities and Housing Services teams continued to provide core services which are essential to our communities and have ensured the delivery of a wide range of key activities and achievements across the service. Particular activities to highlight include: 3.3 Housing Services A joint report by the Chief Executive, Director of Communities and Housing and Director of Finance and Resources setting out a major programme of Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal was approved by Council on 17 December 2020. This sought to bring forward additional investment from the Housing Revenue Account of some £100m over the next 10 years to deliver modern, high quality, energy efficient, affordable Council housing that will not only significantly enhance the Council’s housing stock but will also contribute to the wider transformation of Renfrewshire as a place, and will be central to the economic and social recovery of Renfrewshire. Following approval from the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board on 18 May 2021, consultation was carried out in the 8 phase 1 areas of the £100 million Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme for Renfrewshire. Consultation was widely publicised, with an opportunity for people to take part and comment on the proposals in a variety of ways to suit their needs and preferred method of communication. A further report in March 2022 notes the feedback received from tenants, residents, owners and local communities during the further targeted consultation period in three of the phase 1 areas, and the Director of Communities and Housing Services was authorised to undertake the necessary processes to implement the revised proposals for the three Regeneration Areas concerned. A new build programme for 2021/22 has been delivered – with revised targets due to COVID-19 restrictions. 95 newbuild homes in Johnstone Castle were completed in April 2021. The Bishopton newbuild project delivered a range of house types, sizes and locations, with 80 spacious family and amenity homes which are energy efficient and affordable. Worked commenced on site in spring 2021 on 39 new
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5 homes at Auchengreoch Road in Johnstone and on 101 new homes in Ferguslie Park The comprehensive review of all statutory landlord compliance activities was completed and the Compliance Strategy and policies are now all in place. A new Compliance Team is now in place and a further review of resource requirements has also been undertaken. This will ensure our housing stock complies with all statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to Gas, Electric, Asbestos, Water, Lifts & Fire Safety. Fabric works are being tailored to the buildings in each area and will adopt a whole house retrofit approach with measures to improve energy efficiency and help reduce energy costs for tenants. During 2021/22, Housing Services continued to be delivered in accordance with the relevant and current Scottish Government guidance and restrictions. Staff quickly and positively adapted to working remotely and have continued to deliver essential services to tenants, homeless people, those threatened with homelessness, and other services users. Staff continue to make connections and refer Council Tenants and applicants where appropriate to relevant colleagues and partners to access support and/ or financial advice and assistance. Joint networking meetings have been held between all housing management staff, income advisors and homelessness staff to further increase awareness of respective services and assistance available to those who need it. Housing staff continue to make proactive contact with customers. A successful bid to Connecting Scotland has enabled the provision of devices to some customers to improve access to services and other benefits that being digitally enabled offers. Housing Services, Homeless Services and Housing Support staff piloted a digital platform, “Near Me”, which enables face to face contact online, enabling enhanced form filling assistance, face to face interviews and meetings without the need for a customer to travel to an office. Although we recognise the benefits that digital platforms like “Near Me” can provide to our clients to widen the choice of methods available to them to interact with us, we also recognise the importance of in person meetings. And as the relaxing and removal of Scottish Government COVID-19 restrictions have occurred, staff across all Housing Services teams have returned to front line duties in person to assist and support our tenants and other clients. Our Refugee Resettlement Team continued to support the Council’s refugee resettlement programme throughout 2021/22. In March 2022, a report was presented to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board providing an update on the proposed distribution of the COVID-19 Tenant Grant Fund, and how the needs of homeless people have continued to be met throughout the pandemic, as well as a further update on the significant progress that has been made in the implementation of Renfrewshire’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP).
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6 In line with the recommendations to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board in October 2021, the Council is on track to have distributed the full Tenants Grant Fund allocation of £214,000 across the private and social rented sectors, to address rent arrears accrued by around 172 tenants, who met the applicable guidance and criteria. Key initiatives in relation to homelessness during 2021/22 include: o the use of a Housing First approach in partnership with Turning Point Scotland and Blue Triangle H.A. which has now been further upscaled from 18 service users at the beginning of the RRTP, to 57 individuals now being in receipt of this wraparound support at any one time, using both RRTP and Council funding. o launch of a ‘shared living’ initiative with the Simon Community Scotland to support homeless applicants who want to share accommodation. o Deployment of an officer from ‘Say Women’ to support young women (16- 25 years old) who have been subjected to sexual violence and are at risk of homelessness. Despite the challenges of the past 2 years, the total annual number of statutorily homeless households in Renfrewshire has shown no significant increase. During 2021/22 we provided support to 2,254 people and 909 homeless applications were received. Over the last two years, there has been a continued strong focus on matching Council/ Registered Social landlord (RSL) properties to those who were homeless or in greater housing need. Of the 940 homes let during 2021/22 through our Common Housing Allocation Policy a total of 369 were allocated to statutory homeless clients and 174 were allocated by our RSL partners. Within Homeless and Housing Support Services, we delivered a range of new programmes to support our clients, including - ‘Move-on’, ‘We’re Safe & Well’ and ‘WRAP’. The Renfrewshire Alcohol and Drugs Commission recognised that a safe and secure home is the best base for people to build their lives and enjoy good health and wellbeing. For those who are homeless, the provision of settled mainstream accommodation as early as possible, with appropriate support, is a key element in helping individuals and families affected by alcohol and drug use to rebuild their lives. We continue to strengthen our approach to prevention and repeat homelessness by providing holistic wraparound support to households in Renfrewshire, regardless of tenure, whose life is being affected by alcohol and/ or drugs. We submitted the Annual Return on the Charter (ARC) to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) in May 2022. The ARC records the quality of service provided to tenants and provides benchmarking and tenant scrutiny of the services provided. We use this to help us prioritise what areas within Housing Services we will focus on for improvement.
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7 The Tenants Information Service (TIS), which is an organisation set up to promote and inspire innovative tenant participation have been commissioned to review the current approach to customer engagement and produce a new Tenant Participation Strategy. The new strategy will embrace digital technology, to help us reach groups who were not previously involved and a draft strategy will be brought to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board for consideration. Staff across Housing participated in the short life working group established to review and update the Renfrewshire Antisocial Behaviour Strategy. At the March 2022 meeting, the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board approved the Renfrewshire ASB Strategy 2022-2025. Housing Services staff continue to assist and support our colleagues in the Chief Executive’s Service with the production of major strategic documents including the Local Housing Strategy and the Local Development Plan. At the March 2022 meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, the draft Renfrewshire Local Housing Strategy 2022-2027 was presented and approval was given to consult for a period of 12 weeks to obtain the views of communities and stakeholders. 3.4 Communities and Public Protection Front line workers continued to be out working delivering essential services to businesses and residents across all communities throughout the pandemic. In particular, Communities and Public Protection services have been at the forefront in supporting the Council in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on services and communities. During 2021/22 this has included: o recruiting additional Environmental Health Compliance Officers o assisting Public Health with contact tracing in educational establishments o delivery of Community Testing sites to assist with asymptomatic testing o supporting businesses to understand and remain compliant with all relevant Scottish Government COVID-19 legislation and guidance o supporting delivery of safe elections for the Scottish Parliament and Council by providing guidance and staff acting as COVID-19 Marshalls and COVID-19 Supervisors The service continued to deliver and manage the Local Assistance Team (LAT) for calls in relation to self-isolation/vaccinations. Since August 2020, a total of 26,857 individuals who were self isolating have been contacted and approximately 6,000 parents and carers of those that have come into contact with somebody with COVID-19 have been advised to self isolate. The Local Assistance Team completed their final calls on 30 April 2022. The Civil Contingencies team (CCS) played a key role in the response to the COVID- 19 pandemic and supported Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire Council’s as well as the wider Greater Glasgow and Clyde region throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This included supporting the Council
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8 management structures dealing with the incident, playing an active role in updating on any local, regional and national issues to share pertinent information and helping support decision making around the various issues arising from the coronavirus pandemic The CCS was also pivotal in the setting up and supporting the COVID-19 vaccination centres and testing centres across Renfrewshire and supporting preparations for the COP26 event held in November 2021. Officers from the Community Development service delivered the only youth led participatory budgeting exercise in Scotland undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered the Get into Summer programme of activities throughout the summer of 2021, with a core programme open to all on a universal basis supported by a number of targeted activities aimed at particular groups or families known to have been particularly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 15,000 people participated and over 200 families received targeted support. The work carried out by staff over the last two years, in responding to the pandemic including supporting the childcare hubs, delivering the Get into Summer programme and delivering Participatory Budgeting exercises demonstrates the transferable skills and commitment of staff to the communities of Renfrewshire. Team Up to Clean Up has grown from approximately 1,200 volunteers before the pandemic to over 3,700 active community members. During 2021/22, 4,696 community events took place, 8965, volunteers were involved, and 18,056 bags of litter were uplifted by volunteers. More than half of the 74 Green Spaces projects were delivered by volunteer groups working with Team Up to Clean Up. Almost all funding available via the Greenspaces, Parks and Play Areas and Villages Investment fund has now been allocated (94%) funding with over 70 projects being taken forward by communities across Renfrewshire. It has inspired the creation of 6 newly constituted community groups and 4 groups have purchased tools and containers to boost the Councils grounds maintenance offerings. Fly Tipping has been a priority and historical sites at Sergeantlaw Road and Blackstoun Road have been cleared and secured. During 2021/22, a total of 1,787 fly tipping incidents were reported, which was a 15% reduction in reported incidents compared to 2020/21. Training and development opportunities have included the recruitment of additional employees to support the Team Up to Clean Up campaign and use of Invest and Kick Start programmes to support training and employee opportunities within Community Safety. Officers from Renfrewshire Council sat on a national group with Food Standards Scotland to ensure consistency across Scotland as a programme of catch - up inspections and recovery plans was developed following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Business Regulation Service Plan was approved on 25 August 2021 detailing plans for the recovery of the Renfrewshire Food Law inspection programme to ensure full compliance with the Food Law Code of Practice for Scotland.
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9 The Renfrewshire Community Learning and Development Strategy for 2021–24 was developed in collaboration with a wide range of partner organisations, third sector groups and individual service users and was approved in August 2021. A Water Safety Working Group was established, and the Renfrewshire Water Safety Policy agreed in January 2022. Public Rescue Equipment has now been placed at key locations across Renfrewshire. The Renfrewshire Antisocial Behaviour Strategy 2022-2025 was updated and approved by board in March 2022. This was developed with a range of statutory, voluntary and community partners and has a comprehensive action plan to help tackle antisocial behaviour. The Financial Harm Strategy was developed and approved by board in March 2022. The Strategy sets out ways partner agencies and communities can work together to prevent financial harm; report it and support those affected. Contaminated Land and Air Quality Management strategies have been reviewed and updated. Work has been undertaken to review, visit and risk assess the highest risk private water supplies. During 2022/23 a process to ensure all Regulated private water supplies are identified, sampled and risk assessed to meet regulatory requirements will be established. Prevent training and awareness raising has been updated to support the Council’s delivery of Counter Terrorism initiatives. The roll out of Notice-Check-Share training to support local and national priorities remains ongoing. A Home Office led self-assessment review has been completed and demonstrates that Renfrewshire has established good practice in relation to compliance with the UK guidance published in February 2021. 4. Our strategic context National context 4.1 The council has adapted the way services are delivered over the last two years and will continue to respond to national guidance as the pandemic recovery continues. The impact of the pandemic on Renfrewshire’s communities, residents and businesses has been unprecedented and no Council service was untouched by the lockdown and associated restrictions at that time. 4.2 The operating environment has changed frequently and often at short notice and the council has had to be flexible and adaptable to manage this change and adjust services accordingly. The recovery phase is likely to continue for some time and council activity will reflect this. This recovery is guided by the national Strategic Framework for Recovery. As the recovery progresses, the council will work with staff, residents and partners to identify new ways of working which best meet the needs of our people and our communities.
