Sandwell Homes has launched its pilot good neighbourhood agreement (GNA) at a community event on Cakemore council estate in Oldbury.

Up to 200 residents from the estate, young and old, were brought together to celebrate the agreement, which has been developed to rid the estate of anti-social behaviour and improve community spirit.

Rebecca Low, Sandwell Homes’ anti-social behaviour officer, helped develop the document in conjunction with local resident groups whilst also canvassing the views of young people. She said:

“A good neighbourhood agreement is about putting ‘neighbour’ back into neighbourhood. It is about doing more than what is dictated by the law, authorities and society. It is simple in its nature; it is about being neighbourly and having community pride. Everyone can contribute and take responsibility for Cakemore estate.”

The purpose of the agreement is to give a clear indication of Sandwell Homes’ commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour and was developed in conjunction with SCIPS (Sandwell community information and participation services) and Cakemore tenants and residents association (TRA). The document also has the support of other agencies including the police, youth services, and a local town team.

It seeks to encourage local people to share responsibility for tackling nuisance behaviour and encourages the local community to get involved and take a stance.

As the first GNA to be developed in this way, it is hoped that it will also provide useful experience in producing a good practice guide on ASB, which can then serve the whole borough.

Councillor Pauline Hinton attended the event to show her support, making a speech and then cutting a cake to mark the agreement’s official launch. Residents made the most of the event with free face painting, steel-pan band, raffle prizes and even fire-prevention advice from a local fire brigade who were only too happy to join in the fun. 

Sandwell Homes is celebrating today after winning an award for its interaction with tenants using a series of innovative board games.

The National Federation of ALMO Awards 2008 recognise the outstanding efforts of Arms Length Management Organisations up and down the country and are highly competitive. This year’s event received more nominations than ever before.

Sandwell Homes triumphed in the Best Community Initiative category, receiving the award at a ceremony in York. BBC news presenter Nik Wood announced the judges’ decision to delighted employees who attended the event including the games’ creator (and Sandwell Homes community involvement manager) Derek Fletcher. 

Steve Hale of awards sponsor Lovell Partnerships Ltd, was part of the judging team, he said: “What a great way to involve the whole community in the planning process.

“Sandwell Homes has taken a lead role in engaging with tenants on prioritising expenditure.  We can learn a lot from Sandwell Homes’ project and the idea can be replicated across all the ALMO’s.”

Norman Fletcher, business and community support manager for Sandwell Homes, said: “Winning this award demonstrates how well Sandwell Homes engages with tenants to both keep them informed and improve service delivery.

Sandwell Homes has pledged an extra £127k in funds to meet the demands of a gardening service currently being provided to elderly and disabled tenants.

With demand for the service – which is provided by Sandwell Council’s voluntary services team – growing all the time, housing bosses at Sandwell Homes have agreed to invest the extra cash to ensure those who need the service most don’t miss out.

With responsibility for managing over 30,000 council homes in the borough, Sandwell Homes’ customer base consists of many elderly and disabled tenants unable to maintain their gardens. Those without the benefit of able-bodied assistance are eligible to apply for the service.

Norman Fletcher, business and community support manager for Sandwell Homes, said: “We hope this considerable investment will help us meet the current high demand for garden services. Due to the popularity of this scheme there is inevitably a backlog of work to do and we welcome the patience of those tenants who are eligible.”

Sandwell Homes has launched a new initiative to help tenants of Sandwell Council engage in housing matters by offering a series of training courses.

The Sandwell Tenants and Residents Training programme (or START) consists of various courses designed to improve tenants’ skills in contributing to meetings, IT and computing, and making presentations, as well as raising their awareness of equality and diversity issues, and even effective rent account management amongst other things. 

Each course was identified following close consultation with tenants and residents associations. Officers from Sandwell Homes and its partner organisations will deliver most of the courses in-house at no cost to the recipient.

Sharon Williams, the community involvement officer who is running the START scheme, has also developed a library of externally run training courses where in-house training is unavailable.  She said: “Sandwell Homes values its customers’ input and wants to ensure that they take an active role in housing matters including participation on committees, organising events, running successful support groups, and sitting on Board meetings.

“Hopefully the skills acquired from these courses will also be of value to tenants in the wider world and not just for engaging with housing issues.”

The START brochure, outlining which courses are available, has been sent to tenants and residents associations, and housing service panel members. It is available here on the Sandwell Homes website and the Sandwell community information and participation services (SCIPS) website.

Sandwell has been hailed as home to one of the most innovative and forward thinking construction partnerships in the region.

A joint working agreement between Sandwell Homes, Taylor Woodrow Construction, Lovell, Wates Living Space, Connaught Partnerships, Sandwell MBC Urban Design, Rider Levett Bucknall and Thomas Vale Construction, the Sandwell Decent Homes Partnership (SDHP) has won a prestigious West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence award for Integration and Collaborative working.     

Judges commended the SDHP for demonstrating clear commitment to collaborative working.  They were particularly impressed with its willingness to engage with and listen to customers. Judges commended the partnership, which has made a long-term commitment to the community of Sandwell.

The partnership was created in 2005 and is tasked with the delivery of £425 million worth of improvements to 30,000 homes across the Sandwell borough. It beat off stiff competition to win the award, which celebrates best practice and collaborative working methods within the construction industry. The exemplar partnership has already delivered significant benefits to the borough refurbishing nearly 10,000 ‘decent’ homes for local residents and creating over 400 employment opportunities.

John Clayton, Investment Director of Sandwell Homes commented:

“We are delighted to win this award, and feel it is testament to our success as a partnership and the benefits we have delivered to the local community. Now in its third year, the work performed by the partnership has had a direct impact on the lives of local people, by delivering significant financial savings that have been ploughed back into the borough. Working with local companies who understand the community’s needs and daily challenges, has been central to our success.”

“Our work focuses on bringing the homes in Sandwell up to a decent standard and this award reflects the dedication shown by each member of our partnership towards the community in which they work.”

Set up in partnership with Sandwell Homes, the initiative sees the police neighbourhood team based at an office within the building.

Chief superintendent Andy Jewkes from Smethwick police station and chief executive of Sandwell Homes, Brian Oakley, attended the opening ceremony, which took place on Tuesday 29 April.

The office will be used as a base for officers to work from within the community but is not an operational police station.

Inspector Denise Clarke from Old Hill police station said: "This is great news for the local community and an indication of the strength of local partnership working that we have such a facility to serve the local community. Police community support officers and police officers will now be at the heart of the community, be more easily identifiable and be able to solve issues more efficiently.

"it really does reflect the ethos of neighbourhood policing, which is localised and community driven, allowing the police, partners and the publilc to work closely together to solve the problems of crime and disorder, imporve communities and increase feelings of safety."

Brian Oakley, chief executive of Sandwell Homes said: "Sandwell Homes has always been at the heart of neighbourhood tasking. Having our community safety partners co-located in our Tividale office will clearly strengthen our relationship and ability to resolve local issues for the community we all serve in this area."