High levels of sickness in council’s call centre amid sharp rise in demand for repairs

The repairs update provided an overview of contractors and the contact centre’s performance over the past six months. 

Since the three repair contracts went live, the contact centre has experienced a significant increase in call volume – around 2,000 additional calls per month. There has also been a significant increase in additional repair orders raised, around 1,500 per month.

The council has noted “high levels of sickness absence” among the temporary staff in the call centre. 

In response, the local authority launched a contact centre improvement plan, which includes getting the information logged correctly and the first time a call is received, as well as staff training. 

The council is also hoping to hire more permanent staff, with a new team expected to be in place towards the end of March.

On contractor performance, K&T Heating completed 24% of its emergency repairs in target time in December, up from 23% in November. For non-emergency repairs, it achieved 54% in December and 59% in November. 

Mears and Wates completed 95% of emergency repairs within target time in December, up from 94% in November. The contractors completed 72% of non-emergency repairs with the target time in December, down from 68% in November. 

The report also included statistics on tenants’ satisfaction with repairs: 51% were satisfied with the overall service.

On damp and mould, of the total 507 jobs raised, Wates has completed 386 and has 139 in progress. There are 101 jobs that were not processed within the six-day target window, while the contractor’s oldest outstanding damp and mould job has sat for 133 days.

For Mears, its oldest outstanding job is 65 days. It had 277 jobs raised, 182 of which are in progress, with 95 completed and 143 sitting outside the six-day process window. 

A Mears spokesperson said: “Mears aims to complete repairs as quickly as possible and in line with contractual targets. In the vast majority of cases this is being achieved. 

“On occasions where work is taking longer to complete, this is primarily due to issues in both making contact with residents and arranging access to properties.”

A Croydon Council spokesperson said: “We are working with our new contractors to deliver a high-quality repairs service and we are monitoring our service performance to ensure our customer services standards remain in line with our residents’ charter. 

“Since going live in August 2023, with a new in-house contact centre and three repairs contractors, we have received an increase in calls, as would be expected with the changes to our service. 

“Our new in-house contact centre has provided us better oversight of calls and repair demand, and given us more confidence in the data we have to respond to all requests.

“The change to the contact centre and repairs contracts is part of the council’s significant resident-led housing improvement drive. 

“We continue to work with our tenants and leaseholders to monitor the performance of the service and make improvements. 

“This includes recruiting permanent staff for the contact centre, so it is properly resourced and able to handle as many calls as required.

“Creating a more efficient service means that we share performance data with our contractors. We have requested a third-party organisation to help review the quality of the data we receive. 

“Having more reliable information will then help us to make decisions to improve our residents’ homes. In addition, we are engaged in an accelerated and extensive stock condition programme, which we will use to inform our stock investment plan.”

K&T Heating declined to comment and Wates has been contacted for a response.