Achieving Excellence in Gas Maintenance

1. Achieving Excellencein Gas Maintenance A brand new exciting approach to gas auditing…. Mark Seaborn Managing Director 01928 568842 mseaborn@pennington.org.uk

2. Achieving Excellence – Our Approach Achieving a ‘3 Star, excellent’ approach to gas maintenance. That’s what we all want to see – you, your tenants and the Audit Commission! Our approach focuses on achieving this – not just ‘ticking’ one box, but rather providing a holistic approach that you can use all of or just a part of to achieve your service excellence ambitions. Our approach acknowledges that occasional reviews of your policies and procedures and monthly third party audit of completed CP12’s wont on their own, deliver an excellent service. A more robust, holistic approach is required. Pennington Choices ‘Achieving Excellence’ delivers this !

3. Achieving Excellence – Our Approach • Practical help and support to: • Achieve best practice in your gas policy and procedures • Achieve value for money in your procurement • Secure continuous improvement through your gas auditing / QA inspection programme • Share information – with staff, tenants and contractors • Manage the process of securing access • Train and support your staff’s knowledge base The remainder of this presentation sets out how we can assist you to Achieve Excellence in the sphere of gas maintenance, building on our strong track record of providing gas audit services and our wider extensive and specialist social housing knowledge. Our approach is not just about ‘ticking the box’ and meeting the Audit Commission guidance on third party QA of completed safety tests. Its about using the results of QA, as part of an overall approach and using some be-spoke internet based to produce real results.

4. Service Excellence – Our Tools • New Tools; for a new approach • Pennington Workspace • Secure web site facility • Publish, Store & Share all types of documents, records and files • Facilitates collaborative working and problem solving • Bulletin board facility for online discussion and issue resolution • Familiar file structure look and feel (Windows, Facebook) • Selective access permissions • Upload and download files, triggering e-mail alerts to key contacts • Key Things you can do….. • Publish monthly audit / inspection reports, allowing the contractor to comment, agreeing remedial actions, online. • Publish, maintain and update an overall service improvement plan, facilitating input from staff and contractors, where ever they are based. • Publish and store completed CP12’s in property specific folders, accessible 24/7. • Publish and facilitate review and discussion of key performance information such as access rates and performance against programme. • Share key client and contractor policy and procedure documentation, ensuring everyone is working to the same standard. James Le Sage Procurement for All We have found workspace very easy to use and an extremely efficient way of sharing information, so much so that we have now decided to purchase it for our own use!

5. Policies and Procedures Client policies and procedures set out what is to be achieved, how and the roles of the client, the contractor and Pennington. Use of our template policy and procedure is a good starting point where starting from fresh. Drawing on the results of testing and inspection, production of a service improvement plan in an easy to use Word document format, hosted on Pennington Workspace, for use by staff, contractor and tenants

6. Contractor Performance – Audit & QA Assessment of customer satisfaction, CP12 and technical accuracy. Scores expressed as percentage, over time, in comparison to other contractors and engineers Short term action plan to address any defects found in the audited CP12s. Longer term action plan to address the underlying causes, which should lead to increased audit assessment scores.

7. Contractor Performance – Audit & QA • What does it typically consist of….? • Desktop review of completed CP12s; to check for missing information and to select properties for inspection • Site based, intrusive inspection of a percentage of completed CP12s; typically 5-10% • Recording of defects in the original inspection within a structured electronic inspection form • Scoring of deficiencies based on their impact • Immediate submission of completed inspection forms over the internet with subsequent publication via Workspace, including notification of unsafe installations • Monthly analysis of completed audits to produce trend report • Identifying the actions required to improve the results of the audit assessment is the most important part of the process! Undertaking third party audit or external QA of completed CP12s has been a part of the Audit Commission guidance on best practice for the management of gas safety for some time and often appears within the commentary of Inspection reports. Undertaking post inspections of repair works and new installations is also good practice. Social landlords should remember that contractors are expected to undertake internal QA as part of their Gas Safe registration, the results of which could be used to supplement the inspections undertaken by Pennington.

8. Managing Access • A documented procedure is required that accords with best practice and consists of informal steps by contractor and client, prior to escalating action, culminating in legal action, designed to secure access prior to the 12 month anniversary • Recording of progress, for each property against each key stage • By contractor and client; via detailed spreadsheet held on Pennington Workspace – accessible 24/7 • Negates the need for complex links between IT systems; client and contractor can work collaboratively in a ‘shared’ environment - Workspace • Transparent management of performance – to make sure access is achieved before the 12 month anniversary The law requires that each appliance is subject to a safety test, no later than 12 months from the date of the last safety test. Most clients require the programme to be planned on this basis, with the contractors first attempt to gain access being some time prior to the anniversary – typically 2 months i.e at month 10, thereby allowing enough time to take escalating action and secure entry prior to the anniversary.

9. CP12 Record Keeping • Pennington Workspace provides a secure and accessible environment for storing CP12s • Accessible 24/7 • By staff, including site based staff • Contractors • Historical document library • Compliment existing data storage arrangements • Property specific folder, for ease of retrieval • Can store additional information such as asbestos survey reports in the same place The law requires that completed CP12s are retained by the landlord and that incoming tenants are provided with a copy, requiring a robust method of storage. Contractors can either use a electronic version of the CP12 or a scanned copy of a paper version and upload them onto Workspace.

10. Template policy and procedures National annual cost and performance benchmarking Developing Best Practice Programme of specialist training Monthly technical newsletter Access to these four, complimentary tools for improving your organisational capacity for Achieving Excellence come as standard for all clients of Pennington Choices. Our template documents have been developed in collaboration with existing clients, so they are embedded with practical know how. Our annual benchmarking service, is fast becoming the key tool for service managers to demonstrate Best Value in gas maintenance and to drive improvement. Our monthly newsletter provides timely and informative advice on a salient gas related matter, while our training is second to none and covers all aspects of gas maintenance.

11. Our Service – how can we help ? • Standard • Service: • Monthly audit / QA programme, tailored to meet your needs. • Managing Access and CP12 storage facilities via Pennington Workspace. • Full access to our Best Practice support • Ad hoc consultancy and training • Premium • Service: • As Standard, plus • Annual review and testing of client and contractor policies and procedures, following a programme specifically designed for you. • Monthly audit / QA programme, tailored to meet your needs. Production of and management of monthly short and longer term improvement action plans addressing audit findings. • Facilitation of periodic service performance workshops, with client and contractor staff and tenants where appropriate. • Production of and management of over – arching service improvement plan with monthly progress report and performance reporting. • Programme of technical and best practice training for staff and where relevant, tenants Costs: Price per QA inspection to include monthly trend report and use of Pennington Workspace. Consultancy and training charged on a time basis. Costs: All inclusive monthly fee, based on discounted rate to include QA inspections, plus all management support and training. While we have assembled packages of activities to reflect the differing needs of social housing providers, we pride ourselves on providing a flexible, tailored and bespoke service that meets your needs. Our starting point is to listen to you – to find out what support you need to achieve your Service Excellence goals. We will happily provide a tailored proposal to meet these needs with the option for you to change the level of support that we provide as your circumstances change. While we are always happy to contract directly, our services can also be purchased via the social housing procurement consortiums, Procurement for All and Fusion 21.