Business Plan 2015-2019

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Business Plan

2015 – 2019

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Table of Contents

Page No.

1. Introduction 3.

2. Our Vision and Corporate Aims 5.

3. Our Key Projects 7.

To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance and

estate management services.

To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful

and sustainable communities.

To communicate effectively with all our customers.

To deliver bespoke services to our vulnerable residents.

To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future

growth.

To invest in our people.

To deliver value for money and efficiency in all of our services.

To celebrate our heritage and use it as a platform to promote BVT.

4. Our People and Our Structures 16.

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Introduction

In 1900 George Cadbury founded the Bournville Village Trust (BVT), a charitable organisation set up

to ensure the planned development and maintenance of the Estate and to preserve it for future

generations. The Deed of Foundation ensured that surplus income was devoted to the improvement

of the Bournville Estate and the encouragement of better building elsewhere. The founding of BVT

signalled a change from merely a building estate into a complete village community. Shops, places

of worship, open spaces, sports facilities, community buildings and schools were included to form

the heart of the new model village.

Over one hundred years on, the Trust continues to allocate homes to people in the greatest housing

need to live in our mixed communities. The Bournville estate now comprises 1,000 acres of land

with almost 8,000 homes, ranging from one-bedroom flats to five-bedroom houses, split just about

equally between tenanted and owner-occupied. BVT remains at the forefront of housing provision

for architectural design, estate management and development. By keeping sustainability

(environmental, social and economic) at the forefront of our thinking, BVT has gained the reputation

of being a model estate whilst remaining committed to keeping faith with our Founder’s aims.

Our responsibilities are diverse and whilst our core activities reflect our status as a housing

association, we embrace a wide range of roles that support the original aims of the Trust and help

make BVT the unique organisation it has always been:

The provision of housing management and repairs services to general needs rented

accommodation; shared ownership homes; and a leasehold scheme for older people.

The provision of sheltered, residential care and nursing accommodation for older people and

supported housing and care services for special needs groups – in particular for young

people leaving care and for people with learning difficulties.

The long-term maintenance of the overall amenities and appearance of the Bournville Estate

which comprises 1000 acres of land and almost 8,000 households in south west Birmingham.

A subsidiary, Bournville Works Housing Society, which owns 313 homes on the Bournville

Estate. Management and maintenance of this stock is undertaken by the Trust under the

terms of an Intra Group Services Agreement.

In terms of developing new homes our main focus is on:

The creation of an urban village of over 1,000 new homes at Lightmoor in Telford,

Shropshire.

At Lawley, in Telford, taking lead responsibility for estate management or stewardship

services to a mixed-tenure new village, growing to 3,000 properties by 2027.

A new care village for Bournville on the old Bournville College site (College Green). The first

phase will be a large Extra Care project to provide 212 apartments, including some for rent

through BVT, with a range of fantastic facilities. This project is in partnership with ExtraCare

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Charitable Trust and Birmingham City Council. Other phases will include a specialist Nursing

and Dementia Home, apartments for people with learning disabilities and a new Health and

Wellbeing Centre.

The running of two major direct labour organisations:

Bournville Propertycare Services (BPS) providing a top quality repairs service to our housing

stock in Birmingham and Shropshire in addition to work undertaken for other clients.

Bournville Village Landscapes (BVL) providing a top quality landscaping service to the

Bournville Estate on behalf of the Trust.

Outside of our core housing association activities:

Responsibility for overseeing the maintenance of the external fabric of Bournville Infant and

Junior Schools.

An in-house Architects Team (Bournville Architects) which undertakes a wide variety of

architectural work on behalf of the Trust and a range of external clients.

The running of Selly Manor Museum located in the heart of the Bournville Village

Conservation Area. Selly Manor itself dates back to at least 1327 whilst an adjacent building,

Minworth Greaves, is even older. The whole site is a very attractive visitor destination,

which gives people the opportunity to learn about the Tudor way of life.

The Bournville Experience – a hands-on visitor attraction, run jointly with Cadbury World,

offering a variety of exhibits about the development of Bournville Village. Entry to the

Bournville Experience is free of charge.

The running of an Agricultural Estate comprising over 2,500 acres on the south-western edge

of Birmingham.

The Trust owns a number of Community Halls and Shops which are let on

commercial leases. A Community Services Team is dedicated to ensuring

that the communities in which we work are well served with a range

of facilities and that they are flourishing places where people will

choose to live.

Strong

business support

services covering the

Business Improvement

Unit, financial and

human resources

administration plus information

technology support.