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10 4.3 Renfrewshire Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and continues to progress work which aims to have Renfrewshire to reach Net Zero by 2030. More detailed plans on this will be published over the course of 2022. As well as council- led projects to help tackle climate issues, a Community Climate Fund allows local groups to bid for up to £3000 for localised initiatives which meet their community’s needs and align to the council’s drive towards Net Zero. 4.4 The impact of the UK leaving the EU in 2020 is not yet fully apparent, given the impact that the coronavirus has had on the economy and on day-to-day life. A main driver of how Renfrewshire is impacted will be in the operation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is in a ‘pre-launch’ phase. This fund is intended as a replacement for previous EU funding and will be allocated to local authorities according to a funding formula. More detail is expected over the next few months. 4.5 The Scottish Government published its Housing to 2040 proposals in March 2021. This is a long-term vision that sets out what homes and communities should look and feel like by 2040. The main aim of the initiative is that ‘by 2040, everyone will have a safe, high quality home that is affordable and meets their needs in a place they want to be.’ The Housing to 2040 vision is set out in four over-arching categories: A well-functioning housing system High quality sustainable homes Sustainable communities Homes that meet people’s needs 4.6 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister for Public Health and Sport granted local authorities a deviation from the Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) normal requirements in recognition of the on-going work for Environmental Health Officers in prioritising the implementation of new regulations in relation to COVID- 19. The deviation from normal inspection requirements was reviewed and extended several times throughout the pandemic and has now come to an end with all local authorities now required to produce and submit an updated Service Plan detailing how they are going to inspect premises and recover from the COVID pandemic in the coming years. 4.7 Communities and Housing Services will continue to assist with the safe resettlement of refugees from Ukraine and the Council’s response to support the Scottish Government’s ‘Super sponsor’ scheme and the UK Government’s ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme and this is described in more detail in section 6 of this report.
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11 Local context 4.8 In December 2020, Council approved an Economic Recovery Plan for Renfrewshire. It sets the direction of travel for measures to support the local economy through coronavirus response, recovery and beyond. The plan acknowledges the significant impact of the pandemic on the local and national economy, and what that means for the people, business and communities of Renfrewshire. 4.9 The Council also has a Social Renewal Plan which sets out joint plans (with our partners) to address the inequalities which exist in Renfrewshire, and which were made worse by the pandemic. The plan was developed after consultation with communities, and the council continues to seek views on these issues through consultation exercises and our Public Services Panel. Rising prices, particularly for food and fuel, may lead to more households experiencing absolute or relative poverty, and lead to increased demand for the supports and services the public and third sectors can offer. 4.10 Renfrewshire’s Alcohol and Drugs Commission made its recommendations in 2020, setting out clear measures that partners across Renfrewshire need to take to reduce drug and alcohol related harms and promote recovery. The projects within the Alcohol and Drugs Change Programme are continuing to progress, including the Trauma Informed and Responsive Renfrewshire Programme – a partnership programme of work to ensure that recognising and responding to trauma is part of every service we deliver. Work has also progressed on the Stigma/Language Matters project with a marketing and communications activity plan being developed, with objectives including: demonstrating leadership by ensuring the Council does not use language that stigmatises people in public and staff communications 4.11 Demographic and Social Change - Renfrewshire’s population is predicted to grow by 2.1% by 2030, a higher rate of growth than the Scottish average. In common with the rest of Scotland, Renfrewshire has an ageing population due to the combined impact of a falling birth rate and increasing life expectancy. There has been positive net migration into Renfrewshire in recent years, both from within Scotland and from overseas. The job creation resulting from infrastructure projects and economic regeneration, coupled with new house building, may contribute to an increase in the working age population in the medium and long- term. Deprivation does remain a challenge in Renfrewshire, however, and this has considerable implications for council services in terms of meeting current and future needs but also in undertaking work with partners to lift people out of poverty.
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12 4.12 The service will support the Planning and Climate Change Policy Board on Climate Change to develop a range of actions through its plan for net zero to reduce the Council’s own carbon emissions and support partners, businesses and citizens in Renfrewshire to reduce theirs. 4.13 The £100m Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal Programme is one of a number of major investment programmes in Renfrewshire over the coming years, including the City Deal projects, and the Library, Museum, Arts Centre and Town Hall projects in Paisley, all of which will contribute to the economic and social regeneration of the area. 4.14 During 2022 there will be a reset of the strategic focus of the Council with the development of a new Council Plan and a new Community Plan, which will compliment this Service Improvement Plan for Communities and Housing Services. The SIP will over the next 3 years deliver our actions and priorities which will support the Council to deliver on its strategic objectives within the Council Plan. 4.15 Communities and Housing Services activities will make a critical contribution towards Renfrewshire achieving the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. The Housing-led Regeneration and Renewal Programme for Renfrewshire will contribute to achieving this through retrofit of existing stock, and establishing a specification for new build homes through the (RenZEB) programme in partnership with the University of Strathclyde and energy efficient construction methods for new build properties. 4.16 The Council’s transformation programme continued throughout the pandemic but the launch of subsequent phases was paused. New phases of transformation will start during 2022. 4.17 Our Values - More than 4,000 voices including our staff, local residents, partners, young people and community groups helped identify the values most important to us all that describe our promise to our communities, staff and partners and what people can expect of us. These values have been formally adopted by Renfrewshire Council and will guide how we deliver services and make decisions every day. Our Values are; We are fair. We treat each other and everyone we deal with respectfully and work hard to build trust in Renfrewshire Council. We are helpful. We care about getting things right and are always approachable. We are great collaborators. We work as one team and with people who care about this place. We value learning to help us innovate, improve and deliver better services.
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13 4.18 Although COVID-19 restrictions have now been lifted, the Council will take time during 2022 to review and design what future ways of working will look like – to maximise benefits to the workforce, for the Council and most importantly, maximise the benefits to the services we provide to our communities 4.19 In 2020, Council approved the new People Strategy. The first two years of the strategy are focused on three priority areas – health and wellbeing, new ways of working, and staff communication and engagement. The Council’s workforce has shown considerable resilience over the last two years and no service was left unchanged during the pandemic. Our staff adapted quickly to the necessary changes, whether it was a change in how frontline delivery was handled, adopting new ways of communicating with our customers, or switching to full-time working from home. As the country emerges from the pandemic, the Council, like other organisations, will seek to build on the new ways of working and find an approach which delivers the best possible service for residents whilst promoting a healthy work-life balance for staff. 4.20 All local authorities in Scotland are subject to a Best Value Audit inspection at least once in every council term (i.e. every five years). Renfrewshire’s last inspection was in 2017 and resulted in 7 key recommendations being made. These help determine improvement actions within the council and each year, Audit Scotland publish an overview report detailing progress against the audit as well as scrutiny of council finances. Audit Scotland will produce an updated approach to these audits later this year, and this is likely to reflect the significant change in the operating environment of councils. 4.21 The engagement plan issued by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) for 2020/2021 noted that the Council would have low level engagement. Following publication, the SHR took steps to meet with all local authorities on their Engagement Plans with a specific emphasis on homelessness. Officers met with the SHR in early August to discuss management of homeless services and the impact of Covid 19 on service delivery. The SHR confirmed that they were not looking for any further information at this time from Renfrewshire council. 4.22 The Council’s risk management arrangements are well established with all strategic, corporate and service risks being reported to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board, with the latest report having been presented at the January 2022 meeting. Strategic risks are more outward in nature, whereas corporate ones are more inward and often affect more than one service department. 4.23 Communities and Housing Services also plays a significant role in the management and mitigation, where possible, of many ‘business as usual’ and service specific risks that exist within the council. Which currently include
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14 Inflationary pressures on construction materials and resources and knock on effect on capital programmes Cost of living pressures on tenants and other service users including on food costs, fuel and energy price rises, which may result in difficulty in rent payments Managing backlog due to impact of COVD-19 such as in housing repairs and construction and in regulatory services with food premises inspections. 4.24 Every area of work within the Council has a role to play in promoting equality and diversity. While this is the right thing to do and has clear advantages for the Council, there are also legal requirements. The Equality Act 2010 protects people from unfair treatment and asks public bodies (including Renfrewshire Council) to show how they make a positive difference to equality groups. 5. Our Resources 5.1 Our Workforce There are approximately 430 staff within Communities and Housing Services and throughout the last two years, as well as reacting to the pandemic, they have continued to provide essential core services to individuals, communities and businesses across Renfrewshire. We continue to support our staff to flourish and Housing Services colleagues are now accessing training through the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) to support their professional development. As well as the training, a number of staff also attended the CIH’s two day “Scotland's Housing Festival” event in May 2022. The festival enabled staff to gain valuable knowledge from expert keynote speakers and influential innovators on the significant issues in the housing sector. Through the service reviews and restructures currently being delivered within Community Protection and the Community Development services these teams are being developed to deliver services which can respond to the changing needs of service users as well as providing improved opportunities for career development for staff within these teams. Within Communities and Public Protection, bespoke “teamtalk” training sessions are being developed for all aspects of enforcement and are being delivered to support the successful integration of Licensing Standards staff into the Trading Standards team. During May 2022, the Director of Communities and Housing Services hosted 4 staff catch up events on TEAMS, attended by staff across all service areas. The purpose of these were twofold o To allow staff to hear what had been happening across not only their own service area over the last year, but also to highlight to them what their colleagues in other areas in Communities and Housing Services had achieved,
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15 and similarly what were the main priorities for each service area over the year ahead. o Secondly, to provide staff with an opportunity to ask questions of the Director, or provide her with feedback on what they felt were the main achievements over the last year and opportunities for the coming year. The feedback was that these sessions were a positive opportunity for staff to hear about the achievements of other parts of the service and contribute to the discussion, but one of the common points from these sessions, was the agreement that although having these virtual catch ups has a number of advantages, that the next round of these catch ups should be in-person events. Awards and recognition – o The Housing Asset and Investment team won the Retrofit Academy Award for Social Housing Retrofit Landlord of the Year – acknowledging the exemplar work for the retrofit project at Blackstoun Oval. o The Johnstone Castle newbuild and regeneration programme won two awards. the Affordable Housing Development of the Year (Social Rent) Award at the Scottish Home Awards and also the Best Regeneration Project of the Year (Residential) Award at the Herald Property Awards. o Our Sheltered Housing and Health and Wellbeing teams won the Achieving Better Outcomes in Partnership Award at the COSLA 2022 Excellence Awards for the “We’re Safe and Well” initiative - the team developed a broad range of innovative art, poetry, music, video and digital projects to support these older tenants, many of whom were particularly vulnerable, using their own words, thoughts and choices to reach out to family, friends and the community. o Team Up to Clean Up was shortlisted in two categories in the Local Government Chronicles (LGC) Awards for Environmental Services and Community Involvement. o Siobhan Gray a Youth Worker from the CLD team has been shortlisted for the Youth Worker of the Year Award at the National Youth Work Awards. o The work undertaken by the members of the Local Assistance Team, often alongside their normal workload, has been outstanding and recognised via “Thank you” letters from the Scottish Government and Renfrewshire Council Chief Executive. o In May 2022 a National Thematic Review was carried out by HMIE looking at the impact and legacy of the pandemic on CLD services across Scotland. When the inspectors visited Renfrewshire – They provided very positive feedback about the innovative and pro-active approach they saw in Renfrewshire. They also noted the breadth of work undertaken and how well it fits with our CLD strategy resulting in positive impacts for communities. They commented on the strength of the partnerships which exist across Renfrewshire and liked the plans to continue to build on those networks.
