Liverton Court Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy Oct 2024 DRAFT
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Introduction
This is the Draft Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy for Liverton Court.
The Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy sets out how Manchester City Council will engage and communicate with you, the resident, about building safety.
The aim of this strategy is to ensure you:
- Feel safe in your home
- Know what to do in the event of an incident in your building
- Understand Manchester City Council’s responsibility to keep your home safe via the Building Safety Act
- Are aware of how you can be involved in and influence building safety decisions for Liverton Court
- Know what Manchester City Council is doing to improve your building’s safety
- Know how to make a complaint/report any issues if you have any concerns regarding building safety.
Liverton Court: Some key facts about your building
Liverton Court is a high-rise building, with a total height of 21.44m. It has 71 self-contained flats (with one being empty at the time of writing).
The building is managed by Manchester City Council’s Housing Services department.
The average length of tenancy within Liverton Court is 8 years 11 months.
Liverton Court is an Independent Living Scheme designed for residents who are aged 55+. 27% of residents have a disability or impairment and three languages are spoken within the block: English, Hungarian and Urdu.
Below is a table showing the breakdown of residents’ ages at the time this strategy was issued.
|
Age |
Percentage of residents |
|
55–60 |
7% |
|
61–70 |
44% |
|
71–80 |
23% |
|
81–90+ |
25% |
At the time of writing there was one empty property.
Information we will provide you with
We are committed to listening and keeping you informed. We will share information with you relating to building safety decisions that may affect you.
When building safety work is carried out that affects you, we will share the relevant information, including:
- Why the work is being carried out, and what type of work this will be
- Details of who will be carrying out the work
- How long it will take to complete the work
- Details for who you can contact about the work before, during and after
We will share this information with you:
- When you sign a tenancy with us
- When we visit you in your home
- On the Manchester City Council website
- On communal noticeboards
- By letter or newsletter
- During resident social events
The types of decisions you will be involved in
We understand that you might not want to be consulted on every building safety decision, just those that are relevant to you. Therefore, consultations will target residents who will be impacted. You will have the opportunity to be involved in every phase of the building safety decision-making process and opinions will be collected at every stage of the customer journey. Questions we may ask you include:
- How you would prefer to receive communication relating to building safety decisions
- What the best time would be to carry out a repair to a faulty fire door to minimise disruption.
You know best about what it’s like to live at Liverton Court, so we will work with you to ensure your home is safe by:
- Listening to you and using all feedback mechanisms to make sure that we act and improve our services
- Fast-tracking any issues relating to health and safety concerns.
To ensure you are fully engaged, we will:
- Tailor our approach to meet your needs
- Keep you informed and updated on the progress of scheduled work and engage with you in advance if there are elements that can be consulted on
- Promote engagement opportunities, such as:
- Letters or surveys by post
- At resident meetings
- When we visit you in your home.
We will collate all opinions into one central database to review the themes in your responses. We will use the majority opinion or recurring themes in responses to make decisions.
Prior to consultation on this strategy, we embarked on a survey with residents within the block whereby everyone was asked a range of questions about building safety and how they would like to be kept informed on that subject area.
Below is an overview of the feedback we received about how residents wished to be kept up to date according to the responses provided for the question: “How would you prefer to receive information relating to decisions made about building safety?” It should be noted that respondents could answer for multiple methods of how they would like to receive information.
|
Method of information received |
Number of respondents out of 68 responses |
|
Letter |
54 |
|
|
14 |
|
Notices in the block |
21 |
|
Meetings |
2 |
|
Phone calls |
1 |
|
Text message updates |
1 |
Additionally, we asked residents the question: “How would you like to be involved in building safety?”
|
Method of involvement |
Number of respondents out of 68 responses |
|
Not interested |
43 |
|
Drop-in sessions |
12 |
|
Online surveys |
8 |
|
Attend meetings |
8 |
|
Question and answer sessions |
4 |
|
Block inspections |
3 |
You will be informed of how your opinion has been used through a You Said, We Did document, which will be shared following any consultation. This will be available on noticeboards, by asking the Independent Living Officer for Liverton Court, and delivered directly to anyone who has participated in the consultation.
