The report also found that services had been improving in a range of areas, after engaging more with service users. As a result the Group is focussed on improving its delivery of targets and actions. The Group also has a clear strategic direction for the future, which is set out in its Business Plan, and progress is regularly monitored and reported to the Board.

Examples of good practice demonstrated by the Group are also identified in the report, which other similar organisations can learn from. These include: a Nuisance Prevention Team providing support and advice for both ‘low-level’ instances and more serious issues, Neighbourhood Appraisals allowing tenants to influence improvements to their environment and services, and a Community Investment Strategy which identified priority targets for completion, employing nine people and raising over £1.2 million in grant funding for projects.

The report includes a number of recommendations designed to promote further improvement, including:

• developing more effective methods of engaging with difficult to reach groups -for example, young people, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and residents of supported housing schemes;
• setting appropriate and challenging targets for the recovery of former tenants’ arrears which support year on year improvement in performance;
• developing and introducing a comprehensive repairs appointments service; and
• addressing weaknesses in its current approach to operational planning, by successfully implementing the revised Group-wide operational planning framework.

Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said today:
“I am pleased to report that overall the Seren Group is providing a good quality service to its tenants. And, with continued development of the areas I have highlighted, the Group should be able to further improve the quality of its services. The Group already encourages the sharing of good practice, and the examples that we have identified should be of interest and relevance to other public housing organisations in Wales.”

Notes to Editors:

• The inspection of the Seren Group took place in February 2007. The Group manages more than 4,000 properties mainly in South East Wales with a particular focus on Gwent.
• Seren is the parent company and the strategic leader of the Group, taking overall responsibility for setting the Group’s corporate objectives. The Group is made up of five member organisations: Charter Housing Association; Reach (Supported Living); Solas Cymru; Fairlake Properties and Gwent Housing. Since the inspection Pen Yr Enfys a registered charity who work with people with alcohol and substance abuse has also joined the Seren Group.
• The Group was established in July 2004 and was a winner at the UK Housing Awards for Excellence in 2004.
• The Welsh Assembly Government has appointed the Wales Audit Office to carry out the inspection of housing associations in Wales. Inspection is carried out under the Local Government Act 1998, as amended by the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004
• The specific questions about each aspect the inspection covers are set out in the latest version of the Assembly Regulatory Code for Housing Associations in Wales. This can be found by clicking on the following link: http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/housingandcommunity/housing/publications/
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• Services are rated using five different categories: ‘excellent’, ‘good’, satisfactory’, ‘scope for considerable improvement’ or ‘fails to comply with the regulatory code.’ A full description of each of the above categories is detailed in Appendix 2 of our inspection reports.
• All Wales Audit Office housing inspection reports are accompanied by a shorter, summary report, which is distributed to the Association’s tenants. This ‘summary of findings’ has been written by a Tenant Inspection Adviser. Tenant Inspection Advisers are tenants, employed by the Wales Audit Office, to provide a service-user perspective and help inform inspection findings.
• The Wales Audit Office is independent of government and is responsible for the annual audit of some £19 billion of annual public expenditure.
• The Wales Audit Office was created in April 2005 through the Public Audit (Wales) Act, 2004, which expanded the functions of the Auditor General for Wales and enabled the transfer of staffs from the Audit Commission in Wales and National Audit Office in Wales to his employment.