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For any organisation, a visit from the housing inspectorate can be testing in more ways than one. But if, like Hounslow Homes, you are a new arm's-length management organisation and funding of £90m depends on the inspection, the pressures are even stronger. For the four-strong Hounslow Homes management team charged with preparing the six-month-old organisation for the visit, a great deal of work and a lot of late nights paid off: the inspectors arrived in October 2002 and the ALMO had secured the required two-star rating by December.

Management consultant Vantagepoint has worked with Hounslow Homes and other new ALMOs to help them prepare for that initial inspection, so we know the pressures. Hounslow Homes and Vantagepoint have identified eight key lessons for any housing organisation preparing for inspection.

1.

Get to know your customers
Inspectors increasingly stress that they will put users first in judging services. You need to show the inspectorate that you have listened to tenants and that the issues that matter to them inform your improvement plans.

For Hounslow Homes, the close involvement of the Hounslow Federation of Tenants and Residents in the process of setting up and developing the new organisation was critical; in fact, the former chair of the federation is now chair of Hounslow Homes' board.

Hounslow held a ballot of all tenants that provided a clear majority mandate in favour of the new ALMO. But it is also important to talk more informally to tenants. Hounslow's staff held focus groups and organised call-back surveys of tenants following repairs and major works, site visits and mystery shopping.

2.

Get the basics sorted
The inspectorate is clear that it does not want to institute a "tick box" approach to inspection and that excellent services are those that are shaped around customer needs – but there are a number of service delivery basics that will count against you if they are not addressed.

For example, the inspectorate gave particular focus to Hounslow Homes' diversity policies and practices, which it commended. Other basics include:

• clear customer service standards
  
• office accommodation with good access and amenities
  
• use of customer feedback and complaints information
  
• providing information to tenants in plain English
  
• gas safety inspections.

3.

Preparation is everything
Read the guidance provided by the housing inspectorate and make sure you have addressed the key issues within it.

Inspection guidance expects ALMOs to have done best-value reviews of all key service provision areas and to have clear plans in place for how other services will be reviewed. At Hounslow, inspectors queried why the capital programme review had not been completed, but accepted that it was being reviewed as part of a council-led review of technical services.

The management team held several pre-meetings with inspectors and found that because it was a new process all-round, they were open to discussing what should be done to achieve the all-important two stars.

4.

Governance matters too
The inspectors will be looking at how robust the governance and management of the ALMO is, and the board's involvement in monitoring its performance. These will influence their judgement both of the quality of services and the likelihood of improvement. At Hounslow Homes, they wanted to speak to board members and observe board meetings, made up of five residents (four tenants and one leaseholder), five council nominees and five independents.

This could have been a daunting prospect for such a young organisation, but the members had been meeting as a shadow board before the launch of the ALMO, so they had got used to working together.

5.

First impressions count
Promote a good image. Inspectors will be looking for visible commitment to the values of the organisation, but it's not just for their benefit. It's also important that tenants know about a new organisation's identity and services. Hounslow Homes had already selected a new logo and it was prominently displayed outside its depot. It also invested in reception displays, signs, information leaflets and letterheads to push the message home.

6.

Talk about where you're going
It's important to communicate your aims and strategies consistently. Like many other organisations, Hounslow Homes found that meeting inspectorate and government requirements had led to the development of a plethora of policies and strategies. But without any coordination, these were in danger of becoming confused and diluted.

Vantagepoint helped Hounslow Homes to amalgamate the information into two plans. The first gave a high-level view of the organisation's achievements and six main aims, and came to about 20 pages. The second was much longer and contained all the operational information about how Hounslow Homes intended to reach its targets, grouped into six sections to match its objectives.

The inspectorate commented favourably on this approach as showing a clear commitment to improvement and clarity about how specific actions were linked to corporate aims.

7.

Commitment from everyone
But having the right paperwork is not enough in itself. Staff further down the organisation and tenant bodies must be committed to the goals in your strategic plan. Hounslow Homes made sure the transferred council staff understood what the ALMO was trying to do. Senior managers at Hounslow Homes met with all staff members in small groups to get the message across and listen to feedback, and held meetings with tenant bodies.

The inspectorate will also look for a robust partnership arrangement with the council, where the ALMO is clearly independent but both bodies are pulling in the same direction. Hounslow Homes agreed performance management arrangements with the council. These gave the ALMO management freedom and allowed the council to monitor that key objectives were being achieved.

8.

Don't panic
At Hounslow, we found the inspectors took a pragmatic and flexible approach. They recognised the short timescales, particularly for first-round ALMOs. They also recognised the importance of the judgement to our investment plan, and took a "no surprises" approach. If they had a query, they would raise it during the inspection.

Hounslow now has a clear strategy and a detailed plan to achieve it. We will be sharing it further in a conference on 4 July and as a steering group member of the National Federation of ALMOs. But, more importantly, we can get on with delivering better services and investing in decent homes.