In October 2007 the Audit Commission came and looked at the work of the Strategic Housing Service. The Strategic Housing Service:
- Manage the housing register (or waiting list as it is commonly known)
- Assess whether someone is homeless, and what help they may need with finding a home
- Provide disabled facilities grants. The grants make alterations to homes to help people live independently in their home
- Make sure private rented housing is well looked after by landlords
- Work with organisations to support vulnerable people to live independently
- Work with housing associations and developers to provide homes that everyone can afford
- Develops a Housing Strategy, and other Strategies e.g. helping vulnerable people to be more independent
The Audit Commission make an assessment in two ways:
1) how good is the service (ranging from 0-3 stars)
2) what are the prospects for improvement to the service (poor, fair, good or excellent)
In June to prepare for the Audit Commission Inspection a project team was set up and a peer review was carried out. See separate article below.
In August the Strategic Housing Service made a self assessment of its work and sent this to the Audit Inspectors. this can be viewed from the 'read more' section on this page.
In October the Audit Inspectors met with staff and partner organisations and carried out checks to see how well the services were working.
The Audit Commission have assessed South Gloucestershire Council (Strategic Housing Service) as ‘providing a good, two-star service that has promising prospects for improvement’.
The Audit Commission identified a number of strengths including our: - “partnership working and collaborative approach”
- "highly motivated staff and strong effective leadership of the service"
- "a good understanding of local needs based on extensive consultation with the local community"
- "a comprehensive research base that is kept up to date”
The Audit Commission identified some areas for improvement and made recommendations (for the full Audit report see the 'read more' section on this page).
The recommendations are wider than the Strategic Housing Service alone and refer to services across the Council.
To make sure we act on the recommendations a service improvement plan has been developed which links to Corporate and Departmental service plans.
The recommendations are a priority for us and will form part of our new Housing Strategy. This is due to be completed and published by July 2008.