The Wrekin Housing Group - Damp and Mould Health Check

Project Overview

Wrekin Housing Group, one of the largest social housing providers in the West Midlands with over 13,000 homes, commissioned Pennington Choices to undertake a health check of their approach to identifying and dealing with damp and mould. This included assessing and providing assurance on their compliance position with their legal and regulatory duties, and their approach to customer care when dealing with such issues. The health check considered whether they are complying with the applicable legislation and government directions on damp and mould in their properties, requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and the Housing Ombudsman, as well as sector best practice.

Throughout the project we worked with Wrekin to identify some key governance elements; policies, process maps, and procedures. Through our ‘key lines of enquiry’ approach, we were able to successfully provide thorough recommendations for Wrekin to implement and ultimately improve and evolve their overarching approach to damp and mould, all within agreed timescales and deadlines.

Our Approach

When undertaking damp and mould health checks for our clients, we use our ‘key lines of enquiry’ approach, an approach which we used successfully for Wrekin Housing Group to ensure consistency:

•          Data and Document Review

We review several documents and data which we use to gain an understanding of the current approach to the identification, prevention, and resolution of damp and mould, and how they are currently performing. These documents include policies, procedures, process maps, performance reports, system data, disrepair information, HHSRS compliance, and so on.

•          Information gathering sessions with team members in involved in damp and mould management

It is imperative that the key people involved in the management and delivery of damp and mould receive detailed communication throughout the project. Therefore, Pennington Choices hold sessions with these individuals to gather information on how the organisation is identifying and addressing individual cases of potential damp and mould. We also look at the proactive and strategic approaches to preventing and addressing it within properties. The main purpose of the sessions is to gain an understanding of the activity and initiatives the organisation has in place, and we ensure that those who participate in them understand that the ultimate outcome is to achieve the best outcomes for the organisation, staff, and customers.

•          Headline Feedback

We then provide key summarised feedback to the project sponsor and any relevant members of the Executive or Senior Management Team at the end of the information gathering sessions to highlight our key initial conclusions and recommendations.

•          Reporting

After providing feedback, we then produce a succinct report which outlines our findings and recommendations along with a clear road map so that organisations can monitor their progress against our recommendations with ease.

Our Achievement

The health check for Wrekin Housing Group formed part of a long term contract covering multiple areas of their asset management. Throughout the entire contract, all timescales and deadlines were adhered to, and as a great client who have a genuine appetite to improve and evolve, Wrekin were pleased with our recommendations. We helped find their areas of good practice, identified where the gaps were, determined where evidence was required to be more robust, detailed improvements, and established their next steps to continuing as a great landlord in delivering this key service area.

Pennington Choices successfully achieved all agreed objectives by:

•    Evaluating their existing approach to identifying and dealing with damp and mould against legal and
       regulatory obligations, against the Housing Ombudsman’s directions, and against best practice.
•    Providing assurance about their current approach and position
•    Identifying any areas of good practice.
•    Identifying any areas that they must address if they are not complying with legal or regulatory         
       requirements, and areas that we recommend they strengthen in order to meet best practice.
•   Providing clear recommendations and actions which set out how they can or should  address any issues
      identified.
•    Presenting the findings in a succinct report which will be issued to the Executive Director of Customer
       Services (as project sponsor).