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Every Pound Counts Value for Money

Self-Assessment 2015/2016

Trident Social Investment Group - Value for Money Self-Assessment 2015/2016

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CONTENTS Chair’s Statement 3

Executive Summary

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Part One – Who We Are and What We Do

1.1 - Our Organisation

1.2 - Our Current Priorities

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Part Two – Our Approach to Value for Money

2.1 - Our View of VFM

2.2 - Our VFM Assurance Framework

2.3 – VFM Standard

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Part Three – How Are We Doing?

3.1 - VFM Highlights 2015/2016

3.2 - Key Actions from 2014/2015

3.3 - ‘Protecting Financial Capacity’

3.4 - ‘Investing In Assets’

3.5 - ‘Providing Effective Services’

3.6 – Other VFM Gains

3.7 - ‘Maximising Social Value’

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Part Four – Plans for the Future

4.1 - Future Targets

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Closing Statement – Group Board

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CHAIR’S STATEMENT

As Group Chair of Trident I am very pleased to welcome you to our Value for Money (VFM) Self-Assessment for 2015/2016. The purpose of this assessment is to demonstrate to our residents, customers, funders and partners the efforts we have made in the last year to achieve VFM savings to support delivery of our corporate objectives.

It has been a challenging year for the Housing and Care and Support sectors with the impact of the Government’s Welfare and funding reforms beginning to be felt. These reforms have seen less money available both for the organisation and for our customers, making the delivery of VFM in all our services ever more critical.

In our last VFM self-assessment we explained how we had undertaken a journey to rebase and clearly articulate our approach to VFM; this year we have

continued to refine it, and the Board and Executive team have worked hard to lead the whole organisation to embrace the agenda.

This year we have deepened our knowledge and understanding of costs as we worked to make significant, carefully-considered savings that are not detrimental to the services we deliver.

Understanding and analysing our costs and performance remains an absolute priority for board, and we have worked through 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 to ensure the KPIs and targets stretch us to achieve further VFM savings.

This is my last Self-Assessment as Chair. I am satisfied that I am handing over the role, leaving Trident in a strong position to continue to deliver VFM. Most importantly, I am confident Trident will continue to deliver the mission to be a ‘beacon of hope’ meeting the needs of disadvantaged individuals and communities left behind.

Abigail Robson Group Chair


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Every Pound Counts is a reflection of the culture that exists at Trident. Our approach to Value for Money (VFM) has always been to stretch the £ as far as we can; with the pressures of welfare and funding reforms our focus has increasingly been on achieving VFM by looking at where we can ‘do more with less’. This year we have made difficult decisions about what services can be delivered and where we can cut costs, our priorities being to remove ongoing costs from the business, and streamline structures and processes. This has reduced ongoing costs by £171,000 per annum. We have done this to remain a financially robust business while still meeting our commitment to delivering housing with care and support services. On page 11 of this assessment we summarise the evidence for why we continue to meet the HCA’s VFM Standard. Following our recent assessment by the HCA we have been awarded the financial viability rating (V2). This reflects that although we are a financially sound organisation, we are committed to delivering care services and supported housing (a financially challenging sector of housing delivery). Working in this sector means that a number of our costs will always be higher than some of our peers; we aim to achieve costs and performance outputs that are no worse than the median to acknowledge this additional challenge. Page 20 illustrates that by comparison to 2015’s Global Accounts of Housing Providers (GAHP) we are achieving this. As well as monitoring our internal KPI performance, we benchmark our costs and performance with other registered providers. As a member of HouseMark, we aim to compare ourselves with organisations of a similar size, make-up

and location, although this remains a challenge. In 2015/2016, we worked with HouseMark to create a more appropriate peer group that better reflects our service model. The results of this latest exercise, along with information from the previous three financial years, can be found on pages 25 to 27. We are pleased that in 9 of the 14 key cost areas, our performance has continued to improve. We are focused on improving our key operational areas including voids and income management to make future VFM performance gains. On page 13, we detail our performance against the VFM objectives we set ourselves in 2014/2015. To sum up, we are satisfied that even in this challenging operating environment we are heading in the right direction. We have taken significant costs out of the business, started the process of consolidating and realigning all services, and seen performance improvements in key areas that we aim to build on in the coming year. In 2016/2017 we will be paying particular attention to the following key actions: Completion of our overhead review

including consolidation of office space and shared service implementation.

Addition of regular ‘granular’ benchmarking particularly across our Support Services in order to drive and improve our costs and performance.

Completion of our assets appraisal work including the review and decision taking on all assets currently making a negative contribution.

Continued improvement in our processes to drive and significantly improve our rents arrears and voids performance.

Collection and analysis of customer satisfaction data to better understand our performance and the perception of VFM of our customers.


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PART ONE – WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

1.1 OUR ORGANISATION We are a group of housing associations, charities and social enterprises managing 3,358 homes across the Midlands. Around a third of these homes support our various care and support activities and a substantial part of our business is to provide short-term support to vulnerable community groups. Many of our services operate on a 24/7, 365 days per year basis, linked to customer vulnerability and our partnerships with local authorities. The legal parent of our Group is Trident Housing Association Limited (THA).

75% of our residents (including those that live in our general needs schemes) and service users are characterised by low income, economic inactivity, cultural and ethnic diversity, disability, multiple needs, vulnerability and isolation. Many of the people that we house and provide services to are no longer supported by mainstream housing providers.

We employ more than 800 staff, work with over 150 volunteers and provide training places, apprenticeships and internships for many more. We have an annual turnover of more than £33m and expenditure on housing and care services of £31m (before exceptional items). We own assets of close to £92m.

Our Group incorporates one of the country’s major care and support charities,

Trident Reach the People Charity (Reach), which provides homes and services to homeless people, those with disabilities, older people and men and women suffering domestic violence. Our current homelessness contract with Birmingham City Council (BCC) is the largest in the City and is valued at £1.8m per annum (£9m over five years). Trident is also a member of one of the country’s major development partnerships, Matrix (winner of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2015) and together with The Accord Group, Rooftop Group, Trent and Dove and WATMOS Community Homes, we collectively manage more than 27,000 homes and deploy £1b of assets. Our membership of Matrix offers significant innovation and VFM savings in our procurement of new homes. Whilst we are registered with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) as a housing association, the nature of our work aligns us more to the charity or third sector. More detailed information on our current Group Structure can be found in our Report and Financial Statements – Year End 31 March 2016.

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Report_Financial_statement_Mar2016.pdf

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Report_Financial_statement_Mar2016.pdf


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1.2 OUR CURRENT PRIORITIES Trident’s operating environment has changed significantly this year as a consequence of reforms to welfare and funding in the housing and charity sectors. This has resulted in Trident making difficult decisions to ensure it continues to operate in a financially responsible fashion, while still achieving its corporate objectives.

