Appendix 1 - Tenant Participation Strategy 2024-27
Perth and Kinross Council · 2 October 2024
Back to Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee — 2 October 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Appendix 1 Perth and Kinross Council Tenant Participation Strategy 2024-27 Table of contents 1. Welcome…………………………………………………………… Page 2 2. Introduction.………………………………………………………… Page 3 3. Tenant participation strategy, vision and purpose…………… Page 3 4. Current approach in Perth & Kinross…………………………… Page 3 5. The Strategy – consultation and engagement………………… Page 4 6. Links to wider corporate and housing strategies…………… Page 4 7. TP in Perth and Kinross – what’s our starting point?............ Page 4 8. TP Strategy priorities………………………………………………. Page 6 9. Our New Approach to Tenant Involvement in Perth & KinrossPage 8 10. Our Menu of Opportunities……………………………………… Page 10 11. Delivering the Strategy’s priorities and outcomes……… Page 10 Appendices: Appendix 1 - Tenant Participation Action Plan 2024 / 2027…………………………………… Page 13 Appendix 2 - Scottish Housing Charter Communications and Participation Standards………Page 17 Appendix 3 - The Strategic Context………………………………………………………………. .Page 19 Appendix 4 - What we know about our tenants…………………………………………………...Page 22 Appendix 5 - New Strategy, our approach to consultation and engagement…………………. Page 23
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1. Welcome Welcome to Perth and Kinross Council’s Tenant Participation Strategy, which sets out how we plan to involve our tenants and make sure that they can influence and scrutinise the housing services we deliver. The Strategy sets out our commitment to involving tenants when we are developing and reviewing our housing policies and services. The Housing Management Team and I want to continue to build on our achievements over the last few years, supporting tenants and working in close partnership with them. We will remove any barriers so that tenant participation is accessible to all. We want to develop new ways of interacting and participating with our tenants, with a shift to online communication wherever possible, whilst maximising tenant involvement. We will continue to make sure tenants are at the heart of everything we do, giving them a menu of options to choose from so that they can get involved in a way that suits them. We value our tenant volunteers and all the work that they do with us every day. This Strategy reflects how much more we want to achieve and explains the steps we will be taking to involve as many tenants as possible in the coming years. Elaine Ritchie, Strategic Lead, Housing and Communities
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2. Introduction Perth & Kinross Council is pleased to present the new Tenant Participation Strategy, covering the period 2024-2027. The Tenant Participation Strategy (referred to as the Strategy) sets out Perth & Kinross Council’s vision and priorities for tenant participation (TP) and involvement. It has been co-produced in partnership with tenants, written for tenants and has been aligned with national tenant participation standards. 3. Tenant participation strategy, vision and purpose The Strategy sets out how tenants will be empowered and enabled to be involved in decision making about their homes, housing services, neighbourhoods and communities. The Strategy sets out how we will work to build positive relationships between staff, tenants, tenant representatives and other local stakeholders to ensure that all tenants find it easy to get involved at the level that is right for them. The Strategy’s vision sets out how the housing service will work to achieve effective TP. It has been developed locally but reflects national best practice and guidance from across Scotland. The main purpose of the Strategy is to: • Set out how we will communicate effectively so that tenants can engage with us. • Explain how we will work in partnership with tenants, work with tenants to develop a range of options to get them involved in the decisions we make on their homes, communities and within the housing service. • Develop a shared understanding of the main issues and the actions that tenant participation should focus on. • Create a clear direction for tenant participation, with tenant-led priorities and actions. • Focus on the outcomes required to achieve the tenant participation vision. 4. Tenant Participation - Current approach in Perth & Kinross The Strategy builds on the vision of the previous strategy which aimed to use a locality- based approach to enable tenant involvement by: Supporting people to get involved in matters that are important to them and their neighbourhoods, building relationships with staff, and building bridges in communities. The objectives of the 2018-2021 Strategy were to provide all tenants the opportunity to have their say in local housing service improvements through a range of participation opportunities.
