Why was the group set up? Key aim and objective

The Independent East Resident Voice Panel (the Panel), was set up to empower residents to influence, monitor and improve the performance of housing services provided by the five landlord members of Independent East (Broadland Housing Association, Freebridge Community Housing, Havebury Homes, Orwell Housing Association and Saffron Housing Trust). The Panel provides a constructive and collaborative forum for residents to hold the landlords accountable and drive continuous improvement.

The Panel examines and scrutinises the performance of housing services across all five landlords, identifies areas for improvement and makes recommendations. They work in partnership with the five landlords which helps to promote transparency and accountability.

What has been achieved?

The Panel have undertaken three service reviews (Damp and mould, Anti-social behaviour and the Repairs Appointment Process). They have identified what has worked well within each service and made recommendations where areas could be improved. The Panel are keen that the five landlords learn from each other.

What are the learning points?

It’s a continuous learning curve, but what I would say to other landlords wanting to do something similar is to:

• not rush into it.
• make sure there is a terms of reference and code of conduct in place, that has been agreed with the residents involved and the landlords, to ensure that everyone is clear about the role of the panel.
• make sure that there is a clear comms plan in place that outlines how the work of the Panel is promoted, how recruitment to the panel will happen, how the wider resident body of each landlord can be involved in the service reviews.
• make sure there is a clear scrutiny process and a tool kit, in place with agreed timelines and responsibilities for both residents and staff.
• make sure that the partner organisations all play a part in the work, and promotion of the Panel.

Who is involved?

It would probably be easier to say who isn’t involved. Which is great! There has been real buy in to the Panel.

Andrew Smith, Chief Executive Officer for Havebury Homes is the sponsor for the Panel. Lilian Clarke, Executive PA, Havebury Homes kindly sets up the meetings and takes the minutes.

The Independent East CEOs meet regularly, as do the Resident Engagement leads and the communications leads of each organisation. More recently the Strategic and Operational leads have also started to meet.

For each scrutiny the Panel members receive a presentation from the service lead of each organisation, based on a brief they have been given by the residents.

Why do this together and not as individual organisations? What difference has that made?

For each of the five landlords, residents are at the heart of everything they do. They all positively engage with their residents, from board or committee involvement through to forums and working groups. They all actively seek and act on feedback and engage with their residents to actively scrutinise the work that they do.

All five organisations were keen to explore how they could take resident engagement to the next level and needed to think outside of the box. They all feel that the Panel is an exciting opportunity with huge potential; a joint resident group that works across all five organisations. The Panel doesn’t replace their existing structures but is about complementing those with a regional-wide group.

The Panel currently use the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) as a basis for discussion, scrutiny and learning. All five housing associations have, for some time now, been collating and sharing TSM results. The Panel is about delivering something that would not be possible through the existing individual resident engagement structures.

How has Tpas helped?

Tpas facilitates the Panel meetings and provides independent support, advice and mentoring to the group. Tpas has also been the conduit to each of the five organisations, ensuring collaborative working on all service reviews.

Quotes from members

“Seeing what tenant scrutiny can achieve, when boundaries disappear giving a forum for open dialogue has been not only groundbreaking but has already achieved traceable improvements for not just tenants but all five landlords. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved so far, I’m confident we will go from strength to strength.”

“It is exciting to see tenant aspirations for their communities being converted into reality using the tool of regional tenant scrutiny.”