CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL TENDER:

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Management & Staffing Structure

This contract will be managed by Angela McLachlan who joined Orchard & Shipman as Director of Operations - Scotland in 2006. With 8 years experience in social and private housing, Angela has a comprehensive understanding of the housing market and is experienced in strategy and policy development. Angela has lead operating responsibility for the management of the PSL contracts with City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and Scottish Borders Councils.

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 2000, Angela attended Heriot Watt University and attained the Postgraduate Diploma in Housing in 2002. Thereafter, Angela worked as a Housing Officer for Castle Rock Housing Association (now Castle Rock Edinvar), moving to the City of Edinburgh Council in 2003 where she was responsible for the development of Edinburgh's Private Sector Leasing scheme and the Letwise training programme which provides information and training to over 3,500 of Edinburgh's private landlords and letting agents. Angela has also worked for Shelter (Scotland) where she had responsibility for the first piece of primary research on HMO licensing and its impact in Scotland.

We will appoint staff with the necessary skills to make a success of all aspects of this contract. In some cases, these staff will come from our existing workforce. We envisage the following staff for the contract:

Job Role	FTE
Negotiator	0.5
Tenancy Manager	2.0
Welfare & Advice Worker	1.0
Administrator	1.0
Accounting	0.5
Total	5.0

Service Delivery

If appointed, we will begin operating the services within this contract from 1st April 2009. We will use the time following contract award to put all necessary arrangements in place e.g. office premises; staffing; referral arrangements, etc to ensure that services can run effectively from April 2009.

Transition arrangements

Orchard & Shipman understand that an important element to this contract is the ability to assume contractual responsibility for existing service provision from any current providers. As an experienced property services provider the company has prior successful knowledge of both implementing new contracts as well as novating contractual responsibilities.

Please see our TUPE Policy at Appendix O.

Delivering Service Objectives

Service Objective	Proposals
Provide households who are homeless or threatened by homelessness with access to private rented accommodation by assisting them to raise deposits (e.g. through personal savings, loans, including Capital Credit Union loans) or by use of Rent Deposit Guarantees where personal savings and loans are unavailable or by other appropriate means	Orchard & Shipman will have an office presence in the Council's Cockburn Street offices from 3^rd November. We anticipate establishing a city centre office to run this contract from. We also have our offices at Anderson House, Leith. We will aim to set up a referral agreement with Capital Credit Union to assist tenants to save for a deposit and all such protocols would be incorporated within a Housing Advice & Information Strategy for those seeking to access the private rented market. This service will also be made available to existing PSL tenants.
Give priority to maximising the numbers of households accessing private sector housing as quickly as possible	We would like to establish Key Performance Indicators with the Council with specific targets on: Direct access; and Move On accommodation from PSL tenancies
Assist people to locate suitable private sector properties, to negotiate with landlords and to arrange Housing Benefit	Experienced in HB administration - staff already working to the Verification Framework Experienced in private sector landlord negotiation Existing landlord database in Edinburgh, all accredited locally or nationally Existing pipeline of potential properties We would provide full tenancy management services to landlords paying for this option We would provide viewing and sign-up to tenants We would manage neighbour nuisance issues for landlords and provide access to preferred contractors Incentive for Landlords would be a 100% rent guarantee for the first 6 months of any tenancy. We will also look at Rent Deposit Guarantees for tenants if existing schemes do not have sufficient funds available.
Service Objective	Proposals
Encourage people to save for rent deposits	We would aim to do this in partnership with Capital Credit Union, Dunfermline Building Society and/or Lloyds TSB, expanding on existing working relationships.
Assess and match flat sharing tenants and properties which maintain existing positive social networks	We would assess tenant's suitability for PRS at our offices, to ensure households were suitably shared in order to maintain existing positive social networks
Provide mediation between flat sharers	Our existing in-house mediators would provide mediation where required.
Provide follow up visits to tenants during the first six months of their tenancy to ensure they are managing their home successfully	We already provide this service on our existing PSL contract with CEC. This would be replicated within this contract.
Share information with the Council's Private Sector Services Team (PSST) about tenancies and landlords where there are concerns about the standard and quality of accommodation	We already have good links with CEC departments and share information as part of our existing PSL contract. These would be replicated within this contract.
Work closely with the Council's PSST to minimise duplication of work in areas such as referrals and references, sharing property information, property inspection and certification (gas, electric and furnishings) and housing benefit processing.	We already have good links with CEC departments and share information as part of the existing PSL contract. These would be replicated within this contract.
Obtain support for vulnerable tenants in establishing and maintaining their home	We would create links with appropriate support agencies to refer vulnerable tenants to, in the event that support needs were identified.
Promote best use of the benefit system and income maximisation to help people avoid or address housing debt that may lead to them losing their home	Our holistic Welfare & Benefits Team would meet this requirement.
Ensure people get advice and information on energy efficiency so they do not become homeless due to debt caused by fuel poverty	As above
Service Objective	Proposals
Assist people to take up training, education and volunteering opportunities	As above.
Ensure access to employment for people who have experienced or are experiencing homelessness by linking with mainstream employment services	As above.
Provide advice on benefits when people take up employment so that they can access all the benefits they are entitled to and do not lose out	Our holistic Welfare & Benefits Team would meet this requirement.
Provide housing advice and information to an accredited standard (e.g. HomePoint)	We would build on our existing in-house expertise by putting staff through HomePoint training.
Promote the Young Person's Housing Options Guide - a local web based resource - that provides a range of advice and information appropriate to young person's needs	We would promote this resource at our offices, or any location where we have a presence, at tenancy sign-ups and through additional appropriate channels.
Ensure information and advice is targeted appropriately at people from BME communities	We would ensure this requirement was met and are currently investigating recruiting through the Positive Action Training Highway (PATH) programme.
Ensure information and advice is targeted appropriately at people with learning disabilities.	We would ensure this requirement was met.

APPENDIX M - IMPLEMENTATION PLAN