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Over the last five years of the previous Strategy has achieved the following outcomes: Increased TP activity across the four Housing Locality Areas delivered through the provision of a dedicated TP Worker working within all locality housing teams on an annual programme of local activities including locality forum meetings, roadshows, Estate Based Initiatives and local tenant events. Implementation of a menu approach to getting involved, which offered tenants a wider range of participation opportunities to choose from. Wider use of online and digital channels for tenants to talk and give feedback to the housing service. Over 1,750 tenants engaging via e-mail, tenant e-panels and online voting systems. Support for tenants to engage with participation opportunities through formal and informal training including the Residents’ Academy Training Programme. The Digital Inclusion Project has supported tenants to actively engage with the many online opportunities to participate. Proactive monitoring of tenant participation engagement and satisfaction levels through quarterly pulse surveys and annual updates on performance. A key success of the previous Strategy was the significant shift to digital communication, engagement, and involvement. Since the pandemic, tenants are choosing to continue to use digital platforms to get involved. The Housing Service also provides more opportunities for local participation through the network of Locality Housing Teams. The new Strategy provides an opportunity to further shift the focus of TP to achieve a greater locality-based approach and to develop and embed a genuine culture of TP across all housing staff and tenants. 5. The Strategy – consultation and engagement Building on the previous success, a range of consultation opportunities were provided through the course of developing the Strategy. This included opportunities for early engagement to ensure that tenants could shape the Strategy priorities and share their views on how and what they wish to participate in. A tenant consultation and engagement programme was delivered to seek tenant views and use feedback to inform the Strategy development. This ensured that the Strategy was genuinely co-produced by tenants. 6. Links to wider corporate and housing strategies In developing the Strategy, tenants agreed that the vision and priorities of the Strategy should link to and reflect the wider community and housing strategies in Perth & Kinross. It was agreed that this approach would ensure the Strategy could build on opportunities for community and resident involvement and place tenants at the heart of activity to improve homes, neighbourhoods and places. The Perth and Kinross Corporate plan 2022-2027 sets out the strategic vision for Perth & Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality.
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The Perth & Kinross Local Housing Strategy (LHS) vision also places housing at the centre of these major ambitions for the Perth & Kinross area, building on the theme of resident and community empowerment. The link to the LHS can be found at Local Housing Strategy (LHS) 2022-2027. 7. TP in Perth and Kinross – what’s our starting point? The Housing Service is committed to providing tenants with a range of opportunities to get involved, according to tenant preferences and interests. Different levels of involvement have been developed to encourage tenants to get involved at the level which suits them. These include: • Low level involvement by completing consultation or satisfaction surveys, signing up to the ‘Interested Tenant’ list, attending a conference or following TP pages on social media. • Medium involvement by taking part in Estates Based Initiatives (EBI) to deliver improvements within local neighbourhoods, attending local events or a tenant forum, attending Registered Tenants Organisation meetings. • High level involvement by influencing decisions through joining a Registered Tenants Organisation, taking part in a working group, or getting involved in a Tell Us What You Think activity which scrutinises areas of housing services to drive improvements or sign up to participate digitally. Registered Tenant Organisations (RTO) Registered Tenant Organisations (RTOs) have a statutory right to be consulted on significant housing issues. RTOs have an important role in tenant participation and are informed of any proposals for their area and the likely impact. The Housing Service is keen to encourage and support tenant organisations to apply to the Housing Service to become an RTO and get involved with consultation on housing and local issues, but also setting their own agenda on the items they wish to progress. Perth and Kinross Tenants & Residents Federation (Perth & Kinross TRF) Perth and Kinross TRF have been in operation since the mid-1990s and provides the space for all social housing tenants across Perth and Kinross to come together to discuss housing related matters that are important in communities. The role of the Federation is to support tenant and resident groups to take part in discussions about their neighbourhood and housing, this will happen by: • Upholding equal opportunities as part of working together for all members of the group which is free from discrimination - every member offers a valuable contribution through lived experience. • Promoting the rights of tenants in relation to their housing condition, environment and access to services.
