Agenda item

First witness session for review - engagement with tenants and leaseholders

Minutes:

Rod Smith – Service Manager, Tenancy Services, and Marion Finney – Regulation and Engagement Manager, addressed the Committee to provide information to aid the Committee’s review.

 

The purpose of the review was summarised. The Committee was informed that the Council’s landlord service was entering a new period of Regulatory scrutiny as set out in the ‘Charter for Social Housing Residents; Social Housing White Paper’, published in November 2020. The White Paper set out the government’s intention to make effective use of the Regulator of Social Housing to ensure that residents in social housing were safe, were listened to, lived in good quality homes, and had access to redress when things went wrong.

 

Ensuring that residents in social housing had a ‘voice’ and were listened to was seen as key, with the government setting out clear expectations regarding a step change in approach which would see engagement and involvement as a ‘golden thread’ running through services delivered by social housing providers. To align itself with these expectations, the Council was now developing a ‘Tenant & Leaseholder Engagement and Involvement Strategy’ with the  review providing the Committee with the opportunity to shape the development of the Strategy at an early stage.

 

The ‘Hierarchy of Involvement’ was presented as set out within the report, covering 5 distinct layers governing how the service recommended interaction with residents, before the Committee was provided a summary of current engagement actions (Appendix A) and potential options for future engagement (Appendix B).

 

It was recognised that the service should avoid a ‘one size fits all’ approach but instead should tailor its strategy to resident needs, together with their willingness or availability to become involved. Key interaction methods identified included various assemblies and group meetings (currently on hold due to the pandemic) direct contact via ‘Meet The Manager’ sessions, increased digital engagement include revisions to the Council website to ensure accessibility, and collaboration on the service’s annual report.

 

It was accepted that many of the residents willing to engage with the Council were retirees, who had more free time. The Strategy would therefore carefully consider how to engage with people with more limited time, tailoring engagement actions to fit with their own availability.

 

The Committee recommended that any engagement strategy should make provision for inclusion of people with limited English. Officers advised that overcoming barriers to engagement was of key importance to the strategy. Where required, members of the team often acted as interpreters, alongside the Council’s external interpreting service. In addition, residents often brought friends or family that could interpret for them. Access to IT was also being reviewed, alongside traditional methods of communication such as telephone calls.

 

Members recommended that officers consider how to reach residents who were unwilling to engage with the Council. Officers advised that methods of structured communication were being considered as part of the strategy. Statutory communications, such as letters setting out service fees or fees for works to be carried out were already in place,  thought it was accepted that more could be done to ensure residents were presented with enough data to allow them to feel that they were receiving value for money.

 

To receive greater feedback, the service was considering setting up ‘Estate Marshalls’ to act as points of contact for the Council to collaborate with. The Committee expanded on this, suggesting greater collaboration via ‘Street Searches’, attendance at street parties or fetes, youth councils, or through pairing up with partners such as the Police, with the target of being ‘seen’ within the various communities. In addition, it was suggested that increased use of social media and messaging services, such as WhatsApp, should be considered.

 

The Committee moved to consider the witness session to be held at the next meeting. Regarding potential witnesses, the Committee was reminded that the service was Housing Revenue Account funded and it was therefore necessary to ensure that approaches were targeted at the Council’s tenants and leaseholders only.

 

Members requested that the session should focus on tenants and leaseholders who had valuable feedback to share. It was also requested that the Association of Council Leaseholders should be invited to participate.

 

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.

 

 

 

Supporting documents: