Practical Steps to Improving Social Housing Safety Compliance

Osborne is proud of our record of maintaining 100% safety compliance for over four years. Although social housing safety compliance is a complex area (and made more complex by the pandemic), it’s possible to keep it under control.

What are the practical steps involved in improving compliance performance? Embracing digital technology is the most fundamental if you are managing thousands of properties.

The task of controlling gas safety, fire safety, electrical testing, fire alarms, emergency lighting, lightning protection, legionella and lifts is too large for spreadsheets and manually updated databases. ‘One click’ access to real-time data is essential if you want to really understand what’s happening.

Data Collection

Real-time reporting doesn’t make much sense if you don’t also have real-time data updating. Cloud technology makes it possible to update asset information immediately from a mobile device. This eliminates the paper forms and manual data input that lead to errors and data gaps.

Modern systems such as Microsoft 365 have a wealth of productivity and collaboration tools that are highly configurable and scalable. They can also be integrated successfully with management systems used by large social housing providers.

Resident Engagement

Effective resident engagement is essential. Compliance gaps can be caused by something as simple as residents being out when an operative calls to carry out maintenance or an inspection. These visits can be hard to reschedule.

Better data management improves forward planning. Normally, we aim to give residents two months’ notice of a visit and issue periodic reminders via their preferred communication channel. This also allows time to work with housing officers to arrange access for residents who are reluctant to engage.

First Time Fix

With complete asset data, operatives can work more efficiently and ensure they have the right tools and parts for every job. Improving first time rates can have a huge effect on resource use and availability.

If you have several suppliers providing compliance services you can still collect data in a common environment and use it to make better decisions. Osborne’s data module for social housing compliance allows you to do exactly this with minimum effort.

From where you are today to 100% compliance may seem like a big leap. The key is to put stepping stones such as better data management and positive resident engagement into place first. That way you can not only become compliant, but stay compliant.

For more information contact Alex McLean [email protected] or take a look at our resource centre.