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The Perth and Kinross TRF supports tenants to meet with housing staff to ask the important questions at the heart of housing. This can be in person, online or through hybrid events. By encouraging tenant participation and community spirit, Perth & Kinross TRF aims to grow its membership to build a thriving tenant community, working together with other organisations and services to meet objectives and share our outcomes and information with others to contribute to sector learning and development. Communication Channels During the delivery of the last Strategy, the Housing Service increased the number of communication channels with the introduction of more digital methods, whilst still retaining some more traditional methods such as paper and face to face. The Housing Service maintains a tenants register of interested parties and their preferred method of communication and aims to target consultation with tenants via their preferred channel, which includes: • Voting consultations e.g. rent consultation process • Email and text messages • E-panel (a consultation tool for tenants who cannot or do not want to attend events face to face) • Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), a dedicated YouTube channel and Instagram channel • Newsletters • Webpages • Online and paper surveys/consultations. Analysis of communication responses between 2021/22 and 2022/23 shows the highest increase in communication has been in the use of the text messaging service (60%), followed by engagement in voting consultations (51%). The use of e-mail has increased by 49%, with the housing service now holding the e-mail address of approximately 21.5% of the tenant population. Support to Tenants The Housing Service is also committed to supporting tenants to get involved and offers a range of supports including: • Assistance with using a phone, computer or tablet through the Digital Inclusion Project. The project offers free 1-2-1 or group training sessions, guided by what tenants want to learn and can be undertaken at home or a public venue. • Training and development through Residents’ Academy training sessions to support tenants to become more informed about the service’s responsibilities as a landlord and to increase confidence in offering feedback and scrutiny. • Assistance with travel and childcare expenses is offered to all tenants who attend TP activities where we have asked tenants to travel or who would not be able to attend due to lack of childcare. The housing service holds regular local tenant events to inform tenants of housing issues.
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Tenant engagement levels/interest • The percentage of tenants satisfied with the opportunity to participate and influence decision making processes has decreased slightly from 76% in 2021/22 to 72% in 2022/23. • Similar to other social landlords, there has been a decrease in the number of our tenants engaging through more traditional routes such as formal groups, RTO or scrutiny panels with increased take-up in digital opportunities to get involved. • Recent pulse survey results provided insight into how tenants wanted to participate in engagement meetings and events. The majority of tenants (37%) preferred to meet in person compared to 36% who did not want to attend more formal meetings, while 11% preferred online and 28% a combination of the two. • When tenants were asked if they are more likely to attend meetings and events if they were held closer to their homes, 52% of tenants said that it would make no difference, while 43% said it would. 8. TP Strategy priorities Based on the above and from the engagement and consultation events with tenants, the TP Strategy vision for 2024 – 2027 is that: “Tenant participation in Perth and Kinross offers everyone an opportunity to work together, be listened to and influence decisions on issues which matter most to them and improve housing outcomes” Along with the vision, four key priorities for the Strategy were also co-produced with tenants. These four priorities focus on: • Priority 1: Create a culture of tenant participation across staff and tenants. • Priority 2: Improve communication and keep tenants informed of the decisions which affect them. • Priority 3: Enable everyone to have a say in the housing decisions that matter to them. • Priority 4: Ensure tenants and communities lead the way in improving neighbourhoods and place. Actions for Priority 1: Create a culture of tenant participation across staff and tenants. The following priority actions have been identified to enable the Housing Service and tenants to deliver the following Strategy Priority 1 outcomes: • Design a set of shared values which set out the mindset and behaviours needed to drive a new tenant participation culture and launch this widely across our staff, tenants and elected members. • Involve frontline managers, senior staff and elected members in promoting and supporting tenant participation. • Establish a tenant participation framework setting out the tenant participation role of all staff across Housing Services in delivering the Tenant Participation Strategy. • Develop a communications strategy for tenants highlighting that ‘everyone has something to offer’ to be delivered by frontline staff in Locality Teams.
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• Deliver a joint training programme on the values of Perth and Kinross tenant participation for staff, tenants and elected members. Actions for Priority 2: Improve communication and keep tenants informed of the decisions which affect them. The Housing Service is committed to working in partnership with tenants to make the changes needed to improve the approach to tenant communication. Tenants have expressed a need to have a more person-centred approach, based on a better understanding of how individual tenants would like to be kept informed. Alongside this, the Council wants to extend and promote a wide range of methods of communication, exploring and piloting new methods in partnership with tenants. • Pilot a six-month TP communication plan setting out planned communication and engagement activity across the year. • Relaunch and update the Tenant Register to generate new tenant interest. • Ensure all tenants receive feedback after TP activities, using the “You Said/We Did” format. • Promote the menu of TP opportunities widely across Perth and Kinross. • Launch pulse surveys to gauge tenant awareness of key decision-making opportunities. • Identify individual tenant communication preferences using the menu of opportunities. • Further develop the digital strategy to support digital inclusion for tenants. Actions for Priority 3: Enable everyone to have a say in the housing decisions that matter to them. The following priority actions have been identified to enable the Housing Service and tenants to deliver on the following Strategy Priority 3 Outcomes: • Identify groups of tenants who are least likely to get involved and target engagement at a locality level in a way that suits them. • Expand links with agencies who work with hard-to-reach groups such as young people and identify ways to improve involvement in TP. • To ensure tenants are fully supported, review and implement recommendations in relation to grant assistance/tenant participation budge to support people. • Establish locality-based working groups that meet both service needs and tenants’ interests. • Develop a framework to record and monitor how the views and experiences of tenants have been used to inform service delivery. • Co-produce with tenants a range of incentives and support to increase TP. • Launch a recruitment programme to increase the number of tenants involved in TP by promoting the menu of opportunities.