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Our Vision, Values & Corporate Aims

Our Vision

Bournville Village Trust has a very long history that is steeped in a reputation for high quality housing

and estate management services. Sustaining this level of quality is never easy and the environment

we work in is constantly changing. To continue to thrive as a housing organisation over the next five

years and beyond, we must continually look ahead, understand the trends and respond to the

external factors that will shape our organisation and our customers’ needs and expectations in the

future and move swiftly to prepare for what is to come.

Our vision and corporate aims create a long-term destination for our organisation and provides us

with a framework for our “Journey to Excellence”, guiding every aspect of our work by describing

what it is we are trying to accomplish.

Our Values

We have a clear set of values that underpin our work not only within the Housing Sector but beyond

and define exactly what our organisation is about. We are:

Passionate about people

o We invest in our communities. We work with customers to develop services that

meet their needs and support them to flourish.

Dedicated to distinctive development

o We develop new and sustainable homes and communities and encourage better

development and planning elsewhere.

Committed to quality

o We deliver high quality homes and services that provide excellent value for money

and help to improve and maintain communities.

Proud of our heritage

o We are proud of our unique heritage but we don’t stand still. Our experience

informs the services that we provide today.

To create and sustain flourishing communities where

people choose to live.

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Our Corporate Aims

In order to achieve our vision, we have a clear set of corporate aims that support this ideal and

which the entire organisation continues to work towards with the development of new and

innovative projects.

To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance and estate

management services.

To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful and exemplar

sustainable communities.



To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future growth.




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To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance

and estate management services.

Our primary aim is to provide

good quality, affordable housing,

maintenance and estate

management services to people

both in housing need and to our

communities as a whole. This

involves a wide range of

activities from processing

applications, recovering rent

arrears, managing anti-social

behaviour and repairs

programmes to resident

involvement and organising important community events. As part of this, we must ensure our

housing stock and estates are well maintained and in good condition. This means providing our

residents with a high quality, fast and efficient repairs service; delivering improvement

programmes to keep our properties up-to-date and warm and comfortable to live in; and

providing and maintaining an environment which is a safe and attractive place to live.

Our priorities and some key projects in delivering high quality, customer focused housing,

maintenance and estate management services for 2015 to 2019 are:

To continue to work towards mitigating the impact of the Welfare Benefit Reforms through

the delivery of our Anti-Poverty Strategy.

Now we are in our new offices we aim to complete the sale of the former Estate Office on

Oak Tree Lane and let the former Bournville Area Office and Sycamore House on Sycamore

Road.

Raise the profile of the Shenley shopping area in order to ensure the area is sustainable for

our local communities.

Carry out a Condition Survey of the estate infrastructure with a view to planning future

renewal programmes.

To continue to achieve the Decent Homes Standard and improve our SAP rating by

continuing our commitment to our 30 Year Planned Maintenance plan for BVT and BWHS.

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To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful

and sustainable communities.

Building and sustaining successful

communities is a collaborative effort

and requires the input of not only

ourselves and our residents but

several other partner agencies. This is

a fine balance and whilst we continue

to develop our new homes and

communities in Shropshire, we

continue to invest in our established

communities in Birmingham and

elsewhere, by looking for

opportunities to improve our working

relationships with our stakeholders.

Resident involvement is the name most housing organisations give to all the activities undertaken

that help them understand what their residents need and want, and that enable residents to

influence, challenge and scrutinise the services they receive. Over the past few years, there has

been increasing government emphasis on choice, accountability and localism. These common

themes have led to the development of a co-regulation approach which BVT have adopted through

the introduction of our cross tenure Scrutiny Panel made up of tenants, freeholders and

leaseholders. This is supported by a robust resident involvement framework that provides residents

with the opportunity to get involved with specific service areas and to have a real input in the

decisions that affect them and their wider communities. Our priorities and some key projects in

terms of working with residents and partner agencies for 2015 to 2019 are:

Review our Resident Involvement Framework in order to ensure we are engaging with our

residents in the most effective way.

To progress the Shenley

Feasibility Study which will help us

support our local communities by

providing appropriate services in those

areas.

To continue progressing our

green initiatives including exploring the

possibility of a custom build project at

Lightmoor.

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Effective communication is always a

challenge and we continue to work

hard in ensuring that good

communication is at the heart of

providing the very best in customer

service. In practical terms, this could

mean the way in which we

communicate with our customers over

the telephone, in our letters and

emails, during visits or it could mean

the contents of the publications in our

newsletters or on our website. To

provide good customer service we need to understand what our customers want and how they

feel about the services provided to them. This means we need to share information with them

and listen carefully to what they are saying. Equally, our customers need to understand what we

are telling them and what it is we are able to do for them.

