Neighbourhood and community
These are the performance indicators for the regulator’s ‘neighbourhood and community’ standards.
| Performance measure | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Target 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of new antisocial behaviour (ASB) cases reported | 160 | 118 | N/A |
Resident satisfaction with the handling of their ASB case |
56.25% | 65.00% | >=65% |
| Resident satisfaction with the internal cleaning service | 72.62% | 73.90% | >=75% |
| Resident satisfaction with the external cleaning service | 72.85% | 75.47% | >=78% |
| Resident satisfaction with the grounds maintenance service | 81.47% | 82.94% | >=86% |
| Tenant satisfaction measure | 2023-24 |
|---|---|
| Tenants - satisfaction that Kensington & Chelsea makes positive contribution to neighbourhood | 72.81% |
Tenants - satisfaction with Kensington & Chelsea's approach to handling ASB |
61.29% |
Tenants - satisfaction that Kensington & Chelsea keeps communal areas clean and well maintained |
70.26% |
Tenants - satisfaction with Estate Services provided by Kensington & Chelsea |
66.67% |
How we are doing and what we need to work on
Antisocial behaviour (ASB)
We have seen a good level of improvement in terms of handling and preventing ASB cases in 2023-24. We have seen a 26 per cent reduction in ASB cases and an 8.75 per cent increase in resident satisfaction with the handling of their ASB cases.
This can partly be attributed to the work we’ve done to improve the department, including more training for frontline staff on hate crime and domestic abuse to help staff identify the signs so they can intervene earlier and investigate.
Improved partnership working has also been integral in the increased satisfaction scores, with weekly meetings to address new issues and provide support to other frontline teams. We also have a number of service improvement groups - one of which focusses on complex ASB issues and cases affecting individual households as well as the wider community. Working with this group allows us to take a more effective and joined-up approach to ASB. To further improve the service, we are looking to get the ASB service improvement groups to focus more on the gaps in performance and enhancements needed to greater reduce future ASB cases.
We increased the number of enforcement actions we took to address higher level antisocial behaviour that amounted to criminality.
For this upcoming year we want to focus on prevention work and mitigating escalations. We’ll also improve our IT system to improve how officers record, investigate and deal with ASB cases. This should in turn improve consistency and provide better outcomes for residents.
Estate care
In 2023-24 we delivered many successful estate improvement projects, including:
- renewing the playgrounds at Wiltshire Close
- replacing front entry doors at Waynflete Close
- redecorating landing floors and ceilings at World’s End Estate
- procured a new security contract for Notting Hill carnival, which improved satisfaction levels
This past year, we trained over 70 caretakers in the newly introduced “British Institute of Cleaning Science” qualification. We now have three qualified members of staff as trainers and assessors, so we can continue to improve the service.
To further improve the service we have also invested in new equipment, such as window cleaning equipment and are currently working on IT, so staff can address estate problems quicker. To improve communication with residents we have also installed electronic notice boards in our larger blocks and introduced quarterly newsletters to keep residents informed. We received over 2,600 responses from residents, for a consultation about estate services and projects, which will help shape the service going forward.
Dealing with fraud
Our Housing Investigations team deals with fraudulent activity in council homes, to ensure properties are available for the residents who need them. They performed strongly during 2023-24 recovering 36 properties – an increase from 13 properties the previous year. These included sub-lets, properties being used as holiday rentals, abandonment, and failed succession claims. This has provided savings of £1,596,000 (based on the government figure of £42,000 per property) and freed up those properties for people waiting on the housing register.
The team are exploring new innovative ideas to further combat tenancy fraud and adapt to new legislation. The team is on hand to provide support and guidance to our neighbourhood officers and stakeholders to promote housing fraud externally also via the tenancy fraud forum and other platforms. If you would like to report tenancy fraud, please email us at [email protected].
Neighbourhood management
Our six-week and nine-month tenancy visits greatly improved in early 2024, through better monitoring. To further improve the service, we want to focus on resolving issues quickly and building trust with residents. One way that we plan to do this is by improving our quarterly estate inspections. We are currently updating our internal process, to ensure we inform residents when inspections are taking place so that there is more involvement from the community when scoring the estate. We are also working on updating the tenant handbook this year and the information we provide to new tenants, to better support them in their early months of tenancy.
Visiting residents
Our annual home visits are a really useful way that our team interacts with residents. As well as helping us make sure we have accurate information about who’s living in the homes we manage, and checking on tenants’ welfare, they allow us to help residents with:
- tenancy matters
- making sure our teams are aware any additional needs
- checking smoke alarms are working
- information about any planned works
- reporting maintenance issues
- updating household details
- explaining how to get more involved in the management of their home
Our visiting officers made 1,800 successful annual home visits (AHV) in 2023/24.
As part of a proposed improvement to the AHV process and to reduce disruption for residents in 2024, we are planning to work with our gas contractors, to coordinate our AHV with their annual gas safety inspection schedule so the two visits can take place on the same day.
Over the last year, during home visits the visiting officers have:
- reported 2457 repairs for our residents, including 172 cases of damp and mould for investigation
- filled out 1273 forms to monitor equality, helping us learn about our residents' diverse backgrounds and needs
- referred 135 residents to our Health and Safety Team for individual fire risk assessments, where they are unable to evacuate themselves in an emergency
- identified 184 smoke alarms not functioning and 58 properties needing alarms to be installed
- found 128 properties without a carbon monoxide detector
- identified 147 properties with broken intercoms
- updated 332 records to add or remove occupants and keep accurate household information on our systems
- found 19 cases of hoarding
To enhance our home visit service and reach more residents in 2024/25, we will hire an extra visiting officer and the team will conduct a focus group with residents to explore how the Council can improve services. The ‘Meet your Visiting Officer’ Roadshow was launched in January 2024. This initiative provides an opportunity to visit a visiting officer each month, to promote the service and help conduct home visits.
Sheltered housing
Our Sheltered Housing team continued to work with residents, advocates, social care and health, and volunteer organisations to provide support services and engagement opportunities for sheltered housing residents. In 2023-24 customer satisfaction with the overall sheltered housing service was an impressive 98 per cent. Activities and events in the last 12 months included a senior citizens’ Coronation party, financial assessments and money cafes, and provision of wifi in sheltered scheme communal lounges and clubrooms. We are currently reviewing our sheltered housing stock to ensure it is appropriate and suitable to meet current demand and customer needs.