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16 5.2 Our Partnerships and Providers All of the work carried out within Communities and Housing Services is done with the support of and in partnership with a wide range of other Council services and external partners. We work closely with other Renfrewshire Housing Associations in the Housing Providers Forum, a number of external agencies in the Renfrewshire Homelessness Partnership and with the Renfrewshire Community Safety Partnership made up of services within Communities and Housing Services, other Council services, Police Scotland the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board. We also work in partnership with many local and national organisations including Engage Renfrewshire, OneRen, Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership, St Mirren Football Club and actively support the work of the I Am Me charity, which was founded in Renfrewshire and now works nationally to increase awareness of and reduce Hate Crime and bullying. 5.3 Council Finances All local authorities in Scotland have experienced a hugely challenging and complex set of circumstances over the last two years and it is recognised that the financial impact on councils from COVID-19 will continue for some time. This includes the impact on service costs, service demands and income streams, as well as the cost of unavoidable delays to some transformation programmes. Councils are also impacted by the rising costs of goods and services caused by inflationary pressures and global supply chain issues. Renfrewshire Council actively manages these pressures through its short- and medium-term financial planning and is acknowledged by Audit Scotland to have sound financial arrangements in place. However, the Council’s financial outlook remains subject to significant uncertainty. The most recent analysis reported to Council on 3 March 2022 suggests that Renfrewshire Council will experience a funding deficit in the range of £18m-£50m in the three years following 2022/23, unless mitigating action is taken. Budgets are approved each year for both Capital and Revenue purposes. Revenue budgets allow for expenditure and income on day-to-day operational activities, such as employee costs, or supplies. For 2022/23, the Revenue budget approved for General Services on 3 March 2022 was £486m, and for the Housing Revenue Account £55m. Capital budgets allow for expenditure on the creation or enhancement of assets. The capital budget approved for General Services on 3 March 2022 was £437m for the period 2022/23 to 2026/27, and for the Housing Revenue Account £267m for the period 2022/23 to 2027/28.
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17 5.4 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) The HRA operates a rolling 30-year Business Plan model which is the standard operating practice amongst local authorities and Registered Social Landlords. The 30-year basis of the model reflects the need for a long term planned approach to the replacement of major items such as rewiring, central heating etc aligned to the lifecycle of the element. The model ensures that planned rental income from the existing rented properties is sufficient over the term of the plan to cover debt and servicing capital expenditure including significant investment and regeneration initiatives together with funding the annual costs of maintaining council houses and all HRA annual operating costs including staffing. The Business Plan model is reviewed to take account of the adjusted base budget position from the previous year and to update any key assumptions, economic factors and known or emerging risks. This review process allows consideration to be given to the setting of rent levels for the forthcoming and future financial years through effective scenario planning. 6. Our Strategic Priorities As well as the national and local policy context outlined above, within the service we will continue to support the other strategic objectives and key priorities of the Council. Housing Services • Progress the Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme in eight Regeneration Areas. Phase 1 will focus on eight areas across Paisley, Renfrew and Johnstone which have been identified as being in particular need of investment. • The areas have different combinations of proposals, including retention, some demolition and new build and retrofit of retained stocktaking account of the points above and in most cases allowing for the retention of a mix of property types and sizes. • Complete further newbuild projects – o Johnstone SW (Auchengreoch Road): 39 new homes, and o Ferguslie Park (Tannahill): 101 new homes • We will complete our New Build Housing Zero Carbon Innovation Project which will see us develop a standard specification for our new build houses to deliver net zero carbon homes by 2030, taking into account the whole lifecycle of the buildings including embodied carbon in construction, tenants’ use and recycling. • We will deliver the major capital investment programme for our 14 Council owned Multi Story Flats. • Delivery of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing post-2020 (EESSH2) milestones and planning for the decarbonisation of social housing.
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18 • Implement enhanced budget in estate management – Enhanced state management practice including review of existing Common Maintenance Programme. • Within the Housing Services team we will further improve and embed changes made to letting processes - reducing days in this part of the void process. We will continue to provide early intervention and wrap around approach to rent collection, maximising collaboration across advice services and prioritising home visits for tenants/ applicants, particularly where vulnerabilities are known. We will also assist tenants with the impact of fuel poverty and other living costs. • Continue to develop our Refugee Resettlement Service and specifically we will establish the Welcome Hub at Glasgow airport and help to safely resettle refugees from Ukraine. • Continue to deliver Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan, moving to housing first approach and away from temporary furnished accommodation to permanent housing with wrap around support. • Enhance our Sheltered Housing and Health & Wellbeing service – expanding to older tenants beyond sheltered housing tenants within amenity housing, health & wellbeing benefits will be rolled out to housing support service users and homeless applicants. • Launch new holistic support service ‘MYLA’ (My Life Ahead) in partnership with Turning Point Scotland, with funding from Alcohol & Drug Commission Programme Board. The project will support any household in Renfrewshire, regardless of tenure, whose life is being affected by alcohol/drugs, and build on the concept that in order to have good health, you need to have a good, settled home. Turning Point Scotland has been appointed to provide this bespoke support intervention and will deploy a therapeutic and trauma informed approach, with support being centred and tailored around the individual, to help sustain their settled housing and stabilise their lives. Communities and Public Protection • We will support the Homes for Ukraine programme by carrying out checks on those who have volunteered to house a refugee to ensure suitability before people are given a home. • We will complete the ongoing service reviews and restructures within Communities and Public Protection to support the delivery of effective services. • Through the Community Safety Partnership, working closely with Housing Services the service will lead in delivering the Antisocial Behaviour Strategy and provide an annual update on progress to the Communities and Housing Policy Board • Under the Licensing Order, local authorities in Scotland will have to establish a licensing scheme for short term lets by 1 October 2022 and similar to the
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19 private rented sector housing standards, regulation and enforcement will be integrated into Communities and Public Protection’s duties. • A process to ensure all regulated private water supplies are identified, sampled and risk assessed to meet regulatory requirements will be established and implemented. • In line with Counter Terrorism responsibilities, Prevent Referrals, training and awareness raising will continue to be delivered and necessary actions will be taken to ensure compliance with the forthcoming Protect Duty legislation announced in May 2022. • A review of Litter Control Areas across Renfrewshire that are in place has been undertaken in collaboration with colleagues in Legal and Democratic Services . In 2022/23, Officers will be assessing if the use of the Litter Control Areas under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is the best way to achieve compliance in certain areas of Renfrewshire. • Days of co-ordinated action aligned to both national events and local issues, will be used to target enforcement activities to promote Parking, Trade Waste, Littering and Dog Fouling compliance • The Civil Contingencies Service will support training and awareness raising to update Council procedures in relation to Council Incident Officer training and development, to support robust arrangements for continued delivery of essential services in the event of high-level risks such as a widespread power outage and in relation to Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime particularly Cybercrime. • The reshaped CLD service will play a critical role in developing the locality model to act as bridge between local communities, Local Partnerships and services. Through the Community Learning and Development Strategy the focus will be on developing Individual and family capacity, building community capacity and digital enabling to ensuring everyone can benefit from digital technology. We will also support our communities through Participatory Budgeting exercises and Community Asset Transfer/Ownership opportunities. • A new Environmental taskforce will be introduced to help tackle issues relating to fly tipping investigation and enforcement. It will tie in with Renfrewshire projects such as Team Up To Clean Up and liaise with national organisations such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to support and assist in delivering Scotland wide projects within Renfrewshire. As noted in the introduction to this plan, Service Improvement Plans align to the Council and Community Plans. Actions and performance indicators are each grouped according to the strategic outcomes set out in the Council Plan. As the new Council Plan has yet to be approved, actions and indicators in this SIP are set out under four broad themes. o Place: what we do to support our economy, our infrastructure, our assets;
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20 o People: what we do to support our communities and individual residents; o Sustainability: what we do to address climate issues and promote sustainable services and communities; o Living our Values: what we do in terms of our organisational behaviours and approaches The current targets for the performance indicators cover the next three years, however these will be reviewed and evaluated on an annual basis to ensure they remain appropriate
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21 6.3 Actions and Performance Indicators Place: what we do to support our economy, our infrastructure, our assets What will we do? What difference will we make? Who is leading this? When will we do it by? Implement enhanced budget in estate management – including review of existing Common Maintenance Programme This will deliver enhanced state management practice and improve the common areas within our housing estate. Housing Services Manager March 2023 Review the various local letting initiatives across Renfrewshire. Ensure that letting initiatives are fit for purpose, delivering best value, and good outcomes for our customers. Housing Regeneration and Development Manager /Housing Services Manager March 2023 Implement revised Housing Asset Management Strategy A revised strategy will set out proposals to achieve the necessary statutory and regulatory standards including EESSH2, SHQS and all other compliance requirements and to maintain these standards in the coming years. Housing Asset and Investment Manager March 2023 Carry out review of the current factoring service and potential use with regeneration areas. To ensure we have robust arrangements in place to protect investment particularly within regeneration areas. Housing Asset and Investment Manager March 2023 Complete the developments at Auchengreoch Road (handovers of the 39 new homes will take place in summer 2022) and Ferguslie Park (handovers of the 101 new homes will commence summer/autumn 2022 with full completion expected early 2023). On completion we will have completed over 315 new build homes since 2019 All Council newbuild developments include a mix of property sizes and types and all ground floor accommodation is level and step-free to meet mobility needs. Housing Regeneration and Development Manager March 2023 Commence feasibility work - Flood Risk Assessments at Gallowhill ahead of proposed new build project. The proposed new build project at Gallowhill could result in a total of up to 60 new council homes being built. Housing Regeneration and Development Manager March 2023
