Happy together

East Riding is just one of a growing number of local authorities to see the value of improving the links between its departments and services to offer a more holistic, all-round service. By joining up thinking between its housing services and other services, it claims to have boosted the efficiency of all its departments. Other local authorities, like Manchester and Sedgefield, are also in the process of promoting a joined-up approach where cross-departmental projects and objectives drive change, rather than specific departments – such as housing – developing their own goals. "In the past there's been a sense that each service is an empire. Joined-up thinking is a cultural change which breaks down that departmentalism," says Jeff Zitron, director of consultant Hacas Chapman Hendy.

The traditional approach to housing management has been to put all landlord functions into one department which operates separately, on a day-to-day basis, from the council's other services. But there's little to stop that changing. Councils must employ a finance director and a director of social services, but other than that they are free to choose and improve upon their own structure.

Zitron says more and more local authorities are looking at their structural make-up to see whether is it helping them to fulfil generic, corporate objectives such as caring for the community and healthy living rather than department-specific goals. Consequently, these authorities are incorporating housing into an overall strategy that will take in, for example, crime prevention, social services and environment.

The challenge of coordination
This can be quite a challenge, says Zitron:

"A lot of people are trained in one discipline. The multidiscipline approach is more complicated and – because it can incorporate abstract aims – more difficult to measure."

East Riding is rising to this challenge, says Dick Ikin, housing services manager: "Our ethos is that it doesn't matter who is responsible for delivering services as long as it is produced in an efficient way that meets the needs of our customers." Following a best value review in 1998, the council reorganised its housing services to cut costs, to avoid duplicating resources and to integrate housing better with other public services. Housing management is now done by three different directorates: the social services, housing and public protection directorate deals with services such as right to buy, allocations, homelessness and estate management; the operational services directorate deals with repairs, maintenance and capital works and the finance and IT directorate takes in rent and arrears collection and benefits.

The result, says Ikin, is a better-coordinated service. "Our key performance indicators and customer feedback show that we're now delivering a better housing service," he says. "We still have the same budget and staffing for housing functions as we did before the restructuring – but we've accomplished our aim of rationalising housing's services.The operations services directorate receives repairs directly from the public rather than going through housing officers, operations then assesses and arranges for the work to be carried out. In simple terms, we have cut out the middleman and housing officers are now free to spend their time dealing with the 'people' side of estate management."

If East Riding's approach to housing management is to produce benefits, effective communication between the housing officers across the directorates, and the executives leading them, is essential, says Ikin: "Open and honest contact between officers is imperative. Everything else is built on that."

Careful management
But linking up services at a local level can have its perils. The experience of London councils Islington and Tower Hamlets, for example, when they radically decentralised housing services during the 1980s, illustrate the danger of duplicating resources: Islington set up 17 local one-stop shops to deliver social services, repairs and housing management and Tower Hamlets had a similar number of local centres. Both councils lacked adequate central control over their local offices and running costs spiralled as each neighbourhood office operated in isolation.

The lesson is that any distribution of housing services has to be carefully managed. In some cases a more centralised approach may be logical, such as when a council is gearing up for the creation of arm's-length management organisations. Sedgefield council, which aims to create ALMOs, is reviewing its housing management structure after an Audit Commission report last May highlighted the need for better coordination between its housing services.

Sedgefield's services are currently divided across four different directorates. Unlike East Riding's system, the services have been grouped according to tradition, contact between directorates is limited and, as housing manager Graham Scanlon says: "Communication has not always been effective, so the long-term goal is to bring all housing services into one directorate."

Even a centrally managed housing service can suffer from a lack of joined-up thinking. Preston council is reviewing its housing management structure after a best value review indicated that resources were being wasted and costs duplicated within its single housing directorate. Preston's housing and direct works directorate comprises four departments: neighbourhood renewal, the district housing officer's department, central services – which covers housing repairs and maintenance – and Preston Works, which takes care of street cleaning, refuse collection and routine housing maintenance. Although the housing services are held within one directorate, the council's neighbourhood offices are not sharing their resources effectively; each looks after its own repairs and maintenance.

The council is working to centralise these services to cut costs and improve its service to tenants. "It can be an especial problem with maintenance," says Peter Deacon, Preston's housing services manager. "We've got nine district areas and each has its own interpretation of our maintenance guidelines. We want everyone to have the same priorities. Centralisation should help with that."

We’ve got nine districts, each with its own interpretation of our maintenance guidelines. Centralisation should help everyone to have the same priorities Peter Deacon, Preston Council

Centralising some housing services does not mean fewer opportunities for joined-up thinking with other public services, according to Manchester council. The council runs a highly centralised housing service to look after its stock of 60,000 units and says a central management structure can be an effective way to handle large volumes of stock without impeding a council's wider corporate objectives. "It's not about the management structures you use – it's about how you work and how clear everyone is about how they contribute to the group's vision," says Steve Rumbelow, director of housing. "We have a cross-departmental focus on our goals: for example, tackling crime is top on our agenda and that affects the way departments work."

Tailor-made structure
The variety of management structures among the councils using a joined-up approach shows there is no such thing as the model structure. The ideal structure depends on the council's size, location, history and future plans – for instance, a rural council will face different pressures to those facing a city one.

The Local Government Association says a first step in designing a joined-up structure is to work out priorities – in areas of high demand for housing the priority will be to help people find housing, while some areas might be targeted by regeneration projects.

Once the objectives are clear, it's a matter of balancing the need to maximise resources – pairing up housing with social services, for instance – with the need to keep the structure accessible to the public.

Joined-up housing associations
It's not just councils that can benefit from this culture change. Housing associations are taking the joined-up approach, too. Hilary Keenan, group director of housing at Places for People, says it's a mistake for associations to look at housing in isolation: "We too need to think about what services we can provide to make a neighbourhood better in the holistic sense – like, how can we provide employment opportunities and nursery schools.

"We've set up regeneration companies to look after these issues – and work closely with local authorities."

Walterton & Elgin Community Homes, a registered social landlord based in west London, has arranged for a police officer to live on its estate for the past two years.

Chief executive Andy Watson says: "It means we can respond extremely quickly once we've been alerted to a problem and it helps make people feel more secure.

Hacas Chapman Hendy's Jeff Zitron predicts that councils will work even more closely with other public service providers in the future.

"We're already seeing examples of joint appointments between public agencies," he says. "For example, Solihull council's director of public health is also employed by Solihull's primary health care trust. That's very joined up thinking.

"There's scope for this kind of set-up in housing; it would make sense to make joint appointments for the people involved with running arm's-length management organisations and housing associations. If both agents are in the same neighbourhood they need to work together that closely to achieve common goals."

The full benefits of joined-up thinking between local authorities' directorates and council's fellow public agencies are potentially even greater than anyone has yet realised, but many housing organisations could gain from working with other services.