Leeds Scrutiny Lounge 15th May 2014
Scrutiny panel members from the following organisations attended the Scrutiny Lounge:
Hull City CouncilGuinness Northern Counties
Sadeh Lok Housing GroupJephson Housing
KFTRALeeds City Council
Home Housing Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust
Dales HousingChevin Housing
Riverside Housing AssociationPendleton
The Scrutiny Lounge begins with an exercise that allows scrutiny members to vote on the areas of Scrutiny they would like to discuss. The following questions and feedback was the Seven most popular.
- Are recommendations and progress of these published for the wider tenants to see clearly the progress and achievements of your work?
•Progress and achievements are published in tenant newsletters, monitored by the customer panels, reported back to tenants forum, and published with rent statements, annual reports
•We are currently developing a scrutiny section of our website with our programme, reports, and facility for resident comments
•There needs to be a variety of methods both online and off-line to cater for all residents
•The Federation decides topics, reports go to the board of the ALMO and then go on the Federation website and it in the newsletters, summaries are published in the newsletters and Annual reports
•Tenant inspectors monitor and report back quarterly to tenant groups, forums and conferences
•Reports are published on the Council's website using a traffic light scoring system
2. Should scrutiny panels be required to sign the special confidentiality contracts on scrutiny for certain topics?
•We were asked to sign an additional confidentiality contract for a repairs and maintenance project. Which we saw as a gagging clause we dug our heels in and refused
•What do they have to hide?
•Maybe they were worried about other companies finding out their prices?
•Surely terms of references and confidentiality agreements signed when joining panels is sufficient?
- How do you approach topic selection?
•Questionnaires from the wider tenant body determine topic selection
•11 area panels meet by monthly and use minutes, performance information and trends to identify topics
•Benchmarking information
•Sometimes we choose, sometimes the tenant panel chooses
•We choose using a scoring system
•Text message voting system
4. Should members of scrutiny panels be paid?
•Not directly but maybe additional funding could go to local tenant groups
•Payment would affect your independence, you could be seen as being in your landlord's pockets
•If you're paid you are an employee?
•Some groups in London are paid
•Some groups receive vouchers on completion of projects
•Before scrutiny panels existed housing inspectors did the work and got paid
•Payment would attract people only motivated by the money
•Our independence is very important to us and we wouldn't want to be paid
•Where do you draw the line? If Scrutiny Panels are paid every type of tenant group should be paid?
•Payments of scrutiny panel members is a potential administrative nightmare
•I don't want my rent spent on paying scrutiny panel members
•There are other valuable benefits such as training.
5. How do you recruit members?
•Interview process
•Applicants are interviewed by chairs of other tenant groups
•We have insisted that members have completed our in-house Housing Academy course. Before they are eligible to join scrutiny. Because it gives residents a greater understanding of housing in general and covers how the council works, and spends money. The Housing Academy Course includes 14 modules and no exams
•Taster sessions at scrutiny meetings
•Speed dating with experienced scrutiny members.
6. Have you had any access to information issues?
•We have been refused information only once, we tend to go higher after refusals (Chief Executive or Board)
•No access to information issues but we do have concerns about the accuracy quality of information
•This is not just about access to information but the timing of information is very important to
•Unfettered access to information was written into the scrutiny panel's terms of reference with timescales
•If you are a scrutiny panel and can't get information, how can you be effective?
•The point of scrutiny is to make landlords accountable to its tenants
•Strong information access protocols avoid access to information issues
•Sometimes they flood you with information and you can't see the wood for the trees
•Ask for email copies of refusals and include them as appendices to reports.