Resident involvement policy and strategy

Contents

• Resident involvement policy
• Resident involvement strategy
• Development of a strategy linked to best value
• Resident participation
• Best value working group
• Review
• Sch I performance indicators - examples

Resident involvement policy

Greenoak is committed to providing the highest quality service to its residents at the most affordable price. We believe that resident involvement in the decision-making process is fundamental, in order to introduce the customer perspective in achieving the right balance between the quality of service and its costs.

Our policy to achieve this is as follows:

At a local level we will:

• Encourage and support the formation of Residents’ Associations and/or Forums, which it will consult on decisions affecting residents.
• Consult all residents about any major decisions affecting the management or service delivery at their scheme or property.
• Consult all residents about planned maintenance or improvement works to their properties.
• Regularly canvas residents’ views on the quality of service provided through resident satisfaction surveys and a variety of more local feedback questionnaires.

At a strategic level we will:

• Consult residents on our residents’ involvement policy and procedures.
• Encourage and support Residents’ Associations, Groups and Forums.
• Ensure Residents’ views are fully integrated into decisions on wider strategic and policy issues.

Greenoak will widely publish performance information at both local and national level.

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Resident involvement strategy

Background

Research has been carried out for the Housing Corporation by the Office of Public Management (OPM) to look at how the private sector engages customers, to provide a comparison with the housing association sector.

The result is a statement by the Housing Corporation in its Regulatory Code. It clearly states a minimum requirement from housing associations, with one section of the code specifically dedicated to residents:

Associations must seek and be responsive to residents’ views and priorities by

• Reflecting these interests in their business strategy
• Giving residents and other stakeholders opportunities to comment on their performance
• Enabling residents to play their part in decision making
• Providing opportunities for residents to explore, and play their part in how services are managed and provided.

“Resident participation is a two-way process involving the sharing of ideas and information between residents and their landlord” (Resident Participation Advisory Service)

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Development of a strategy linked to best value

Greenoak aims to provide excellent service for its residents. To do this it recognises that resident involvement is essential to providing a responsive, efficient and effective service, which is central to Best Value.

Process

The strategy is developed with the following aims

• To consult with and involve more residents in the management of their homes, using a range of techniques
• To give residents choice and flexibility about the level of involvement they would like to have

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Resident participation

Examples of resident involvement

• Development and support of Residents’ Associations, Groups or Forums
• Opportunities to feedback on the services provided to residents
• Opportunities to influence policies of the Association
• Participation in organising social activities
• Organising Resident training

Residents’ Associations are central to all Greenoak’s RI activities.

• Members will be encouraged to be involved in the RI structure.
• Association staff will update Residents’ Associations on policy issues, provide support and advise as required.
• Administrative staff and Scheme Managers will meet with Residents on a regular basis.
• Meetings will provide Residents with the opportunity to discuss issues of concern face to face with staff members.
• The discussion will be minuted and action points recorded to provide follow up and feedback.

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Best value working group

The Housing Corporation’s Regulatory Code states that:

“Housing Associations must aim to deliver continuous improvements and value for money in their services. Service provision is subject to challenge and change. The wishes of residents, and others, are balanced against available resources within a clear and transparent framework, according to the principles of Best Value. Progress in working towards improvements against a range of national and local performance indicators will be publicised by the Association”.

Residents will be invited to attend a Best Value working group to work with staff on continuous improvement in specified areas of service delivery. Results of the Best Value working group will be published so that residents know where they are making an impact on services.

Informal opportunities for participation and involvement: We recognise that many of its residents may not be interested in participating in the Association’s formal structures.

The following are a range of informal mechanisms that we will implement to ensure that it obtains feedback from as many residents as possible.

• Surveys
• Mailing list
• One to one interviews
• Newsletter
• E mail and web site
• Consultation
• Training

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Review

The strategy will be reviewed and evaluated on a regular basis to ensure that it remains flexible and meets the changing needs of Residents.

Indicators will be used to measure performance.

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Examples of performance indicators

Aim	Performance	Timetable
A representative Residents’ Forum for SA	To have a minimum of six Residents and to meet at least quarterly
Resident satisfaction with opportunities for involvement in making decisions	Participation in customer survey topics feedback on results with action plan	Communications survey completed June 2002 Services satisfaction survey completed March 2004
Increase awareness of resident participation options	Customer survey results	Services satisfaction survey completed March 2004
E mail list	To set up an e mail list	Ongoing
Meet resident training needs	Identify training opportunities, set training budget and training evaluation forms	Ongoing
Residents having influence over decision making process	Decisions that have been made or influenced by residents	TP policy and strategy in place
Newsletter	To increase participation in production/content by residents	Ongoing
Activities	To encourage involvement in increasing the range of activities and events	Targets set for SA Scheme Managers June 2003