Improving our Housing and Neighbourhoods Service

For the first time in 20 years we had an 'annual' visit from our 'neighbourhood officer' last month. He was friendly and listened to our complaints, and he logged three repair jobs for us. Unfortunately it shows that the neighbourhood officers have no more control over what is going on than we do - one of the jobs was immediately cancelled (without telling us or the officer), one was 'rescheduled' without notice then cancelled because we were not home when he arrived 20 minutes later, and the third went smoothly.
Basically, you need managers who are not afraid to talk to clients, a call centre who can expect managers to contact clients, and enough staff so we do not have to spend hours on the phone listening to that awful musak.
An online call system that lets you monitor call status and reschedule repairs without going through the call centre.
A way of adding a carers phone number to your records so messages go to the appropriate person. (The neighbourhood officer said he had sorted this, but it still doesn't work)

And somebody who is prepared to take responsibility for all this, without us going through Councillors, LACs or MPs.

Agree with published feedback so far. But I would add that there clearly needs to be a big old sweep with a broom of existing senior managers as most of the failures seem to lie with an inability to 'manage' staff, resources and systems efficiently and effectively.

Agree with published feedback so far. But I would add that there clearly needs to be a big old sweep with a broom of existing senior managers as most of the failures seem to lie with an inability to 'manage' staff, resources and systems efficiently and effectively.

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I don't always find the website easy if it is a timing issue

Better roads and more road cleaners and more garden maintenance to be better than it is at present especially for the disabled and elderly of the communities

there is alot of complaining which has to be a nightmare for the council and the tenant. introducing of a new computor system what a waste of money. sheffield council should get back to the persnonal touch and be a for front of all the councils.
first of all how to solve moaning tenants and bad workmanship get the tenant to get 3 quotes confirm pricing with the council the council will pay the bill after the work is completed to all satisfaction. the tenant gets involved and has their say

I have lived in gleadless valley for over 20 years.
I have consistantly tried to make the area a nicer place for us all to live.
My experiences of attemting to deal with the council over 20 years have been appalling.
80% of the time the council totally ignores myself and my neighbours...and I do mean totally ignores us.
another 15% of the time they appear to be bordering on incompetance and do nothing.
5% of the time they do a reasonable job.....eventually after you have really pestered them.

The council do not seem to even be able to empty litter bins that have been over flowing for weeks on end.

The council is constantly boasting about how good it is and yet in practice appears to be a mixture of total lack of interest and incompetance.

Your services are appalling and managed in a cynical manner.

In a nutshell i think it should say on all your vans "providing bare minimum services provided several people repeatedly really really pester us for them"

My experiences particularly relate to Gleadless Valley and newfield green housing office....who have improved in recent years from being downright hostile and overtly unhelpful to how there are now which is fairly uninterested and incompetant.... as far as we can tell.

Negligable levels of confidence in the services.

Why are you told things are going to be done and this never happens

Just looking at the feedback made me feel my experience was not isolated. Sheffield city council should first improve their customer/people/ service. Then improve your communication and how people reach you. It’s appalling how people spend money just by waiting to be answered by you over the phone. Get a new system please.
I have booked a repair from end of last year(2022) for a gutter that’s been damaged the snow of 2022. The earliest was 5th July 2023. I even confirmed this by calling the council the day before and it’s still in the system- guess what, nobody turned up to repair it! Do you even communicate with each other? Please sort your systems out!

I was expecting a wall to be re-plasterboarded in my council flat on Monday (5th june) but all that happened was a guy came, took a look at it and told me told me to expect a phone call to have it done another day

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It took almost a year to get a deep pot hole repaired. Council just ignored any request to repair it.

internal departments need to comunicate with eachother

I've requested plastering to be done in our child's bedroom (she's registered disabled) this was 18 months ago, and the work still hasn't been done. It's bad enough that you can't do work on time. Overall, trying to get in contact with Sheffield council is appalling, and a bad service for taxpayers

I'm a 69 year old disabled pensioner and i'm disgusted with how i was treated by the
Sheffield housing repair service is totally useless since they changed it it a call centre and the automated answering machine i was left on the line for over 3 hours which cost me over £60 for that one phone call and when I finally got though I was told one light isn't an emergency when i reported this it was in February is it's dark mornings and on hallway light for a disabled pensioner it is dangerous .
I even contacted my MP Olivia Blake who passed it on to John Wright who then passed it to First point at Hillsborough none did anything to help me so I contacted Age Uk and with in hours they had contacted the repair service and they told Age Uk no-one had bought this to there attention and the person Age Uk spoke with arranged a repair for my hallway light so it just proves to me that the MP Olivia her secretary John Wright and first point Hillsborough don't do any thing to help the disabled in this city . Also this isn't the first time i've had problems with the council housing repair service .

When I first moved into my flat on Arbourthorn, around 4 and a half years ago, I had to spend 3 days without gas, water or electricity because my housing officer "forgot" to tell anyone, I then had to stay with a friend and their family for 2 weeks before the flat was habitable, it took me contacting my local MP to get this done.
Since then, it took another 4 years and a formal complaint to have the council fix the communal entrance door so it locked shut and could only be opened with a fob.
When I viewed the flat I was also informed that the residents of this part of Arbourthorn are "vulnerable individuals", this is NOT a term I would use to describe heroin and crack addicts, they are far from vulnerable and I've had to call the police twice because one of them will not leave me alone and keeps asking for money, food and tobacco and becomes aggressive towards anyone who won't give them what they want.
One of the disorders I suffer from is having dissociative seizures which are triggered by high amounts of stress and leave me incapable to take care of myself due to intense physical pain and having to live around all the addicts in this area is not helping me in the slightest.
The council are also taking money directly out of my Universal Credit which leaves me with less than £300 per month to try and live on, I'd like to see ANY council worker try and do that for a prolonged period of time.
If the council don't drastically improve their service I will be going to the press and literally anyone else that will listen to me about how the council have zero regard for people with severe mental health issues, all I want to do is have the best quality of life I can without having to worry about setting foot outside my door.

Better communication between repairs and tenants. Contact from pest control would be nice I’ve had 0 contact and been in contact several times. There’s no direct way for me to speak to my local housing officer when I moved in I tried to complain and ask for support but I didn’t know how to contact as it was never made clear.

My building is rodent infested the pest control have never shown up and I still hear them at night. the bedroom has mould and none of my doors fit, there’s also door handles missing my fire doesn’t work, there’s no sealant on my windows so air blows in creating a draft. When I moved in I had no gas and electric because I was told meters were fitted that weren’t and there was rat poo in my kitchen cupboards and marks on the walls where holes were dug I had to repair myself. The toilet doesn’t flush and people don’t show up when I report repairs. I get told I’ll receive phone calls and never do and they don’t wait for me to get to the door. I’m pregnant and disabled and the living standards just aren’t good enough.

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