Our Corporate Plan ‘A Beacon of Hope in an Age of Austerity’ supported by our Social Investment Strategy ‘Grounded Growth, Dedicated Delivery’, encapsulates our vision which was to meet the needs of disadvantaged individuals and communities left behind.

We have developed a new Corporate Plan and strategic approach through 2015/2016 but our vision remains the same.

These remained our goals through 2015/2016, but with a shift in emphasis on the following priorities:

Taking further costs out of the business, whilst protecting our financial and social outcomes where it is possible to do so.

Working efficiently and economically, targeting our resources where they are most needed and in response to resident and customer requirements.

Selling redundant or high value homes to support re-investment in new and existing homes and front-line services.

Working in partnership with other like minded organisations, including charities, on shared service models.

Ensuring that we ‘stretch our £’ as much as is possible via local spending and by working with social enterprises.

In our last VFM statement we identified our key corporate goals linked to VFM

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/08-Corporate-Plan-2011-2016-A-Beacon-of-Hope-In-An-Age-of-Austerity.pdf

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/08-Corporate-Plan-2011-2016-A-Beacon-of-Hope-In-An-Age-of-Austerity.pdf

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/trident_social_investment_strategy-final-final.pdf

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/trident_social_investment_strategy-final-final.pdf

Value for Money – Self-Assessment 2014/15

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PART TWO – OUR APPROACH TO VALUE FOR MONEY

2.1 OUR VIEW OF VFM ‘Every Pound Counts’ is a reflection of the culture that exists at Trident. It is this culture that drives our delivery of VFM within a social investment context.

Many of our residents and customers have complex needs and vulnerabilities (as evidenced through our research work with the Human City Institute (HCI) (Listening and Learning – ‘Trident’s Ten Year Commitment to Involvement’) and this inevitably requires additional investment in services. Therefore our aim is not to be the cheapest when compared with our peers, but to balance value with the diverse requirements of our customer-base.

This does not prevent us from aiming to reduce costs where we can, as long as we are maintaining effective services to our customers.

We wish to be recognised as a trusted and supportive community-based provider of quality services, maximising our social value where possible. We believe we can achieve this if we aim for our costs to be no more than the median when compared to our peers. Part Three of our assessment explains where we are achieving this and where we need to improve.

2.2 OUR VFM ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK

BENCHMARKING

Trident has a VFM assurance framework approved by the Board

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/trident_listening_and_learning_16pp-website.pdf




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GOVERNANCE AND BOARD(S) The guidance and scrutiny from Board is absolutely key to ensuring we meet our VFM objectives, and safeguarding the organisation as a whole. The Board is clear in its responsibility for driving and delivering VFM within a social investment context, and takes seriously the need to have a strong capable board and efficient, effective governance arrangements that represent VFM to our customers and stakeholders.

We have annual independent governance assessments carried out by external consultants. This year we had a thorough board skills audit and developed a succession and recruitment plan with our consultants, to ensure the board skills meet the needs of both current areas of business and future business development. As a result, we recruited three new board members (including filling our skills gap in treasury management), and co-opted a further board member, thus providing succession for legal skills. We also moved to the National Housing Federation (NHF) code of Governance.

We commissioned an independent consultancy (Altair Ltd) to carry out a Governance Structure Review. Following the process we concluded that we should simplify the existing group structure to a Common Board of between 10 to 12 members (including the Group Chief Executive and a Senior Independent Director) governing one housing association, one charity and one reinvigorated commercial arm.

This will mean a reduction in direct costs relating to the Boards, as well as indirect efficiency savings in staff time attending and reporting to multiple Boards.

Our new Governance Structure will be effective from September 2016.

AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT Our approach to risk management has been reviewed and strengthened in 2015/2016; a new Risk Management policy has been developed and our risk

register updated with particular emphasis on the responsibility of all staff to understand and respond to risk. Membership of our Audit Committee has been refreshed strengthening the financial auditing ability of the committee, and in 2016 the group will become our Audit and Assurance Committee. The appointment of our Internal Auditor in late 2014 has enabled us to exercise greater scrutiny of our services identifying any areas of below-standard delivery. This position continues to create VFM gains as we are driven to improve performance and remove inefficiency. This also provides us with greater detail and more frequency of reporting than could normally be achieved with externally commissioned audits. EXECUTIVE AND STAFF TEAMS Our Executive team is responsible for championing and embedding VFM across the business and delivering VFM gains set by Board. It was in the pursuit of VFM and improved delivery that a review of our executive structure was undertaken following the departure of our Director of Care, and Director of Housing in 2015. To align the interests of the care and housing parts of the business, as well as to reduce unnecessary costs, the decision was taken to integrate the roles and from September 2016 we employed a new Director of Housing and Social Care. Equally as important as our executive structure, is our overall staffing structure. 2015/2016 saw Trident making some difficult choices around how best to continue delivering effective services to customers whilst removing costs from the business. We analysed the services and roles across the whole group and have restructured services to remove duplication of roles and streamline service delivery in the main, by repositioning back-office functions to cover the whole group rather than serving an individual subsidiary. This resulted in 24 redundancies and a cost saving of £170,000.


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RESIDENT AND CUSTOMER SCRUTINY Regular customer scrutiny and feedback is essential to understand the quality of our service delivery. Our performance information tells us if we are meeting numerical targets, but direct feedback from those using our services is the only way to assess the quality and VFM of our services. Throughout 2015/2016 we have had two main customer scrutiny groups running parallel; our Resident Scrutiny Panel which undertakes formal service reviews supported by a dedicated Resident Engagement Officer, and a Customer Executive Action Team (CEAT) which undertakes mystery shopper and short-notice audits. The results of our scrutiny panel investigations are presented to the Housing Board, and the results of the CEAT group are presented to the Reach Trustees. Last year we committed to reviewing our arrangements to improve effectiveness as we felt we were not receiving sufficient information to truly assess our performance. The decision was taken to merge the two formal groups into one unified Challenge Panel who will meet with the Executive and Board members directly. Our last STAR survey (customer satisfaction survey), undertaken in November and December 2015, showed some low levels of satisfaction and perception of VFM. We are not entirely content that the survey has provided sufficient information to understand the cause of the low-levels of satisfaction. A priority for us therefore for 2016/2017 is gathering regular feedback from customers and residents at the point in time they receive services, so that poor performance or dissatisfaction identified is more immediately and accurately understood than it can be with retrospective reviews.

PROCUREMENT AND COST MANAGEMENT Procurement and management of service cost is clearly an area where VFM gains are visibly made. We try to balance achieving cost savings with meeting our social investment objectives and where possible, work with local contractors or consortiums who can help achieve these aims.

‘stretch our £’ as much as is possible via local spending and by working with social enterprises.

In 2015/2016 we agreed a contract with SoarBuild Social Enterprise for window and kitchen replacements. This was good value financially and required our contractors to provide employment advice, assistance and direct placements for residents (see VFM achievements for outcomes). We have commissioned work through the Procurement for Housing Consortium in order to try to achieve ‘bulk buying power’ gains and in 2015 employed two Contract Managers in order to more effectively monitor the delivery of external contractors. It is through this close scrutiny and evaluation that a number of our VFM gains have been achieved this year.


