Notes of a Tenant Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 3 August 2015
Present
Members: Jomo Browne; Graham Day; Charles Everett; Patsey Modeste-Rowe
(Chair); Nicole Seneque (Vice Chair); Mags Zia
Independent mentor (and note-taker): Sue Farrant
Apologies: Saira Grice; Paul Lubwama; Antonio Moccia; Kim O’Sullivan
1.
Opening of the meeting
Nicole welcomed the members and explained that she was taking the chair for the
meeting because Patsey would be late due to work commitments.
2.
Notes of the meeting held on 29 June 2015
Nicole commented on the gas servicing information provided by Neville Parboo and
Joe Lockwood and said that she hoped things were getting better for tenants.
Graham noted that the Panel had not asked the cost of the gas service interval
timers and this should be followed up. Mags reminded the Panel that the fitting of the
timers was still at discussion stage within Circle 33 and was not yet policy.
Sue pointed out a typing error at the end of item 9 ('complied' should read
'compiled'). With that correction, the notes were accepted.
3.
Report from Board meeting 7 July 2015
Patsey and Antonio had attended the Board meeting on 7 July to discuss the work of
the Scrutiny Panel and the report on the anti-social review. Patsey had prepared
some notes which will be circulated separately.
The Board was interested in the next scrutiny topic. The Panel will discuss this at the
November meeting and plan a programme for 2016.
4.
Scrutiny training
The training session on 1 July was attended by most of the new Scrutiny Panel
members and Charles.
The second session was provisionally booked for 8 September but the Panel
members present agreed they would prefer to postpone it until later in the year.
Nicole said she would email the other members to ask if they were in agreement.
5.
Update on voids scrutiny review
Graham gave a progress report on the review and told the Panel that the team was
visiting Circle 33 voids next week and going to visit Estuary HA in Southend to see
how they manage their voids for comparison.
Sue will update the scoping document and ask Natalie to circulate it to the Panel.
6.
Circle 33 Balanced scorecard
The Panel discussed the June balanced scorecard.
Nicole noted that the average re-let times were out of target in May and June:
 Apr 25.4 days
 May 34.3 days
 June 29.3 days
Target: 28.3 days.
The Panel noted a new KPI for Average allocation Relet time (excl repair days and
ready to let) with no figures.
It was agreed that the voids scrutiny team would ask about that.
The Panel noted that Satisfaction with the landlord was apparently still based on just
110 surveys and the June figure had fallen to 52%, against a target of 70%. Sue
reminded the Panel that they had been told at a previous meeting that this figure was
based on completed repairs satisfaction surveys. Members felt that Circle 33 should
widen the base and agreed to ask the Board members at the September meeting.
Nicole pointed out that Emergency and urgent repairs completed in time band had
only improved by 1.8% since last month and given there was such a focus on
repairs, she did not think this was good enough. The June figure was 74.8% and the
target is 99%. Patsey said that at the Board meeting Paul Norman had said that
there were still no checks on work that Kier had logged as closed. The Scrutiny
Panel thought it was important that this work was checked rather than Circle 33
waiting until a tenant complains.
Nicole commented that the responses to complaints within 10 days had risen by 6%
to 77% in June 2015 but that staff sickness days were up from 4.5% in May to 5.0%
in June (target 4.4%).
Mags said that there were still two units without a gas safety certificate for more than
3 months and that it would be helpful to know what was being done about them. She
would have expected a commentary on the performance to accompany the
Scorecard.
The Panel agreed that they would, through Natalie, invite a Circle manager to come
to their November meeting to explain the Balanced Scorecard.
7.
Preparation for the Scrutiny Panel's next meeting
The Scrutiny Panel discussed the meeting on 14 September which is to be attended
by Karen Ayling, Interim Head of Housing and 2 Board Members. They want to use
that meeting to challenge the Board and hold it to account over matters of concern to
residents.
Nicole suggested that there should be a structure for that meeting so that the Panel
stayed on track with questions they wanted to ask and made sure they got answers.
It was agreed that they would be invited from 6.30pm so the Panel had half an hour
together first to conduct their other business and to prepare for the visitors. After
discussion, members also agreed to send their main questions in advance so the
Board members and Karen came prepared and able to provide answers.
The Panel agreed that they would ask about the following:

The regulatory judgement in April 2015 which downgraded Circle 33's rating
for governance from G1 to G3. The Panel would like a progress report on
what has been done towards regaining a G1 rating.
[Note from Sue: the HCA's Regulatory framework defines G3 as – "the provider does
not meet all of our governance requirements. There are issues of regulatory concern
and in agreement with us, the provider is working to improve its position".

The Panel would like to see the improvement plan well before the meeting

Composition of the Board – are they confident that the governance team has
the skills and experience needed to drive the necessary improvements

Rent policy – the Panel would like to understand how Circle 33's policy of
converting social rents into affordable rents as homes become vacant fits with
the association's social housing objectives.
Sue was asked to draft a letter of invitation to go to Andrew Hudson, the Board
Chair. She will send it to Nicole and Patsey for approval and they will send it on to
the Chair.
8.
Future Scrutiny Panel meetings

9 November, 6.00pm - 8.00pm

7 December, 6.00pm - 8.00pm