Trio of success for Salix Homes' services
Salford-based housing company Salix Homes has picked up three national awards for its services.
It is one of only two ALMOs in the country to get the seal of approval from HouseMark and the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group for the way it deals with antisocial behaviour.
As one of the first organisation of its kind to be awarded the standard, Salix Homes' performance will now act as a benchmark for other social landlords.
The organisation which manages around 10,500 homes in central Salford on behalf of Salford City Council undertook a five day inspection by HouseMark officials.
They commended Salix Homes on its 24 hour freephone number for tenants to report antisocial behaviour and for its first response team in dealing with the complaints out of hours.
As the first organisation of its kind to be awarded the standard, Salix Homes' performance will now act as a benchmark for other social landlords.
Separately, the company has received a Keep Britain Tidy Cleaner, Safer, Greener quality mark for its neighbourhood management of estates in the Ordsall and Langworthy areas of Salford .
Inspectors spent time with officers in the community during estate 'walkabouts' and interviewed tenants about the services they receive.
The rapid response team which deals with fly-tipping incidents by going out to remove dumped rubbish was highlighted as a key strength as well as partnership working between the council, police and other agencies.
Adding to a string of recent service successes, the company has also been awarded an 'achieving' status against the Equality Framework for Local Government.
The standard issued by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) measures performance in the following five areas:
- knowing communities and equality mapping
- place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment
- community engagement and satisfaction
- responsive services and customer care
- a modern and diverse workforce
Sue Sutton, Salix Homes' head of better neighbourhoods said: "We're delighted to be nationally recognised for the services we provide for residents.
"We've made great strides in developing our antisocial behaviour service over the last 18 months and wanted to test our service against key accreditations.
"It helps to ensure that we're delivering on all commitments and allows us to identify any areas for development to enable our customers continue to receive a first class service.
"Our customers have been involved throughout the assessment processes which is reassurance that we're not just performing well nationally, but that we're doing things right for tenants too.
"The experience was a challenging one but it was an extremely valuable and worthwhile exercise that we'd recommend to all housing providers."
Gez Kinsella, assistant director for Value Added Services at HouseMark added: "Salix Homes' antisocial behaviour service was assessed thoroughly and systematically against a challenging set of criteria, a challenge they passed with flying colours.
"The process will not only lead to further improvements, but will build on the confidence of stakeholders and tenants to improve the foundation of the service - effective partnership working."
Ends
Notes for editors
More detail on HouseMark, Keep Britain Tidy and IDeA at www.housemark.co.uk www.keepbritaintidy.org www.idea.gov.uk.
Salix Homes Ltd is helping to deliver Salford City Council's five-year strategy to bring all council housing up to the Decent Homes Standard, a multi-million pound vision for the city.
Salix Homes is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) and is a not-for-profit company responsible for the day-to-day management of 10,600 homes across Central Salford, Rainsough Brow and Beechfarm.
It also assists the council in the operational delivery of the Housing Market Renewal Programme.
For more information on Salix Homes, please contact Public Relations Officer, Katy Barnes on 0161 793 3157.
