Audit Commission inspection

Updated: 24 March 2010

Gateway received a Short Notice Inspection by the Audit Commission on 14-16 October 2009.

We were inspected in the following three service areas, and received the following judgements:

• Responsive repairs – weaknesses outweigh strengths
• Gas servicing – strengths and weakness in balance
• Income management – strengths and weakness in balance.
• Value-for-money - weaknesses outweigh strengths
• Access and customer care - weaknesses outweigh strengths
• Diversity – strengths and weakness in balance.

We accept that this is a fair judgement of our current services, and have already started plans to improve.

The Audit Commission made several recommendations, and we have started working with residents on an Action Plan to put these recommendations in place. We are working with residents to include what they think we need to do to achieve these recommendations.

We have put together an action plan and a summary of this will be available in early April.

Gateway staff and the Board are determined to work hard in 2010 to raise the standard of our service to all residents.

Strengths identified in the report include:

• There has been recent improved performance in some areas.
• There is a commitment to improve services, and plans in place to address some weaknesses.
• There is a positive range of information for customers, provided in a range of formats and written in plain language.

Weaknesses include:

• Performance in responsive repairs is weak, and quality of the repairs service limited.
• The telephone service does not meet the needs of customers.
• The value-for-money of the services inspected has not been comprehensively established.

The report and the letter to residents can be downloaded below.

Short Notice Inspection 2009 Report (219 KB)
SNI Letter to residents (28 KB)

Printable version