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Actions for Priority 4: Ensure tenants and communities lead the way in improving neighbourhoods and place Tenants, as an important part of local communities, are best placed to identify local needs and solutions. Better outcomes will be delivered by ensuring that tenants are placed at the heart of influencing community-based decisions on neighbourhoods and placemaking. This means that tenants themselves can make the connections between improving homes (through the Housing Service investment programme) and improving places through neighbourhood improvement and investment. The following priority actions have been identified to enable the Housing Service and tenants to deliver the following Strategy Priority 4 Outcomes: • Align the Local Action Partnership Plans with TP priorities to maximise the opportunity for tenants to get involved and influence decisions made in their community or by the Housing Service. • Launch the new TP Strategy across Local Action Partnerships to ensure they are a key driver for TP and engagement. • Upskill frontline staff to provide appropriate support and assistance for tenants to ensure they can be fully involved in their Local Action Partnerships and other engagement activities. • Establish links between TP budget and community participatory budget events. • Devolve budget to support TP events and activities at a locality level. • Expand links with local community agencies to support delivery of locality TP priorities. • Develop locality opportunities for social activities that will encourage TP and build capacity in communities. 9. Our New Approach to Tenant Involvement in Perth & Kinross The new Strategy provides an opportunity to shift the TP framework in Perth & Kinross away from specialist or planned activity alone, to simple day to day activity. Driving a strong culture of tenant participation across housing staff and tenants should enable tenant involvement to become a ‘business as usual activity’ with staff routinely engaging with tenants and communities to identify and deliver service improvements. This will represent a major shift in the delivery of TP opportunities at a locality and community level by frontline staff who are the most heavily engaged with those communities. Building this culture should succeed in further developing TP so that strong commitments can be forged between tenants and housing staff to work together to deliver the Strategy and improve the delivery of housing services. Building on local and community knowledge will be key to this approach, as will be building up insight of our tenants and their participation preferences.
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Our Framework for Involvement TP is about enabling tenants and service users to get involved in the decision-making processes of the housing service. Delivered well, tenant participation gives tenants and service users the opportunity to influence decisions and also helps the housing service to deliver better services which focus on the priorities which matter most tenants. The Housing Service’s framework for involvement sets out the approach to TP. It offers different levels of involvement to enable effective communication, consultation and engagement. By offering this approach, it is hoped that tenants have freedom to decide how and when to get involved in a way that works best for them. Communication is about the range of methods the housing service will use to keep tenants informed and the exchange of information between them. There are a variety of methods which the housing service discussed and agreed with tenants as part of developing the Strategy. It is recognised that tenant preferences, circumstances and priorities may change over time and the type of communication methods may differ depending on the particular housing issue. Taking this into account, the housing service’s approach to communication will be based on: • Offering a mix of methods based on tenant preferences. • The particular housing issue involved. • Regular review of how tenants want to be kept informed. Consultation should focus TP activity on the housing issues tenants most want to be involved with and influence over, including our annual rent consultation. Through engagement with tenants during the development of the Strategy the housing service has identified that the main issues which matter most to tenants are local neighbourhood issues, repairs, anti-social behaviour, new council homes and improvements to existing homes. Effective consultation should use a wide range of methods tailored to each housing issue. The housing service’s approach to consultation will be based on: • The main housing issues which matter most to tenants. • A wide range of methods to enable tenants to get fully involved if and when they choose to. • Regular reviews of consultation methods to make sure they are working. Engagement refers to the activities and opportunities the housing service will offer for tenants to influence housing policy, service design and decision-making processes. This includes the development of plans and strategies, scrutiny of housing services, service improvement work and the design of new services. The housing service has engaged with tenants to agree preferred engagement opportunities and activities. Our approach to engagement will be based on: - • Being clear about the purpose of the engagement activity. • Identifying who needs and wants to be to be involved in engagement activity. • Designing the most suitable method of engagement to maximise tenant involvement.