Communicating effectively with our customers is essential to the successful delivery of all our

projects and services and remains a long term key priority for the organisation. Our priorities and

some key communication projects for 2015 to 2019 are:

To develop a Digital Inclusion Strategy that will help to support our customers online.

Begin to use our customer satisfaction data that has been collected using the BPS

operatives’ Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) system as a way of improving our services.

To continue to work with the Customer Services Team ensuring that as many queries as

possible are answered at the first point of contact.

Carry out a review of all

current communications,

including our standard

letters in order to ensure

the content is current

and appropriate to our

customers’ needs.

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Our services are delivered to a wide range of

people including those who could be

considered vulnerable. We recognise that

we have a responsibility to ensure that the

vulnerable and socially excluded are

protected and are able to access those

services. We make continuous efforts when

dealing with our more vulnerable residents

to ensure they can access our services by

putting processes in place that are sensitive

to individual needs and provide adequate

opportunities to access support networks

when necessary.

Many of our current projects are looking to address the specific needs of our more vulnerable

residents and we are fully aware of our responsibilities in terms of the provision of support and

ensuring their ability to access not only our services but third party provision also. Our priorities and

some key projects for delivering bespoke services to our vulnerable residents for 2015 to 2019 are:

To promote Selly Wood House.

To expand our Home Care Service that is available for all residents in order to help residents

to stay in their homes for as long as possible.

To implement BVT’s Dementia Action Plan in order to promote a dementia friendly

community in Birmingham and Telford.

To complete our 35 bed Independent Living Scheme at College Green and the nursing and

dementia facility.

To progress the College Green development towards its 2016 completion, providing a brand

new Care Village for Bournville.

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To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future

growth.

Every sector is in a constant state

of change and the Housing

Sector is no different. In order

for our organisation to remain at

the forefront in terms of

delivering high quality housing

and a range of services, we must

continually look ahead,

understand the needs of our

customers and provide services

that are value for money, all

whilst safeguarding our history

and our excellent reputation in the sector. It is for this reason and the need to draw in external

income in a difficult economic climate, that a strategic decision was made to begin identifying gaps

in our service delivery and explore opportunities for new business initiatives within our

commercial arms, namely Bournville Propertycare Services (BPS) and Bournville Architects.

The unique work carried out by both teams has helped secure the organisation’s reputation as a lead

service provider and helps to underpin and deliver our commitment to good quality distinctive

design. Bournville Architects in particular makes an important contribution to our work on

environmental sustainability and has been doing so throughout most of the long history of BVT. Our

priorities and some key projects in the development of new business initiatives for 2015 to 2019 are:

To work towards possible input into the development of the Selly Oak Hospital site.

To showcase Bournville Propertycare Services

as a beacon DLO and arrange site visits from

other housing associations.

To continue our work with our Shropshire

developments, Lightmoor Village and

Lawley.

To revisit the benefits of employing a

Professional Fundraiser post within BVT,

after the successful recruitment of our PR

and Communications Manager, to help

bring in funding to support our projects.

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We believe that the success of our

organisation depends on the continued

commitment and productivity of our

staff. People are our most important

asset, an investment that needs to be

cultivated and properly managed. We

recognise that investing in staff has an

impact in many different ways. It

reduces staff turnover and sickness

absence and investments in employee

engagement programmes, training,

mentoring, support, communication,

healthcare incentives and technology all have a positive effect on our workforce performance and

productivity. In 2013, we were awarded ‘Apprenticeship National Employer of the Year’ by the

Construction Industry Training Board.

An organisation as varied as ours also boasts a wide range of job types, from plumber, carpenter,

electrician and gas fitter to care workers, administration staff and architects, all of whom work with

different requirements and risks on a day to day basis.

We continue to invest in staff training, health and safety and staff support and a number of key

projects and priorities will be implemented for 2015 to 2019:

Undertake a Colleague Survey which shall be used to assess how staff across

the organisation feel about life at BVT.

Introduce a new management appraisal system to ensure that our managers

are working to the levels expected of them.

Undertake a comprehensive review of our methods of communication

with staff so that all employees have the information they need.

Review our corporate induction programme and other training

programmes to ensure that new staff have all the basic skills necessary to

perform their duties.

Developing some core staff values that sets out the key behaviours we

want to see from our staff.

