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SWASH, The Affordable Housing Benchmarking Club, was formed in September 2002 in response to a need identified amongst Registered Social Landlords to improve performance on New Build and Refurbishment projects, through measurement, and comparison with other similar organisations sharing a comparable social, economic and geographical environment.
Critical to our decision to form our own benchmarking club was our determination to record reliable, consistent data of a sufficiently large volume, measured in an identical way so that the effort of recording individual scheme performance is rewarded with genuinely useful data from RSLs carrying out similar work.
The hard work of members to input data on the performance of their projects and record their satisfaction with their contractor and consultant partners has resulted in a large and robust dataset, which enables members to monitor their own performance and benchmark against their peers, as well as fulfilling their Clients Charter reporting requirements.
The club is available for membership by any Housing Associations wishing to benchmark Development projects. The Club allows for benchmarking on a regional or club-wide basis so can cater for the needs of groups of RSLs in all parts of the UK.
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‘The club has a strong and committed membership of prominent RSLs operating across the South of England. The regular club meetings keep us focussed on improving our individual performances whilst continuing to develop and improve the quality of information that exists within the club.
Building Software Limited provide first class club administration and support and are always available to sort out individual problems or queries. They appear to be as interested in improving our performance as we are!
We now have a huge amount of information entered onto the SWASH club database and are beginning to be able to make important investment decisions based on the findings. The advantage of being part of SWASH is that we meet regularly to discuss how each of us is working and are able to use the experiences from the whole membership to drive through improvements in our own organisation.
Membership of SWASH continues to build and we now have a coverage right the way from Oxfordshire to Devon. I believe it is a great advantage in knowing that the data we are collecting is being collected on a consistent set of questions that have been thoroughly examined (and continue to be) by all members of the club. This gives us great comfort that the results we are seeing have value.’
Richard A Efford
Head of Development
Knightstone Housing Association
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'SWASH Benchmarking Club has continued to grow and evolve throughout the time that Sarsen Housing Association (part of Aster Group) has been a member. It is an excellent forum for benchmarking the organization's performance within the South West area, and has the added bonus of being receptive to member requests for change and improvement to it's working practices.
The web based database is easy and quick to use, allowing speedy input of new data, whilst still allowing comprehensive interrogation of the existing data to produce reports and charts giving invaluable performance information on projects and project teams.
The regular Club meetings allow for the exchange of ideas and experiences relating to KPIs and benchmarking and also serve to give a sense of ownership to Club members, thus ensuring a healthy flow of data input and Club involvement.'
Zoë Stiles
Development Co-ordinator
Aster Group
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SWASH is available for membership by all Housing Associations wishing to benchmark Development projects. The Club allows for benchmarking on a regional or club-wide basis so can cater for the needs of groups or individual Housing Associations in other parts of the UK.
To collect performance data, graph and report on their own project and supply chain performance and benchmark against summary data from the Club, members are provided with access to the eContrack SWASH Club database.
For details of current membership fees and to join the club please download, complete and return the Membership Form to Building Software Limited - please refer to How to Join section.
Membership of the Club entitles you to the following:
Start up consultation with a representative from Building Software’s Club Administration Team
This important initial meeting will cover
· What the Club expects from you.
· What you can expect from the Club
· How your KPI data will be collected
· Your training requirements*.
· Your own performance measurement needs.
Access for up to 3 users to the Web-enabled software, eContrack Benchmark.
Summary anonymous Club data against which to compare your performance.
Quarterly Club reports detailing overall Club performance over time and highlighting differences in performance within the Club for discussion at Club meetings.
Free attendance at regular Members’ meetings for your Key User.
Free attendance at the Annual Conference for your Key User
Ready access to help and advice from Building Software’s dedicated Help Desk and from fellow practitioners.
Feedback and additional Benchmarking opportunities from the Housing Community Group.
We can provide formal training at our offices or at your own offices for designated users (please discuss options and costs during your start up consultation meeting).
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