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10. Our Menu of Opportunities A menu of opportunities has been designed by tenants and aligned into the categories of the housing service’s framework for involvement, communication, consultation and engagement. To provide individual choice and flexibility in what, and how, tenants can access participation opportunities, the menu has also been divided into involvement levels, with communication forming lower-level involvement, consultation forming medium level involvement and engagement forming higher level involvement. Communication: • Registering their preferred communication methods by emailing or calling us. • Completing satisfaction surveys on housing services – online or paper. • Attending a Tenant Conference event about Housing Services. • Reading the quarterly magazine On The House – online or paper copy. Consultation: • Completing consultation questionnaire to influence decision-making. • Attending local tenants’ events to discuss issues which matter to them. • Getting involved in neighbourhood walkabouts to identify Estate Based Initiative improvement projects. • Attending online or face-to-face gatherings such as coffee mornings. Engagement • Attending a pop-up session including themed events to influence decisions. • Using a community app to get involved in discussions. • Attending a smaller focus group to influence decisions. • Becoming an E-Panel member. • Joining a group which meets to scrutinise Housing Services. 11. Delivering the Strategy’s priorities and outcomes The actions set under each Strategy Priority have been developed into a detailed Action Plan which sets out specific actions, timescales, and responsibilities to guide implementation and delivery, providing a strong basis for monitoring progress. The Action Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis through a tenant-led panel to ensure that the priority actions are being implemented in TP activities throughout the year. The review will measure the impact of the actions, outcomes and identify any areas for improvement. The panel will be open to all tenants, staff, and elected members. Any changes made as part of the review will be shared with tenants, staff, and elected members. The Housing Service has always worked with tenants to monitor and evaluate participation activities. In the next three years we will work to further develop how TP activities are delivered in line with Outcome 3 (Participation) of the Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Strategy will be reviewed annually through a tenant-led review panel to provide feedback on different measures including: • Measuring overall performance against the Strategy action plan to ensure that outcomes are delivered through a range of TP opportunities at all levels. • Reviewing the tenant and staff training program to ensure that the Strategy priorities and actions are being effectively delivered.
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• Reviewing the minutes of tenant meetings to confirm that all actions have been followed up by the relevant team or service to promote a culture of working together. • Reviewing the number of tenants engaging in all TP activities to identify preferred methods of participation and identify changes to inform how TP is delivered. • Reviewing how information is being communicated to tenants in line with communication preferences to maximise engagement in a range of TP opportunities. • Evaluating all scrutiny feedback and action plans to ensure that opportunities for service improvement have been considered and implemented where possible. • Monitoring locality-based tenant participation activity against the Local Action Partnership Plans to ensure that TP is being delivered in partnership with Council services to meet different locality priorities. Tenant Participation Resources TP is the responsibility of the housing service with the current approach based on a traditional model of delivering tenant support through a specialist TP Team. Currently, the team are responsible for the planning and delivery of the majority of TP activity across the four Locality Teams. The previous Strategy is aligned with the structure of the housing service locality model, with TP activity delivered in Perth City, Letham and Hillyland, North Perthshire and South Perthshire. The TP Team consists of four employees with a TP Worker assigned to each locality promoting TP and tackling any local issues around TP. Each TP Worker has an individual specialism including Digital Inclusion, Older Persons Housing, Homelessness and there is a dedicated TP Worker for each Gypsy/Traveller site. The TP Team has specific responsibility to provide support to new and existing groups, provide support to locality housing teams, senior managers and elected members, co-ordinate TP training, promote TP at a strategic level and consult with the wider community. A key priority within the new Strategy is to change the TP culture across Perth & Kinross Council to TP as a ‘business as usual activity’ across all housing staff. Frontline staff, management and senior management will all be involved in TP, including its promotion, and the delivery of the priorities within the Action Plan. There is an Estate Based Initiative budget of £200,000 per annum split across the four locality teams. To empower tenants and communities, funding is available through a ‘Think Yes’ budget which will be developed as one of the TP strategy actions to support community improvements out with the scope of EBIs. Funding is also available through Community Funding such as Participatory Budgets as well as other grants, the TP team can support tenants and tenant lead groups to identify eligible funding opportunities.
