Environmental, Social and Governance

Home 5 Environmental, Social and Governance

Overview of Health and Safety

To support the students with any incidents, we utilise on-site Resident Student Wardens who work on a rota basis and provide a contact point and support resource for the students with any out-of-hours issues. This is backed up by a remote Out of Hours Helpdesk, which is empowered to deal with a number of emergency scenarios, including fire, flood, electrical failure, security, and will escalate, where required, to the management levels. Any incidents, accidents or near misses at the property are required to be logged with our Head Office and reported locally, using a formal procedure. Any issues deemed as not day-to-day are escalated to the client as required.

Homes for Students has a simple and transparent complaints process, which goes over and above the requirements of The National Code, and gives students an easy complaint process to follow, should the need arise.

Student feedback is extremely important to us, and we undertake three internal satisfaction surveys each AY; Move-in, Mid-Year and Move-out, as well as promoting externally run surveys such as The National Student Housing Survey. All data outputs are used by us for continuous improvement.

Peer to peer reviewing is becoming more and more important to each student intake year, and we have processes, strategies and business goals in place to leverage this important reputational medium. We monitor all of the key review platforms, as well as social media (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) to ensure our brand and reputational management, and to be able to react to any feedback instantaneously.

Homes for Students Limited
2022

Homes for Students has an extensive internal e-learning platform, called Essential Skillz, which features mandatory modules for all staff to take and pass with regards to Fire Safety, Health and Safety, as well as other best practice syllabus’ to upskill our teams with Health and Safety.

As well as internal H&S auditing and checking, we employ external H&S consultants/experts to conduct an annual audit of H&S areas to visit every property and check critical aspects of all H&S areas including internal policies and procedures, ANUK requirements and legal and statutory requirements. The audit reports an overall result, (which is a KPI for our management teams) and lists any actions to achieve the required standard, which are categorised into a prioritised action plan with strict deadlines.

We have a dedicated National Health & Safety Manager, Patrick Ryan, whose role is to lead on the strategic side of our H&S, support the management teams as required, and engage with external stakeholders when needed, for example Fire Officers and Environmental Health Officers

Homes for Students is a recognised leading operator within the PBSA sector, whose core business is the successful management of properties. We ensure both a return on investment for our clients, and the successful operational and safety management of their assets. We lead by example and are transforming our approach to be both sustainable and to remain ahead of our competitors with all aspects of operational and safety excellence. Providing clean, safe and happy homes for students is at the very core of everything we do.

We have a full suite of SOP’s and guidance documents covering all the Health and Safety and regulatory requirements and workstreams for day-to-day property operations.

ANUK Membership Details 

Homes for Students is a full member of ANUK, The National Code which aims to ensure transparent and professional management of purpose-built accommodation. Under ANUK we are meeting a number of day-tp-day property management criteria, to guarantee a seamless experience for our students.

All our policies and procedures underpin the extensive and stringent requirements of the National Code, as well as all other legal and statutory operating requirements within the UK, including Fire Safety, which is currently a focal point for regulators’ attention.

To become a member of ANUK the Operator must undergo a detailed company verification process and needs to evidence policies and procedures for every stage of The National Code. Each property then undergoes its own verification visit where an independent verifier checks that the previously reported policies and procedures are in place at the property, whilst also reviewing compliance with statutory and legal requirements, particularly with Health and Safety, and with Fire Safety.

An Operator and subsequently a property are not verified until a successful verification visit, with a 100% compliance sign off.

Verification allows us to display the ANUK logo on our website and in our marketing collateral and is essential in developing and maintaining relationships with institutions, many of which would not work or associate with an operator who isn’t verified.  It is also beneficial for showcasing our credibility in offering a safe and well managed accommodation to live at, both to students and parents.

Every property managed by Homes for Students Limited is fully accredited with ANUK.

Membership of ANUK and compliance with The National Code is referenced within the service provider obligations in our Accommodation Management Services and Facilities Management Services Contract.

CHAS and SafeContractor Accreditation

Homes for Students is fully accredited with CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) and SafeContractor, both of which are pre-approval schemes which allow operators to demonstrate that they meet specific health and safety standards.

