1

TACT (Tenants and Council Together)

meeting of GROUP

TUESDAY 18th SEPTEMBER 2017 – 6pm

ATTENDANCE

Monica Gill / Central
John Bond / Weeke
David Cruden / West Meon
Tony White / Hurlsey
Doug Dobson / Winnall
Michael Fawcitt / Central
Joan Stevens / Kings Worthy
Ted Shepherd / Denmead
Sheila Burns / Stanmore
David Light / Stanmore
Sue Down / Compton
Steven Hanson / Central
Pippa Cole / Central
David Blyth / Stanmore
Linda Blyth / Stanmore
Annie Miller / Stanmore
Valerie Adcock / Stanmore
Deanne Adams / Denmead
Lin Mellish / Kings Worthy
Guests
Cllr. Caroline Horrill / WCC Councillor
Frances Strange / Parish Councillor
Bob Jodan / Parish Councillor
Richard Botham / WCC Assistant Director (Housing)
Janette Palmer / WCC Housing Policy & Projects
Trevor Lynas / WCC Tenant Involvement
Heather Wensley / WCC Tenant Involvement

1. Introduction, Welcome and Apologies

Monica Gill, Chair, welcomed all to the meeting, acknowledged new members and covered housekeeping. She introduced members to the guests in attendance (as above). Apologies have been received from: Cllr. Nicki Elks, David Chafe, Sandra Salter, Judith Steventon Baker, Steve Ruggles, Margaret Tredgett-Ruggles, John Woodson, Mr & Mrs Cochran

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting: 16th May 2017

2.1 Corrections: None

2.2 True record: Proposed: S.Down Seconded: T.White

2.3 Matters arising:

2.3.1 Fire Safety

R.Botham informed the group of a fire safety consultation event at Winnall flats. Tenants had the opportunity to meet with R.Botham, Cllr. Horrill, officers and representatives from Hampshire Fire and Rescue to discuss any concerns and complete a survey on the proposed permanent closure of the bin chutes. The results of the survey are 50/50 with those on the higher floors generally opting to keep them open and those on the lower floors opting to close them. All tenants at the flats received the survey and the feedback received will be used alongside the advice received from HFRS. All options will be taken into account.

A staffing structure chart with photos and contact numbers for Housing Management officers was handed out at the meeting. Further copies are available on request from the Tenant Involvement Team.

R.Botham explained the current staffing structure including who reports to whom. The information may change as staff move on or priorities change. It was noted that Mark Corrigan should be included within the Sheltered Housing team structure.

D.Cruden thanked officers for the document. Members agreed that it is useful to put a face to the names and suggested the information should be made available on the website.

Osborne Visit

The Chair reported that five members of TACT had recently met with staff from Osborne at their offices in Winnall. Osborne receives around 1,200 calls each month.

Those whom attended were surprised by the size of their office and team as they had envisaged much larger premises with a call centre and storage space for equipment and materials. There are only twelve staff based at the Winchester offices, including the engineers and one call handler. KPI information and a selection of anonymised customer care responses are on show at the offices.

M.Gill touched upon some of the frustrations for Osborne including the lack of information they sometimes receive from the Council i.e. replace tap/ attend to a faulty light fitting. She reminded members to provide the call taker with as much information as possible including the location of the fault. Osborne operatives are then more likely to arrive with the correct materials and complete the work during their first visit.

D.Dobson has worked in the building trade and was very impressed with what he saw. He mentioned that he would prefer to speak with the contractor directly rather than going via the Council’s switchboard. D.Cruden added that he would prefer the calls to be handled by the Repairs and Maintenance team. The repairs and maintenance PRG has been suggesting this for some time. R.Botham advised members that the current system is under review. He would prefer calls to come to the landlord and suggested more is being done to train and upskill those taking the calls.

3. Tenant Involvement Review: Richard Botham, Assistant Director (Housing Services) and Janette Palmer, Housing Policy & Projects Manager

3.1 J.Palmer provided an update via PowerPoint, the slides of which were handed to members at the meeting. Further copies are available on request from the Tenant Involvement Team.

At the last meeting, J.Palmer set the scene and explained why and how the Tenant Involvement team are expanding their engagement options. Since then, the team have met with candidates of the Tenant Panel. During the meeting they established a Terms of Reference, code of conduct and job description with those who would like to be involved. It was also decided that there should be a voting process to decide whom sits on the Panel.

informed the group that this would be the final review with tenants and opportunity for feedback before the final structure will be presented to TACT at the next meeting.

J. Palmer provided the group with copies of her presentation in slide form and went through the following:

·  Recap on reasons for the review: good representative data is a corporate priority and links with the Council Strategy – strive for proactive, effective representation and customer insight. The team also need to make sure they are best using the data available. WCC want wider engagement, especially with regard to younger groups and households that live in the city as results from the Tenant Satisfaction Survey suggest that these groups are the least satisfied. We also require clear evidence to support business decisions. The team also recognise the need to provide better feedback to tenants and let them know how their input will lead to changes in the service. As always, effective scrutiny is also a priority. In addition, the team would like to ensure that the new structure of tenant meetings will mirror that of Housing Cabinet to allow tenants a greater impact on WCC decision making.

·  So far: the team have evaluated the current structure and carried out a lot of research into other housing providers and local peers to gain an idea of good practice. A survey has been carried out of WCC officers and the Portfolio Holder to evaluate what is important to staff. The team have also met regularly with tenants in the form of the TACT Support Group and PRG Chairs. A further survey was also sent out to all involved tenants to gather their views on the proposed structure and of course, presentations to TACT meetings.