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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Our IT based system (Clearview) is used for monitoring and reporting on performance and risk management, and are able to scrutinise information at any point, and specific KPIs are reported to Boards and Committees with detailed commentaries. Managers of the system regularly attend team meetings to engage staff with the performance information. Monitoring spend is a key component of understanding performance and our Finance Team has moved to a ‘business partner’ model where the expectation is of managers to hold monthly budget meetings with their finance partners. Work started in 2015/2016 to get all staff more engaged with financial and performance reporting and to understand how we as an organisation are performing, and how we might improve our performance particularly in relation to VFM. This has been done through a series of staff workshops, and increased communication on our internal intranet system. The monitoring of VFM performance has been updated and an online register for all parts of the organisation developed, to enable achievements to be recorded live, and not always retrospectively. BENCHMARKING We participate in benchmarking through HouseMark on a quarterly and annual basis. To improve the quality of the information we receive and our ability to usefully analyse it, we have worked with HouseMark over the last year to create a more bespoke peer group. We have started comparing the performance data received with individual organisations’ published performance and financial information. At a more local level we are active members of specific benchmarking/good

practice groups, such as Housing Asset Management Maintenance and Regeneration group (HAMMAR), the HouseMark Business Assurance Club and have founded a small Policy Networking Forum with 5 other Midlands-based providers meeting on a quarterly basis to compare approaches and share good practice.

Our Executive team is responsible for championing and embedding VFM across the business and delivering VFM gains set by Board

AWARDS AND ACCREDITATIONS We are committed to being the best organisation that we can and to demonstrate to our residents, customers and stakeholders that we take this seriously. Most benchmarking provides a numerical test of how we are performing against other organisations. They also test the quality of delivery through the application for awards and accreditations.

We currently hold the SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow) silver award, Investors in People Gold Standard and achieved an award for being in the top 50 Investors in Diversity Employers in the country.


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2.3 VALUE FOR MONEY STANDARD

The table below provides a summary on how we are meeting the expectations of the VFM Standard:

Summary Expectations Evidence That We Meet The Standard

‘Providers shall have a robust approach to making decisions on the use of resources to deliver the provider’s objectives’.

Our annual and in-year business and financial planning procedures ensure that we make an appropriate and robust assessment of the resources required to deliver our corporate mission.

‘Providers shall understand the return on its assets and have a strategy for optimising the future return on assets’.

In 2014 we invested in a new asset performance appraisal tool PAVE (Portfolio Asset Valuation Evaluation), which on an annual basis will be used to evaluate the return and performance on all of our social housing assets. In 2015/2016 we have strengthened our work in this area through the development of an active working group to use assessment made by PAVE and other contextual information to make active asset management decisions.

‘Providers shall have performance management and scrutiny functions which are effective at driving and delivering improved VFM performance’.

Our Business Support Team is responsible for working with our service managers, collating and analysing performance information. Regular meetings are held with managers to discuss their performance information, and their reporting needs.

‘Providers shall understand the costs and outcomes of delivering specific services’.

We are a member of HouseMark and play an active role in their annual benchmarking exercise. Our Business Support team is responsible for analysing this (and other) information to better understand underlying factors. Such analysis is formally reviewed by our Group Board, subsidiary Boards, the Executive and staff teams and included in our business and financial planning work.

‘Set out absolute and comparative costs of delivering specific services’.

A summary of the results of our 2015/2016 HouseMark benchmarking exercise can be found in this document and a complete copy of the benchmarking report found by clicking HouseMark ‘On The Ball’ Benchmarking Report 2015/2016 Additionally, analysis of our Costs Per Unit as per our Global and statutory accounts can be found in this document.

‘Evidence the value for money gains that have been and will be made and how these have and will be realised over time’.

Evidence of VFM gains in 2015/2016 and future gains can be found in the section ‘Value for Money Highlights 2015/2016’ and in Part Four ‘Plans for the Future’.

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Trident-HA-On-the-ball-report-2016.pdf

http://www.trident-ha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Trident-HA-On-the-ball-report-2016.pdf


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PART THREE – HOW ARE WE DOING? This section of the assessment sets out how we are performing against a range of cost, quality and performance indicators. It is also where you will find the information we promise in our Chair’s Statement on how we use our assets and the VFM gains we have achieved and aim to achieve in the future.

3.1 VALUE FOR MONEY HIGHLIGHTS 2015/2016

Our ‘key’ VFM achievements (and any anticipated future gains)

Overhead cost reduction including consolidation of office space saved £240,000

How Did We Reinvest Some Of These Savings?

£49,700 invested in Aids & Adaptations

£2,165 spent on our Go Green programme to improve the physical environment of our homes

£50,000 invested in providing free Wi-Fi for residents

Established a work and enterprise club; 148 advice sessions including CV writing and interview technique advice. Of the people who attended 10 found work and 8 entered training programmes

Business rates rebate £511,000

£307,500 grant received to install biomass boiler to service over 300 homes in Trident

House

Bringing our VAT returns in-house

£26,000 per annum saving

Through staffing restructure and consolidation saved £171,000

Partnership with Shelter saved £93,000 and helped 30

people avoid eviction/sustain their tenancy


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3.2 KEY ACTIONS FROM 2014/2015

Below are the ‘key’ VFM actions that were identified in our 2014/2015 statement for delivery in 2015/2016 and an update on how we have performed against them. We set ourselves ambitious targets, particularly in light of the changes affecting our income and operation later in the year, and although not all targets were delivered by the target dates, we are confident that

all targets will be met, even if they have been delayed.

This year our VFM evaluation process has been strengthened and we are setting ourselves achievable, but still challenging goals (see section 4 for targets).

Action Point

Action Outcome Target Date

What we delivered

‘Protecting Financial Capacity’

F1 Update (and launch) Corporate Plan for the period 2016/2021

A Plan to achieve a sustainable and improving business into the future

November 2015

Corporate Plan updated and agreed by Board. To be formally launched at staff workshops in September 2016.

F2 Update and implement VFM Strategy and management framework

A Strategy and framework to direct and deliver ‘evidenced’ VFM gains

November 2015

A new framework for capturing VFM created in 2015/2016. Update of the strategy to follow the launch of the Corporate Plan.

F3

Roll out ‘strategic procurement’ framework across the Group (including rationalisation of supplier lists, development of a Group-wide Procurement Plan and continued delivery of Property Services Procurement Plan).

A framework to deliver increased VFM savings and improved supplier/contract management

February 2016

Restructure of procurement management and contract delivery by the employment of contract managers who throughout 2016 will be reviewing existing contracts.

