Service Charge 24/25 Review by

Everyone's views are important

daveskinner2 — 2022-11-30 09:18:43 UTC

Don't lay blame - Look to causes and root issues

daveskinner2 — 2022-11-30 09:19:24 UTC

Welcome feedback as a gift

daveskinner2 — 2022-11-30 09:20:54 UTC

Critical Friends! (Honest, kind and positive)

daveskinner2 — 2022-11-30 09:22:03 UTC

Be self aware. critique your own assumptions and thinking

daveskinner2 — 2024-04-30 15:40:07 UTC

Its ok to have problems and ask for help

daveskinner2 — 2024-04-30 15:40:36 UTC

2024-05-01 15:06:07 UTC

Great!

2024-05-01 15:06:14 UTC

Snowed Under

2024-05-01 15:06:19 UTC

Feeling good

2024-05-01 15:06:40 UTC

Busy but positive

Great !

2024-05-01 15:06:40 UTC

Good thank you

2024-05-01 15:06:59 UTC

Frustrated

2024-05-01 15:07:03 UTC

Just Ok

2024-05-01 15:07:23 UTC

2024-05-01 15:07:58 UTC

Not too bad

2024-05-01 15:08:19 UTC

Great!

2024-05-01 15:09:53 UTC

Collaborative working

2024-05-01 15:10:26 UTC

Customers informed - letters sent on time

Some areas of the business have seen significant changes to process - such as homeowners receiving a budget for the first time

2024-05-01 15:10:27 UTC

2024-05-01 15:10:29 UTC

Letters delivered on time

2024-05-01 15:10:32 UTC

Regular meetings providing an update on progress.

2024-05-01 15:10:39 UTC

The letters went out on time and I was told by Dave that we didn't have any increase in calls into the contact centre.

Sakib is still standing...

2024-05-01 15:10:51 UTC

Collaborative working

what went well

2024-05-01 15:11:12 UTC

meetings were timely

2024-05-01 15:11:18 UTC

Adapting to changing ways of delivery

being able to identify the pain points

2024-05-01 15:11:43 UTC

Education around SC has improved compared to this time last year

2024-05-01 15:11:44 UTC

Team work

2024-05-01 15:11:52 UTC

letters sent on time . Working as "one". Not many enquires received.

2024-05-01 15:12:15 UTC

2024-05-01 15:12:31 UTC

Visibility - higher profile than ever before

2024-05-01 15:13:11 UTC

Additional resources made available

2024-05-01 15:13:32 UTC

was interesting the lack of calls in received

Recognition that we have a problem & it's big! Recognition too that we are not where we need to be and there is loads more work to do!

2024-05-01 15:13:43 UTC

2024-05-01 15:14:09 UTC

Recruitment

2024-05-01 15:14:18 UTC

Recognition that SC area under resourced

2024-05-01 15:17:35 UTC

Increased scrutiny of the service estimated and visibility

2024-05-01 15:21:09 UTC

Communication to service charges was clearer to customers.

resource and resource at the right time

2024-05-01 15:21:36 UTC

setting ourselves unrealistic timescales to adhere to

2024-05-01 15:22:09 UTC

2024-05-01 15:22:39 UTC

IT team brought in late on in the project

2024-05-01 15:22:45 UTC

At times towards the end things felt panicked, rushed, last minute and under resourced.

2024-05-01 15:22:45 UTC

Recoverability of service charges & S.20B not served historically

not making system changes that could have supported the actualisation and budgeting process smoother

2024-05-01 15:23:12 UTC

Issue of the 53-week year not being communicated to residents in a timely manner. Rent and SC team under resourced. Budget set up not in line with what being spend in 23/24 .

2024-05-01 15:23:41 UTC

at times it felt finance heavy rather than seeing the bigger picture of service charges

2024-05-01 15:23:54 UTC

2024-05-01 15:23:58 UTC

The current data structure in OH did not support a concisely letter format

2024-05-01 15:24:07 UTC

Questionable strategy over setting of future service charge estimates

Apportionment - matching payments to cost centres and addresses. Not having up-to-date stock information was also an issue

2024-05-01 15:24:20 UTC

2024-05-01 15:24:24 UTC

People with knowledge of parts of the project (e.g. customer letter generation and data quality checks) not involved in the project from the outset.