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22 Continue to work with stakeholders to understand the impacts of EU withdrawal and ensure safety of products in Renfrewshire This work will continue and will increase over the coming years as import/exports pick up following Covid-19 but also when the EU withdrawal is implemented fully. Officers continue to liaise with Glasgow Airport and other partners e.g. Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) to understand challenges and funding available, Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Assess the use of Litter Control Areas across Renfrewshire Officers will be assessing if the use of the Litter Control Areas under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is the best way to achieve compliance in certain areas of Renfrewshire. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Complete the review of animal licence conditions across all licences To modernise and ensure relevant to new licensing requirements Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Establish and implement a process to ensure all Regulated private water supplies are identified, sampled and risk assessed to meet regulatory requirements This will help ensure private water supplies are safe to use and meet all relevant legislation. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Establish the new Environmental taskforce This will help tackle issues including targeting fly tipping hot-spots (reactive and proactive), and it will tie in with Renfrewshire projects such as Team Up To Clean Up and liaise with national organisations such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to support and assist in delivering Scotland wide projects within Renfrewshire. The roles are currently being recruited with the Teams expected to be live by the Summer of 2022. Community Development Manager March 2023 Deliver The Business Regulation Service Plan over the next 18 months The Business Regulation Service Plan details the work to be undertaken by the service, setting out objectives, the resources required and approach to quality assurance in the format and detail required by Food Standards Scotland. The Plan this year also sets out the resource required to undertake a catch up programme of food law inspections following the period during the COVID-19 pandemic when proactive routine inspections were restricted in line with guidance at that time from Food Standards Scotland. Communities and Regulatory Manager October 2023
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23 PI code Performance Indicator Frequency Last update Current Value Current Target Traffic Light Icon 2022/23 Target 2023/24 Target 2024/25 Target CAHSSDP21.02 Private Water Supplies – 100% of type A supplies risk assessed and sampled Annual 2021/22 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% CR.PP.01 Air Quality ‐ Annual average PM10 value across all continuous monitoring sites Annual 2020/21 10.2ug/m3 18ug/m3 18ug/m3 18ug/m3 18ug/m3 CR.PP.01b Air Quality ‐ average nitrogen dioxide value of monitoring sites, within AQMA(s) exceeding limits Annual 2020/21 <40ug/m3 41ug/m3 40ug/m3 40ug/m3 40ug/m3 CAHSSDP21.05 Number of or percentage of businesses brought into compliance with applicable legislation within 30 days Quarterly 2021/22 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% CAHSIP22.01 The new Environmental Taskforce will proactively visit known fly‐tipping hot‐ spots to clear waste and try to catch offenders Quarterly New indicator New indicator New indicator N/A 260 visits 260 visits 260 visits CAHSIP22.04 The Green Spaces and Community Project will aim to work closely with schools during visits across the school year (20 visits per term). Annual – measured across school terms New indicator New indicator New indicator N/A 60 visits 60 visits 60 visits
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24 People: what we do to support our communities and individual residents What will we do? What difference will we make? Who is leading this? When will we do it by? Develop and implement a new Tenant Participation Strategy. The new strategy will review how we can best support tenant participation, including embracing digital technology, to help us reach groups who have not been previously involved. Housing Regeneration and Development Manager/ Housing Services Manager December 2022 Support the resettlement of refugees in to settled accommodation within the social rented sector. Safely resettle refugees within Renfrewshire Homeless and Housing Support team/ Housing Services Manager March 2023 Establish the Welcome Hub at Glasgow airport for Ukrainian refugees Ensuring a warm and safe welcome for refugees from Ukraine Homeless and Housing Support Manager March 2023 Support the Council’s response to the Scottish Governments ‘super sponsor’ scheme for Ukrainian refugees and the UK Government’s “Homes for Ukraine” scheme. Safely resettle Ukrainian refugees within Renfrewshire Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Develop and promote the work of the Advocacy Team to support tenants within the private rented sector This will help ensure that tenants in the private rented sector have access to support and assistance available. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Deliver the key outputs from the 4th year of Renfrewshire’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) The RRTP details how those who are homeless will be provided with settled accommodation more quickly; spend reduced time in temporary accommodation and have more access to up-scaled support. Homeless and Housing Support Manager March 2023 Enhance our Sheltered Housing and Health & Wellbeing service We will broaden the range of support and wellbeing initiatives provided for sheltered housing tenants, as well as rolling this out to older tenants living in amenity housing. We will also offer access to health and wellbeing initiatives to homeless applicants and housing support service users. Homeless and Housing Support Manager March 2023
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25 Launch new holistic support service ‘MYLA’ (My Life Ahead) This service, provided in partnership with Turning Point Scotland, with funding from Alcohol & Drug Commission Programme Board to engage with people who are experiencing challenges in their life related to alcohol, other drugs, and/or housing/homelessness. Homeless and Housing Support Manager March 2023 Deliver the key actions for 2022/23 outlined within the Community Learning and Development Strategy for 2021–24 across the three key priority areas o Young People, o Adults and Families, and o Building Communities The resulting plan of activities and action set out in this strategy, is an ambitious plan of action over the next three years till 2024 that will deliver real opportunities for individuals, families and communities across Renfrewshire to develop capacity, shape community aspirations and develop and maintain the services and facilities they want locally Community Development Manager March 2023 Deliver the Antisocial Behaviour Strategy and provide an annual update on progress to the Communities and Housing Policy Board We will tackle and will respond to antisocial behaviour in Renfrewshire through a partnership and evidence led early intervention approach. Community Development Manager March 2023 PI code Performance Indicator Frequency Last update Current Value Current Target Traffic Light Icon 2022/23 Target 2023/24 Target 2024/25 Target HPCMT05 Average time from household presenting themselves as homeless to completion of duty (number of weeks) Quarterly 2021/22 22.25 26 24 24 24 SOA08.09o Percentage of adults who agree that Renfrewshire is a safe place to live. Annual 2020/21 75% 85% 85% 85% 85% SOA09.1218a Percentage of adults who agree with the statement “I am satisfied with my neighbourhood as a place to live”. Annual 2020/21 82% 85% 85% 85% 85% CAHSIP.22.02 Contact to be made with all Sponsors in the Homes for Ukraine programme (Private and Super Sponsors) within 5 working days of cases being passed to Renfrewshire Council Quarterly New Indicator New Indicator New Indicator N/A 95% 95% 95%
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26 CAHSIP.22.03 Visits to be made to every property/household that want to continue as a sponsor with process being followed through to completion (acceptance or rejection) Quarterly New indicator New indicator New indicator N/A 100% 100% 100% Sustainability: what we do to address climate issues and promote sustainable services and communities What will we do? What difference will we make? Who is leading this? When will we do it by? Deliver the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing post-2020 (EESSH2) milestones EESSH2 aims to improve the energy efficiency of social housing in Scotland. This will help reduce fuel poverty and ensure warm, high quality, affordable, low carbon homes and a housing sector that helps to establish a successful low carbon economy across Scotland. Housing Asset and Investment Manager March 2023 Ensure the large value contracts for major works including Retrofit Design, Retrofit Works and- Voids/Tenanted works are in place. These contracts will ensure we continue to improve the energy efficiency and overall condition of our tenants homes. Housing Asset and Investment Manager March 2023 Progress the Regeneration and Renewal programme in eight Regeneration Areas, including – Establish and begin to implement a programme for each area, with milestones for demolition, new build and investment in homes being retained Set up Neighbourhood Renewal Groups for the Regeneration Areas so that all stakeholders can contribute to the housing-led regeneration Over the next 10 years, the £100m Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme will deliver modern, high quality, energy efficient, affordable Council housing that will not only significantly enhance the Council’s housing stock but will also contribute to the wider transformation of Renfrewshire as a place, and will be central to the economic and social recovery of Renfrewshire. Housing Regeneration and Development Manager March 2023
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27 Complete our New Build Housing Zero Carbon Innovation Project with John Gilbert Architects and the University of Strathclyde This will see us develop a standard specification for our new build houses to deliver net zero carbon homes by 2030, taking into account the whole lifecycle of the buildings including embodied carbon in construction, tenants’ use and recycling at demolition Housing Regeneration and Development Manager March 2023 PI code Performance Indicator Frequency Last update Current Value Current Target Traffic Light Icon 2022/23 Target 2023/24 Target 2024/25 Target HPCMT13a Percentage of Council housing stock which meets the Scottish Housing Quality Standard Annual 2021/22 57% 100% 100% 100% 100% CAHSSDP21.01 Percentage of homes meeting the EESSH 2020 standard Annual 2021/22 78.4% 95% 95% 95% 95% HPCHARTER13 Percentage of reactive repairs carried out in the last year completed right first time Annual 2021/22 85% 93% 93% 93% 93% HPCMT07 Percentage of Overall Repairs Completed Within Target Quarterly 2021/22 93.6% 95% 95% 95% 95% HPCHARTER12 Average length of time taken to complete non‐emergency repairs (days) Quarterly 2021/22 14 days 15 days 15 days 15 days 15 days
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28 Living our Values: what we do in terms of our organisational behaviours and approaches What will we do? What difference will we make? Who is leading this? When will we do it by? Implement the Housing Management Services - Operational Activity Plan 2022/23. Under the following priorities; Recovery and resilience Rent Collection Managing Tenancy Changes Estate and Tenancy Management The plan outlines the intended actions for 2022/23 to deliver continuous improvement and contribution to key operational activities locally and also details ongoing actions that contribute to improving outcomes and conditions for Council Tenants. Housing Services Manager March 2023 Expand the Housing Asset and Investment team’s resources to ensure capacity for the additional works programmed for the coming years. This will ensure the successful delivery of the over £250m in capital investment in housing over the next 5 years (with significant ramping up in years 2 and 3). Housing Asset and Investment Manager March 2023 Deliver any new duties which may form a future Housing Bill following the Scottish Government’s PREVENTION OF HOMELESSNESS DUTIES consultation. Changes to existing homelessness legislation may include measures to ensure homelessness is prevented at an earlier stage, including a proposal to extend the duty to take reasonable steps to prevent homelessness up to six months before, to maximise the housing options available to people and to prescribe what reasonable steps may include. Homeless and Housing Support Manager March 2023 Finalise service review and restructure of the Community Protection team The new structure will respond to the changing needs of service users as well as providing opportunities for career development for staff within these teams. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Implement the voluntary professional dog walking scheme in Renfrewshire As part of the voluntary initiative the scheme will set minimum standards for the businesses so dog owners feel their pets are safe and in reliable hands. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023 Work with partners on national Serious Organised Crime and CONTEST (Prevent) agendas This will ensure a joined up, co-ordinated approach to dealing with serious organised crime and threats of terrorism. Communities and Regulatory Manager March 2023
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29 Finalise service review and restructure of Community Learning and Development team The new structure will respond to the changing needs of service users as well as providing opportunities for career development for staff within these teams. Community Development Manager March 2023 PI code Performance Indicator Frequency Last update Current Value Current Target Traffic Light Icon 2022/23 Target 2023/24 Target 2024/25 Target CAHSSDP21.06 Training – Percentage of staff training undertaken in relation to qualifications Quarterly 2021/22 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% DHS.COMP.FRONT% Total Percentage of frontline (stage 1) complaints responded to within 5 days Quarterly 2021/22 61% 95% 95% 95% 95% DHS.COMP.INV% Total Percentage of investigation (stage 2) complaints responded to within 20 days Quarterly 2021/22 81% 95% 95% 95% 95% HPCHARTER31 Gross rent arrears (all tenants) as at 31 March each year as a percentage of rent due for the reporting year. Quarterly 2021/22 7.99% 8% 7.5%* TBC TBC HPCHARTER30 Rent collected as percentage of total rent due in the reporting year. Quarterly 2021/22 98.2% 98% 98%* TBC TBC HPCHARTER35 Average length of time taken to re‐let properties in the last year Quarterly 2021/22 66 days 60 days 53* TBC TBC HPCHARTER34 Percentage of rent loss due to voids Quarterly 2021/22 2% 1.60% 1.8%* TBC TBC CAHSSDP21.07 Average number of work days lost per full time equivalent (FTE) employee. (cumulative) Quarterly 2021/22 TBC 8.5 TBC TBC TBC *These indicators will be reviewed at the mid-year point due to the various potential challenges which feed into the service provision/ performance
