The awards were organised by the National Housing Federation, the Housing Corporation and the Local Government Association.
London and Quadrant Housing Trust's Maintenance 2000 initiative was designed to help improve services to tenants, while Newham council's curiously-named Unlocking the pyramid dealt with a problem of staff morale.
One used a summit meeting and an awards ceremony, the other an interactive play and questionnaires.
Both tackled old problems from new angles, contributing solutions, which had proved elusive in the past.
Helping to improve London and Quadrant's repairs service was hardly the public relations project to die for, communications manager Maggie Gebbett admitted. But doing so helped it to achieve the award for best strategic communications by a housing association.
Two years after the initiative began, the trust says its responsive repairs performance is at its best for years and is still improving.
Maintenance 2000 involved the communications department from the start.
"We stretched our inventiveness to the maximum to try to come up with ways we could help on what appeared to be a pretty challenging project," Gebbett recalled.
Within L&Q, staff knew that a good repairs service was crucial to its reputation. But in 1999 it had a problem – the responsive maintenance performance was just about satisfactory, but not good, and certainly not excellent.
It became evident very early on that contractors were the key to achieving better standards. Residents' focus groups also helped L&Q review the repairs service in line with Best Value principles.
There was a summit meeting and newsletters for contractors, and the communications team also came up with the idea of a contractors' awards ceremony, where handsome trophies and certificates were handed out to those leading the way in excellent service.
Initially there was some scepticism within L&Q as to how the idea would go down with contractors. After all, 'fluffy' PR events hardly cut the mustard with hard-nosed building companies.
But the fears proved unfounded and the awards were very much sought after. Contractors saw Maintenance 2000 as a sign of L&Q's commitment to partnership. They are now prepared to 'go the extra mile' because they know their role is valued, Gebbett said.
Two years into the project, L&Q says its repairs figures all exceed targets. In 1999 only 77 per cent of standard repairs were completed within the target time of 20 days. Now, 94 per cent are, and 96 per cent of emergency repairs are carried out within the 24-hour deadline.
The communications team does not claim all the credit, but Gebbett said: "We enjoyed the work much more than we expected to, because it did require us to 'think outside the box'.
"Now L&Q even receives letters from residents thanking the organisation for speedy and efficient repairs – that's what we call a result!"
Overall local authority winner, Newham council's housing department, won the local authority best internal communications category.
It faced a problem of apathy and demoralisation following a radical re-organisation to improve services and make savings. The upheaval had changed working practices and led to a loss of jobs and staff confidence.
The department turned to the Garnett Foundation, which uses the performing arts as a means of bringing about improvements in workplaces.
Last May, the foundation's actors dramatised scenarios in eight workshops including workplace bullying, sexual, racial and homophobic harassment and communication problems.
In each, three actors played different parts and there were three groups, each of eight housing staff, which took it in turn to be responsible for each role.
They stopped the action whenever they wished and directed the actors, replaying the scenes to explore different ways of responding to situations. Finally, the staff talked about the issues raised, and the Garnett Foundation took away a list of issues for managers to discuss.
At a staff conference a few weeks later, a video was shown in which tenants talked about Newham's housing service and the way it involves them.
The Garnett Foundation acted out scenarios, this time about a front line service being downsized and the rumours and lack of communication in the organisation. Again, staff were allowed to interrupt and redirect the play, trying out different solutions.
A question and answer session with senior managers followed, which gave rise to staff writing down 450 comments, questions, problems and solutions for circulation to middle managers.
The third stage was Newham's leadership conference last July, where the department's middle managers were presented with a summary of comments from the staff conference.
The Garnett Foundation put on a play, Unlocking the pyramid, which presented the issues and gave a variety of role models for managers. Afterwards, middle managers wrote personal action plans, committing themselves to responding to the issues raised.
The council believes the events succeeded because staff felt free to express honest opinions and radical ideas about what needed changing to improve service delivery, and because senior managers listened and took action.
The honours for best external communications went to Soha Housing and Solihull council. Soha won for its newspaper-format annual report.
This used a 'smiley faced' character to report good and bad news as appropriate. Costs were minimised by having all copy written in-house and by using pictures of staff and tenants, rather than paying for models or library pictures.
This is the report's third award; it also picked up a crystal mark award for its use of plain English and approval from Soha's tenants' forum. The judges said that Soha was a clear winner, and were impressed by how much information was crammed in while still maintaining accessibility.
Solihull's award was for a newsletter, a format chosen after a survey showed that 87 per cent of tenants preferred this format. It was used to consult on the council's tenant compact where it included a questionnaire with a prize draw.
"It is bright, well laid out, newsworthy and mixes an element of fun into a serious consultative procedure," said the judges. "One of the most engaging newsletters for tenants we have seen."
The housing association winner of the best internal communications award was Family Housing Group for the way it set about delivering a message about sharpening performance to its staff.
Instead of the usual speech from its chief executive, it used a complex event with video 'vox pops' from tenants and a showing of a video made by the staff. There was also a Family 'Oscars' event with awards to staff whom colleagues had nominated.
A pencil and sharpener were presented to all staff to remind them of the 'sharpening the performance' theme.
New technology has offered both challenges and opportunities to landlords, and East Thames Housing Group and Ipswich council were judged to have made good use of it in this year's awards.
East Thames successfully reduced project planning times for developing new homes and for repairs and maintenance by using an internet system called Projects On-Line. This was found to reduce errors and costs and give a complete and accurate audit trail.
Ipswich set up a website to give clear 24-hour information to tenants on performance and service standards, news and advice on procedures such as reporting repairs.
A laptop loan scheme enables residents to access the net, and plans are in hand to install computers in sheltered housing developments. The judges said: "At just 75p per household, it is most cost effective."
Newcastle-upon-Tyne council won the local authority category for best strategic communications by tackling 'consultation fatigue'.
It decided to make consultation fun and went out to meet local people at community events and festivals. This was backed up by a press, poster and Internet campaign, with debates on local radio and a road show.
Overall, the judges found many original ideas, most of which were developed from initial consultations and had achievable outcomes. They did, however, point to a lack of benchmarks to test results.
They also suggested that landlords should pay more attention to the creative use of photography.
Their conclusion was that "this year's entrants showed that as effective communicators, the social housing sector ranks with best".
Source
Housing Today
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