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Tenant Participation Action Plan 2024 / 2027 Appendix 1 Tenant Participation (TP) Strategy Priority 1: Creating a culture of tenant participation across all staff and tenants. Action Point Timescale Responsibility 1.1 Design a set of shared values which set out the mindset and behaviours needed to drive a new TP culture and launch widely across staff, tenants and elected members. Dec 2024 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 1.2 Involve front line staff, managers, senior staff and elected members in promoting and supporting TP through staff Locality Action Plans, including training and consultation materials. 2024 / 2027 Team Leader 1.3 Establish a tenant participation framework setting out the tenant participation role of all staff across housing services in delivering the Strategy. March 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 1.4 Develop a communication strategy for tenants that 'everyone has something to offer' to be delivered by frontline staff in locality teams. Dec 2024 Communication Officer 1.5 Deliver a joint training programme on the values of Perth & Kinross Council tenant participation across staff, tenants and elected members. 202/27 Senior Tenant Participation Officer / Team Leader Tenant Participation Strategy (TP) Priority 2: Improving communication to keep tenants informed of the decisions which affect them. Action Point Timescale Responsibility 2.1 Pilot a 6-month tenant participation communication plan setting out planned communication, consultation and engagement activity across the year. April 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer / Communication Officer 2.2 Relaunch and update the Tenants Register to generate new tenant interest. Dec 2024 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 2.3 Ensure all tenants receive feedback after tenant participation activities using a range of opportunities. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 2.4 Promote the menu of TP opportunities widely across Perth & Kinross 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 2.5 Continue to gauge tenant awareness of key decision-making opportunities through pulse surveys (approximate 100 per month). 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer
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2.6 Identify individual tenants’ communication preferences through all staff interaction with tenants. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 2.7 Further develop the digital strategy to support digital inclusion for tenants. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer Tenant Participation Strategy (TP) Priority 3: Ensuring everyone has a say in the housing decisions that matter to them. Action Point Timescale Responsibility 3.1 Identify groups of tenants who are least likely to get involved and target engagement at a locality level. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 3.2 Expand links with agencies who work with groups such as young people and hard to reach to identify ways to improve involvement in TP. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 3.3 To ensure tenants are fully supported, review and implement recommendations for grant assistance and TP participatory budgets. June 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer / Team Leader 3.4 Establish locality working groups in each locality that meets both service needs and tenants’ interests. July 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 3.5 Develop a framework to record and monitor how the views and experiences of tenants have been used to inform service delivery. Dec 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 3.6 Co-produce with tenants a range of incentives and support to increase tenant participation. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 3.7 Launch a recruitment programme to increase the number of tenants involved in TP by promoting the menu of opportunities. March 2025 Senior Tenant Participation Officer
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Tenant Participation (TP) Strategy Priority 4: Ensuring tenants and communities lead the way in improving neighbourhoods and place. Action Point Timescale Responsibility 4.1 Align the Local Action Partnership Plans with tenant participation priorities to maximise the opportunity for tenants to get involved and influence decisions made in their community or within the housing service. 2024/2027 Team Leader 4.2 Launch the TP Strategy across the Local Action Partnerships to ensure they are a key driver for tenant participation and engagement. Dec 2024 Senior Tenant Participation Officer / Team Leader 4.3 Upskill frontline staff to provide appropriate support and assistance to tenants to ensure they can be fully involved in their Local Action Partnership and other engage activities. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer / Team Leader 4.4 Establish links between TP budget and community participatory budget events. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 4.5 Devolve budgets to support TP events and activities at a locality level. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 4.6 Expand links with local community agencies to support delivery of locality TP priorities. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer 4.7 Develop locality opportunities for social activities that will encourage TP and build capacity within communities. 2024/2027 Senior Tenant Participation Officer
