H o u s i n g The Housing Officer FRIEND OR C
hairman of the RAF Families Federation, Dawn McCafferty, reports on a day with a
Defence Estates Housing Officer.
On a fine sunny day, I arrived at the Defence Estate (DE) offices at Cranwell, where I was met by Debbie Hilton, Housing Officer for the 394 Service Families Accommodation (SFA) at Waddington. After a quick brief on the day’s programme, we were off to Waddington and I took the opportunity to find out a little more about my host.
Living in her own home near Boston, Debbie is married to a fellow ex-RAF Policeman and lives with her two mad dogs. During her time as a RAF Police NCO Debbie lived in quarters and served at Waddington so was familiar with the patch she eventually came to manage in her current role.
Debbie has now completed thirteen years with DHE/DE and loves it. Debbie said she thoroughly enjoys meeting people, loves a challenge and enjoys working out solutions to the many problems that come her way. She is passionate about the Housing Officer’s role and expresses a strong desire to do her best for Service families, knowing how stressful moving house can be.
Debbie understands the problems of trying to squeeze large families into small properties and the challenges of getting repairs and maintenance completed with minimal impact on the occupants. She is particularly hot on the subject of cleanliness, demonstrating fastidious attention to detail in ensuring that any house she accepts back from MHS is to the standard she herself would be happy to accept as an occupant.
I asked Debbie about her workload and how it is managed and she advised that by the Thursday before, she would know her next week’s diary so could plan accordingly. Her appointments are managed by the Housing Information Centre (HIC), and coordinated with the local MHS staff so dual appointments are scheduled effectively. She averages 5-7 appointments a day in ‘steady state’. Debbie can easily do 10-hour days and end up taking work home. However, she enjoys flexi hours the ability to accumulate
26 Autumn 2010 FOE?
hours to take time off to counter-balance the very busy days.
Debbie was positive about the training she had received during her time with DE and agreed with me that her training as a RAF Police NCO had probably come in handy, too! She felt that role-play training in how to handle difficult customers had been particularly useful and she has certainly had her share of emotional and angry occupants, many of whom are angry about things beyond her control but which she has to handle as the one on the ground.
One thing I felt was missing in her training was some form of basic knowledge in the construction of the average home – how heating systems work, what might cause damp, structural issues, etc. Debbie advised that she had picked up a lot during her time with DE and as a home-owner herself but acknowledged that a new Housing Officer might benefit from such training.
We arrive at Waddington and our first commitment is a housing surgery in the HIVE, a facility Debbie provides every week. Families with any housing-related issues can pop in and speak with Debbie and she will do her best to resolve them. Although she has only had responsibility for the Waddington patch since Feb, I was impressed how many occupants Debbie knew by name and it was clear she made every effort to visit families after Move-in to build up a good working relationship so that any issues could
be resolved at the lowest level possible. Debbie said matters raising ranged from over- flowing dog bins to repairs and requests for upgrades to play parks.
Our next appointment is a Move-out inspection of a cpl’s bungalow (3-bed, Type C), just outside the main SFA area. The cpl has relocated onto the main site to occupy a larger property and she was clearly delighted with her family’s new home. We met John, one of the MHS Technical Officers, at the bungalow and, between them, Debbie and John inspected the property and noted down any work that would be required before it could be reallocated.
The bungalow had some severe rising damp and had been taken offline for a period to allow for a damp course to be put in place. Debbie was meticulous in noting down minor repairs such as locks on the sheds and was critical of the quality of redecoration and finishing of a newly installed kitchen. John agreed to have the work audited. One difficulty for MHS was that the occupant had opted into the pre-Move contract clean so John would return after the contractors had completed the clean to see if anything further required attention before allocation.
En route to the next appointment, I ask Debbie if she has many families with Special Needs adaptations in their SFA. She believes there are six on the patch, two properties have been knocked into one, some houses have stair-lifts and ramps and others have
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