F4

Continue with office locations work (and deliver VFM work in the meantime e.g. CMP improvements)

A reduction in office space, overheads and interim running costs

March 2016

A major project to fully consolidate office space brought underway with costly leases brought to an end. Financial gains will be seen in 2016/2017.

F5 Complete financial impact analysis work and update Business Plan

A thorough understanding of the impact and a re-aligned Business Plan

October 2015

Complete review of financial position carried out October 2015 to take account of changes in operating environment and stress-testing work undertaken. Completion of Business Plan update for Q3 of 2016/2017.


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F6 Deliver project to improve lettings and voids management performance

An increase in income to the business and the use of assets maximised

November 2015

Short-term internal project carried out to improve voids and a further independent consultant commissioned to improve performance of voids and lettings, and income management. Ongoing through to 2016/2017 therefore expect gains to be seen in 2016/2017.

F7

Deliver project to improve rent income collection performance (including FTA work).

An increase in income to the business and improved circumstances for residents

November 2015 As per above

F8

Undertake central overhead costs and back-office functions/shared service model review (including externally resourced professional services contracts)

A reduction in operating costs and improved ‘internal’ efficiency

March 2016

Overhead costs reduced significantly in 2015/2016 following staffing restructures and review of central budgets.

‘Investing In Assets’

A1

Develop and implement Active Asset Management model and management framework (including a strategic sales programme)

A framework to drive and manage the future investment/disinvestment in stock

February 2016

Strategic sales and management of stock integrated into the Asset management Strategy.

A2

Commence development programme as per AHP requirements and complete Year One

A supply of new homes and improved circumstances for the local community

November 2015

Development programme is on track; a 4 unit development completed in 2015/2016 and a further site identified and agreed for completion in 2017.

A3

Update Asset Management Strategy (including new 5 and 3 year Property Investment Plan).

A Strategy and Plan for the future ‘intelligent’ investment in homes and an increase in resident awareness

March 2016

Strategy updated and agreed by Board

A4

Complete Assets and Liabilities Register work and include results in Business Plan.

A comprehensive record of all assets and liabilities

December 2015

Register completed and approved by Board in 2015/2016

A5 Complete PAVE analysis and agree list of schemes for options appraisal

A thorough understanding of the return on assets and a plan for investment/disinvestment

December 2015

PAVE analysis undertaken, a review panel has been formed and appraisal decision will be made in 2016/2017.


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A6

Agree a course of action and develop implementation plan for the re-development or sale of Oakview.

An increase in income to the business and the supply of new homes for the local community

December 2015

Sale of Oakview agreed in 2015/2016, completion will not be until 2016/2017.

A7

Review and improve approach to the calculation and collection of leasehold sinking fund monies

An increase in income to the business to cover future costs and improved circumstances for residents

March 2016

On hold following the re-prioritisation of tasks for the Finance team in light of operating environment and need to focus on tenanted property income.

‘Providing Excellent Services’

E1

Develop and implement Community Investment Strategy/community gateway model

An improvement in community leadership and a stake in Trident’s business

March 2016

Given the need for cost-savings our approach to community investment is being reviewed and the development of strategy was put on hold.

E2 Complete customer profiling exercise and include results in business planning work

A greater understanding of people’s circumstances to offer more tailored solutions

March 2016

Partially completed; following restructure of our resident engagement team this project has been put on hold for further review.

E3

Complete STAR Plus survey and include results in business and financial planning work

A fit for purpose survey to determine the value and efficiency of services

March 2016

STAR survey completed in Dec 2015; analysis of the results is ongoing through 2016.

E4

Develop (and monitor) new outcomes measures for the Tenancy Management (CBTS) service

An improved understanding on the return on investment of our Tenancy Management service

December 2015

Tenancy Management service restructured following review and performance is being closely monitored through KPIs and case recording.

E5 Undertake review of Estate Services service and implement recommendations

An improved understanding and plan to improve the service

March 2016

Estate Services are not delivered as a unitary whole and review of component elements has been undertaken by our contract mangers to improve performance; responsibility for overseeing most services has been brought under a single manager, but this was not until 2016/2017.

E6 Introduce new resident satisfaction testing model

A more regular process of feedback and a wider testing of subject matters

March 2016

Still a priority but rollout not achievable until 2016/2017


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‘Maximising Social Value’

S1 Update (and launch) Social Investment Strategy for the period 2016/2021

A Strategy and plan to maximise the social value of our business

December 2015

The decision was taken to put this on hold until the completion of the new Business Plan. It will now be updated by December 2016.

S2 Deliver Year 1 CMP recommendations

A reduction in carbon emissions and improved running costs

March 2016

We have delivered significant carbon savings and energy reduction costs at two of our schemes (approx 350 properties) through the installation of renewable and innovative energy technologies. See our releases on our website re: Coheat at Meeting House, and the Biomass boiler at Trident House. Site-based staff have completed a mandatory energy efficiency e-learning course.

S3 Deliver energy education awareness programme as per AWP priorities

An improvement in residents’ circumstances and a reduction in carbon emissions

March 2016

Across our Supported schemes energy awareness and energy efficiency training is incorporated into customer support sessions. This is yet to be rolled out across our general needs schemes.

S4 Develop and implement new SROI (or equivalent) model across the Group

A framework for the capture and reporting of future social value outcomes

March 2016

Formal SROI reporting on hold within the Housing Association while we concentrate on realigning services and monitoring performance delivery. SROI has been monitored within the Charity.


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3.3 ‘PROTECTING FINANCIAL CAPACITY’

ACHIEVING PREVIOUS TARGETS

In addition to the above action plan from the 2014/2015 self-assessment we set financial targets; these targets were revised part way through the year following extensive stress testing prior to

our Financial Forecast Return submission. The targets were revised to a central objective of saving £390,000 from our original budget; these were achieved as per the table below:

Group Expenditure Category

Savings £000 Comments

Staff Costs 171 Restructures across the group. Service Costs including maintenance

97 More services delivered in-house, reduction in planned improvement works.

IT Costs 48 Primarily a reduction in software maintenance costs following strategic consolidation and removal of contracts.

Training/Away Days 70 More training delivered in-house, significant downscaling of away days and cancellation of proposed Christmas party.

Recruitment 7 Total 393

TREASURY MANAGEMENT AND LENDERS COVENANTS

Robust treasury management is vital for our ongoing sustainability and delivery of VFM. In respect of our borrowings, we do not enter into complicated arrangements. We operate a blend of fixed and variable rate loans which will support the delivery of our corporate objectives moving forward. We have an honest and open relationship with our lenders and in 2015/2016 we renegotiated our loan

facilities. The objective was to simplify arrangements and create further capacity on our lending facilities. This means, in addition to existing funds, we are fully financed to deliver our planned capital investment and development activities in the coming years.

