Our credentials

Worthing Homes’ goal is to meet high standards in the services it gives and to be continually improving in its delivery.

Standards

Clients Charter

Worthing Homes is now a Charter Client organisation which means that we provide a high quality repairs and maintenance service.

This is based on long term partnerships with contractors and our own small workforce primarily for working on empty homes. We have performed consistently well for all aspects of our repairs services.

We also have an efficient out-of-hours emergency repairs service operating 365 days a year. We have developed several partnering contracts with local contractors to continually improve out service delivery.

We offer a customer-focused, reflective improvement scheme, with nearly 2,000 improvements completed since transfer. We have a further three-year programme in place to complete more than 550 bathrooms and over 600 kitchen installations. We provide an information pack to all customers and have high levels of good feedback. The scheme has been submitted to the Housing Forum – see Continuous Improvements below.

We are also working with Guildcare, providing them with professional surveying services.

Concise Contract

As part of Worthing Homes' commitment to continuous improvement we have developed our innovative Concise Contract (880k pdf file), which became our second demonstration project with Constructing Excellence in October 2005. The contract is designed to replace the complicated 128 page JCT Design & Build contract with a simple to use four page plain English contract. John Griffiths Project Management Services One of develop partners states that "you can legislate for all possibilities, but in the end it's down to basic trust. I'm comfortable with the Concise Contract because it goes well with creating a sense of partnership".

Continuous improvement: Housing Forum Member

Worthing Homes is committed to continuous improvement. We are involved in several innovative partnering initiatives and in March 2004, we became a Constructing Excellence Demonstration Project (87k pdf file) for our cost reflective improvement programme.

Constructing Excellence has established itself as the only cross sector organisation covering all aspects of housing construction: private, public, and social sectors and their supply chains. It provides a member network of innovators who share knowledge and experience through its demonstrations portfolio and its ad hoc working groups.

Its main objective is to bring about radical change in housing construction, building on the Rethinking Construction agenda and the Strategic Forum's targets in order to work towards achieving the government targets for Decent Homes, new homes in growth areas, and the regeration of areas of low housing demand in the North, set out in ODPM's 'Sustainable Communities building for the future' 2003.

In order to highlight the benefits and barriers involved in current housing construction issues, the Housing Forum liaises with government and industry leaders in commissioning in-house and external projects. These issues have included labour and skills shortages, modern methods of construction, regeneration and sustainability, as well as promoting increased use of partnering and training on long term strategic projects.

Accreditations

Investors in People

Worthing Homes has been awarded the Investors in People standard again. The company first achieved the award in 2005 and over the past 3 years has continued to progress excellent working practices that encourage the development and involvement of all staff.

An external Investors in People assessor undertook the 3 year review during March 2008. He interviewed approximately a third of the staff, selecting individuals from across all areas of the business and taking into account a mix of roles and length of service.

Worthing Homes promotes training and learning opportunities for all its staff and encourages staff to progress and develop themselves and their skills throughout their employment at the company.

Centre for Housing and Support Code of Practice

Worthing Homes has been accredited with the Centre for Housing and Support Code of Practice.

The Centre for Housing and Support Code of Practice is a quality standard encompassing long-term housing-related support services delivered to vulnerable client groups in any setting, including Extra Care and Floating Support. There are ten standards within the code and the company had to demonstrate and verify that they had the policies and procedures in place to meet these standards.

The team at Worthing Homes did so well that they have also been pass ported through the Supporting People Quality Assessment Framework at grade B.

For more details about the code of practice please see the Centre for Housing and Support website.

Two Ticks

Worthing Homes has achieved the Two Ticks Award. The two ticks symbol is given by Job Centre Plus to employers who have agreed to meet 5 key commitments regarding recruitment, employment, retention and career development of people with disability. These 5 commitments are:

Commitment 1: To interview all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities.

Commitment 2: To ensure there is a mechanism in place to discuss, at any time, but at least once a year, with disabled employees what can be done to make sure they can develop and use their abilities, e.g. Appraisals.

Commitment 3: To make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment.

Commitment 4: To take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make our commitments.

Commitment 5: Each year, to review the five commitments and what has been achieved, to plan ways to improve on them and let the employees and employment service know about progress and future plans.

You will see the symbol on all our advertisements for jobs, letter headed paper as well as on our internet sites. The use of this symbol is one of the visible ways that we highlight our commitment to disabled people.

Our commitment to disabled people is an on-going process, which we are constantly reviewing, and involves all our employees.

Awards

Best Companies 2009

Worthing Homes received a Best companies 2009 star status accreditation after an in-depth staff survey found high levels of engagement and commitment to their work from employees.

The best companies’ survey is designed to measure employee engagement and uses 70 questions to gain a comprehensive view of workplace engagement. Based on staff feedback, the accreditation assesses factors such as leadership, well being and how employees rate their managers, team spirit, and company ethos.

Best Development – Sappling Design Awards October 2009

Worthing Homes won the award for the recently developed Norfolk & Suffolk house. The property contained 51 new flats, amixutre of 1 and 2 bedrooms for both social and intermediate rent. This iconic building provided significant regeneration and breathed a new lease of life into a neglected area of town, and showed our commitment to providing homes that people want to live in.

Distinction in Building Award 2007

For the second year running Worthing Homes won Worthing Borough Councils distinction in buildings award. The award was for our town centre scheme at Phoenix House and Lennox Mews, which were built on a former public house and garage site. The properties are of mixed tenure providing 23 flats, 11 houses and a wheelchair access bungalow. Robin Roberts, Property Services Director said to win this local design award, as well as being named a National Client of the Year, recognises Worthing Homes’ as an excellent company.

Constructing Excellence First National Client of the Year Award 2007

Following Worthing Homes success in the London and South East awards held in September 2007, we attended the first National Constructing Excellence award finals on 11th October 2007. Against very strong national competition we were awarded National Client of the year. As Client of the Year, Worthing Homes was recognised to have truly driven innovation and best practice; both in the way it manages its supply chain and in the way it has engaged with key stakeholders

Distinction in Building Award 2006

Worthing Homes was awarded Worthing Borough Councils Distinction in Building award for it’s development Carmel House. The development, close to the town centre, is styled in keeping with the surrounding buildings, and provided some much needed housing for the area.