We know how much an effective Repairs Service means to you. Your feedback from the recent STAR Survey made it clear that you want repairs to be done faster and more efficiently.
That's why, in the latter part of this year, we've been dedicating lots of time and effort to making it better, through an End to End Repairs Service Review. This involves examining the entire repairs process from start to finish, both from the point of view of someone who needs a repair and of staff involved in making that repair happen.
Update 24th June
We've updated the way we notify tenants about changes to appointments. Here is how it will works now:
- All notifications are sent to the tenant via the method of contact you have told us you prefer between mobile and email. We will check with you which is your preferred method of contact when confirming the repair.
- New appointments - You will still be sent notification within 5 minutes of the appointment being booked.
- Where a job is reappointed/rescheduled, only a change to time slot (e.g. from am to pm), or a change of date will trigger a notification to be sent to you. This will be sent at 6pm so you don’t receive multiple notifications if there are multiple changes throughout the day.
- Cancellation notifications will still be sent within 5 minutes as before.
- Reminder notifications are still sent the day before and on the way notifications on the day. The survey notification goes out as usual once the job is completed.
- A separate notification will be sent for each ticket on a complex job, which means repairs involving more than one trade. This includes when an appointment is first made for the job, if re-appointed/re-scheduled or cancelled, and the reminders for each part of the job the day before and on the day.
- External contractor (Drains and Glazing) notifications confirm that the tenant should expect a call from the contractor in 5 working days, including the contractors name and contact details. As appointments are no longer required for these jobs, they will only receive a notification when the job is logged. Our expectation is that the contractor will follow our SLA's for jobs, e.g. if logged as an emergency, within 24 hours.
*Please be aware that the trade that is included in the notification is based on the trade of the operative.
Update 17th June
We continue to work very productuvely with tenants on this very important project. Since our last update, we’ve made some changes that we want to share with you.
The following changes have recently been made as a result of staff and tenant sessions:
- A set process is in place for covering appointed repair jobs if the original operative won’t be able to make it. This is with the aim of ensuring appointments are kept.
- An indicator has been added to our scheduling system so that appropriate action can be taken where materials are not available/haven’t yet arrived.
- An option has been made for Operatives to indicate to Planners where Follow on Work is urgent.
- An Indicator has been added to our scheduling system to show that a job is part of a complex job.
- Clearer information about Rechargeable Repairs has been added to our website.
We’re currently in the process of testing initial updates to our repair notifications which will result in the following improvements;
- Notifications to be received by the tenants preferred method of contact.
- A reduction in emails/texts being received when admin updates are made, therefore resulting in tenants only getting relevant updates.
- More information to be provided in contractor job notifications.
- Where there is a complex job involving multiple trades, separate messages will be sent to confirm each stage/appointment of the job.
- We will be continuing to look at providing clearer information about a specific job type in the notifications and I will share an update on this in due course.
We are also looking at the following updates;
- How we can provide clearer information where further work is required for a repair.
- Photographs to be taken as a record of completed jobs.
We will provide you with further updates in the near future.
Update 29th January 2024
Thank you to everyone who has taken part in our End-to-End Review so far.
Your feedback is making a real difference and has already given us a number of improvements we’re working on to make the process better for tenants and staff.
We know we can do more, and we’ve got another workshop planned for next week. We’re looking forward to working with you again on making the system as efficient as possible.
What are the aims of the review?
We're committed to making this journey smoother and better for both tenants and the staff delivering repairs. We'll do this by:
- Making sure each part of the process works as well as it should
- Cutting out any wasteful bits
- Questioning ways we've 'always worked', and making changes if there are better ways we can do things
- Examining our systems that support the process to make sure they’re as effective as possible
We’ll also work on improving communication to you, our tenants, as well as between teams within Southway. This will help us give you the most up to date information possible from the time you book your repair to when it is completed.
What's happened so far?
We spoke to you at Tenant Voice events and held some initial staff meetings to get the ball rolling.
Then we had a brilliant Tenant Journey Mapping Day in November 2023 with a small focus group of tenants and staff, including some staff who are also tenants.
Tenants spoke about their experiences of every step of the process and gave valuable feedback about what worked well for them and what needed improving.
The information received at this event forms a key part of our review and has already been considered at the 
Rapid Improvement Event, which was the next step of the review.
Here staff from teams across Southway who are involved in the repairs process met to give their views on what can be improved at every stage of the repairs journey.
We also came up with initial suggestions to make the journey better for everyone involved.
What we've learnt so far
Here are some of the review’s findings up to now:
- It can be difficult for tenants to identify exactly what repair is required
- Sometimes staff arrive to do a job, but the issue is bigger than they had expected, so they may not have the right equipment
- The text messages we send to say a job is being carried out the following day are not always being received
- When messages do arrive, they aren’t always clear about what job they relate to - especially if multiple repairs have been booked
Your ideas were:
- We should identify vulnerable tenants and others who may need support with checking and inspecting homes for repairs
- We need to increase awareness of and confidence in Southway’s Repairs Portal, MySouthway (LINK)
- An apology and explanation should always be given to tenants if repairs operatives can’t attend appointments
- Communication about follow on work – which is booked if a repair can’t be completed first time - needs to improve
All of this will help us make decisions on how to improve the service at the end of the review.
What's next, and how you can be involved
The Repairs review continues, with more activities lined up with both our staff and tenants in the new year.
Our next step is a meeting planned for late January where we'll be looking to gain more valuable feedback from tenants. We’ll keep you updated about how this goes on our website.
All of the feedback about repairs that you gave in the STAR Survey, or through other routes, like complaints, has already helped to shape the repairs review. Thank you for all of your help so far.
If you’re still eager to be involved or have some new feedback to share, please get in touch with the Customer Involvement team by simply filling in the form below: