Note from Chris: Firstly, I’d like to start this blog off with a thank you to Wyre Forest Community Housing for giving up their time to let me shadow an ASB Officer for the three days. A big thank you to Eddie Maynard for allowing me to shadow him. My final thanks go to Steve Macartney and Nigel Follows for making it happen.
Day 1
The first task of the day, is for Eddie to go through his e-mails.. Eddie would place appointments for that day in his calendar so that he knew what he would be working on. Once all emails were up to date, it was then time to check the ReACT Notifications for that day. There were a couple of cases that needed to be addressed that day, the way that ReACT is utilised is that every communication or note goes on to the case’s Additional Notes so that any officer, even myself, could look at the case and see what it was about and what work had been carried out.
As an outcome to one of the case notifications, we needed to visit a tenant. The reason for the visit was to assure the tenant that all work had been carried out that was stated and to make sure that the lady was satisfied with the outcome. For complete case closure, a satisfaction form was issued in person and completed on-site. I can see how a mobile ReACT solution would be a benefit as we could have updated, and closed the case whilst out and about rather than having to travel back to an office.
After several other visits we went to a property that owed rent. The gentleman we were looking for was not present; however there were two youths at the property not related to the tenant. This was a great insight into how the officers must adapt to each and every situation. The gents showed us how they locked and secured the property without a key. Expectations were then communicated to the occupants and their details were recorded.
It was time to grab a working lunch this would give Eddie chance to update the the cases he then needed to close. This was a great insight as to how long it takes an officer to close a case compared to the actual work involved with getting closure from the Complainant.
After several other calls we returned to the Office to update the cases and schedule things for the following day. Many phone calls are made and recorded on ReACT. I can see where the officer’s time is required to update the systems. Eddie also showed me some NME recordings that he had had to listen to for a case. This equated to 7 hours and 31 seconds of real-time listening that he had to do over the space of a week just for one case!
One final thing for the day was for Eddie to show me a very complex case with limitations in ReACT for recording outcomes. I have taken the data and will investigate as this is something we can possibly address in future versions of our software. It is safe to say, the first day was certainly varied in activities.
Day 2
The first tasks were to compose a few letters to tenants so that we could update some ReACT cases. The templates were created in MS Word, saved onto a network drive and then attached to the relevant cases in ReACT…certainly a Word Processor in ReACT would cut down on time in other systems?
Our first appointment of the day was to retrieve NME from a young lady. Then Eddie was asked to attend the eviction of a tenant and then have a catch up with the local beat Police Officers. This was a real insight into the Police work required on some estates, but also how closely the ASB Unit work with the Police. Once the eviction time had come round, the Bailiff, Housing Officers and ASB team moved in on the property. This was an eye opener as you would only get to see this on TV normally! Once the tenant had collected as many personal items as possible; he placed them onto his bike cart and cycled off. The team then secured the property. After the eviction we then travelled to a Police Station to meet with a local beat manager, so that Eddie could liaise with local Police over on-going situations in the area.
After a very eventful morning, we managed to fit time in for a bite to eat. Eddie then set up the NME that we had retrieved in the morning so that I could use the system to create a report. As it turns out, the tenant had not recorded any sound at all. The only recording were Eddie’s initial testing and also the final test upon retrieval. The report therefore was very simple and yet another case that could be closed as the tenants had agreed that the sounds had not occurred. One for ReACT again!
On the afternoon, Eddie was booked in to attend a Professionals Meeting. Due to the sensitivity of the discussion, I am unable to report much about the content, but I can say that it was a lengthy meeting between multiple agencies, and Police. This took up Eddie’s afternoon, but the teams could now move forward with regards to the case. Again, I would imagine that ReACT would hold much of the information to be drawn upon in meeting like this, highlighting the importance of print-outs from the system.
The day ended slightly earlier for me as I had to head over to the NEC for the SLCNG Awards evening.
Day 3
Eddie had to attend a Court hearing for a couple who had breached their Injunction w/Power of Arrest. It was over to Eddie to get the case files off the Housing Officer and any additional information off the Police too. At court we met with the Barrister and Eddie updated them on the situation. It was a case of just waiting to be called.
Court was a first for me, so a brand new experience! I just followed Eddie’s lead. Whilst I cannot go into details, I was surprised that the process took nearly three hours. After that, even though we were done at court, Eddie still needed to drop copies of the documentation to the Housing Officer and to local Police.
We were back in the office late afternoon. Eddie needed to call the Police officers involved to notify them of the outcome. This was the first opportunity that day that Eddie had to update any of the cases or files he needed to in order to continue the work, in an environment that changes at the drop of a hat.
Thanks to my time spent shadowing the ASB Unit, I now know how ReACT is used on a daily basis and variety of tasks officers are called upon to complete. I plan to enhance any training or consultancy I undertake, with this knowledge, and suggest improvements to future versions of ReACT.
By Chris Powell
Posted by Mike 
The ReACT Blog 
