COMMING SOON:
Setting up of the Southend Tenant & Resident Forum (STRF):
Having an STRF Forum means supporting communities and sees residents, tenants and leaseholders participation as essential to a social housing organisation’s work. This will mean that all residents, tenants and leaseholders have a range of opportunities to have a say and a voice that they feel they do not have at the moment, about how SEH housing services are delivered. It is a two-way process, where SEH value the engagement and recognise it as a vital component to improving their business and residents, tenants and leaseholders can know they have a voice.
Participation, ranging from operational to strategic. These are broadly represented as information, consultation, involvement, and partnership. A Forum would only need a Minute Taker who would record the meeting, comments, suggestion and any information required to be passed on to the relevant departments. Some residents, tenants and leaseholders may be happy to engage face to face, so they can meet collectively and discuss matters relating to their tenancies or services and talk to other residents, tenants or leaseholders. Some residents, tenants or leaseholders may be happy to complete surveys and provide feedback via literature from the comfort of their own homes, while others may want to scrutinise services or indeed, sit on the Board. It is necessary to stress that all levels of engagement are equally important in the effective delivery of services. Finding the right approach is key. One size does not fit all. So, how do you know what approaches to use? Ask the residents, tenants and leaseholders.
Residents, Tenants and leaseholders need to know that their participation is valued, and the key to demonstrating this is ensuring the lines of communication are robust through a Forum meeting that is recorded, allowing it to be accessed after the meeting. If residents, tenants or leaseholders have provided feedback then SEH will listen to that feedback. So, it is important to have as many lines of communication between residents, tenants and leaseholders along with SEH as possible and setting up a Forum is only part, but a large part, as it allows residents, tenants and leaseholders to come along to the Forum meetings and express themselves and maybe they will join other groups. It is crucial that SEH is willing to accommodate those ideas from residents, tenants and leaseholders in whatever means they feel comfortable with, in the planning and contributing to decision making on issues that affect them. There is an increasing awareness that using residents, tenants and leaseholders views to shape services contributes to achieving organisational business objectives and delivers better, more responsive services. Therefore, having Forum meetings is a vital part of how the organisation can find out what is right and what is wrong. Another reason that a Forum is the best way forward is because residents, tenants and leaseholders that have the opportunity to fill in surveys or questioners, feel that it is just a tick box exercise.
At a Forum meeting adjustments are required in order to facilitate particular sections of the community, language difficulty or disabilities for instance, so this could be through providing a translator at Forum meetings that cannot be provided through surveys or questioners. A terms of reference should be developed in partnership with the residents, tenants, leaseholders and SEH and its key focus should be on housing related services.
Training for the Forum Committee if required by the residents, tenant and leaseholders:
In the case of residents, tenants and leaseholders there may be a necessity to invest more resources into their training. As they may require further knowledge and skills that staff or board members may already have (presentation skills, assertiveness training, communication courses). Exchange visits with other organisations could also be considered, so that they if required, benefit from learning how residents, tenants and leaseholders in other places have tackled the problems they are now trying to address.
The Future:
As time goes by, the Forum could if it wished to do so become ‘An Unincorporated Association’ looking to become a charity so as to support and help the residents, tenants and leaseholders. But that would be well into the future. Resident/Tenant Representative:
Where an estate is not large enough to be represented by a resident, tenant or leaseholder group or for varying reasons no group exists, an active resident, tenant or leaseholder can be appointed. The active resident, tenant or leaseholder elected by tenants, will be the point of contact for residents, tenants and leaseholders in a specific area and will act on behalf of the residents, tenants or leaseholders.