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30 DATA ONLY INDICATORS PI code Performance Indicator Frequency Last update Current Value Current Target Traffic Light Icon 2022/23 Target 2023/24 Target 2024/25 Target CAHSSDP21.03.a Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ no. of investigations Quarterly 2021/22 43 Data only Data only Data only Data only CAHSSDP21.03.b Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ no. of reports to First Tier Tribunal Quarterly 2021/22 5 Data only Data only Data only Data only CAHSSDP21.03.c Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ no. of RPNs issued Quarterly 2021/22 453 Data only Data only Data only Data only LGBF Scorecard – Communities and Housing Services Indicator Ranked Position Data Scottish Average 2019/20 2020/21 2019/20 2020/21 ENV5 – Cost of Trading Standards and environmental health per 1,000 population 15 20 £19,470 £19,360 £18,463 ENV5a – Cost of trading standards, money advice and citizens advice per 1,000 population 31 30 £13,454 £12,699 £5,857 ENV5b – Cost of environmental health per 1,000 population 1 1 £6,015 £6,661 £12,606 HSN1b – Gross rent arrears (all tenants) as at 31 March each year as a percentage of rent due for the reporting year 6 7 5.73% 6.42% 8.19% HSN2 – Percentage of rent due in the year that was lost due to voids 19 18 1.52% 1.58% 1.38% HSN3 – Percentage of council dwellings meeting SHQS 17 13 94.65% 91.65% 90.26% HSN4b – Average number of days taken to complete non-emergency repairs 17 17 7.76 10.71 7.28 HSN5 – Percentage of council dwellings that are energy efficient 20 14 78.01% 86.63% 86.35%
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1 Appendix 2 Communities and Housing Services SERVICE DELIVERY PLAN 2021/22 OUTTURN REPORT
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2 1. Introduction 1.1 As part of the council’s approach to managing the pandemic response, council services each produced a one-year Service Delivery Plan in 2021. These focused on the actions necessary to manage the response and the recovery from the pandemic. This outturn details the achievements of Communities and Housing Services during 2021/22 and sets out progress against actions and performance targets. 1.2 As restrictions continue to ease and public services can have a greater focus again on business as usual, the council is once again producing three-year improvement plans. The new Service Improvement Plan for the period 2022 to 2025 is also being presented to this Board as appendix 1 of this report. 2. Background 2.1 With approximately 430 members of staff, Communities and Housing Services aims to create, develop, support, protect and empower Renfrewshire’s communities. This includes managing and investing in our housing stock of 12,216 properties and providing services to council tenants, alongside housing advice and support, assisting homeless people and those threatened with homelessness and ensuring people have safe and healthy places to live. 2.2 This work links closely with our community protection role safeguarding public health and protecting the environment, consumers, workers and local communities. Within these communities, we encourage people to fulfil their potential and ensure they have equal access to a range of learning and development opportunities. Community Learning and Development teams work to build this capacity in young people and other individuals, families, groups and communities. 3. Achievements in 2021/22 3.1 The Service Delivery Plan 2021/22 reflected the specific tasks councils would have to undertake in order to support communities and businesses through the ongoing effect of the pandemic and also into a recovery phase. Services carried out a range of tasks directly related to the pandemic as well as continuing to progress with both ‘business as usual’ and strategic priorities.
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3 3.2 As well as having a focus on responding to COVID-19 and supporting communities and businesses during this period, Communities and Housing Services teams continued to provide core services which are essential to our communities and have ensured the delivery of a wide range of key activities and achievements across the service. Particular activities to highlight include: 3.3 Housing Services A joint report by the Chief Executive, Director of Communities and Housing and Director of Finance and Resources setting out a major programme of Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal was approved by Council on 17 December 2020. This sought to bring forward additional investment from the Housing Revenue Account of some £100m over the next 10 years to deliver modern, high quality, energy efficient, affordable Council housing that will not only significantly enhance the Council’s housing stock but will also contribute to the wider transformation of Renfrewshire as a place, and will be central to the economic and social recovery of Renfrewshire. Following approval from the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board on 18 May 2021, consultation was carried out in the 8 phase 1 areas of the £100 million Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme for Renfrewshire. Consultation was widely publicised, with an opportunity for people to take part and comment on the proposals in a variety of ways to suit their needs and preferred method of communication. A further report in March 2022 notes the feedback received from tenants, residents, owners and local communities during the further targeted consultation period in three of the phase 1 areas, and the Director of Communities and Housing Services was authorised to undertake the necessary processes to implement the revised proposals for the three Regeneration Areas concerned. A new build programme for 2021/22 has been delivered – with revised targets due to COVID-19 restrictions. 95 newbuild homes in Johnstone Castle were completed in April 2021. The Bishopton newbuild project delivered a range of house types, sizes and locations, with 80 spacious family and amenity homes which are energy efficient and affordable. Worked commenced on site in spring 2021 on 39 new homes at Auchengreoch Road in Johnstone and on 101 new homes in Ferguslie Park The comprehensive review of all statutory landlord compliance activities was completed and the Compliance Strategy and policies are now all in place. A new Compliance Team is now in place and a further review of resource requirements has also been undertaken. This will ensure our housing stock complies with all statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to Gas, Electric, Asbestos, Water, Lifts & Fire Safety.
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4 Fabric works are being tailored to the buildings in each area and will adopt a whole house retrofit approach with measures to improve energy efficiency and help reduce energy costs for tenants. During 2021/22, Housing Services continued to be delivered in accordance with the relevant and current Scottish Government guidance and restrictions. Staff quickly and positively adapted to working remotely and have continued to deliver essential services to tenants, homeless people, those threatened with homelessness, and other services users. Staff continue to make connections and refer Council Tenants and applicants where appropriate to relevant colleagues and partners to access support and/ or financial advice and assistance. Joint networking meetings have been held between all housing management staff, income advisors and homelessness staff to further increase awareness of respective services and assistance available to those who need it. Housing staff continue to make proactive contact with customers. A successful bid to Connecting Scotland has enabled the provision of devices to some customers to improve access to services and other benefits that being digitally enabled offers. Housing Services, Homeless Services and Housing Support staff piloted a digital platform, “Near Me”, which enables face to face contact online, enabling enhanced form filling assistance, face to face interviews and meetings without the need for a customer to travel to an office. Although we recognise the benefits that digital platforms like “Near Me” can provide to our clients to widen the choice of methods available to them to interact with us, we also recognise the importance of in person meetings. And as the relaxing and removal of Scottish Government COVID-19 restrictions have occurred, staff across all Housing Services teams have returned to front line duties in person to assist and support our tenants and other clients. Our Refugee Resettlement Team continued to support the Council’s refugee resettlement programme throughout 2021/22. In March 2022, a report was presented to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board providing an update on the proposed distribution of the COVID-19 Tenant Grant Fund, and how the needs of homeless people have continued to be met throughout the pandemic, as well as a further update on the significant progress that has been made in the implementation of Renfrewshire’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP). In line with the recommendations to the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board in October 2021, the Council is on track to have distributed the full Tenants Grant Fund allocation of £214,000 across the private and social rented sectors, to address rent arrears accrued by around 172 tenants, who met the applicable guidance and criteria.
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5 Key initiatives in relation to homelessness during 2021/22 include: o the use of a Housing First approach in partnership with Turning Point Scotland and Blue Triangle H.A. which has now been further upscaled from 18 service users at the beginning of the RRTP, to 57 individuals now being in receipt of this wraparound support at any one time, using both RRTP and Council funding. o launch of a ‘shared living’ initiative with the Simon Community Scotland to support homeless applicants who want to share accommodation. o Deployment of an officer from ‘Say Women’ to support young women (16- 25 years old) who have been subjected to sexual violence and are at risk of homelessness. Despite the challenges of the past 2 years, the total annual number of statutorily homeless households in Renfrewshire has shown no significant increase. During 2021/22 we provided support to 2,254 people and 909 homeless applications were received. Over the last two years, there has been a continued strong focus on matching Council/ Registered Social landlord (RSL) properties to those who were homeless or in greater housing need. Of the 940 homes let during 2021/22 through our Common Housing Allocation Policy a total of 369 were allocated to statutory homeless clients and 174 were allocated by our RSL partners. Within Homeless and Housing Support Services, we delivered a range of new programmes to support our clients, including - ‘Move-on’, ‘We’re Safe & Well’ and ‘WRAP’. The Renfrewshire Alcohol and Drugs Commission recognised that a safe and secure home is the best base for people to build their lives and enjoy good health and wellbeing. For those who are homeless, the provision of settled mainstream accommodation as early as possible, with appropriate support, is a key element in helping individuals and families affected by alcohol and drug use to rebuild their lives. We continue to strengthen our approach to prevention and repeat homelessness by providing holistic wraparound support to households in Renfrewshire, regardless of tenure, whose life is being affected by alcohol and/ or drugs. We submitted the Annual Return on the Charter (ARC) to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) in May 2022. The ARC records the quality of service provided to tenants and provides benchmarking and tenant scrutiny of the services provided. We use this to help us prioritise what areas within Housing Services we will focus on for improvement. The Tenants Information Service (TIS), which is an organisation set up to promote and inspire innovative tenant participation have been commissioned to review the current approach to customer engagement and produce a new Tenant
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6 Participation Strategy. The new strategy will embrace digital technology, to help us reach groups who were not previously involved and a draft strategy will be brought to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board for consideration. Staff across Housing participated in the short life working group established to review and update the Renfrewshire Antisocial Behaviour Strategy. At the March 2022 meeting, the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board approved the Renfrewshire ASB Strategy 2022-2025. Housing Services staff continue to assist and support our colleagues in the Chief Executive’s Service with the production of major strategic documents including the Local Housing Strategy and the Local Development Plan. At the March 2022 meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, the draft Renfrewshire Local Housing Strategy 2022-2027 was presented and approval was given to consult for a period of 12 weeks to obtain the views of communities and stakeholders. 3.4 Communities and Public Protection Front line workers continued to be out working delivering essential services to businesses and residents across all communities throughout the pandemic. In particular, Communities and Public Protection services have been at the forefront in supporting the Council in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on services and communities. During 2021/22 this has included: o recruiting additional Environmental Health Compliance Officers o assisting Public Health with contact tracing in educational establishments o delivery of Community Testing sites to assist with asymptomatic testing o supporting businesses to understand and remain compliant with all relevant Scottish Government COVID-19 legislation and guidance o supporting delivery of safe elections for the Scottish Parliament and Council by providing guidance and staff acting as COVID-19 Marshalls and COVID-19 Supervisors The service continued to deliver and manage the Local Assistance Team (LAT) for calls in relation to self-isolation/vaccinations. Since August 2020, a total of 26,857 individuals who were self isolating have been contacted and approximately 6,000 parents and carers of those that have come into contact with somebody with COVID-19 have been advised to self isolate. The Local Assistance Team completed their final calls on 30 April 2022. The Civil Contingencies team (CCS) played a key role in the response to the COVID- 19 pandemic and supported Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire Council’s as well as the wider Greater Glasgow and Clyde region throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This included supporting the Council
