WOW – Northern regional forums rock!

Friday 27th of January 2017

Tpas consultancy manager, Gill Mclaren talks with passion and  enthusiasm about her experience with the recent Northern Regionals Forums.


Wow is the only word that comes to mind when I think about the two regional forums for members in the Northern region.  Between the North West and the North east event we had 106 delegates join us from over 31 different member organisations.

This is certainly a ‘record’ for Tpas regionals and we now put out the challenge to the central and southern regions......

 

So what was going on?

 

Well, we hosted the Housing Ombudsman service who wanted to get Tpas members views on what a ‘good’ dispute resolution service would look like – comments from you included:

 

“Honesty” “Getting it right first time”;

“Good customer relations” “Exceeding expectations”; “Speed, ownership and responsibility”

Doing what said would do”; “Communication; Not being passed from pillar to post” Continuous feedback / loop and improvement ;

Consistency of information between staff;

Customer do not always know what they want – take time to find out  and explore; Give people breathing space; Avoid jargon

All comments from across the rest of the country will be pulled together to feed into the Housing Ombudsman review of its dispute resolution consultation

 

And there was more..

 

We also ensured that our members voices were heard for the supported housing funding consultation that Tpas is undertaking. You gave us loads of excellent comments that will help to shape the Tpas response to the Government consultation on this very important area.

For me, it was fantastic to see so many members networking and talking to each other and creating those relationships for future working together. We all agreed that going into 2017, given the current economic climate for the social housing world, that we would need to look at more partnership working and innovative and creative ways of ensuring engagement remains a vital part for all Social Housing organisations.  The energy in the room was fantastic and when I talked about the Tpas national Standards for engagement, members agreed that they were vitally important given the possible changes to the Social Housing regulator’s role.

It was great to hear from one of our accredited organisations Ongo about how their board have devolved power to their central panel of tenants their Community Voice – it really brought home to me that by working together – great things can happen.

And what do you want from Tpas in 2017?

 

From having talked with you and finding out what you wanted from Tpas over 2017 you said:-

  • Keeping everyone informed and up to date with issues going on

  • Thinking ahead 2017 -2018 – keep briefing tenants on understanding government changes and impact on local people

  • Make sector aware – use examples

  • Interpret legislation in plain language

  • Information is good

 

We will be ensuring that we take on board all of your views going forward in 2017 and ensure they form the cornerstone of the Tpas service to you.

So on this positive note

 

I firstly wanted to thank all of you who attended the events – and ask that you ensure that you share the learning and networking opportunities with your organisations and colleagues to ensure that others can also see the ‘value’ that Tpas can bring to all of you and the sector as a whole.

See you next time

 

Book on to another regional forum