2024-05-01 15:24:31 UTC

48, 52 week year was missed but also by other RP's but hopefully we will recover well.

2024-05-01 15:24:47 UTC

Clarity on role and responsibility could be improved

2024-05-01 15:24:50 UTC

Significant variance between cost and recovery

2024-05-01 15:25:08 UTC

Lack of resources

We don't have clarity on the management of SC income and/or allocation for spending/budgets.

2024-05-01 15:25:50 UTC

not agreeing a clear timetable of where and when other departments need to feed into the budget setting process meant our budgeting setting process wasn't as accurate as it could have been

2024-05-01 15:25:54 UTC

2024-05-01 15:26:14 UTC

Lack of systems & automation, resulting in need for very manual work & at volume

responsibility for the management of SC through MAs and front line services wasnt agreed

2024-05-01 15:26:26 UTC

Appreciation of the size of the project & the resource requirements needed.

2024-05-01 15:26:38 UTC

Again this year we are hugely undercharging residents.

2024-05-01 15:26:44 UTC

Team work - sometimes it didn't works as we'd like

2024-05-01 15:27:12 UTC

lack of system automation.

2024-05-01 15:27:40 UTC

2024-05-01 15:27:44 UTC

what is 'MA's

2024-05-01 15:28:16 UTC

Management Agents

management accounts

2024-05-01 15:28:32 UTC

2024-05-01 15:28:50 UTC

Not involving the right people at the start of the project.

Didn't establish who 'owned' what part of the project.

2024-05-01 15:28:58 UTC

Chart Of Accounts not structured in the correct way to aid the SC process

2024-05-01 15:29:20 UTC

We needed to confirm what did and didn't sit within the project, such as garages.

lack of clear role and responsibilities

2024-05-01 15:29:46 UTC

2024-05-01 15:30:06 UTC

Gaps in data, making apportionment difficult

2024-05-01 15:30:07 UTC

Lack of acknowledgment of how crucial the customer data was in getting the different versions of the letters, but also the part it plays in tailoring the letters for our customers

Resource

2024-05-01 15:34:37 UTC

Acknowledgement of lack of resource and need to plan better to succeed.

Timescales

2024-05-01 15:35:55 UTC

Set realistic timescales, calendar of events. understand the non - negotiable dates. Can't keep moving the goalposts.

Identify right teams and define Roles and Responsibilities

2024-05-01 15:39:45 UTC

Bring all Teams in early on in the journey and be clear on who is needed for what etc.

Right skills.

Estimates vs Actuals

2024-05-01 15:49:44 UTC

Estimates should be based on latest actuals not on poor estimates.

Monthly actualisation process linked to Chart of Accounts.

Clarity as to how we are going to get to a 100% recovery - Are customers going to get a protection on likely increases?

2024-05-01 15:49:49 UTC

Leap Year Considerations

2024-05-01 15:53:15 UTC

Happens every Leap Year - caused complaints

Should have been included in the Rents Review letters

Data & Letters

2024-05-01 15:58:25 UTC

Data to be considered ahead of templates being agreed

Mailing data should be looked at upfront

Need to change how data is held in the systems

Stock

2024-05-01 16:03:32 UTC

Need better stock data to apportion charges accordingly

Need to code correctly

Links to Chart of Accounts and actualisation process

Look to add to risk register

Budget Setting

2024-05-01 16:05:56 UTC

Budgets need setting in line with service charge

Systems/Automation

2024-05-01 16:07:10 UTC

Explore existing tools that we could be using

Look at other tools available that we don't have

Management Accounts

2024-05-01 16:08:52 UTC

Need to make sure the right feeds go to the right areas to give correct oversight of spend in each area

Project Scope

2024-05-01 16:11:02 UTC

Agree what's in and out (e.g Garages)

100% Recovery

2024-05-01 16:14:45 UTC

Need to be clear from a customer perspective what the increments are going to look like from what they pay today to what it will be in the future.

Decision Log

2024-05-01 16:15:56 UTC

Formal log which captures impacts to Service Charge.

Service Charge - Blueprint

2024-05-01 16:18:13 UTC

How Service Charge operated holistically outside actualisation and budget setting.

Blueprint of service