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7 management structures dealing with the incident, playing an active role in updating on any local, regional and national issues to share pertinent information and helping support decision making around the various issues arising from the coronavirus pandemic The CCS was also pivotal in the setting up and supporting the COVID-19 vaccination centres and testing centres across Renfrewshire and supporting preparations for the COP26 event held in November 2021. Officers from the Community Development service delivered the only youth led participatory budgeting exercise in Scotland undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered the Get into Summer programme of activities throughout the summer of 2021, with a core programme open to all on a universal basis supported by a number of targeted activities aimed at particular groups or families known to have been particularly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 15,000 people participated and over 200 families received targeted support. The work carried out by staff over the last two years, in responding to the pandemic including supporting the childcare hubs, delivering the Get into Summer programme and delivering Participatory Budgeting exercises demonstrates the transferable skills and commitment of staff to the communities of Renfrewshire. Team Up to Clean Up has grown from approximately 1,200 volunteers before the pandemic to over 3,700 active community members. During 2021/22, 4,696 community events took place, 8965, volunteers were involved, and 18,056 bags of litter were uplifted by volunteers. More than half of the 74 Green Spaces projects were delivered by volunteer groups working with Team Up to Clean Up. Almost all funding available via the Greenspaces, Parks and Play Areas and Villages Investment fund has now been allocated (94%) funding with over 70 projects being taken forward by communities across Renfrewshire. It has inspired the creation of 6 newly constituted community groups and 4 groups have purchased tools and containers to boost the Councils grounds maintenance offerings. Fly Tipping has been a priority and historical sites at Sergeantlaw Road and Blackstoun Road have been cleared and secured. During 2021/22, a total of 1,787 fly tipping incidents were reported, which was a 15% reduction in reported incidents compared to 2020/21. Training and development opportunities have included the recruitment of additional employees to support the Team Up to Clean Up campaign and use of Invest and Kick Start programmes to support training and employee opportunities within Community Safety. Officers from Renfrewshire Council sat on a national group with Food Standards Scotland to ensure consistency across Scotland as a programme of catch - up inspections and recovery plans was developed following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Business Regulation Service Plan was approved on 25 August 2021 detailing
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8 plans for the recovery of the Renfrewshire Food Law inspection programme to ensure full compliance with the Food Law Code of Practice for Scotland. The Renfrewshire Community Learning and Development Strategy for 2021–24 was developed in collaboration with a wide range of partner organisations, third sector groups and individual service users and was approved in August 2021. A Water Safety Working Group was established, and the Renfrewshire Water Safety Policy agreed in January 2022. Public Rescue Equipment has now been placed at key locations across Renfrewshire. The Renfrewshire Antisocial Behaviour Strategy 2022-2025 was updated and approved by board in March 2022. This was developed with a range of statutory, voluntary and community partners and has a comprehensive action plan to help tackle antisocial behaviour. The Financial Harm Strategy was developed and approved by board in March 2022. The Strategy sets out ways partner agencies and communities can work together to prevent financial harm; report it and support those affected. Contaminated Land and Air Quality Management strategies have been reviewed and updated. Work has been undertaken to review, visit and risk assess the highest risk private water supplies. During 2022/23 a process to ensure all Regulated private water supplies are identified, sampled and risk assessed to meet regulatory requirements will be established. Prevent training and awareness raising has been updated to support the Council’s delivery of Counter Terrorism initiatives. The roll out of Notice-Check-Share training to support local and national priorities remains ongoing. A Home Office led self-assessment review has been completed and demonstrates that Renfrewshire has established good practice in relation to compliance with the UK guidance published in February 2021. 4. Progress against actions and performance measures The Service Delivery Plan contains a total of 33 actions and 25 performance measures. Where performance is below expectation we will monitor and take appropriate remedial action. In terms of the Service Delivery Plan this currently includes Percentage of Council Housing Stock which meets the SHQS - This year has seen an increase in the percentage of failures as 2 new elements are now included within the calculation of this PI. For the first time, compliance with 5 yearly electrical installation condition report (EICR) checks and the new smoke and heat detector standard are included within the assessment of SHQS compliance. The
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9 council’s programme of EICR checks and smoke detector upgrades has been significantly affected by the impact of covid on the construction industry and was not complete by March 2022 as planned. Both the EICR and smoke detector programmes are still ongoing and when complete will give a significant increase in properties passing SHQS over the next year. Percentage of homes meeting the EESSH 2020 standard - Delivery of the capital investment programme has progressed, but has been affected by significant delays due to a range of issues which are still affecting the construction industry as it emerges from the restrictions put in place during the pandemic. These issues include delays with material supplies, fluctuating resource levels as the demand for construction work drives higher pay rates and ongoing high levels of absence due to covid cases. Planned works which have been delayed will be reprofiled into next financial year, so whilst there have been delays, the works will still be completed. Complaints Performance – Complaint performance dipped during 2021/22. There was a 33% increase in frontline complaints received in 2021/22 (808 received) compared to the previous year 200/21 (602 received). Although we were able to restart the carrying out repairs following the lifting of COVID restrictions at various points throughout 2021/22, there was still a backlog of repairs and the impact on repairs and other service issues due to the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic and this led to a higher number of complaints answered out with the timescale of 5 days. We expect complaints performance to improve over the course of this year and we have focused additional resources to support this. Absence – current levels are similar to pre pandemic levels and the service is proactively managing each absence to ensure all available support and assistance is provided to staff who are currently off due to sickness absence. A monthly review meeting is also held with colleagues in HR to ensure absence remains a focus of the service.
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10 Communities and Housing Services - Service Delivery Plan 2021-22 Action Plan and Performance Indicators Action Status Overdue; Check Progress In Progress Completed
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11 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status Continue to work with stakeholders to understand the impacts of EU withdrawal and ensure safety of products in Renfrewshire Safer communities by ensuring products etc are safe. It will also assist economy by ensuring businesses to import/export and that anything placed on the market is safe Communities and Public Protection – Environmental Health – Business Regulation Manager and Serious Organised Crime and Trading Standards Manager March 2022 We continue to work with stakeholders to understand and assess the challenges and impacts of the EU withdrawal. This work will continue and will increase over the coming years as import/exports pick up following Covid‐19 but also when the EU withdrawal is implemented fully. Officers continue to liaise with Glasgow Airport and other partners e.g. Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) to understand challenges and funding available, In terms of work carried out during 2021/22 this action is 100% complete. 100% Deliver the first year actions of Housing‐led Regeneration and Renewal Programme for Renfrewshire? The programme which is part of our economic recovery plan to help Renfrewshire thrive after COVID‐19 and will create around 300 newbuild homes and deliver improvements to existing housing in eight areas in Johnstone, Paisley and Renfrew in its first phase in the first phase of this 10 Housing Regeneration and Development Team March 2022 Following approval from the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board on 18 May 2021, consultation was carried out in the 8 phase 1 areas. Consultation was widely publicised, with an opportunity for people to take part and comment on the proposals in a variety of ways to suit their needs and preferred method of communication. A further report in March 2022 notes the feedback received from tenants, residents, owners and local communities during the further targeted consultation period in three of the phase 1 areas, and the Director 100% Strategic Outcome 1: Reshaping our place, our economy and our future
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12 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status year programme. Creating modern, affordable, safe and warm homes which are designed to reduce fuel poverty and carbon emissions of Communities and Housing Services was authorised to undertake the necessary processes to implement the revised proposals for the three Regeneration Areas concerned. Improve Tenant Participation by delivering the Customer Engagement Action Plan. The Action Plan outlines how we will strengthen and increase tenant participation and support engagement, to help inform ongoing service development and continuous improvement. Housing Regeneration and Development Team March 2022 The annual report detailing all we have achieved during 2021/22 will be presented to the Communities and Housing Policy Board during 2022. The Tenants Information Service (TIS), which is an organisation set up to promote and inspire innovative tenant participation have been commissioned to review the current approach to customer engagement and produce a new Tenant Participation Strategy. The new strategy will embrace digital technology, to help us reach groups who were not previously involved and a draft strategy will be brought to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board for consideration. 100%
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13 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status We will deliver new build programme for 2021/22 – with revised targets due to COVID‐19 restrictions. Provide modern, energy efficient homes Housing Regeneration and Development Team March 2022 A new build programme for 2021/22 has been delivered – with revised targets due to COVID‐19 restrictions 95 newbuild homes in Johnstone Castle were completed in April 2021 The Bishopton newbuild project delivered a range of house types, sizes and locations, with 80 spacious family and amenity homes which are energy efficient and affordable Worked commenced on site in spring 2021 on 39 new homes at Auchengreoch Road in Johnstone and on 101 new homes in Ferguslie Park 100% Sustained increase in the number and proportion of lets from Council and RSL partners Reduce the time homeless applicants spend in temporary accommodation, in line with national homeless policy. Positive effect on tenancy sustainment level and reduction in temporary accommodation costs. Homeless and Housing Support Services/ Housing Services March 2022 Of the 940 homes let during 2021/22 through our Common Housing Allocation Policy a total of 369 were allocated to statutory homeless clients and a further 174 were allocated by our RSL partners. 100% Strategic Outcome 2: Building strong, safe and resilient communities
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14 Upscale the use of a Housing First approach in supporting homeless applicants into settled tenancies Increase in number of homeless applicants being provided with wraparound support. Improved tenancy sustainment levels Homeless and Housing Support Services March 2022 Number being supported at any one time via the Housing First approach now increased to 57 100% Review the provision of temporary accommodation light of the impact of RRTP and Council Regeneration programme Rationalise the provision and cost of temp accommodation. Homeless and Housing Support Services March 2022 Review completed. Stock of temporary accommodation is currently having to be sustained at previous levels due to demand from impacts of COVID‐19 and recovery. 100% Implement new management structure for sheltered housing service. Service modernised, improved resilience, meet Care Inspectorate requirements. Alternative arrangements in place for liaison with Gypsy / Travellers Homeless and Housing Support Services March 2022 Establishment Change Report finalised and new structure to be implemented from Summer 2022 80% Review service delivery arrangements for Concierge/ Caretaking service Improved links with enhanced estate management service. Homeless and Housing Support Services/ Housing Services March 2022 New arrangements to be implemented in summer/ autumn 2022. Internal Audit of all safety procedures has been carried out 75%