Current loan facilities are set out in the table below:

Lender Facility Total

£m

Balance at 31 March 2016

£m

% Used

Barclays Nationwide The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) Royal Bank of Scotland

20.0 73.5 7.7 3.2

6.3 68.8 6.6 2.8

32% 84% 86% 88%

Total 104.4 84.5


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We have carefully monitored our borrowings and our business is financially compliant in respect of all covenants. In

2015/2016, we worked to simplify these arrangements, where possible aligning agreed limits with all lenders.

Our current limits are set out in the table below:

Covenant Agreed Limit

£

Actual at 31 March 2016 £

Nationwide – maximum debt per unit Barclays – maximum debt per unit Nationwide – current year interest cover* Barclays – interest cover*

=/<35,000 =/<35,000 =/>110% =/>110%

28,248 28,829 149% 150%

* = Agreed surplus before interest and taxation divided by net interest payable

=> - Equal to or greater than

Our debt per unit as at 31 March 2016 for our most stringent covenant was £28,829, compared to the Global Accounts of Housing Providers (GAHP) of £28,205

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE The tables below highlight our turnover and surplus for the last three years:

Turnover (£'000)


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It has been a challenging year with the effects of Welfare Reform, Local Authority budgetary cuts and the implementation of the 1% rent cut all starting to have a negative impact on our finances. Despite this, which necessitated a revision of our budgets part way through the year, we have maintained a strong financial position. Our turnover in the year for the Group

has improved slightly by 0.1% however for the Housing Association at £19.3m this has reduced slightly by 0.3% compared to last year. This is due to no new development property sales in the year (2015: £800k) and some reduction in income across our supported schemes. This compares to GAHP of 4% increase.

Income from general needs housing has increased by £301k (3.2%) compared to last year, and income from supported housing has decreased by £166k (2.4%).

The operating margin for the Housing

Association at £4.7m for the year 2015/2016 was 24.3% which improved from 20.3% in 2014/2015. Despite the slight increase in the turnover, operating margin improvement was significant which was due to the increase in margins generated from market rents and other income by £275k.

Our operating margin as a percentage of turnover is the highest it has been for the last 5 years.

Our net margin for the Housing Association significantly improved from last year’s £0.62m to £1.15m this year. This includes a reduction driven by better management of operating costs in the year compared to last year.


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OUR COSTS PER UNIT The table below shows how our costs per unit compared with all housing providers whose accounts are submitted to the HCA’s Global Accounts. The Benchmarks

are against 2014/2015 global account figures, but will be updated with the 2015/2016 figures when they are available.

Our CPU analysis shows that in all but service charge we are close to the median. This is where we aim to position ourselves as an organisation. The reason our service charge costs are high is that we

have a significantly higher than average number of supported schemes where charges, for example personal heating and lighting, support services, communal area costs are all accounted for in the charges.

STRESS TESTING AND RISK MANAGEMENT We completed extensive stress testing

of our Business Plan taking into account our risk profile and our financial impact analysis work on Welfare Reform, Right to Buy and the July 2015 Budget. We have adjusted our Business Plan, key corporate strategies and targets accordingly.

This work is ongoing, but we are confident in our ability to maintain a robust financial position.

We developed a new Risk Management Strategy and reviewed our approach to the management of the risk register.

WHAT ELSE WE ACHIEVED We updated our Treasury Strategy

and Policy in May 2015, supported by Savills; the main change being to introduce a lower risk liquidity management strategy. We now hold a minimum cash balance of £2.5m, offering us a secure cash platform to operate from. At year end we exceeded our target minimum, holding £4.7m.

We finalised the sale of our Final

Salary Pension scheme and completed our auto-enrolment of pensions. This has required a significant capital expenditure over the last two financial years, and is a great achievement that many organisations are still to undertake, which will result in long-term reduction in financial liabilities.

Social

housing CPU (£k)

Management CPU (£k)

Service charge

CPU (£k) Maintenance

CPU (£k) Major

repairs CPU (£k)

Other social

housing costs CPU

(£k)

Trident 2015/16 3.64 0.9 1.28 0.9 0.5 0

Trident 2014/15 3.88 1 1.29 0.9 0.68 0

Sector Level data

Upper Quartile 4.3 1.27 0.61 1.18 1.13 0.41

Median 3.55 0.95 0.36 0.98 0.8 0.2

Lower Quartile 3.19 0.7 0.23 0.81 0.53 0.08


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3.4 ‘INVESTING IN ASSETS’ OUR PROPERTY The majority of our homes are located in Birmingham and we also have homes in ten other (Midlands based) local authority areas. Our social housing portfolio and related property assets comprise of 3,358 homes, 308 garages (across 10 sites) and a range of miscellaneous assets including shops, community spaces and other health and care facilities such as day centres. We also rent properties from

private landlords (which we then rent on) and many such projects come with their own repairing obligations.

Our homes and community facilities are our biggest asset and our continued investment in them is one of our major areas of spend. We allocate circa £5m or 30% of the rent we receive each year on maintaining our assets to a good standard.

The table below sets out our investment in our new and existing homes across the past 5 years:

2011/2012 £

2012/2013 £

2013/2014 £

2014/2015 2015/2016 £

Investment in New Homes

9.6m

10.1m

7.6m

6.3m

2.7m

Number of New Homes

50 139 75 76 1

Number of Remodelled Homes

0 6 14 0 4

Investment in existing Homes

1.9m 1.4m 1.7m 1.0m 1.0m

OUR ASSET MANAGEMENT STRATEGY Development of New Homes Trident is a founding member of the Matrix Housing Partnership, a group of five Housing Associations which work together to achieve greater development opportunities than we could as individuals. The demand for social housing, in particular supported housing, across 2011-2015 was great. As a partnership we bid for a grant from the Affordable Homes Programme and were awarded £26m to

build 1290 homes. Trident contributed to this and the final homes for development will be completed in 2016/2017 with a further 53 units. In reviewing our Corporate and Business Plans through 2015/2016 we have reviewed our approach to development, and re-financed to put us in a strong position to continue development from 2016/2017. We intend to keep expanding and working within the partnership, but will be balancing steady growth against business security in this uncertain sector.


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INVESTMENT IN EXISTING HOMES

Our homes already meet the Decent Homes Standard but we aim to continually invest in and improve these. Over the last year we have been redeveloping our Corporate and Business Plans, and alongside this have realigned our Asset Management Strategy.

The new strategy runs from 2016 to 2021 and refocuses our approach on providing homes that are sustainable both in environmental terms, but importantly in financial terms for our organisation and our residents.

Our previous Asset Management Strategy introduced for the first time the concepts of both ‘active asset management’ and ‘£-stretch’ and this continues throughout our new strategy with a particular emphasis on understanding our assets to enable sound investment or disposal decisions to be made.

The strategy outlines our intention to achieve better VFM for our residents and achieve greater outcomes by more actively seeking grant (other than Social Housing Grant) and other funding, as well as stretching the lifespan of our properties through timely interventions, and using all procurement opportunities to save money and create value.

Major investment and improvement has been restrained over the last two years while we improved our understanding of our assets and developed a comprehensive investment plan.

