Getting involved news
The newsletter for Dacorum’s involved tenants and leaseholders
Welcome
From Emily-Rae Maxwell, Team Leader, Policy and Participation.
Hello and welcome to the spring edition of Getting Involved news.
I’m so thrilled to tell you that we have passed our Tpas Landlord Accreditation
in Tenant Engagement with flying colours!
We are the first housing landlord in the country to achieve this and we came out with the top
level. This is a great achievement for housing staff, councillors and tenants. We owe
everyone who worked so hard on this a huge “Thank you”.
Tenant and Leaseholder Committee (TLC)
Update by Isy Imarni
The TLC held their second formal meeting on 16 Feb 2017 when they were given updates by
each of our housing management groups. The minutes are available on the website. Please
visit: www.dacorum.gov.uk/get-involved
Key items discussed included the HRA budget and service plan for 2017-18 and recent
changes to housing legislation that will affect our income. Assistant Director, Elliott Brookes, also explained
the impact that Universal Credit is already having on around 150 Dacorum families. Arrears have already
increased, but if they are two months behind with their rent we can apply for the money to be paid direct
to us. Tenants can also opt out and have it paid direct to us. We have some extra resources corporately to
help us deal with UC.
The TLC heard about our new, more scientific and educational approach to dealing with complaints of
mould caused by condensation. They were also interested to have an update on our new build programme,
particularly DBC’s first venture into shared ownership properties at Wood House, Maylands.
After carrying out a skills audit we have offered the committee members some Tpas training in the near
future. We unfortunately have had a resignation and will be advertising for new applicants soon.
Tenant Scrutiny Panel (TSP)
Update by Barry Newton, Chair of TSP
The Scrutiny Panel met in February and discussed several issues. They felt that their
meeting was very successful and raised some important points. Moving forward their role
will be to undertake in-depth reviews of one area of the housing service at a time. Staff, the
TLC, the Tenant Inspectors or tenants can put forward suggestions for service areas to
review.
The TSP will soon be receiving training from Tpas on how they should function as a group. They are
currently looking at introductory, secure and flexible tenancy agreements.
Issue two
March 2017
Supported Housing Forum
Update by Kevin Mutio, Lead Officer Supported Housing
The Supported Housing Forum met in January and learned more about
‘depooling’, whereby basic rent is separated from additional services such as
cleaning and lift maintenance.
The group has also taken a keen interest in our proposals for ‘staff rotation’ of supported housing officers.
We will continue to work with them and with tenants in our pilot scheme areas before deciding when and
how to roll out staff rotation in all supported housing.
We are currently developing an Older persons’ strategy and will ask for the Supported Housing Forum’s
help to work with us on this.
Tenant Inspectors
Update by Sharon Clayton, Housing Involvement Officer
We’ve recently reformed the Tenant Inspectors’ group, so we have some new
members. The group asked for more information about the contract between
DBC and Osborne, so we organised a meeting with Osborne’s Account Director
James Quy and Fiona Williamson, Group Manager – Property and Place. We also
invited all members of the TLC & TLSP to see if they wanted to join the inspectors.
Everyone commented on how interesting they found it and how positive they now feel.
From this discussion we identified several opportunities for the Tenant Inspectors. DBC and Osborne are
meeting to develop a programme for them over the next year.
Youth Tenant Involvement group (YTI)
Update by Stephanie Bailey, Housing Involvement Officer
Back in December the YTI group braved a freezing December night and slept
outside in makeshift cardboard shelters to raise funds for Herts Young Homeless.
They were proud to raise more than £1000 for this good cause and will be
presenting the cheque in March.
Another highlight was a ‘Taste Off’
competition, where the young people got
together with older tenants to cook a
traditional pudding. Everyone thoroughly
enjoyed this intergenerational event. The
competition was judged by Dacorum’s
Mayor, Councillor Robert Maclean and his
wife, along with Councillor Isy Imarni who commented:
“Thank you for inviting me to the bake-off event, it was fantastic! Witnessing the engagement
of our elderly tenants with children and teenagers - brilliant! Of the events that I have
attended during my period as a councillor this is the one that I would celebrate the most.”
Issue two
March 2017
Tenant Academy
Update by Sharon Clayton, Housing Involvement Officer
As a housing service, we want to improve the quality of life for our tenant by investing in them as well as
their homes. By establishing a ‘Tenant Academy’ we can support people to improve their wellbeing,
establish key life skills and help them back into employment.
We carried out a consultation and received a total of 227 completed surveys. The results were very
encouraging, with nine out of ten respondents agreeing that a Tenant Academy would be a good idea.
We now intend to establish a Task and Finish group to work out how best to spend the budget allocated to
this project. We will need to work closely with our partners to bring our tenants the free courses they have
asked for.
We’ve already been running free courses for tenants at several sheltered schemes,
supported by Dacorum Communities for Learning. These courses have been a huge
success, with everyone saying how much they’ve enjoyed it and feeling confident to use
the internet.
The results of our Tenant Academy consultation showed that the most popular
suggestions for new courses were DIY, Working with your community and Life skills.
We’re offering more free digital skills courses throughout the coming year and will be
publicising this in the spring edition of Housing News and Views. If you know a tenant
who would be interested, please contact Sharon on 01442 228534.
For more information about any of these items please contact the Housing Involvement
team by email: [email protected] or telephone 01442 228000 and ask
for Tenant Involvement.
Our ‘Get Involved’ strategy is available on our website: www.dacorum.gov.uk/get-involved
Please encourage your friends, neighbours and young people living in our homes to get
involved and have a say about the housing service.
Issue two
March 2017