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15 Continue to work with relevant colleagues and partners such as Advice Works, Invest in Renfrewshire, Energy Advisors and other support services to help council tenants to access any source of funding or benefit entitlement available Tenants income is maximised Housing Services March 2022 Staff continue to make connections and refer Council Tenants and applicants where appropriate to relevant colleagues and partners to access support and / or financial advice and assistance. Joint networking meetings have been held between all housing management staff, income advisors and homelessness staff to further increase awareness of respective services and assistance available to those who need it. 100% Maximising contact with customers to understand their needs and offer support through proactive contact. Allow us to understand their needs to help inform what actions we take next. Housing Services March 2022 Housing staff continue to make proactive contact with customers ensuring all services and any other benefits that being digitally enabled offers are utilised. 100% Implement revised Housing Asset Management Strategy A revised strategy will set out proposals to deal with abeyances and exemptions which have arisen from the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and programmes to maintain delivery of the standard in coming years. Housing Asset and Investment Team March 2022 This has not progressed fully due to staff turnover in particular roles. This will be prioritised in 2022/23 following recruitment of a Housing Asset & Energy Strategy Manager post. 25% Deliver HEEPS:ABS programme subject to COVID‐19 restrictions The HEEPS:ABS programme will help to ensure council properties in mixed tenure blocks meet EESSH, reducing fuel poverty and ensuring warm, energy efficient homes. Housing Asset and Investment Team March 2022 The delivery of the HEEPS:ABS programme has progressed subject to COVID‐19 restrictions, but has been affected by significant delays due to a range of issues which are still affecting the construction industry as it emerges from the restrictions put in place during the pandemic. These issues include delays with material supplies, fluctuating resource 100% subject to COVID‐19 restrictions
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16 levels as the demand for construction work drives higher pay rates and ongoing high levels of absence due to covid cases. Planned works which have been delayed will be reprofiled into next financial year, so whilst there have been delays, the works will still be completed. Deliver yearly programme towards ensuring houses meet EESSH standard subject to COVID‐19 restrictions EESSH aims to improve the energy efficiency of social housing in Scotland. This will help reduce fuel poverty and ensure warm, high quality, affordable, low carbon homes and a housing sector that helps to establish a successful low carbon economy across Scotland. Housing Asset and Investment Team March 2022 Delivery of the capital investment programme has progressed, but has been affected by significant delays due to a range of issues which are still affecting the construction industry as it emerges from the restrictions put in place during the pandemic. These issues include delays with material supplies, fluctuating resource levels as the demand for construction work drives higher pay rates and ongoing high levels of absence due to covid cases Planned works which have been delayed will be reprofiled into next financial year, so whilst there have been delays, the works will still be completed. 100% subject to COVID‐19 restrictions
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17 Complete smoke and heat detector upgrade programme. This will ensure our housing stock meets the revised regulations on smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors introduced by the Scottish Government. The date for compliance with the new standards has been extended from February 2021 to February 2022, due to the practical difficulties caused by COVID‐19. Housing Asset and Investment Team February 2022 Good progress has been made, however, the programme has suffered from delays due to a range of issues which are still affecting the construction industry as it emerges from the restrictions put in place during the pandemic. 78% Review the Renfrewshire Council Anti‐Social Behaviour Strategy and associated procedures A fit for purpose strategy to work alongside partners to tackle persistent anti‐ social behaviour Communities and Public Protection – Lead Officer, Tasking and Deployment October 2021 At their March 2022 meeting, the Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board approved the Renfrewshire ASB Strategy 2022‐2025. This has been developed with a range of statutory, voluntary and community partners whilst taking account of the legislative requirements set out in the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004. 100% Continue to deliver and manage the Local Assistance Team wherever required for calls in relation to self‐ isolation/vaccinations to ensure support to the communities Assistance for communities throughout the pandemic to ensure support in isolation Communities and Public Protection – Resilience and Deployment Manager March 2022 Total calls since 12/10/2020: 26,857 Following revised Scottish Government guidance the Local Assistance Team have been stood down and completed their last calls on Saturday 30th April 2022. The work undertaken by the team, often alongside their normal workload, has been outstanding and recognised via “Thank you” letters from Scottish Government and Renfrewshire Council Chief Executive. 100%
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18 Roll out of further Notice‐Check‐Share training as part of the local and national Prevent training Safer communities and to allow people to share concerns safely Communities and Public Protection – Resilience and Deployment Manager March 2022 The NOTICE‐CHECK‐SHARE training has now been rolled out to different audiences including Renfrewshire Council Officers (including Environmental Health) and UWS students. Feedback is very positive and the continued roll‐out will be monitored and progressed via the Community Protection (PREVENT) Steering Group. 100% Ensure business compliance with regards to COVID‐19 legislation, guidance and requirements This will reduce transmission of COVID‐19 and ensure safety for everyone working, visiting or staying in Renfrewshire. Communities and Public Protection – Environmental Health and Trading Standards Managers March 2022 Environmental Health and Trading Standards continued to be at the forefront of Covid‐19 guidance and enforcement for businesses. As the Scottish Government threat level changed, the visits and enforcement changed to a risk based approach. 100% Enhanced inspection of private water supplies (including risk assessments and sampling) in Renfrewshire to ensure compliance with legislation Safe water supplies for the consumption of residents Communities and Public Protection – Environmental Health – Public Health Manager March 2022 Work has been undertaken to review, visit and risk assess the highest risk private water supplies. Visits were still constrained between April 2021 and March 2022 due to Covid, however, high risk properties were visited and sampled. 100%
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19 Recovery of Food Law inspections in line with the Code of Practice This will allow businesses to re‐open and serve food safely to residents in Renfrewshire Communities and Public Protection – Environmental Health – Business Regulation Manager September 2021 (Subject to change due to COVID‐19 restrictions) The Business Regulation Service Plan was presented to the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board on 25 August 2021. This plan detailed the recovery of the Food Law inspection programme over the next 18 months. This has also detailed the time and resource that this will be required to ensure full compliance with the Food Law Code of Practice for Scotland. In terms of work programmed to be carried out during 2021/22 this action is 100% complete. 100% Performance Indicator Current Status 2019/20 2020 /21 2021/22 2021/22 YEAR END Comments Value Target Value Target Q1 Value Q2 Value Q3 Value Q4 Value Value Target Percentage of Council Housing Stock which meets the SHQS 95.6% 100% 91.65% 100% Not measured for quarters 57% 100% This year has seen an increase in the %age of failures as 2 new elements are now included within the calculation of this PI. For the first time, compliance with 5 yearly EICR checks and the new smoke and heat detector standard are included within the assessment of SHQS compliance. The council’s programme of EICR checks and smoke detector upgrades has been significantly affected by the impact of covid on the construction industry and was not complete by March 2022 as planned. Both the EICR and smoke detector programmes are still ongoing and when complete will give a significant increase in properties passing SHQS over the next year. At the end of 2021/22, 6,976 of the stock of 12,216 met the standard SHQS standard.
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20 There are 957 properties not in scope as they are part of approved demolition programmes and 253 properties currently in abeyance due to tenant refusal of works. Average time from household presenting themselves as homeless to completion of duty (number of weeks) 23.27 24 25 23 25.73 23.19 20.18 19.89 22.25 26 It was anticipated that performance with this indicator may slip back in 2021/22, given the challenges during COVID recovery. A commitment to our key RRTP objective of a stepped increase in the number and proportion of social rented lets to homeless applicants, as well as adjusting the arrangements for matching and resettling homeless applicants to their new tenancies, resulted in this figure actually improving to its best level for many years. It continues to be significantly better than the national average. It may be a challenge to continue to meet this level of performance given the demand for social rented properties from programmes such as Homes For Ukraine Percentage of adults who agree Renfrewshire is a safe place to live 84.6% 85% 75% 85% Not measured for quarters 75% 85% This comes from the Renfrewshire Public Services Panel which was carried out in December 2020.
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21 Percentage of adults who agree with the statement “I am satisfied with my neighbourhood as a safe place to live”. 83.5% 85% 82% 85% Not measured for quarters 82% 85% This comes from the Renfrewshire Public Services Panel which was carried out in December 2020. Percentage of homes meeting the EESSH 2020 standard N/A N/A N/A N/A Not measured for quarters 78.4% 95% This indicator previously recorded the percentage of council dwellings that are energy efficient. It has been superseded by EESSH indicators which are returned to the Scottish Housing Regulator. At the end of 2021/22, over 9,500 of the stock of 12,216 meet the EESSH2020 standard. There are over 1,200 properties exempt from EESSH in terms of SHR guidance, including 957 properties which are part of approved demolition programmes. The percentage of our stock that meets the current EESSH standard is 78.4%. Private Water Supplies ‐ 100% of type A supplies risk assessed and sampled N/A N/A N/A N/A Not measured for quarters 100% 100% This is a new performance indicator which will be reported on an annual basis. Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ no. of investigations N/A N/A N/A N/A 13 NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED 43 Data only As this activity is complaint driven, it is not appropriate to set any target for performance. The 2021 data includes all enforcement activity relating to private rented sector. Rent penalty notices issued will include landlords who are unregistered as well as landlords whose registration has expired. The 43 Investigations relate to complaints from tenants concerning the condition of privately rented property. Five of these resulting in referrals to the First Tier Tribunal.
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22 Due to workload pressures as a result of the COVID‐ 19 response it has not been possible to collect this data on a quarterly basis. Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ reports to First Tier Tribunal N/A N/A N/A N/A 1 NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED 5 Data only As this activity is complaint driven, it is not appropriate to set any target for performance. The 2021 data includes all enforcement activity relating to private rented sector. Rent penalty notices issued will include landlords who are unregistered as well as landlords whose registration has expired. The 43 Investigations relate to complaints from tenants concerning the condition of privately rented property. Five of these resulting in referrals to the First Tier Tribunal. Due to workload pressures as a result of the COVID‐ 19 response it has not been possible to collect this data on a quarterly basis. Enhanced Enforcement of Private Rented Sector ‐ RPNs issued N/A N/A N/A N/A 160 NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED NOT COLLECTED 453 Data only As this activity is complaint driven, it is not appropriate to set any target for performance. The 2021 data includes all enforcement activity relating to private rented sector. Rent penalty notices issued will include landlords who are unregistered as well as landlords whose registration has expired. The 43 Investigations relate to complaints from tenants concerning the condition of privately rented property. Five of these resulting in referrals to the First Tier Tribunal. Due to workload pressures as a result of the COVID‐ 19 response it has not been possible to collect this data on a quarterly basis.