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These are difficult economic times for

everyone and constrained public

spending coupled with the general

economic downturn, means that

organisations such as ourselves and

other service providers are under

pressure to deliver value for money

and efficiencies in all that we do. We

do have some advantages over other

housing organisations which mean we

are better placed than many others to

navigate our way through these more

difficult times but the challenge is clear.

Providing efficient services that are value for money for our residents is a key priority for our

organisation and we work continuously to ensure we are as cost effective as possible. Many of our

current projects are looking to address the value for money and efficiency agendas and some key

projects for 2015 onwards are:

Utilising data gained through the Housemark benchmarking service to understand where our

costs differ to other housing providers and seeking ways to improve efficiency.

Self-assessment of each of our service areas to reflect on what we are doing and how we are

doing it in order that outdated working practices can be modernised and /or services to

customers improved.

Exploring ways of automating manual processes, particularly in relation to monitoring and

pursuing of rent arrears.

Use the information gained from the social

value review undertaken in 2014 to

focus on those areas which offer

the maximum social value for our

customers and the wider

community.

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When George Cadbury began

building in Bournville in 1895 he

did so, not as a single-handed

attempt to solve all

Birmingham’s social problem,

but in the hope he could prove

that good quality housing in a

natural, green environment was

a necessity for the greater good

of society.

In 1900 George Cadbury

founded BVT, set up to ensure

the planned development and

maintenance of the Estate and to preserve it for future generations. Today, BVT remains at the

forefront of housing provision for architectural design, estate management and development. By

keeping sustainability (environmental, social and economic) at the forefront of our thinking BVT

has gained the reputation of being a model estate with a unique heritage and our experience

continues to inform the services that we provide today.

Our priorities and some key projects for our heritage activities for 2015 to 2019 are:

To develop better networking with peer groups and other key stakeholders.

To develop a publication that details all our key projects and successes as a way of elevating

our profile within our peer groups.

Develop a new Communications Strategy.

Develop a Bournville children’s book through the Bournville Unwrapped

Project.

Develop corporate marketing action plans to help sell

BVT services to third parties.

Children from Bournville Junior School with Chairman, Duncan Cadbury learning about Laurence Cadbury's role in WW1 and the Friends Ambulance

Unit.

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Our People and Structures

Trustees

Our CommitteeStructure

Finance, Audit and General

Purposes Committee

HousingServices

Committee

Estate Management

and Scheme Committee

Lightmoor Village Estate

Management Committee

Development Committee

AgriculturalEstates

Committee

Heritage Committee

Bournville Almshouse Trust -

Quadrangle Management

Committee

Bournville Housing

Partnership

Lawley Project Board

TrusteeGovernance

Review Committee

Our Trustees

Duncan Cadbury Chairman Appointed 1986Adrian Allen Vice Chairman Appointed 1999Roger Cadbury Appointed 1994 Mary Penny Appointed 1990Roger Wilson Appointed 2003Paul Sabapathy Appointed 2006

John Dowell Appointed 2008Alison McKittrick Appointed 2011Nigel Cadbury Appointed 2011Clive Wilkinson Appointed 1981 City of BirminghamProfessor Martin Snaith Appointed 1996 University of BirminghamDavid Cockcroft Appointed 2010 Society of Friends

Asset Management

Steering Group

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Director of Housing and Community Services

Annette Homer

Director of BournvilleArchitectsIan Tipton

Director of EstatesCarol Priest

Our Management Structure

Head of Housing Services (Birmingham)

Ann Ryan

Head of Customer Services

Elaine Blackburn

Head of Housing Services (Shropshire)

Jane Griffiths

Director of Supported Housing

Renny Wodynska

Head of Communities and Supported Housing

John McHugh

Director of Financial Services

Paul Haywood

Lightmoor Project Director

Kevin Webb

Head of Contracting Services

Mark Hughes

Head of Asset ManagementSteve Fellows

Development ManagerHitesh Champaneri

Director of Technical Services

Paul Hanley

Head of ITCarl Fowler

Head of Finance Sara Barber

Human Resources

ManagerNeeta Chauhan

Deputy Director of Bournville Architects

Adrian Mill icheap

Head of Stewardship and New Communities

Becci Youlden

Estates SurveyorRichard Hughes

Landscapes Manager Bournville Village

Landscapes Lloyd Gower

Heritage ManagerGill ian Ell is

Chief Executive'sOfficer Manager

Diane Thornton

Chief Executive OfficerPeter Roach

Head of Business Improvement

Ashleigh Evans

PR and Communications

Manager Cla ire Morrall

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Business Plan 2015-2019

Documents

Transcript of Business Plan 2015-2019