We now have a five year plan starting in 2016/2017 and have committed to £6.2m of renewals and improvements.

OUR ASSETS AND LIABILITIES REGISTER

Since our last assessment we have been busy updating our Assets and Liabilities Register; the property assets, both leasehold and freehold were completed in

2015/2016 and the register has been expanded to include commercial assets and liabilities, as well as details of all contracts we hold.

OUR RETURN ON ASSETS We use two main methods to assess the return achieved on our properties; the first is a global assessment of value, calculated by measuring our operating surplus over the current net book value of our properties. This gives us a high level view of our return that we can compare to other housing providers through the HCA’s Housing Providers’ Global Accounts

The second method we use is an assessment of Net Present Value (NPV), that is the value of our properties over a period of time (30 years) taking into account all income generated and costs incurred. The model we use for assessing NPV allows us to analyse the value at a scheme level.


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Table showing global Return on Assets Group THA Group THA Group THA Group THA

Housing Property 2015/16* 2015/16* 2014/15* 2014/15* 2013/14 2013/14 2012/13 2012/13

Operating Surplus (£’000) 4,908 4,677 3,852 3,917 2,433 2,419 4,398 4,291

NBV (£’000) 151,441/ 88,559

151,301/ 88,309

151,415/ 87,778

151,279/ 87,642 82,795 82,657 74,839 74,699

ROA (Rounded) 3.24% / 5.29%

3.09% / 5.05%

2.54%/ 4.15%

2.59%/ 4.23% 2.94% 2.93% 5.88% 5.74%

*Please note for these years figures have been stated using both the new accounting method (FRS102) and the old accounting method. Graph showing NPV spread of our properties incorporating the 1% rent cut across all schemes

Our assets are critical to our long term business planning and it is therefore essential that we understand how our assets are performing at a Group, service, estate and individual property level.

Our overall Return on Assets for 2015/2016 compares favourably with the Global accounts average of 5.5% and

represents a return to form following two years of much lower performance due to costs associated with the closure of our pension scheme

Our investment in an asset performance appraisal tool (PAVE) in 2014/2015, has significantly improved our understanding of the return on our assets, along with our forward planning capability.


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The initial results showed:

21 schemes (128 properties) with a negative NPV. This group of properties is made up of 4 general needs schemes, 3 commercial schemes and 14 supported housing schemes. 12 of these schemes (mostly our supporting housing schemes), we lease from a range of agencies.

21 schemes (353 properties) with NPV’s between £0 and £10,000 (£10,000 being the limit we have set for our initial investigations). This group of properties includes 13 general needs schemes and 8 supported housing/older people schemes

Through 2015/2016 we have used this tool as a starting point to further analyse and offer appraisal of our under-performing stock (low NPV schemes). We have formed a working group and a ‘business case’ approach has been taken to assess the viability of our schemes.

So far the work has identified schemes that may be brought into positive NPV by reducing void and rental income loss. We are re-evaluating the options for these schemes in light of the work undertaken to support these service areas.

Our homes already meet the Decent Homes Standard but we aim to continually invest in and improve our homes.

Our full options appraisal will be completed in 2016/2017, but a key part of the assessment is considering the best use of our stock, exploring the possibilities that a change of use might generate a better return on the asset that can then be translated into further development of social housing or increased services for our residents.

WHAT ELSE DID WE ACHIEVE?

We secured £60,000 of grant funding to install solar thermal heating and hot water to 39 of our homes.

We invested £49,700 in Aids and Adaptations.

We gave work placements to residents to help secure qualifications.

We invested £205,000 in a biomass boiler to heat 300 of our properties, and £38,500 in the installation of a network heating system for 24 supported properties. The projects were part grant funded to a total of £333,500.


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OUR PEOPLE We recognise the importance of people as organisational assets and continue to explore ways of attracting and retaining employees. As stated in 2015/2016 we had to make redundancies to remove duplication of roles and streamline services; this has increased the importance of investment in our existing staff.

We regularly provide training and e-learning opportunities, which not only helps to develop our workforce but reduce our learning and development costs at the same time. 2617 courses were completed in the last 12 months at an average costs of £3.43 per person.

Our Organisational Development team also adopts a ‘train the trainer’ approach to learning and development to ensure that a shared learning culture is systematically rolled-out across the organisation.

We are internally accredited to provide the Institute of Leadership and Management Levels 3 and 5 and have started a programme for all of our team leaders and managers to be formally trained. 18 of our staff were trained in 2015/2016.

We have also developed an effective succession planning programme, to support staff who wish to further their careers and/or progress within our organisation, and actively encourage internal applicants for all our roles.

3.5 ‘PROVIDING EFFECTIVE SERVICES’ HOW WE BENCHMARK COSTS AND PERFORMANCE We have used two main sources to formally benchmark our performance; the Global Accounts of Housing Providers and our annual and quarterly HouseMark Benchmarking exercise.

The Global Accounts allows us to compare at a higher level against the whole of the sector, and as our analysis of Costs Per Unit in section 2 demonstrates we are close to median in most cost areas, except service charges.

Using HouseMark we are able to compare costs and performance against a more tailored peer group (See our ‘On the Ball’ benchmarking report for details). We aim to compare ourselves with organisations of a similar size, make-up and location, although this remains a challenge.

In 2015/2016 we changed our peer group based on discussions with HouseMark about comparing with organisations with more correlation to Trident in terms of the significant levels of young people,

homelessness, vulnerability and complex needs that currently exist.

There are significant limitations to HouseMark benchmarking as most of the information being assessed relates only to our General Needs and Housing for Older People stock.

In addition to the formal benchmarking, we are members of multiple good practice peer groups which enables us to network and compare services, projects and performance with other organisations.

We aim to improve on our understanding of performance by formally benchmarking at a more granular level next year, working directly with individual organisations in addition to our wider benchmarking, and have started exploring the creation of our own benchmarking peer groups.


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ANALYSIS OF OUR BENCHMARKING AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

To demonstrate our performance over the last four years, we have set out below the HouseMark dashboards and provided commentary on the output of our HouseMark performance report.

Our resident satisfaction data is taken from our STAR Plus (resident) survey undertaken early in 2015.