Our Regional, Area and Property Management teams are required to undertake and pass a 3-day IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) Managing Safely external qualification, which is designed to provide them with practical and strategic knowledge of critical health and safety areas, as well as offer them a CPD opportunity.

Property Management Health & Safety Support

Homes for Students has an extensive internal e-learning platform, called Essential Skillz, which features mandatory modules for all staff to take and pass with regards to Fire Safety, Health and Safety, as well as other best practice syllabus’ to upskill our teams with Health and Safety.

As well as internal H&S auditing and checking, we employ external H&S consultants/experts to conduct an annual audit of H&S areas to visit every property and check critical aspects of all H&S areas including internal policies and procedures, ANUK requirements and legal and statutory requirements. The audit reports an overall result, (which is a KPI for our management teams) and lists any actions to achieve the required standard, which are categorised into a prioritised action plan with strict deadlines.

We have a dedicated National Health & Safety Manager, Patrick Ryan, whose role is to lead on the strategic side of our H&S, support the management teams as required, and engage with external stakeholders when needed, for example Fire Officers and Environmental Health Officers.

Performance Managing Health & Safety

HFS use a CAFM (Computer-Aided Facilities Management) system called Main Manager to performance manage key statutory, H&S and routine tasks. The system holds all the asset information regarding the Property and is used to log, track and monitor the following key tasks:

  • Maintenance Requests (reactive)
  • Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM)
    • Including statutory checks (daily/weekly/monthly/annually)
  • Audit actions arising (Examples; FRA, H&S Audit, FO visit, EHO visit, LOLER etc)
  • Financial Requests

The system allows for: remote monitoring, reporting, intelligence data, site comparison and property performance management.

Fire Safety

HFS adopt the following protocol with Fire Risk Assessments (FRA’S).

  • Post mobilisation – full FRA undertaken
  • Annually – FRA reviews undertaken (statutory requirement every two years)
  • 4 yearly – full FRA undertaken (no statutory requirement for this)

The FRA is a Type 3 – This type of non-destructive assessment covers all common areas of a building and individual dwellings. A Type 3 FRA considers all means of escapes (including those within individual dwellings), structures and compartmentation between flats, plus any means of fire detection.

All FRA reports provide a detailed report of the points reviewed and significant findings are prioritised within an action plan for completion by the responsible person (Property Manager) with clear deadlines.

All FRA actions are uploaded into HFS’ CAFM system, Main Manager for onward performance management and visibility. In addition, monthly reviews are undertaken to ensure that risk critical actions are being addressed and completed with support where required from the Health and Safety Team.

Main Manager performance management compels the property teams to conduct routine statutory and best practice safety checks as part of our Test and Checks procedure.

All FRA’s are undertaken by HFS’ specialist external H&S consultants, Lighthouse Risk Services LLP. Lighthouse are BAFE accredited.

Health and Safety Consultants Leeds | H&S Training Leeds – Lighthouse

Every property has a site-specific Fire Safety Management Plan (CS-HS-308) in place and has assigned and fully trained fire Marshalls to act in the event of a fire.

Fire safety protocols are clearly advertised throughout every building for all residents.

General Health & Safety Support

To support the students with any incidents, we utilise on-site Resident Student Wardens who work on a rota basis and provide a contact point and support resource for the students with any out-of-hours issues. This is backed up by a remote Out of Hours Helpdesk, which is empowered to deal with a number of emergency scenarios, including fire, flood, electrical failure, security, and will escalate, where required, to the management levels. Any incidents, accidents or near misses at the property are required to be logged with our Head Office and reported locally, using a formal procedure. Any issues deemed as not day-to-day are escalated to the client as required.

Homes for Students has a simple and transparent complaints process, which goes over and above the requirements of The National Code, and gives students an easy complaint process to follow, should the need arise.

Student feedback is extremely important to us, and we undertake three internal satisfaction surveys each AY; Move-in, Mid-Year and Move-out, as well as promoting externally run surveys such as The National Student Housing Survey. All data outputs are used by us for continuous improvement.

Peer to peer reviewing is becoming more and more important to each student intake year, and we have processes, strategies and business goals in place to leverage this important reputational medium. We monitor all of the key review platforms, as well as social media (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) to ensure our brand and reputational management, and to be able to react to any feedback instantaneously.

Homes for Students Limited

2022