Timescales for submitting opinions
The length of time you will have to submit a response will depend on the decision we are seeking your opinion on. Where possible, there will be a three-week consultation period. However, if a building safety decision needs to be made quickly, this will reduce the time for you to submit your opinion. When we ask your opinion, we tell you the latest date you can submit it.
There will be a consultation on this document, the Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy, and you will have three weeks to submit any feedback.
Outside of specific building safety decisions that need to be made and consulted on, Manchester City Council will always welcome feedback from you on building safety.
Furthermore, you can share any feedback with your Independent Living Officer.
Future engagement
Participation will be measured by monitoring and evaluating:
- How many residents engage with building safety decisions
- Response rates to surveys Attendance at focus groups
- The number of reports we receive about building safety issues
- The number of complaints we receive about building safety.
This information will be used to understand what ways of engaging work best for you.
In the event of a fire, call 999
We will make sure you know what to do in an emergency by:
- Delivering campaigns throughout the year with key topical safety messages
- Providing information about fire and building safety at tenancy sign-up
- Providing timely and accessible information about the safety of each building for residents who request it
- Using noticeboards, newsletters, and fact sheets to reinforce key messages on building safety, how to check flat doors and how to raise repairs
- Including relevant information on the Manchester City Council website
- Keeping noticeboards in communal entrance areas updated with the name and contact details of the key person who can raise concerns or questions
- Partnering with the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) to provide ‘safe and well’ visits upon request, at which the Fire Service will review the current fire safety of a resident’s home
- Informing you of any safety work advised by the Building Safety Regulator or GMFRS. Details will be displayed on the noticeboard
- Discussing any concerns you raise during team visits to your home
- Explaining the level of service you should expect during any major work, and continuing to engage with you throughout the process
- Providing a way for you to raise any concerns over the way work has been carried out or the behaviour of contractors
- Keeping you updated on any remedial work/safety measures that have been put in place to deal with any building issues that may arise.
Requesting additional information
You can request copies of the following information (or any other relevant documentation) by asking your Independent Living Officer, Carol Pridding.
- Fire strategy and protection measures in place for the building
- Full, current, and historical Fire Risk Assessments
- Information on the maintenance of fire safety systems Planned maintenance and repair schedules
- Outcome of building safety inspection checks
- How assets in the building are managed
- Structural assessments, where available
- Historical and planned changes to the building.
|
Who? |
What they are responsible for |
|
Manchester City Council |
· An annual Fire Risk Assessment of the property by a competent third-party provider. · A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP)for any resident who requires one. Residents will be assessed for their suitability to live at the address and may be offered alternative accommodation if it is felt their needs cannot be met. · Daily checks of communal areas of the property by the caretaking team. · A full flat entrance door inspection every six months by staff. · Ensuring that any work carried out is done by reputable companies with competent and trained people.
|
|
Residents |
· Ensuring that they understand the emergency action plan for the building, so they know what to do. · Liverton Court operates a stay-put policy. · Informing us of any changes to their health that could affect the ability to evacuate safely in the event of a fire in their flat. · Adhering to any health and safety advice or instructions. · Keeping fire doors closed. Allowing access for safety checks when due. · Not interfering with or damaging any safety devices (sprinklers, smoke detectors etc). · Maintaining clear landing and communal spaces. · Disposing of rubbish properly. · Reporting any repairs or concerns. · Keeping aware of any recalls for ‘white goods’. · Adhering to advice on smoking and cooking. · Adhering to the e-bike/e-scooter policy in place by not storing e-bikes/e-scooters within flats.
|
Mandatory Occurrence Reporting is how we identify potential building safety incidents and risks. If you have any concerns, you can report them directly to your caretaker or your Independent Living Officer.
