A ten year vision for housing contracts
PROJECT BRIEF
The Challenge
To help Lambeth Council design and procure a set of decade long contracts for key services that affect the daily lives of thousands of residents across the borough. On tight timelines, the project needed to complete by the end of 2020, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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But the borough didn’t just want business as usual: they wanted the new contracts to deliver fundamental improvements to these vital services.
This included putting residents at the heart of designing these new contracts in order that they became more responsive to the needs of the borough’s tenants and leaseholders.
Time was also a factor: the older contracts were coming to an end. Lambeth Council needed the work wrapped up over a 12 month period.
Key services included in this challenge were:
Repairs
Major works
Cleaning and concierge services on estate and street properties.
Key Service Provisions
Procurement
Resident Empowerment
Asset Management
Direct Labour and Repairs Contract Management
Strategy
Key Facts
Lambeth Council has more than 33,000 properties, with 26,000 council tenants and 6,000 leaseholders.
Contract values in excess of £500 million.
200 strong workforce withing the housing department.
OUR METHODS AND OUTCOMES
Leadership
This was not a straightforward challenge: these were big contracts involving hundreds of staff and tens of thousands of residents. It needed a firm grip on the different streams, especially in terms of budget and time constraints, as well as managing the political dimensions: councillors expected constant feedback about the progress of this vital work.
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This included:
A deep dive assessment of statistical data and performance KPIs with the relevant Council teams to establish what worked and what did not.
Direct feedback was obtained from frontline staff: our approach was to learn about how the existing services worked from the people who delivered them on the ground – and what they felt needed to change.
Close working with elected councillors to establish their corporate and strategic objectives – and how they saw this being applied to the new contracts.
Drawing together working groups that covered the different relevant parts of the local authority, including not just housing staff, but the legal, procurement, finance and political administration departments.
Stress testing new proposals as they emerged with key teams, stakeholders and politicians to ensure the final product met the needs of the borough.
Strategic working across the Council
In parallel with the resident involvement, we adopted a strategic approach across the council that built a collaborative team, with participants from both Just Housing Group and the Council.
Putting residents at the heart of the solutions
The Lambeth project required high levels of resident engagement.
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To achieve this:
A resident procurement group was set up to advise on the delivery of the new contracts – it was a representative body drawn from all parts of the borough.
A series of “focus groups” were held to stress test different ideas and options.
Research and interviews were conducted more broadly with residents to get their ideas on what services should look like.
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To achieve this:
Clear project management with regular briefings for staff and project management, including databases and structures to record key decisions, actions and project plans.
Regular feedback sessions were arranged with councilors on all aspects of the work.
Building ownership in the staff team was a priority: discussion was vital to every part of this process.
PROJECT SUCCESSES
Project delivered on time and on budget, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during the final stages of delivery in 2020.
Launch of a new in-house minor repairs team focusing on communal repairs and estate works, the first established in the borough in decades.