“Northwards Housing is delivering an excellent, three-star service with excellent prospects for improvement.

Strong outcomes are delivered for customers. Customers recognise improvements in the delivery of improvement works, repairs and anti-social behaviour responses. Staff provide a customer focused service and services are accessible. Customer involvement is well developed in all service areas. Customers have a range of routes for engagement, are able to monitor and improve services, and customer satisfaction is high. A value for money (VFM) focus is embedded in the organisation.”

Audit Commission Inspection summary February 2009

Northwards Housing (Northwards) is delighted to achieve the Audit Commission’s highest possible score of three stars and excellent prospects for improvement in its recent inspection. This timely session will allow delegates unprecedented access to those key people who helped Northwards achieve this remarkable result and give them a practical insight into what excellence looks like. The day will cover how Northwards approached, not only the inspection process, but also its whole culture around customers and service and show how, instead of resting on our laurels,
“...we’re cracking on with getting even better!”

Keynote speakers:
With an introduction from Sue Ratchford, Chair of Northwards Housing Board, key speakers will include:

Robin Lawler, Chief Executive, Northwards Housing

Yvonne Davies, Head of Housing (North), Audit Commission

WORKSHOPS

Area	Speakers	Workshop Details
1. Resident Involvement	Claire Tyrell, Head of Neighbourhood Services, Wilton And tenants actively involved in improving services	Resident involvement is embedded throughout the organisation and is at the heart of everything we do. We involve our tenants in decision making and we consult and listen to them to improve our service and provide them with a variety of ways to engage with us.  This session will provide details on: The core service we deliver through our Area Panels, Forums, Tenant Groups and training Our innovative ‘Pot of Gold’ initiative where residents determined spending priorities in our annual business planning process Our work to engage with young people on their terms Tailored approaches to engaging hard to reach areas/groups Our Resident Involvement Team will be on hand to share good practice and provide further detailed information on the service we provide.
2. Access to Services	Steve Finegan, Head of Business Improvement Seema Kohli, Quality/Customer Services Manager	Northwards’ comprehensive Access to Services Strategy aims to deliver a range of easy, convenient and modern ways to access the service.  This session will look at Northwards’ overall approach and demonstrate how we are: developing customer insight to deliver improved outcomes for tenants working with tenants to re-design services that deliver better value for money using innovative methods to communicate and engage with customers including harder to reach groups The journey to excellence has been challenging and the workshop will include analysis of what has worked well; what hasn’t; as well as the ongoing development of the service within the organisation’s Single Equality Scheme.
3. Decent Homes delivery	Larry Patrick, Director of Property Services Paul Maidment, Head of Home Improvements, Riverways	Northwards delivers an effective improvement programme to its customers. Find out why strengths significantly outweighed weakness in this service. What did we do to achieve 9.7 out of 10 in customer satisfaction How have we built the “green” agenda into our work programmes How have we built a “highly effective in delivering outcomes for customers” approach to adaptations for disabled tenants Partnership working and added value
4. ASB Partnership and Neighbourhood working	Emma Foster, Head of Neighbourhood Services, Riverways Julie Wilson, Head of Neighbourhood Services, Fourways	Northwards is a key partner in tackling ASB and crime and creating a culture of respect.  Bringing down ASB  and crime needs agencies (such as housing and police) to work together effectively at all levels. Northwards has been involved in developing partnership arrangements in North Manchester which have delivered real results in making the district a safer place to live. This session will cover: Developing effective partnership arrangements Multi-agency working with the most challenging families Changing public perceptions of neighbourhoods Partnership approaches to hate incidents and domestic abuse Key staff will be on hand to share good practice and provide further more detailed information on our services.
5. Value for Money	Steve Wood, Director of Business Services Alison Foster, Head of Finance	This session will reflect on Northwards’ performance in delivering Value for Money over a period of three years and will show how Northwards: understands its costs, uses cost benchmarking, and was able to tell a story to the Inspection Team uses the not inconsiderable efficiencies generated to improve services was able to demonstrate the embedding of a Value for Money culture The session will reflect on the details of the Positive Practice examples on how efficiencies are used and how tenants were involved in some participatory budgeting.

Who should attend?
Anyone involved in improving organisational performance, leading on a service function or involved in preparing for inspection will benefit from attending this highly practical workshop.

Delegate Fees:
£129 + vat

Please note to ensure maximum participation numbers are restricted to a maximum of 100 delegates and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For further information and booking facilities please click here.