Power to the people – HouseMark helps tenants take the lead in setting standards
Tenant scrutiny and involving tenants in key decision making processes allows housing providers to improve their performance by providing services that customers really want.
At HouseMark we recognise the importance of empowering tenants to look at how standards are devised and one of greatest successes in this area has been the work our consultancy team has carried out with Newydd Housing Association on an ongoing basis.
In 2009 a team of Newydd tenants began to meet under the banner of ‘Tenant Powered Performance’ to define what constitutes a good service from the tenants’ perspective and what performance information they would need to evaluate these. HouseMark consultants were on hand to facilitate the process.
Just a few of the valuable outcomes from the sessions that were held included:
- a clear statement of what a good responsive repairs service was from the tenants’ perspective
- a new list of both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ performance indicators that mean something to tenants, and
- a set of suggestions made by tenants for improvements in the repairs service
The same approach is now being used to look at ASB, service charge funded services and voids and lettings, with one major difference – as the members of the TPP group have gained more experience they now require fewer sessions to discuss each subject area.
Newydd Housing Director Jason Wroe believes that Tenant Powered Performance has ‘revolutionised’ the way that Newydd tenants can assess the performance of the Association.
‘Tenants have developed their own performance indicators for various services which are now published in our quarterly magazine and monitored regularly by various tenants groups,’ says Jason. ‘The project, implemented in partnership with Housemark, has been immensely successful and is now going on to develop equalities performance monitoring, a topic that will ensure we can strengthen accountability to tenants for the work we do to ensure equality and respect diversity.’
For more info on how our Tenant Powered Performance programme can help your organisation please contact Martin Asquith martin.asquith@housemark.co.uk tel: 07841 862464 or visit our website www.housemark.co.uk
Llandrindod Wells hosts great performance for HouseMark members
‘Maximising Income’ was the key theme at HouseMark’s recent Performance Improvement Club for its Cymru members.
The Media Resource Centre in Llandrindod Wells played host to the thought-provoking event which was well attended by social housing providers from the length and breadth of the Principality. Vikki Hiscocks from CIH Cymru set the scene with a thorough and insightful presentation, outlining the very latest developments in welfare reform. Vikki explained to the group the potential impacts these reforms could have on families, individuals and landlords alike.
Katija Dew from the Wales Cooperative Centre was next to speak on the real impact financial exclusion can have on both individuals and families as well as describing the struggles that being financially excluded can lead to.
Farida Aslam from Monmouthshire Housing Association and Allister Parkinson, from RCT and the Sound as a Pound scheme, then went on to highlight the works their respective organisations have been doing with tenants, residents and other partners to help reduce the levels of financial exclusion experienced. Both Farida and Allister outlined the very different journeys their organisations had gone on to deliver their projects, to help residents across Rhondda Cynon Taff and Monmouthshire respectively.
,em>‘This was the first Performance Improvement Club that I have run and I am delighted with how it went,\’ says HouseMark’s Manager for Wales, Martin Asquith. ‘I believe events such as these help housing providers in Wales share experiences and good practice and lets them take away useful and timely information to help their organisation perform better.’
HouseMark members can access copies of all the presentations made by logging on to the clubs page at www.housemark.co.uk