Resident Involvement Strategy 2016-18
1
What is Resident Involvement?
1.1
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2
How our residents (tenants, shared owners and leaseholders) can influence the services we deliver;
How we communicate with and give information to our residents.
Why do we involve our residents?
2.1
It is good for our business. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between involving residents and improving performance.1 It can
reduce costs and make service improvements.
2.2
Involving residents is consistent with our corporate ambitions. We are committed to putting our residents at the heart of everything we do
and to providing “the personal touch” which will mark us out from our competitors. Customer inspired is the first of Hastoe’s five values.
Involving residents develops trust and confidence in Hastoe as a landlord and ensures they are engaged with us in the work we do.
2.3
It generates a social dividend and community benefits
2.4
Our regulator – the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) – expects that we will work with our residents to make sure that their priorities
shape our service and that they have the opportunity to scrutinise the services we deliver, monitor how well we perform and make sure we
carry out improvements where we need to.
2.5
Legislation gives tenants a right to be informed and consulted on matters of housing management and these rights are included in our
tenancy agreements.
3
Our approach
3.1
3.2
1
Resident involvement (RI) has two themes;
Value for money – ensuring we pursue involvement options which are meaningful and take resident input seriously is key to our resident
involvement work. We are not a “typical” housing association. We have both urban stock on large estates and we are acknowledged as a
specialist rural housing provider. We recognise that conventional resident involvement tools do not always work for Hastoe, given the
spread of so much of our stock across a wide geographical area. We also recognise that the financial environment in which we work is
changing and we have an even greater need to demonstrate that our work represents value for money - this strategy advocates
involvement initiatives which offer a genuine chance for residents to comment on, and shape the services they receive.
Communication– it is vital that we ensure effective communication with our residents, particularly where services may be being changed
or amended. This strategy supplements the work being taken forward in our Customer Service Strategy where we have begun to devise
and implement a communications strategy to focus resident communication that;
Success, Satisfaction & Scrutiny: The Business Benefits of Involving Residents – University of Westminster 2015
Tenants Leading Change – Department for Communities and Local Government March 2015
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3.3
Distil down our service standards;
Promote channel shift – getting more and more residents to use the portal – building on the already encouraging signs in our
dashboard.
Keep residents informed of changes to service delivery;
Ensure residents have access to up to date information on changes to the benefit system and other emerging government initiatives
such as the right to buy;
In our approach to Resident Involvement we aim to ensure that we:
 consult with residents, listen to their views and act on them;
 give residents the opportunity to influence polices, strategy, procedures, and services;
 make sure that all of our residents are given equal access to get involved.
4
How we give residents the opportunity to influence policies, strategies, procedures and services
4.1
Tenant Board Members. The Board champions our commitment to RI through its recruitment and retention of members who are tenants.
We ask all our Board Members to complete the same e-learning training as staff and encourage them to attend an external Board Member
induction course.
4.2
Tenant Panel. The Tenant Panel was formed as a shadow Panel in November 2013 and held its first meeting in April 2014. It meets six
times each year. Their structure is Hastoe specific ensuring representation from across the regions and the dedicated support by the
Assistant Company Secretary ensures maximum independence of the panel. The Tenant Panel acts as our critical friend and undertakes
a programme of investigations to monitor and scrutinise our customer services from a tenant’s perspective, looking at strengths and
weaknesses. Their recommendations go direct to the Board and the Panel gets regular updates on progress on the action plans resulting
from their reports. They have completed a review of service charges and their service review of communications is almost complete. The
next Tenant Panel area of scrutiny will be on resident involvement.
4.3
The Hastoe 100 Club. The Hastoe 100 Club is a virtual resident consultation panel which is used to review policies and as a general
consultation tool. Examples of reviews where we have sought their input include the Lettings Policy and Anti Social Behaviour policy.
4.4
Resident Champions. These are residents who help AHMs by monitoring service contract activity and effectiveness (for example
cleaning and grounds maintenance), reporting issues such as nuisance, graffiti and vandalism and telling us of unusual occurrences on
our housing schemes. They act as our eyes and ears on our smaller schemes and mean that the Area Housing Managers can reduce
responsive visits. There are currently eight Resident Champions in the south and two each in the East and the West. One example of
their effectiveness and the savings in term of staff time was in West Knoyle in Wiltshire, where Wessex Water were laying new sewer
pipes and the Resident Champion acted as on-site liaison.
4.5
Complaints. We hold to the principle that complaint is Gold, because it is free feedback on our services from a resident and an important
opportunity to learn how we can make improvements and is therefore a key part of resident involvement from which we can learn.
5
How we consult with residents, engage with them, listen to their views and act on them
5.1
@Home. @Home is our resident newsletter, produced four times a year and delivered to all tenants by post or digitally. We produce
different versions to reflect local interests in each of Hastoe’s three geographical regions. As well as reporting on items of universal
interest and we invite all our residents to contribute articles and we use their feedback to influence future articles.
