Results from our latest Big Check In
Our latest Big Check In ran from 19th to 30th April. Colleagues from teams across settle spoke to 472 residents over the phone and 103 residents in person through socially distanced visits. We reached a total of 575, over 200 more than the last check in, in January.
Our Big Check In takes place every three months and is a big part of our commitment to engage with customers about the services we provide and what we can get better at. Through every Big Check In we will include questions to focus on specific areas of our work, along with hearing any feedback residents would like to give us.
Through our Big Check In during April it was great to hear the ways residents value the relationship with settle colleagues and we know how important it is. Areas we will work on in response to the feedback include:
- Repairs – we will improve the ways we keep residents updated on all repair work. We have set a new target for this year (April 2021-March 2022) to deliver non-emergency repairs in under 16 days.
- Investment in replacement windows, kitchens and bathrooms – we will keep residents better updated about when these works will be carried out to their homes. The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the work we have been able to carry out this year and our teams are working as fast as possible to get back on schedule with this programme. We remain committed to this investment and as a next step we are writing to approximately 500 residents who were due to have kitchens and bathrooms replaced this year to provide more information on when this work will take place.
We have added an overview below to show how we intend to invest over £94million in this planned investment over the next 9 years, with a summary of when the types of investment will be completed and we will continue to keep residents directly updated on works to individual properties.
The questions chosen for this most recent Big Check In were in response to the Government’s White Paper for social housing residents which has a clear focus around respect for residents and ensuring that their voice is heard by their landlord. We wanted to understand how our customers feel about settle in this respect.
We heard that the main reasons for residents feeling respected were due to great colleague attitude, and where they feel that we’ve always been extremely helpful. The main reasons residents reported not feeling respected are poor communication and the length of time spent waiting for repairs or improvements to their home. We also asked residents what more they feel settle could do to increase respect towards them; in response 75% of customers said ‘nothing more’, of the 25% who suggested something, timely repairs and getting things ‘right first time’ were the most common areas reported.
We asked two questions to understand if residents felt their voice was heard and if there was anything we don’t hear – 85% of residents said they felt their voice was heard and this was mainly due to colleagues being helpful and providing a great service. The feedback we received from residents shows that the things they feel we don’t hear are similar to those that would increase respect, for example including an increased repair offer and residents understanding when improvements including to windows, kitchen and bathrooms will be made to their home.
Our Big Check In is one of the ways we hear from residents, along with regular surveys and other ways to give us your feedback. The next one scheduled to take place in July.
