COMMING SOON:

Setting up of the Southend Tenant & Resident Forum (STRF):
Having an STRF Forum means supporting communities and sees resident/tenant/leaseholders’ (RTLs) participation as essential to a social housing organisation’s work. This will mean that all RTLs 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 RTLs can know they have a voice. There are several levels of RTL Participation, ranging from operational to strategic. These are broadly represented as information, consultation, involvement, and partnership. A Forum would only need to have a very small committee with a chair, vice-chair and minute taker who would record the meeting. The engagement will depend on the RTLs capacity and availability. Some RTLs 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 RTLs or with officers of SEH. Some RTLs may be happy to complete surveys and provide feedback on 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 our RTLs!
RTL 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 by other RTLs. If a RTL has provided feedback, then SEH will listen to that feedback. So, it is important to have as many lines of communication between RTLs and SEH as possible and setting up a Forum is only part, but a large part, as it allows RTLs to come along to the Forum meetings and express themselves and maybe join other groups. It is crucial that SEH is willing to accommodate those ideas from RTLs, 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 RTLs 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 RTLs 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 (people with language difficulty) 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 RTLs and SEH and its key focus should be on housing related services.
Training for the Forum Committee:
In the case of RTLs 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 RTLs, and others if required, benefit from learning how people 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. But that would be well into the future.
Resident/Tenant Representative:
Where an estate is not large enough to be represented by a RTLs group or for varying reasons no group exists, an Active RTL can be appointed. The Active RTL elected by tenants, will be the point of contact for RTLs in a specific area and will act on behalf of the RTLs.