Agenda item

ESTABLISHING A ONE STOP SHOP FOR HOUSING ENQUIRIES

Meeting of Care Scrutiny Committee, Thursday, 21st September, 2023 10.30 am (Item 6.)

To consider the report.

Decision:

DECISION

a) To accept and note the report.

b) To receive a progress report within a year's time.

c) To ask the Cabinet Member and the Housing Department officers to contact the housing associations to see if they could attend a meeting of the scrutiny committee and organise ways of facilitating communication between the councillors and the housing associations.

Minutes:

The report was submitted, explaining that the intention of the One Stop Shop was to operate as a front door for all housing service enquiries and to facilitate the process for the customer. It was explained that a report on this had been submitted to the Committee in the past but work had substantially developed since that report had been submitted.

To begin, it was explained that consultation sessions had been held with key partners, including the housing associations and third sector organisations, over the past 18 months to identify opportunities to strengthen current arrangements and any potential impact on the nature of the contact that individuals would have with the organisations. Discussions had also been held with all department services to gain a better understanding of the contact with residents in the context of the enquiries the One-Stop-Shop would support.

It was noted that an initial consultation with the public had been held in January 2023 to receive feedback on the general experiences of Gwynedd residents who had contacted the housing service. It was noted that 154 responses had been received and that the majority of these had been positive. The fact that the consultation had highlighted a clear desire by the public to be able to complete an on-line application form for social housing applications was recognised, with over 70% of responses noting that this would be a positive development. It was noted that this had already been identified as a priority for the department but there was no capacity within the current system to enable people to complete applications on-line. The consultation had also highlighted that some members of the public believed there was a need to improve communication between the Council and the customer and, therefore, better on-line presence to receive information without having to pick up the phone or e-mail would be beneficial.

Another key development noted was appointing a leader for the One-Stop-Shop in February 2022 which had enabled the department to research how an appropriate structure could be put in place for the shop's operation. In light of this, it was resolved to incorporate the Housing Options Team Unit in the One-Stop-Shop as this was the work area that received the majority of enquiries by the public. It was explained that the team's structure was now nearing completion as a deputy leader had been appointed in May 2023.

It was noted that the department had researched a new system that would enable them to store comprehensive and up-to-date information in one place. It was explained that the system chosen would modernise the service offered to the public and that the ongoing programmed work included arrangements to establish the system, a trialling period and dates for relevant training. It was also explained that the department had decided to use the FFOS internal system for the work of receiving calls and the shop's day-to-day administrative work as it was already linked to the Council website and website accounts.

In addition, it was noted that the Council had decided to establish a Single Point of Access (SPOA) for some projects and services that were funded by the Housing Support Grant. It was explained that the new system would simplify the process for individuals who were referred to services and providers that received funding from the Housing Support Grant. It was noted that the system would also allow a better overview of all the individual's needs and mean that up-to-date data could be used rather than historical information to gain a better understanding of who received support from the Housing Support Grant. It was noted that the new SPOA system was currently being trialled with internal units and that 220 Gwynedd residents had already benefited when receiving information and guidance with their relevant housing support needs.

Gratitude was expressed for the report, wishing the team well as they undertake the work of getting everything together to establish the One-Stop-Shop. It was confirmed that the beginning of the new year was the target to see the system going live.

During the discussion, the following observations were noted:

- Many Councillors expressed frustration about the complexity and time it currently took for Councillors to gain the right to discuss on behalf of electors and that there was a need to simplify the system for councillors to be able to help; it was hoped that the shop could ease things. In response, it was noted that there was no solution necessarily for the time it took to gain the right to discuss on behalf of electors as it was the law and not the officers that determined who received the right to see the information. It was reiterated that they were always willing to examine ways to try to ease things.

- The fact that establishing a new system would mean that on-line application forms could be completed was welcomed, especially as digitising forms was one of the recommendations presented by the Bevan Foundation in their report on poverty in Arfon. Confirmation was received that paper forms would continue to be available for the individuals who required them as well.

- It was enquired whether it would be possible for councillors to receive information more regularly about the applications in their wards as councillors often felt that local people knew more than them about vacant properties in their wards.

o A few councillors proposed that establishing a system where an automatic message was sent to councillors stating that there was a vacant property in their ward and then another message to say when the property had been let would be a better way of giving councillors an idea of what happened in their ward.

o It was added that being informed why the specific individual(s) had been given the property would also be useful as councillors mostly received complaints about who had received social housing.

o In response, the Head of Housing and Property Department noted that she understood the councillors' frustration but establishing such a system would involve a great deal of work and be a big ask for the department. Legal advice would be required about how suitable it would be to share such information with councillors.

o It was explained that the department did everything it could within the policy at present.

o It was noted that they could examine what would be possible to do to facilitate things, but it was asked for time to establish the internal system and to get the One-Stop-Shop in place before being able to consider this.

- In response to a question whether the Council had lost an element of accountability as it did not own its social housing anymore, it was noted that the new system would facilitate the arrangements for monitoring the implementation of the policy.

- The Cabinet Member was thanked for organising the housing forum that was held every few months. It was noted that the forum was a good way of sharing information and giving members an opportunity to ask questions and voice an opinion in an informal manner. It was added that it would be useful to have a forum/channel to speak to officers of the housing associations as well, and that it would be good to see representation from the housing associations attending the scrutiny committees.