We can help you shape the way you hear and are influenced by tenant, resident, service user and customer voices
The Social Housing White Paper – A Charter for Residents clearly outlines expectations to give social housing tenants a voice and ensure that voice is heard and evidenced in actions.
It is a legal document paving the way for future regulation from the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).
The Charter includes a long “to-do” list many of those matters require legislation which is expected in 2021/22. Future customer regulation is being developed in 2021 through national consultation with tenants, residents and landlords in 2021/22.
The NHF Code of Governance 2020, points to a strong expectation of resident influence in decision making, including corporate strategy and priorities.
How we can help
We have many years of experience in customer involvement, from reviewing engagement approaches, digital engagement, consultation, engagement – all aimed to equip tenants and communities to contribute to making a difference and having their voices heard.
We have worked with tenant scrutiny and consultative groups, mystery shoppers, tenant inspectors and editorial panels.
We have also developed Neighbourhood Plans and Committees, Tenant Co-operatives, Estate/Local Agreements, Estate Management Boards and Owner/Leaseholder Stewardship Groups
Recruiting and developing tenant voices
We can help you recruit and develop a new and diverse group of tenants, residents, service users, customers and community members to participate in your engagement. We can help you attract a wider demographic of customers to add diversity of thought and experiences to your business.
We can help you sustain their interest and continued participation
We can work with and develop existing groups, like mystery shoppers, tenant inspectors, consultation groups, editorial panels, scrutiny panels, tenant, resident and community associations to refresh their purpose and maximise their capacity, capability and impact and voices on your work as a registered provider.
Reviewing Involvement
The voice of customers is required as minimum regulatory standard on policy development, monitoring performance, and the setting and monitoring of service standards and local promises.
We will build that into your approach, including the new and heightened standards expected standards in the social housing white paper and forthcoming regulation.
We have plentiful experience of working with boards, residents and staff to review your organisations approach to tenant involvement and engagement.
Dependant on the type of organisation, your size and the residents you serve and the outcomes sought, we have a range of tried and tested methods which we can share with you as options for tenant consultation, involvement and empowerment.
We can help you recruit and set up consultation panels of customers prepared to give an opinion on your services or to influence your corporate planning priorities
Digital voices
There are so many tools to help you get a quick opinion and report on the widest possible voice from customers.
This can be through commentary on papers, on-line forums, or chat groups.
We can advise on digital platforms (of which there are many) which suit your business which enable storytelling, quick polls for feedback, estate improvements and pin drops to highlight issues which they wish you to prioritise for improvement, advising on the questions to ask and reporting on this to close the loop and show evidenced listening and outcomes from this work.
Social media is a growing platform. We can help you decide which platform might suit you best, for the voices you want to hear and how you can triangulate these voices with other commentary, performance information and insight and the work of active involved residents,
Consultation and Engagement
We can help facilitate, or support staff to consult on difficult issues like local ASB issues, or demolition and refurbishment and re-development programmes.
There is a requirement for customer consultation to be considered prior to decision making on major change, or the demolition or disposals of homes.
We can support your compliance with this consumer regulation requirement, as your critical friend.
Engagement can take many forms, a subject based task and finish group or a permanent panel of advisors who are customers. Whatever you need, we can support you to get the best from the voices of customers and ensure the voices are harnessed into measurable outcomes.
We can support you with the SHWP newly required engagement, or to consider the NHF Code of Governance. We can help you self assess tenant influence of your Corporate Plan priorities, and/or we can do this with residents, or for just review evidence for you, before this becomes a requirement.
Complaints, Comments and insight
We can help you by supporting tenant and resident training on compliants handling and investigation. We can develop their role as advocates, to support complainants.
We can support the development or activities of panels, brought together to scrutinise your response to complaints and to review and evidence lessons learnt.
We can support you to develop the tools of customer insight, though surveys, on line working groups and how you can use this to triangulate views from other sources.
Customer Empowerment
We can develop your groups m into decision makers of service policies, or processes and the way you work.
We can support you to create Scrutiny Panels, or to undertake resident-led or joint scrutiny and engagement panels with residents to undertake service reviews.
We can deliver this by either supporting the panel/group as an independent critical friend, or by developing the panel to develop their own reporting to boards/councils.
We can help you by independently appraising the way in which the customer voice is listened to and heard.
We can undertake regulatory and strategic reviews, building new strong and outcome focussed resident voices, building capacity in communities, building tenant capacity on Boards and supporting residents in scrutiny, consultation projects, participation and engagement.