Value for money
Value for money is very important to most of us whether we are aware of it or not. For example, when we do our groceries shopping we have hundreds of products to choose from offering different levels of quality and varying prices. We have to decide whether to buy economy products, which may cost less or perhaps top brand product, which may cost more but may have a better taste.
This is the basic principle of value for money; it is the balance between COST and QUALITY.
- How much can I spend?
- Leading brand or own brand? Is the quality the same?
- What do I actually need?
- Is there an ethical element to consider? Do we go for the green option?
At Derwent Living we always try to apply this basic principal to the things that we buy, this may be when we buy new kitchens and bathrooms for our customers or when we buy in the services of outside companies. The process is very similar to when you do your shopping, but on a larger scale.
- How much can we spend?
- What do we need? Have we identified customer’s needs already?
- Always consider cost and quality
How can you be involved?
We aim to keep our customers informed of the process of identifying savings including our performance year to year. We also encourage your suggestions no matter how small you may feel they are, as every penny saved adds to a better service.
We will keep you updated on our VFM activities in a number of ways including:
- Our website
- Derwent Life newsletter
- Resident meetings
- Focus groups
- Consultation events
We want your feedback and ideas for any value for money savings you feel Derwent Living can make. We also invite you to comment on any of our strategy documents.
Ask yourself….
- Wouldn’t it be better if…….
- Wouldn’t it be cheaper to……..
- Do we really need to………
- What savings can you think of……..
We have an incentive scheme in place to reward any of your ideas that are successfully used:
- If your idea saves below £2,000 (based on annual saving) – You will receive 10% of that saving in high street vouchers.
- If your idea saves above £2,000 (based on annual saving) – 50% of the saving made will be used to improve the area where you live.
The key elements of value for money
There are three key elements to consider when assessing value for money:
ECONOMY: How much we pay for our goods and services
EFFICIENCY: How well we use the goods and services we buy
EFFECTIVENESS: Measuring the outcome for our customers
‘Doing the same for less, or more for the same’.
The main thing to remember is that any savings we make cannot be at the expense of the services we provide to our customers, so we cannot simply stop providing a service to meet our savings targets.
Types of savings
There are two types of efficiency savings, cashable and non-cashable:
Cashable savings result in actual ‘spare’ money that we can use to pay for other services or activities. The simplest ideas are the best, so to help the environment we switched all the printers in our offices to double-sided printing and halved our paper bill in the process.
Non-cashable savings don’t provide any extra money but they do help us to provide a better service to our customers. By taking on-line bookings for student accommodation we have made it easier for customers and been able to reduce the staff time taken to deal with this process.
Remember, we cannot claim savings made at the expense of any of the services we provide so they will only ever help to improve our services.
How we deliver value for money?
- We have a value for money culture, where all employees know the importance of spending money as if it were their own
- We monitor and regularly publicise our efficiency savings
- We compare ourselves to similar organisations to make sure that we are competitive
- We recognise that quality is important not just the lowest price
Please send any feedback or ideas to:
Value for money
Derwent Living
1 Centro Place
Pride Park
Derby
DE24 8RF.
E-mail your suggestion to: info@derwentliving.com