Key for numbers in circle:

1 - Responsive Repairs and Void Works 5 - Lettings 2 - Rent Arrears and Collection 6 - Tenancy Management 3 - Anti-social Behaviour 7 - Resident Involvement 4 - Major Works and Cyclical Maintenance 8 - Estate services

*Please note on 2015/2016 no.5 is located directly behind no.6


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Business Activity

Our Costs 2012/13

Our Costs 2013/14

Our Costs

2014/15

Our Costs

2015/16

Median Benchmark

2015/16

2014/15 Quartile Trend

Overhead Costs (as % of adjusted turnover)

18.2% 19.5% 19.4% 17.4% 13.08% 4

Responsive Repairs and Void Works

(total cost per property)

£949.51 £682.49 £820.28 £888.13 £812.83 4

Responsive Repairs


£586.73 £504.93 £567.15 £528.67 £519.72 3

Void Works (total cost per

property) £362.78 £177.56 £253.13 £359.46 £243.53 4

Rent Arrears and Collection (total cost per

property)

£319.82 £288.96 £333.53 £345.88 £147.30 4

Anti-Social Behaviour


£123.28 £146.30 £151.01 £162.16 £69.54 4

Major Works and Cyclical Maintenance (total cost per

property)

£830.94 £1233.78 £1130.35 £901.05 £1295.01 1

Major Works (total cost per

property) £547.00 £957.03 £908.24 £694.69 £962.56 1

Cyclical Maintenance


£283.94 £276.75 £222.11 £206.36 £271.64 2

Housing Management* (total cost per

property)

£722.08 £776.08 £832.68 £796.95 £449.53 4

Lettings (total cost per

property) £78.62 £56.30 £46.16 £45.21 £77.40 1

Tenancy Management (total cost per

property)

£82.77 £88.15 £132.33 £77.47 £97.35 1

Resident Involvement


£117.59 £196.37 £169.61 £166.24 £64.48 4

Estate Services (total cost per

property) £338.34 £583.60 £417.38 £457.36 £151.38 4


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A more detailed explanation of each of our key cost drivers is as follows:

OVERHEADS (CENTRAL COSTS)

Our overhead costs have been consistently high compared to benchmark peer groups; because of this we focussed our cost reduction plan on this area.

In 2015/2016 we started the process of streamlining ‘back-office’ staffing structures, removing duplication of roles across the Group and consolidating office space. Significant progress has already been made and we reduced our spend by over £240,000 by comparison to 2014/2015. The financial benefit will continue to be realised through 2016/2017 as a number of the restructures did not take place until the last quarter of 2015/2016, and further office consolidation is planned.

RESPONSIVE REPAIRS AND VOIDS (DAY-TO-DAY REPAIRS AND EMPTY PROPERTIES)

Responsive and void repairs are carried out predominantly by our in-house teams. This creates ongoing VAT and time-efficiency savings.

Our responsive repairs performance places us in the upper quartiles both in terms of cost per property, cost per repair and performance on key indicators:

Average number of calendar days taken to complete repairs – 4.96 /1st quartile (1st quartile = 6.02 days).

% repairs completed at first visit –

91.36%/ 2nd quartile (1st quartile =

96.11%).

Cost per responsive repair - £84.37/1st quartile (1st quartile = £107.44).

However, when combined with our void cost performance this reduces our performance to bottom quartile by comparison with our peers.

Some considerable costs are attributable to a small number of extremely high cost

voids where tenant damage has resulted in the need for significant spend.

94% of our void repairs cost less than the upper quartile limit of £1,712.23. However, the 6% of very high void repair costs brings down our average performance to a cost of £3,368.39 per repair.

We aim to address the cost of voids through more stringent property checks throughout the life of a tenancy.

RENT ARREARS AND COLLECTION (RENT AND SERVICE CHARGE PAID BY RESIDENTS)

Our performance shows an improved position on 2013/2014 but a reduction in performance from 2014/2015. Given the increased difficulties in our operating environment, this is not unexpected.

We expect to carry a higher than average level of arrears due to the reliance of Housing Benefit for approximately 70% of our tenants’ income; our Year-end figure adjusted for outstanding Housing Benefit due is 6.84%

This still places us in the lower quartile of performance, and our costs also place us in the lower quartile.

We expect our costs to be higher than average due to our heavy investment in a team who are able to deliver support around resolution of benefit problems, as well as collection of income.

Although the performance figures are understandable given the context, we are still aiming to improve them and have an external consultant working with our Income Management Team to maximise performance in 2016/2017.

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR (COMMUNITY SAFETY)

We remain in the upper quartile for resolution of ASB cases; however our costs place us in the lower quartile. This is partly due to the collaborative effort on ASB prevention and resolution, where we have two dedicated ASB officers


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supported by our concierge service at our central site, and the work of our Tenancy support officers.

We are satisfied that the continued expenditure on this service is justified by the positive outcomes and necessitated by the reduced funding for Local Authority and Police-sponsored initiatives.

MAJOR WORKS AND CYCLICAL MAINTENANCE (LARGER PROPERTY WORKS AND ANNUAL PROGRAMMES OF INVESTMENT)

Our Major Works and Cyclical Maintenance services have moved from their previously static position of ‘high cost good performance’ to ‘low cost poor performance’. This move in the table is entirely down to a shift in customer satisfaction levels from our previous STAR survey to the 2015 one.

Our costs are all in the upper or upper middle quartile compared to our peers.

Our performance in respect of Decent Homes and gas safety is still good with both positioned in the 1st quartile, with 0% dwellings that are non-decent and 100% gas safety certification respectively. Our SAP rating is just below that of the median (72.7) at 72.4, however our satisfaction levels have fallen to 66% by comparison to a peer group median of 82.95%.

We have reduced our major works and cyclical maintenance spend this year. Some of this saving is due to a strategic decision to slow down some major and cyclical works while comprehensive strategic investment decisions can be made.

Other savings are directly due to our better management of external contractor costs and the reduction in our reliance on them. We have up skilled our internal maintenance team enabling them to carry out capital works on voids.

LETTINGS (ALLOCATION OF EMPTY HOMES)

As detailed in our last VFM one of our key concerns was the low performance of our

lettings service. This year’s emphasis on improving our void loss performance and the review we have undertaken is proving to be successful.

We have reduced our average void period by 9 days, and our turnover rate by 2%

Our performance as per HouseMark remains ‘low cost, low performance’ but we have shown a nearly 2% reduction in turnover rate, a 0.9% reduction in void loss and an improvement of 9 days in the average time taken to relet a property.

Although the reductions may not be significant, the impact of the review was realised later in the year and our internal KPIs showed a change from 57 days average relet time in April 2015 to 41 days in March 2016.

TENANCY MANAGEMENT (ESTATE MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT TO RESIDENTS)

The output of the HouseMark submission shows a significant drop in costs for our tenancy management services, partly due to a change in accounting for the costs of our outsourced team who provide lettings and tenancy management. In addition, a restructure of the service, reducing the number of staff and removing our in-house provision of money advice was also attributable.


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RESIDENT INVOLVEMENT

This service has consistently been categorised as ‘high cost, poor performance’. Through most of 2015/2016 we operated with specialist teams in both our Housing Association and Charity.

Although HouseMark’s evaluation of resident involvement is limited, our own internal assessment has been that the service was not delivering the outcomes and level of participation we would expect and so, as part of our overall review of services we decided to make changes to the way we deliver resident engagement.

We have removed the specialist teams, combined the two resident and customer scrutiny panels and are exploring ways of engaging with and involving residents more effectively and efficiently through digital media.