Please give as much information as possible so we can assess any risk quickly and keep residents safe. Mandatory Occurrence Reporting is not the same as an emergency.
What to report:
- Defective building work
- Fire safety issues likely to result in the spread of fire
- Inappropriate or incorrect installation of construction products
- Any structural issue or damage to the building (including structural changes to individual flats)
- Any vehicular collision to the building
- Any damage to fire doors, such as failing to close, smashed glazing, damage to the door or door frame
- Any compartmentation breaches
- Any damage or access to dry risers or fire safety equipment
- Any damage or issues to ventilation systems
- Gas leaks
- Significant electrical failure.
How to make a report (or request an update):
By telephone: 03000 123 123
By email: buildingsafety@manchester.gov.uk
In person to your Independent Living Officer or caretaker
Online via the Manchester City Council website, which can be accessed using the QR code below.
How and when the report will be dealt with:
- All building safety risks and incidents reported by building users and residents will be recorded and monitored.
- Liverton Court has an electronic logbook to ensure all reported incidents are logged and monitored daily.
- Where an issue poses risk of death, serious injury or disablement to multiple persons, a Mandatory Reporting Notice will be submitted to the Building Safety Manager (BSR) within one working day.
- Within ten consecutive days a Mandatory Occurrence Report will be sent to the BSR giving full details.
Because Liverton Court is considered a high-rise building, you can make complaints about Liverton Court or Manchester City Council in relation to a building safety risk or our performance in relation to our duties and responsibilities under the Building Safety Act.
Complaints will be investigated by the Lead Health and Safety Officer, who has been delegated by the principal accountable person (Manchester City Council). The complaints will follow a two-stage process, allowing the complainant to make representations if they don’t agree with the initial findings.
The timescales for processing and responding to complaints are set out within the complaints policy, which can be viewed on MCC Housing Services Complaints and Compliments Policy – Manchester City Council Housing.
We will ensure that building safety complaints are handled in a timely manner and that they address all the particulars of the complaint.
Complaints can be made by:
Emailing mcchsformal.complaints@manchester.gov.uk
Speaking to us on 03000 123 123
Textphone 0161 234 3760. This service is a means for hearing- impaired people to use the telephone as a method to contact us
Writing to us at The Building Safety Team, White Moss Road Housing Office, White Moss Road, Manchester M9 6NZ.
If, after the two-stage complaint process, you are unhappy with the response provided by Manchester City Council, you can escalate your complaint to the Building Safety Regulator.
- Issues in a high-rise residential building that could lead to fire spreading
- Issues in a high-rise residential building that could lead to part or all of the building collapsing
- Issues with fire safety or structural integrity in a high-rise residential building that is being designed, built or renovated
- People and organisations they regulate, such as people accountable for safety in a building.
Complaints in relation to building safety issues can be escalated to the BSR by telephone on 0300 790 6787 or by completing an online form at https://www.gov.uk/ guidance/contact-the-building-safety-regulator. Please ensure you follow the Manchester City Council complaints procedure before approaching the BSR.
General information on the BSR can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/building-safety/regulator.htm
An Equality Impact Assessment has been carried out for this strategy to ensure that it is meaningful and effective for all residents, whatever their needs.
We use our data to understand whether there are any residents who may be at greater risk from fire or disadvantaged if information is not provided in alternative ways. Manchester City Council will act on this analysis to ensure activities and opportunities are adapted to meet everyone’s needs.
When engaging with residents on building safety decisions, information will only be used for the purpose it was collected for. The information collected will not be shared outside of Manchester City Council.
Information will be held for six months after consultation, unless a resident informs us of a communication preference. Where a resident has one, for example a preferred language or alternative format such as large text, easy read, or Braille, this will be held only while the resident is a tenant.
If you need any help understanding this document, please send an email to building.safety@manchester.gov.uk
