Members of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel gave
a verbal update on the work of the Panel. It was noted
that:
- It had been useful to exchange feedback. Particularly with regard
to vulnerable people.
- The panel listened as much as possible to residents and tried to
feed in any possible help from the Council.
- The panel could give residents insight into the difficulties
faced by the Council and the work done to address them.
- The Director of Housing had attended meetings and given
talks.
- It had been useful to engage with Housing Officers and to
understand their role.
- There had been frustration amongst some residents about being
unable to get through to officers.
Tenants needed somewhere to report issues to and pass information
on.
- As part of a response to this there was a reminder of the
multiple Pop up
Housing offices across the City including the Porkpie Library. This was a step forward in terms
of being part of the Council structure.
In discussions with Members and Officers
it was noted that:
- There were approximately 17 residents on the panel, from all
wards of Leicester. It had been set up
following sessions held the previous year with tenants, in which
various communities had been engaged with to see how they wanted to
engage with the Council. The Council
were keen to ensure that anyone who wished to engage had the
opportunity to do so. The Council were
also ensuring that there were other types of opportunity for
tenants to take part.
- It was aimed to look at the conditions of tenancy to ensure they
were adequately robust.
- The panel were keen to recruit.
- The group would join TPAS, who could provide training and
support for tenants getting involved in scrutiny. This would help people to join and develop so that
they could engage in the most effective way.
- A log was kept of the issues addressed by the panel. This could periodically come to the Commission to
look at the impact of what as taken to
the panel.
- The panel met every two months and decided on the agendas
themselves. Officers from the council
ensured that the panel was representative. Local engagement work was done to bring in people
from all communities. Engagement
officers worked with people from across the city to ensure the
panel was representative.
- Officers organised Housing Pop-up offices every
week. These had proven to be popular
with residents.
- It was noted that the job of housing officers had
changed. They now had more
responsibility around such items as Fire Safety. Much of their work was not visible to
tenants. As such, one of the reasons
for Engagement Officers was to be more visible. Engagement Officers could be another point of
contact for residents.
- One of the Engagement Officers came to a craft group in Saffron
ward at which patch walks and community clear up days were
discussed. Another idea discussed had
been ‘skip days’ at which the community were informed
they could dispose of things in the skip.
- Engagement Officers could fulfil roles that Housing Officers
were no longer able to do. With
Engagement Officers in place, Housing Officers could now focus more
on the landlord function.
- Engagement Officers could find out the needs of
residents. Engagement Offices could be
more flexible and add capacity to more bespoke issues. This made the team more dynamic.
- A work programme for Engagement Officers was being developed, and would go to the tenant panel for
their input.
- Consumer standards from the Housing Regulator needed to be
complied with.
- It was suggested that residents who had difficulty leaving their
homes could be communicated with by post in
order to inform them of the work of the Council and the
panel. Additionally, digital exclusion
was an issue in communicating with residents.
AGREED:
1)
That the update be noted.
2)
That comments made by members of this commission to
be taken into account.
Councillor Clarke left the meeting during the
consideration of this item.