We expect to see improvement in performance and cost through 2016/2017

ESTATE SERVICES (ESTATE CLEANING, CARETAKING AND GROUNDS MAINTENANCE)

In our last VFM statement we identified our concern around the performance of the Estates Services team. This function remains high cost, although the performance has improved and this is now categorised as ‘high cost, good performance’.

This is largely based on decisions to review the management of contracts and appoint specific contract managers within the housing department. Further contract review will be made aimed at reducing costs; however, we are pleased that performance has increased.

3.6 OTHER VFM GAINS

Developed a partnership with Shelter to provide debt advice. The service is free to Trident subject to the provision of a private office space for the advisors to work. The equivalent cost of providing an in-house service is £93,000.

We continued to benefit from our decision some years ago to bring all legal services work in-house. Achievements in 2015/2016 include: Negotiated a favourable rate of

commission on a contractor to carry out an historic business rates review. Net rebate so far is £511,000.

Favourable negotiations of disputed invoices prevented spend of over £100k.

An internal review of our insurance provision has saved us 14% per annum (over £89,000).

Creating capacity within the finance team to carry out our own VAT returns will save us £26,000 per annum on consultancy costs.

A new initiative to use agency engineers to cover absences rather than outsourcing to a contractor saves us, as an example, £1,480 per gas service.

Completion of internal IT development rather than outsourcing saved us approximately £50,000.

Reduced ongoing IT costs by £22,000 per annum through re-procurement of services.

Completion of in-house fire risk assessment saved us £8,000 on cost of external contractors.


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3.7 ‘MAXIMISING SOCIAL VALUE’

As a social investment business we take environmental sustainability and social value seriously. We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment, whilst maximising the social value of our investments for the benefit of the communities in which we work.

What did we do Established a food bank in partnership

with Fareshare and Tesco to collect and distribute food waste from a local store.

Established a work and enterprise club; 148 advice sessions including CV writing and interview technique advice. Of the people who attended 10 found work and 8 entered training programmes.

2 apprenticeships created through contract obligations we imposed.

Created a Breakfast Club where residents receive free breakfast and have access to staff and partner.

agencies to help them sustain their tenancies and improve their wellbeing.

Installed a biomass boiler in Trident House using grant funding of £307,500.

Worked with an innovative research partner to pilot a new network heating system at one of our supported schemes; the system uses smart technology and a communal heat network to reduce energy use. Estimated to reduce costs by up to 50% for our residents.

Secured a grant of £16,500 to purchase bicycles and started a cycling club for residents and staff. There are currently 18 members.

Developed partnerships with local colleges and universities to offer student placements within our offices and supported schemes and includes social work, social policy and nursing students who spent a total of 9,655 hours working with us.


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PART FOUR – PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

4.1 FUTURE TARGETS

PROTECTING FINANCIAL CAPACITY

The following targets are based on Group figures unless otherwise indicated. Those marked with * are taken from our Financial

Forecast Return (FFR) as at 30 June 2016.

Action/Indicator Target

2015/2016 2016/2017 2017/2018 2018/2019

Growth in turnover* -1.56% 0.52% 2.52% 9.93%

Surplus as % of turnover* 2.11% 3.28% 3.55% 5.18%

Operating margin* 13.16% 13.47% 14.66% 15.95%

Net operating surplus* £0.69m £1.07m £1.19m £1.91m

Gearing ratio* 49.5% 50.3% 51.1% 43.1%

Debt per unit* £28,221 £29,143 £29,965 £27,719

EBITDA* £6.7m £7.1m £7.6m £8.8m

Management costs per unit* £2,298 £2,290 £2,209 £2,063

Return on assets* 2.78% 2.81% 3.09% 3.73%

Overheads as % of turnover (THA)* 17.4% 16.8% 16.0% 15.0%

Current tenant arrears as % rent due (THA) 6.84% 5.7% 4.9% 4.5%

Former tenant arrears as % rent due (THA) 5.6% 4.0% 3.0% 2.2%

Rent loss due to voids as % rent due (THA) 2.7% 2.0% 1.6% 1.6%

Average re-let time (THA) 41 35 30 25


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INVESTING IN ASSETS

Complete our Affordable Homes development Programme.

Reduce the costs and increase the efficiency of delivering cyclical and planned maintenance by creating an in-house planned maintenance team.

Complete our assets appraisal and have a plan for each low-return scheme.

Complete our office consolidation plan, including the lease and sale of redundant spaces to maximise our return on these assets.

PROVIDING EFFECTIVE SERVICES

Complete the realignment of our Group and Governance structures.

Collect sufficient transactional customer satisfaction surveys to fully understand our Star Survey Results.

Conduct formal granular benchmarking assessments against individual organisations and services.

Complete our service area reviews of voids and income management, and implement the recommended changes.

Transfer of our office cleaning contract to our in-house team.

Alignment/consolidation of services across the group including IT, Telephony, Communications and Out of Hours Management.

MAXIMISING SOCIAL VALUE

Work with our Local Authority and charity partners to maximise delivery of our social outcomes through supported housing.

Revisit our Social Reporting Methodology to achieve consistency across the

Group and clarity for our stakeholders

Apply for additional funding from diverse sources to support our social investment aims, including providing employment related support to customers and residents.


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CLOSING STATEMENT – GROUP BOARD

Our efforts this year to refine our approach to VFM and our slight shift in focus from ‘£-stretch’ to a critical assessment of how we can ‘do more with less’ has helped us make considerable progress on our VFM journey.

We have succeeded in removing notable costs from the business, and most importantly we are confident of being in a financial position to continue to meet our commitment to provide housing, care and support services to disadvantaged individuals and communities.

We are committed to providing the added social value, not just the housing, that is essential for our client group to sustain both their tenancies and their well-being , even when they are no longer our customers.

We recognise that although we have made progress we still have improvements to make and the VFM philosophy remains critical to providing these services.

To achieve this the Board will be ensuring the Group:

Continues its work on removing inefficiencies

Strengthens its understanding of performance through alternative benchmarking

Consolidates its work on measuring the Return on Assets with action plans for all under-performing schemes

Seeks further grant funding and contractual work to provide support services for residents

Increases its collection of customer feedback and takes action in response to this.

In our role as Board we will continue to challenge and support the Executive in equal measure to ensure that the actions we have identified are delivered.

Group Board


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If you would like to comment on any aspect of our assessment or to provide us with feedback, please contact Trident Social Investment Group on Tel: 0121 633 4633 or Email: [email protected].

Trident Social Investment Group 239 Holliday Street Birmingham B1 1SJ Freephone (from BT Landline) Tel: 0800 111 4944 Mobile (reduced rate) Tel: 0300 123 1113 Switchboard Tel: 0121 633 4633 Email: [email protected] Web: www.trident-ha.org.uk Twitter: @tridentha

This document can also be found on our website www.trident-ha.org.uk/About Us/Trident’s Publications.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.trident/

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