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Appendix 2: Social Housing Charter – Communication and Participation Standards The Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 introduced the Scottish Social Housing Charter (The Charter). This sets out the standards and outcomes which landlords should be delivering to all social housing tenants, wherever they live. The Charter came into effect in 2012 and was reviewed in 2016 with a revised Charter in place from April 2017. It focuses landlord activity on services that are important to tenants and other customers and encourages a culture of involving service users in the design, delivery and performance of services. To ensure this succeeds, tenants are empowered to work in partnership with their landlords to monitor and challenge decisions and performance. The independent Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) is responsible for monitoring, assessing and reporting on how well social landlords, achieve the Charter’s outcomes. The Charter sets out the following specific outcomes and standards for Communication and Participation: Communication Social landlords manage their businesses so that: • Tenants and other customers find it easy to communicate with their landlord and get the information they need about their landlord, how and why it makes decisions and the services it provides. Participation Social landlords manage their businesses so that: • Tenants and other customers find it easy to participate in and influence their landlord’s decisions at a level they feel comfortable with. The Charter makes it clear that the outcomes on communication and participation should be reflected across the whole of a landlord’s activities. Where these outcomes are being achieved a landlord’s overall performance is better. The Housing Service provides annual performance information to the Scottish Housing Regulator including feedback from tenants on satisfaction with service delivery and communication. The extent to which tenants feel informed and involved in decision making is also measured. The Charter also includes an outcome on equalities for social landlords in Scotland aimed at ensuring equality of opportunity and access. The outcome states that: “Every tenant and other customer has their individual needs recognised, is treated fairly and with respect, and received fair access to housing and housing services”. The housing service has a dedicated Equality and Fairness Impact Assessment (EFIA), which sets out a detailed list of actions for each of the equality strands. The Strategy will be assessed against this framework.
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We will continue to monitor and report on the equalities impact of the Strategy over the next three years, with a focus on the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act. If any there is any negative impact on a particular section of the tenant population is identified, appropriate action will be implemented to redress the situation with the Strategy Action Plan.
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Appendix 3 – The Strategic Context Building on the priorities set out in the Local Housing Strategy (LHS), the Strategy details how effective tenant involvement will result in better service experiences, housing outcomes and value for money. The Strategy aims to build positive relationships between staff, tenants, tenant representatives and other local stakeholders to ensure that all tenants find it easy to get involved at the level that is right for them. The Housing Service is committed to ensuring that the Strategy is set within the wider Community Planning and LHS delivery processes, ensuring that tenants are prioritised as stakeholders in community empowerment opportunities. The national and local strategic framework that will support and enable delivery is set out in more detail below. The Strategic Context for TP in Perth and Kinross: Housing to 2040: Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy providing a vision for what housing should look like and how it will be provided to the people of Scotland, no matter where they live and what point in their life they are. The Strategy is developed around four key themes: There are actions and supporting policies set out within Housing to 2040 which are relevant to the principles of the Strategy, including: Personalisation Enabling everyone to live independently in their own home where they chose to live by • Developing more person-centred approaches and integrated working across public services. • Reviewing the Housing for Varying Needs standards and introducing a Scottish Accessible Homes standard. Communities Creating quality places for people to live as a core ambition for housing. This ambition applies to all communities in Scotland and recognises that housing is more than just a home with importance given to factors such as a garden, community safety, the availability and suitability of green space and vibrant town centres. Community empowerment and involvement in place-making should be delivered through: • Supporting more community-led housing. • Embedding community wealth building in the approach and practice of social housing providers. • Establishing a Knowledge Exchange network to support more people to get involved in the planning and design of housing. • Enabling the introduction of local place plans for communities to express their aspirations for the future of their neighbourhood.
