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Value for money

Value for money is a high priority for One Vision Housing. 

Through the collaboration and innovation of our people, from colleagues to customers, we have developed a robust strategic plan to achieve value for money and excellence in the services we offer across the following objectives:

  • 1. Maximising our social value

    We will:

    • Use the HACT Social value calculator to, where possible, establish the social value of our activities
    • Work with HACT to certify our social value assessments
    • Improve the amount of activities we can calculate social value against by better recording our outcomes
    • Record social value generated from procurement activity
    • Proactively work with the third sector to have effective referral services with our key partners to improve outcomes for our customers
    • Encourage employment and enterprise opportunities through our externally awarded contracts
    • Commit to supporting community projects through grants and volunteering placements
    • Use customer intelligence information and customer scrutiny to determine business priorities and improve our services
    • Collate a value for money tracker of cashable and non-cashable savings to demonstrate our effectiveness
  • 2. Best use of our assets and resources

    We will:

    • Use a ‘whole life’ approach to how we manage and use our assets including how we:
      • Procure products
      • Deliver services
      • Use local labour via self-delivery
      • Employ, train and retain people and apprentices
      • Use zero based budgeting
      • Use customer insight and intelligence to understand what our customers want
    • Conduct a systematic analysis of the longer term performance and return on investment of our housing assets through stock sustainability analysis and stock condition appraisals
    • Use asset management software to facilitate robust asset management planning and scenario analysis
    • Seek recognition for excellence, with awards and accreditations
    • Continue to review funding and the impact of unutilised borrowing facilities
    • Actively seek funding where feasible, including sustainability funding such as ERDF & ECO funding
    • Benchmark our services against others to understand our strengths and areas for improvement and align our resources accordingly
    • Train our people to have value for money at the heart of their decision making through:
      • Onboarding/induction
      • Leadership and management skills training
      • 360 degree appraisals
      • Budget and costs management training
      • Project management training
  • 3. Collaboration through self-delivery

    We will:

    • Listen to our colleagues and customers and using this to improve our processes and customer experience
    • Gain recognition for excellence in the sector
    • Attract new registered providers to The Sovini Group
    • Review our supply chain and procurement plan to highlight opportunities to bring service contracts in-house (delivered either by One Vision Housing directly or through The Sovini Group entities) to reduce costs and improve performance
    • Work closely with our statutory partners (local authorities, the police and health providers) to deliver positive outcomes in our neighbourhoods and communities
  • 4. Regulatory compliance and customer involvement

    We will:

    • Comply fully with the Consumer and Economic Standards, with a strong focus on the Value for Money Standard (2018)
    • Retain our Governance 1 (G1) and increase our Viability 2 (V2) rating back to Viability 1 rating from the Regulator (RSH)
    • Complete and publish our value for money self-assessments and share it with stakeholders
    • Measure, compare and report our performance against the value for money metrics 
    • Continue to have a strong effective and committed Board structure, with members who are focused on strategic objectives and risk management
    • Undertake annual Board member appraisals to continue to retain a strong and effective Board
    • Review customer empowerment and engagement arrangements to ensure the ‘Customer Voice’ influences both strategic and operational decisions. Facilitating customer review and scrutiny to appraise performance and deliver customer priorities
    • Use the Risk and Audit Committee to monitor risk and tenant scrutiny recommendations, along with value for money outcomes and assurance in meeting the regulatory standards
    • Undergo both internal and external audit in relation to our annual value for money self-assessments and our approach
    • Provide six monthly updates to Board and RAC to proactively monitor the delivery of the value for money strategy objectives
  • 5. Maximising opportunities through procurement

    We will:

    • Measure, track and report in line with the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 to demonstrate our outcomes through externally tendered contracts
    • Annually reviewing the Financial Regulations to make sure our processes are compliant in terms of procurement limits, requirements and expectations
    • Use robust and transparent procurement processes
    • Regularly reviewing our suppliers and their pricing strategies
    • Monitor our contracts register for criticality (risk, volume, duration), and social and environmental impact (locality, size, ethics, carbon footprint)
    • Publicise our ethical and environmental standards and embed them within our procurement processes
    • Identify opportunities for self-delivery vehicles of products and services
    • Involve customers and partners in all our procurement projects
    • Promote customer scrutiny of our services to ensure quality
    • Complete service reviews when required, as highlighted by audits and customer feedback
  • 6. Excellent performance and customer satisfaction

    We will:

    • Continue to use our performance management software to track actions, performance indicators, value for money metrics and risks in team, management and Board meetings
    • Use a range of benchmarking services to monitor how we perform and compare against our peers with a clear focus on understanding of our costs and performance with a view to achieving top quartile performance
    • Maximise customer satisfaction measured through the RSH’s published Tenants Satisfaction Measures from April 2023
    • Deliver excellent complaints management and ensure compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Code
    • Use the Customer Voice to scrutinise performance in service delivery and influence decision making
    • Deploy specialist colleagues to transform our processes strategically and operationally (automating and streamlining) to generate additional financial capacity and other efficiency savings
    • Implement business transformation through our IT Strategy that will support our colleagues and improve our digital offer to customers

Our achievements

Since 2006, we have saved £142 million through efficiencies.

In 2022/23, we...

earned £532 thousand through our Investment Policy and saved £8.2 million in efficiencies, including £700 thousand in procurement.

How we report on value for money

Every year we produce a self-assessment and statutory accounts that detail our approach to value for money, achievements and future plans.

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This page was last updated on 15/12/2023