Teamtalk Issue 68 Issue 68 October 2015 | Page 5

Remember to discuss any article with at your next team meeting Policy Updates Replacement Home Policy – Permanent Moves – we’ve made a few changes to this Policy to make the decant process more efficient: In the spotlight! „„ Reducing offers of an alternative property from three to two „„ Clarifying a relevant Regional Director will deal with appeals and when we may take legal action „„ Paying compensation within one month of a tenant moving home (previously three months). Recruitment and Selection Policy – we’ve reviewed the Policy, making the following updates: „„ Bringing it in line with the Redeployment Policy Resident Monitors at work! – all redeployees are given the first opportunity to apply for roles „„ Introducing a basic IT test for all non-manual roles „„ Emphasising recruiting for attitude „„ Clarifying our approach to secondments. Our London Planned Maintenance Team worked with Anglian to upgrade all the windows at Leeds Court, one of our sheltered accommodation schemes. Staff visited with our Resident Monitors to get residents feedback. The residents were all really positive and gave fantastic scores! Tenancy Fraud Policy – see Tenancy Fraud update article on page 3. New prescribed S21 notice The Deregulation Act has introduced changes for tenancies issued from 1 October 2015. This means: „„ We need to use a prescribed form for Section 21 notices „„ We’re not able to serve a S21 within the first four months of a tenancy „„ The two months notice period no longer needs to tie in with the end of a tenancy period (for new tenancies issued from 1 October 2015) Donating tools Our Sussex Estate Services Team has been working with Community Payback (Probation) services in clearing 12 overgrown void gardens. This allows the voids team to complete the rest of their job quicker! The team has now donated some of the tools they no longer use to Community Payback to work on our gardens. This has been excellent multi-agency working. www.ahintranet.org.uk/teamtalk  There’ll be training from Housing Law Services on 4 November, at Grosvenor House. Please contact Hardeep Majhail if you’d like to attend. If you have any queries about Policies and Procedures please contact [email protected] 5 Edition 64 - June 2015