5.2
Chief Executive Phone day. Twice a year the Chief Executive holds a free phone day when any resident has the opportunity to phone to
speak to her with any concerns, comments or requests for action. This always elicits good response from residents and is again an
innovative approach. In the two days held in 2014-15 a total of 33 callers got through and between them raised 129 queries
5.3
Community Strategies. We invite residents to feed into the annual Community Strategy action plan for their housing development
consulting with residents and putting together a strategy and action plan for every scheme we manage. Moving forward, one strategy
document will cover one local authority area, reducing the overall number of strategies to a more manageable level. The strategies also
form the basis of our estate improvement programme which uses a specific pot of funding for discretionary works to improve the
appearance and resident enjoyment of our estates.
5.4
Community Grants. We know that our relatively modest community grants can make a real difference and in some cases help secure
additional project funding. In 2014/15 we donated £1,165 to six community projects benefitting residents and their neighbourhoods.
Projects included play park refurbishments, village fetes and a community garden and three of the grants applications came from Hastoe
residents. We have increased the number of grants awarded year on year since the scheme’s launch in 2010 and will continue to
promote it using @Home, our website and Facebook.
5.5
Resident associations and groups. We have a small number of resident groups on some of our urban schemes and we continue to
support them.
5.6
Procuring and monitoring maintenance contracts. We involve residents in reviews of service contracts and in the tender process for
new maintenance contractors. In the last round of procurement a resident accompanied us on site visits to prospective contractors. A
small number of residents also participate in contractor review meetings.
5.7
Customer Surveys. We use feedback from customer surveys to improve the services we offer and to carry out Estate Improvements.
We will no longer survey our residents using STAR. Instead we have joined the Institute of Customer Services which will benchmark our
levels of customer satisfaction against other service industries, such as retailing and local authorities, instead of just comparing our
performance to housing providers. We have just started texting our repairs surveys to residents on completion of repairs.
5.8
Annual Report. We provide candid information to residents in the form of an annual report, which also demonstrates the value for money
delivered by our services.
5.9
Resident Portal. We re-launched our Resident Portal in January 2016. It allows our tenants to gain access to a range of our services
online. At a time that suits them they can carry out a range of self-service tasks, such as look at their rent account, make rent payments,
report a repair, and make a complaint. Everyone has an individual log in and is very secure.
5.10 Facebook. We use our Facebook Group, which currently has 156 members, to share information with our residents. We have recently
used it to publicise applying for community grants.
6
Future Priorities
6.1
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Our agreed high-level objectives for resident involvement are:
To provide an accessible and meaningful range of tenant involvement opportunities
To ensure that our staff are aware of involvement opportunities and take responsibility for encouraging tenant involvement
To make sure that the opportunities we offer represent good value for money
To continuously improve our understanding of the make-up of our tenant profile and respond to their needs.
To communicate effectively with our tenants in a variety of ways relevant to each individual.
6.2
We now know more about our residents through using customer profiling. We have developed 12 main customer categories or personas
into which 75% of our tenants fall. Along with the information in community strategies and from Community Insight we now understand
more about our residents and the communities in which they live. We will use this information to direct our involvement work, for example,
there are groups of our tenants that we now know are unlikely to engage with us.
6.3
We will continue to offer a wide variety of involvement opportunities and to make sure that all our residents have equal access to become
involved. We will continue to be receptive to our tenants’ ongoing needs, for example in supporting residents groups, promoting digital
inclusion and using the Hastoe bus.
6.4
Our action plan, in appendix is re-focussed to give greater weight to our core objectives.
Appendix 1
Action Plan
Theme/Action
Equality of Opportunity
Analyse the persona types represented in the Hastoe 100 Club and assess the gaps to see if any groups likely to
engage with us in this way are under-represented. Refresh and re-launch the Hastoe 100 Club with a
recruitment campaign.
Resident influence on Polices, Strategy, Procedure and Services
Support the Tenant Panel and respond to their recommendations
Agree and assist with work plan for the Tenant Panel
Lead
By When
RM(W)
30 September
2016
DOO/HOH
ACS
Ensure the refreshed Hastoe 100 Club have an opportunity to comment on new and revised policies and
procedures
Compile revised recruitment brief for Resident Champions and appraise current scheme with a report to the
Tenant Panel
Recruit at least 2 resident champions per region
RM(W)
Ongoing
31 March
2017
Ongoing
RM(W)
Appraise the costs and benefits of Introducing a new rewards and incentives scheme – The Hastoe Big Thank
You
31 March
2016
RMs
31 March
2017
RM(W)/SCM 30 June 2016
Key
ACS
LM
SCM
-
Assistant Company Secretary
Leasehold Manager
Sustainable Communities Manager
DOO
RMs
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Director of Operations
Regional Managers
HOH RM(W) -
Head of Housing
Regional Manager (West)