What we've been working on: Scrutiny Panel

During 2022, the Scrutiny Panel carried out a review on our existing damp and mould procedures. With the scope of the review being:

'How can STC improve its response to customers reporting problems of damp and mould and ensure that its approach is appropriate, and works with customers to resolve problems and ensure they are treated with dignity and respect in all interactions?'

The Scrutiny Panel were aware that across the housing sector damp and mould is an issue subject to intense media attention and to scrutiny by the Housing Ombudsman, as the problem can cause significant distress to household occupants and can also contribute to health problems.

The Panel agreed to look at what South Tyneside Council Housing Services does when customers report damp or mould and bring forward recommendations for improvements.

The review

The review was carried out between February 2022 and November 2022 with the panel carrying out many activities such as:

• Desktop Review - this meant reviewing what South Tyneside Council Housing Services currently does when we get a report of damp and mould.
•  Discussions with staff
•  Customer Journey Mapping (in-depth conversations with customers who made complaints about damp or mould)
• Survey of customers reporting damp or mould

The Panels main observations and findings were that:

• Staff need to be better equipped in terms of the processes and systems that are in place for them to use, as well as their skills and knowledge, to be able to provide customers with the help that they need when reporting damp or mould.
• The management of damp and mould cases must be built upon a robust knowledge of the condition of the housing stock.
• A more systematic response is needed to a report about damp and mould so that it can be informed by both knowledge of the property condition and history, as well as knowledge of current household vulnerabilities, and taken together this informs an inspection and any subsequent work that takes place.
• Procedures must be developed so that household vulnerabilities, such as relevant health conditions are considered when damp or mould is being reported so that appropriate advice and assistance can be provided when customers first report problems with damp or mould to the Customer Contact Centre, and when inspections take place.
• The diagnosis of problems must be more effective; advice given to tenants must be more appropriate, and customer care must be made a priority. Improved information available to inspectors about household condition and history will help them to diagnose issues. This must also be informed by enhanced information collection and recording and taking account of household vulnerabilities will enable better advice to be given to tenants, better decision-making being made about what work may be required and when, and in relation to assessing whether a decant should be recommended.
• Improvements must be made to the way that customers are kept informed about the progress of any work scheduled to take place. This is an area requiring significant improvement and was a strong theme across all customer research undertaken for this review.
• There is also a need to significantly improve the way that communications take place between teams within Housing Services and was a strong theme across all customer research undertaken for this review.

The Panel were able to make 34 recommendations to improve services and benefit customers.