·  The Involved Tenant Survey: this told us that the majority of tenants believed that change was needed. It’s also showed that with regard to TACT, quarterly meetings in the afternoon with a Christmas and summer social were the preferred option.

·  The team will also focus on diversifying how they collect tenants’ views.

3.2 J. Palmer also provided the group with a diagram detailing the proposed structure. This detailed the activities to collect quantitative data including ‘Tenant Link’ which would create a regular programme of surveys to go out to tenants, the Tenants’ Conference and the biennial Tenant Satisfaction Survey. There are then more qualitative methods to collect tenant views and this is where most of the change sits; this area includes the new Tenant/TACT Panel, TACT meetings and Scrutiny.

·  Tenant/TACT Panel – the name is to be decided with tenants, will have around 8-10 members and will effectively amalgamate the current TACT Support Group and the PRG’s work. This group will determine tenant involvement activities and actions.

·  TACT meetings – these will be the basis of information sharing for the wider tenant group. The meetings will be bi-monthly and will be managed by the above Panel.

·  Scrutiny – this area will remain largely unchanged and individual exercises (of which there will be 2-3 a year) will be made up of a couple of Panel members and tenants from the wider pool of involved tenants.

The main changes include:

·  When meetings are to be held – they will fall in line with the Cabinet meeting structure to allow better comment on Cabinet papers

·  Performance Review Groups will go and this work will be carried out by the Panel

·  The TACT Support Group will become a part of the Panel and will change in how they work to support TACT

Things that wont change:

·  TACT – bi-monthly meetings will continue – the admin of the group however is to be determined

·  Scrutiny

·  Readers Panel

·  Mystery Shoppers

New activities:

·  Tenant Panel

·  Surveys

3.3 What’s next? J. Palmer acknowledged that there were still a lot of unknowns that were to be decided following discussion with tenants. 14 tenants have applied for positions on the Tenant Panel and the next step will be to get all of these applicants together to discuss how the Panel move forward, how membership is determined and the finer details such as timings and frequency of meetings, the groups constitution and what roles needed.

The team will feedback again to TACT in September following this meeting and discussion with the Panel.

R. Botham added that WCC wanted a good tenant response in WCC decisions and to achieve this, a lot is changing – not just within Tenant Involvement. The expectations on Officers is changing and dates are being changed to align better for everyone. WCC want to get tenant views in at the right time.

Questions & Comments

3.2.1 T. White asked how long tenants will sit on the new Tenant Panel and felt that decisions like this should be decided by all of TACT.

J. Palmer stated that this was one of the areas that are still yet to be decided following a discussion with Panel applicants, but suggestions will be brought to TACT. R. Botham added that the group will need some time to settle in, but echoed that decisions will be brought to TACT. It will be important to decide who sits on future Panels.

3.2.2 T. Shepherd stated that he felt that the Panel membership had already been decided.

J. Palmer disagreed and stated that all tenants who applied for a position will be invited in to the initial meeting and then this group of tenants will decide who the final 8-10 members are and how the Panel will go forward in their work. This will not be a WCC decision alone; it will be tenants and council working together to decide these details.

3.2.3 D. Cruden asked that the proposed Terms of Reference for the new Panel come back to TACT for TACT to comment – this was agreed by J. Palmer and R. Botham. D. Cruden also asked whether the new Constitution will be ready by the November AGM.

J. Palmer replied that the timings of the November AGM will need to be looked at and may need to be changed anyway as it does not fit with Cabinet, but yes, the group will aim to have something ready for the AGM.

D. Cruden also asked for clarification about WCC Officer attendance at future TACT meetings. He commented that he remembered R. Botham stating that bi-monthly meetings would have officer attendance, but would this include the summer and Christmas socials.


R. Botham could not confirm that he had agreed to officers being at all meetings if bi-monthly, but believed it was agreed officers would be at quarterly meetings. Therefore there would be an officer presence at the 4 formal TACT meetings, but not necessarily the social events. However, all details are still to be decided.

Cllr Horrill reassured the group that all constitution changes will be made democratically and brought to members to provide them with a chance to review.

3.2.4 S. Salter felt that the new Panel layer will be a self-regulating, closed shop. She asked how members who are under performing will be tackled or challenged.

R. Botham replied that the involved survey responses demonstrated that tenants felt membership of the Panel should be agreed informally, but he felt that an election may be the best method going forward. However, these details are as yet to be determined by the Panel themselves and then brought to TACT.

Cllr Horrill strongly encouraged a democratic election process.

3.2.5 D. Light added that, for the new system to work, more tenants needed to put their names forward – this would mean more views, more people being heard and more people having their say. It would also bring different people into this process and encourage change.

3.2.6 J. Bond stated that changes to a previous Constitution took a long time.

3.2.7 Cllr Berry added that she was worried about tenants feeling alienated within the new structure. She stated it was encouraging that more people were attending TACT meetings, but that these people may be discouraged if they are not on the Panel. She also felt that 8 was more than enough for the Panel, but membership needed to be made up of good people who will work for their communities.

Cllr Berry also commented that tenants live in an ‘environment’ and have they been asked to comment on these wider environments.

J. Palmer replied that the Tenant Satisfaction Survey did ask about how tenant would improve their involvement in the wider sense and the results suggested that tenants would prefer their views to be collected in different ways. The changing tenant population means that they may want to give their views to WCC in different ways and we need to offer a range of ways to collect them.