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23 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status Develop Alcohol & Drug Commission related initiatives in line with Final Report recommendations. Initiatives being delivered to better meet the needs of those homeless applicants and tenants with alcohol and drug issues. Homeless and Housing Support Services March 2022 Programme Board approval obtained and delivery partner appointed (Turning Point Scotland), and they are recruiting staff in March 2022. In‐house Co‐ordinator appointed. Project is called Myla (My Life Ahead) Formal launch in April / May 2022 100% Develop new 3 year Community Learning and Development Plan The plan will be developed in partnership with learners and communities. The needs of learners and communities should clearly inform priorities. This will help to ensure CLD provision is adequate and efficient and meets the needs of young people, adults, families and communities. Community Learning and Development Team September 2021 The Renfrewshire Community Learning and Development Strategy for 2021–24 was developed in collaboration with a wide range of partner organisations, third sector groups and individual service users and was approved in August 2021. 100% Strategic Outcome 3: Tackling inequality, ensuring opportunities for all
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24 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status Implement the voluntary professional dog walking scheme in Renfrewshire Communities feeling safer, less dog fouling and a more controlled sector that is currently not engaged Communities and Public Protection – Lead Officer, Environmental Initiatives October 2021 A draft scheme has been devised, however, to date it has not been consulted on or launched (due to Covid‐19). The scheme is currently being reviewed to ensure it remains up to date and a plan developed to work with professional dog walkers in the coming year. This will be completed in 2022/23 with assistance required from Corporate Communications to launch the scheme. 75% Review of Litter Control Areas with Legal and Democratic Services across Renfrewshire A better understanding of areas of concern and a focus on engagement and enforcement Communities and Public Protection and Legal & Democratic Services March 2022 A review of the areas that are in place has been undertaken. In 2022/23, Officers will be assessing if the use of the Litter Control Areas under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is the best way to achieve compliance in certain areas of Renfrewshire. 100% Continue to focus on fly tipping hot spots to both remove, secure and tackle the perpetrators Cleaner communities with less fly tipping and a clear understanding that this will not be tolerated Communities and Public Protection, Environment and Infrastructure Services and SEPA March 2022 Fly Tipping has been a priority for Communities and Housing alongside Environment and Infrastructure over many years. At the Council Meeting in March 2022, funding was allocated to introduce an Environmental Taskforce that would assist in targeting fly tipping hot‐spots (reactive & proactive). The roles are currently being recruited with the Teams expected to be live by the Summer of 2022 100% S trategic Outcome 4: Creating a sustainable Renfrewshire for all to enjoy
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25 Performance Indicator Current Status 2019/20 2020 /21 2021/22 2021/22 YEAR END Comments Value Target Value Target Q1 Value Q2 Value Q3 Value Q4 Value Value Target Air Quality Annual average PM10 value across all continuous monitoring sites 14.3 18 10.2 18 Not measured for quarters 10.2ug/m3 18ug/m3 Data is calculated annually will not be available until later in 2022 following validation by the Scottish Government. This will be published in the Annual Progress Report and reported to appropriate Board. Air Quality ‐ average nitrogen dioxide value of monitoring sites, within AQMA(s) exceeding limits 41.1 42 40 41 Not measured for quarters <40ug/m3 41ug/m3 Data is calculated annually will not be available until later in 2022 following validation by the Scottish Government. This will be published in the Annual Progress Report and reported to appropriate Board
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26 What will we do? What difference will this make? Who is leading on this? When will it be completed? Update on progress from April 2021 to March 2022 Percentage complete Status We will use the Annual Return on the Charter (ARC) to Scottish Housing regulator (SHR) process to drive improvements across Housing Services. The ARC tracks the quality of service provided to tenants and provides benchmarking and tenant scrutiny of the services provided. We use this to inform what areas we will focus on for improvement. Housing Regeneration and Development Team March 2022 As anticipated, overall performance during 2020/21 has been significantly impacted by the Covid‐19 Pandemic, including; Gas servicing. Routine repairs, emergency repairs have continued to be completed throughout the pandemic period. Void repair work was undertaken where possible in order to maintain a supply of available housing that could be utilised as additional temporary accommodation. Letting activity focussed on homeless applicants and those with highest level of housing needs. Adaptations work has been affected by pandemic restrictions 100% Strategic Outcome 5: Working together to improve outcomes
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27 The service will continue with a flexible approach to service delivery in order to meet any emerging needs or changes to COVID‐19 guidance and restrictions. The service will be agile enough to continue to deliver services as effectively as possible. Housing Services March 2022 Housing Services, Homeless Services and Housing Support staff piloted a digital platform, “Near Me”, which enables face to face contact online, enabling enhanced form filling assistance, face to face interviews and meetings without the need for a customer to travel to an office. 100% Housing Services will continue to contribute to the Right for Renfrewshire workstream – ‘Community Development’ whose remit includes housing management services and is looking at opportunities to integrate advice services. The aim is to create more integrated joined up services at a local level, which are responsive to local needs, and are simpler to navigate from the perspective of the service user/ customer or citizen Housing Services/ Homeless & Housing Support Services March 2022 The Council’s transformation programme continued throughout the pandemic but the launch of subsequent phases was paused. New phases of transformation will start during 2022. 100% Implement compliance strategy and compliance policies. This will ensure our housing stock complies with all statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to Gas, Electric, Asbestos, Water, Lifts & Fire Safety Housing Asset and Investment Team May 2021 The comprehensive review of all statutory landlord compliance activities was completed and the Compliance Strategy and policies are now all in place. A new Compliance Manager is now in place and a further review of resource requirements has also been undertaken. 100%
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28 Working with HR and OD, to develop relevant actions in line with the Council’s new People Strategy. Actions will focus on supporting staff through service transformation, changing culture norms, embedding our values within decision making and improving staff and service user experiences of the council Senior Management Team March 2022 Meetings have taken place between Communities and Public Protection & HR and OD to discuss improving staff and service. This has included the provision of “growing your own” staff and how staff can continue to be developed. This is highlighted by Renfrewshire Council working with UWS and taking on an Environmental Health student for the first time in many years. 100% We will work with HR & OD colleagues to ensure that our managers have timely, and tailored information and the support they need to proactively manage staff absence. We will ensure our employees are provided with the appropriate support to manage their attendance, to minimise sickness absence levels and help support staff health and wellbeing. Senior Management Team March 2022 Managing absence has been and continues to be a challenge due to the Covid‐19 pandemic. However, Managers are trained in the managing attendance policy and this has been used throughout the last year where the illness has not been Covid‐19 related. 100% On‐going training of staff as part of the Communities and Public Protection Review to ensure skills meet the needs of the communities Workforce planning is a key priority to ensure that the workforce is trained and can undertake all roles appropriately Communities and Public Protection March 2022 Formal training has been challenging throughout 2021/22 due to Covid‐19. However, training has continued with regards to Student EHO, Fair Trading Officer and Environmental Health Compliance Officers. As Universities open up, Officers will be enrolled to undertake formal training e.g. noise enforcement course. This is particularly important for new Officers. Whilst limited, the main training has been undertaken therefore this action is 100% complete. 100%
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29 Performance Indicator Current Status 2019/20 2020 /21 2021/22 2021/22 YEAR END Comments Value Target Value Target Q1 Value Q2 Value Q3 Value Q4 Value Value Target Gross rent arrears (all tenants) as at 31 March each year as a percentage of rent due for the reporting year. 5.70% 5.70% 6.42% 8% 6.94% 8.17% 8.53% 8.04% 7.99% 8.00% Although rent arrears have increased over the course of the current pandemic. The increases have been marginal. This figure remains better than the Scottish average. Rent collected as percentage of total rent due in the reporting year 99.5% 98% 99% 98% 97.2% 95.6% 99.4% 104.2% 98.2% 98% Arrears escalation activity had been suspended, but resumed in November 2021. Officers are continuing in their attempts to contact tenants to check on financial, health and well‐being and offering advice, support and signposting to relevant services where required. Average length of time taken to re‐let properties in the last year (days) 45 37 86 36 81 72 55 58 66 60 Measures were put in place to address performance relating to re‐letting properties. There has been improvement over the past year and it is anticipated that there will be further improvement over the coming year subject to contractor capacity and availability of materials. Percentage of rent loss due to voids 1.53% 1.40% 1.6% 1.40% 2.40% 2.26% 1.56% 1.83% 2.00% 1.60% This indicator is closely linked to average re‐let times as detailed in the performance indicator above.
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30 Percentage of reactive repairs carried out in the last year completed right first time 82.6% 93% 85.1% 93% Not measured for quarters 85% 93% From the total number of reactive repairs completed (26748) a total of 22731 repairs were completed right first time during the reporting year Percentage of overall repairs completed within target 94.58% 94% 95.97% 94% 95.6% 93.4% 93% 92.7% 93.6% 95% Of the around 45,000 repairs carried out during 2021/22, over 42,000 were completed within target. Average length of time taken to complete non emergency repairs (days) 7.8 15 10.7 15 9.9 13.3 15.2 16 14 15 Over the course of 2021/22 we completed just under 27,000 repairs in an average of 14 working days. Total % of frontline complaints responded to within 5 days 92% 95% 86% 95% 85% 55% 52% 59% 61% 95% 808 frontline complaints were received and 489 answered within timescale. Total % of investigation complaints responded to within 20 days 96% 95% 96% 95% 90% 67% 67% 86% 81% 95% 26 investigation complaints were received and 21 answered within timescale.
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31 Number of proactive e‐ mails to businesses in relation to COVID‐19 compliance N/A N/A N/A N/A 20 5 5 0 30 Data only Proactive emails were sent out to relevant business sectors, when changes were made to Coronavirus controls imposed by Regulations under the Coronavirus Act. In Q1, there were 20 emails issued to a total of 941 businesses in sectors such as dog grooming, home improvements, gyms, personal trainers, close contact services, retail and hospitality. This dropped to 5 in Q2 due to the removal of controls, and a further 5 in Q3 due to the Vaccination Scheme going live. No emails were issued in Q4 due to removal of legal controls. Emails have covered subjects including the Levels Framework (including the removal of physical distancing, household limits and trading times), baseline controls, cleaning, events, Test & Protect, Vaccination scheme, face coverings, counter terrorism, customer management and Coronavirus testing. Due to the removal of restrictions from legislation to guidance, there are no plans for proactive e‐mails, however, this will be monitored in case of changes. Number of or percentage of businesses brought into compliance with applicable legislation within 30 days N/A N/A N/A N/A 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Compliance was sought by a number of means through the cross‐organisational Coronavirus enforcement policy to “engage, explain, encourage then enforce” the controls. Most businesses did want to comply with the controls but have found the vast amount of information online to be overwhelming. Proactive emails have secured compliance in the majority of cases, leaving enforcement officers available to target activities towards areas of higher risk or repeated noncompliance.
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32 Training – Percentage of staff training undertaken in relation to qualifications N/A N/A N/A N/A 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Three Fair Trading Officers have completed 100% of the training they are required to do, relative to the overall qualification to become a Trading Standards Officer. There is a minimum of 2 years left for each before they will become fully qualified Officers under this new framework, which is still in its early adoption period. Two of the three Trainees are working on a portfolio of casework to illustrate their development against defined competencies. The third is undertaking a period of military deployment due to their external commitment as an RAF Reservist. The Team will continue to support them as fully as possible for the duration of their training. In addition, a trainee Environmental Health Officer has started with Renfrewshire Council as part of their 3rd year Environmental Health Degree (with professional practice). This is a new post and one that the University West of Scotland wish to grow to allow a throughput of Environmental Health Officers in the near future. The training will cover all Environmental Health aspects over a 48 week period (39 weeks over 3rd year and 9 weeks in 4th year) between 2021/2022 before they return to University to complete the remainder of the course. Whilst the trainee has covered all areas, the training has been severally hampered by Covid‐19 and with Officers working from home or in a hybrid model and business visits being curtailed for several years. Average number of work days lost per full time equivalent (FTE) employee. (cumulative) 11.75 8.5 9.61 8.5 2.45 2.56 3.89 TBC TBC 8.5 Quarter 4, and hence Year end data is still being verified by HR&OD.