Investing in technology to improve our estates

05/07/2018

In April, the newly formed team of Estate Inspectors took over responsibility for estate inspections from our Neighbourhood Managers. We recently restructured our team and one of the aims was to offer more property focused estate inspections.

To do this we’ve made improvements to the way we carry out inspections by bringing in the Photobook app, a tool created by housing sector membership organisation HouseMark.

By using the app, we’ve managed to massively reduce the time taken to input the data we collect about our estates through estate inspections and improve the quality of our inspections.

The app automatically creates reports on the progress of the work we do in our estates and our Estate Inspectors can also add photos to their inspection notes, making it even easier to keep track of what’s going on and identify how to improve.

Using the app will also make it easier for our teams to get a clearer picture of whether jobs like fixing a broken door have been completed when looking back at previous records.

Our Estates Services Team have also been set up to use the app and have started to gather some data on there, in future this will allow them to report on trends and patterns in the different areas we work in. This means that over time, when we collect data for example data on areas where there tends to be a lot of fly tipping, or if the cleanliness of the estate has not been at its usual standard.

We recently hosted an event in our main office where organisations who use the app came together to give feedback on their experience of using the app. The purpose of the session was to help HouseMark improve the app and allow teams like ours across the housing sector to deliver our services even more effectively.

Improving the way we carry out inspections will mean we can better track and manage our performance and improve the quality of our estates for our residents.