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Housing Outcomes Improving accessibility, affordability, and standards across both the social and private rented sectors by: • Placing TP at the heart of developing a national network of social rented tenants. This network should represent the diversity of social rented tenants by including people with protected characteristics as well families and children, young people, and people with a wide range of backgrounds. Digital Bringing digital connectivity to all homes to tackle digital exclusion. Perth and Kinross Corporate Plan It is important that the new Strategy aligns with the principles of the Perth & Kinross Corporate Plan to achieve the Council’s aim of “working in partnership with communities”. The principles of the Corporate Plan are: • A bold vision: Designed with people, communities and partners to create a sense of purpose and a shared direction of travel. • Enabling/thinking yes: Together we will foster a culture of trust where communities influence change and flourish to achieve their full potential. • Kindness: Together we will treat everyone fairly with kindness, compassion, respect and dignity. Our new ways of thinking and doing will include everyone. • Partnership/Collaboration: Together we will work with all of our partners to shape services around people and communities. The development of the new Strategy provides the opportunity to align tenant participation priorities with the offer made to improve the lives of everyone living in Perth and Kinross. Resident involvement A priority of the Strategy is to get everyone involved in matters that are important to them. The new Strategy recognises that all tenants have something to offer and puts tenants in control of choosing their level of involvement. The Strategy will support active participation through a greater understanding of tenant involvement preferences so that opportunities can be targeted and tailored to maximise engagement. Culture The Strategy is firmly focused on creating a culture of TP across the Housing Service to empower tenants to influence decision making and to feel listened to. The Strategy will therefore focus activity on empowering staff to enable and support TP as a business-as- usual activity, with all staff developing a “how can we” approach to engaging and involving tenants in decision making.
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Community Empowerment The Strategy acknowledges that the communities that tenants live in, have many strengths and assets, and are good at identifying their needs and designing solutions. The Strategy sets out the Housing Service’s commitment to align TP activity with community activity so that tenants can lead the way in improving place and neighbourhoods. This involves finding opportunities to align community and tenant budgets to maximise positive impact on homes and neighbourhoods. Better outcomes will be delivered through improving communication and placing tenants at the heart of influencing decisions on homes and housing related services. The Strategy aims to give more choice to tenants by better understanding the service development and improvement issues that should be prioritised in TP participation activity. This will focus the service development agenda of Housing and Community Services and enable delivery of better tenant outcomes. Local Housing Strategy (LHS) The vision for housing in Scotland places housing firmly at the centre of other national objectives including tackling fuel poverty and inequality, creating and supporting jobs, meeting energy efficiency and fuel poverty targets, tackling the climate emergency and creating connected, successful communities. The LHS vision also places housing at the centre of major ambitions for Perth & Kinross including: The delivery of the Strategy will identify opportunities for tenant involvement in the implementation of LHS actions including: • Consulting on the design of a wider range of affordable housing options across Perth & Kinross • Ensuring that the locality approach to place making places tenants at the heart of processes to improve neighbourhoods and create sustainable communities • Continuing to develop partnership working to support tenants to get involved in community budgeting and neighbourhood investment processes.
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Appendix 4: What we know about our tenants Our tenant profile is diverse, with a wide range of needs, preferences, lifestyles and opinions evident across the population. The housing service is committed to encouraging as many tenants as possible to get involved to ensure that tenants influence reflects the rich diversity of the population in terms of service improvement and design. This approach will also enable the TP programme to be targeted to the types of activities that tenants are most keen to get involved in. The housing service has just over 8,000 tenancies with a total household population of just over 15,000 living across Perth & Kinross. 72% of tenants are of working age (16 - 64 years), with 28% over the age of 65 years. Only a very small proportion (5%) are under 25 years of age, with the largest proportion of tenants (19%) aged between 55 and 64 years. This suggests that the tenant population will age over the next 10 years. Almost 50% of tenants live in flats and in terms of property size almost 50% of tenants in flats live in two-bedroom accommodation. The profile of tenants is similar when considered at a locality level, with the exceptions as follows: • Letham where there is a higher proportion of tenants aged between 35-44 years. • North and South Perthshire where there is a higher proportion of houses than flats. Recent tenant pulse survey provides the housing service with information on how tenants want to take part in engagement meetings and events. The results were as follows: • 37% would prefer in person meetings. • 36% did not want to attend formal meetings. • 11% would attend online meetings, • 28% would prefer a combination of in person and online. The main reasons for not attending meetings or events were work, health reasons, caring responsibilities and not enough time. Some tenants did not want to get involved as they had no issues with housing service delivery. When asked if they were more likely to attend meetings and events if they were held closer to home, 52% of tenants said that would make no difference, whilst 43% were more likely to attend. Tenants preferred methods of engagement were meetings, closely followed by e-mail, surveys, social media and texts. Tenants were less keen to participate in more formal engagement opportunities such as forums, conference, events/workshops, drop-ins and focus groups. These are all important factors to consider when delivering TP activities as they should be delivered to meet the needs and preferences of our tenants.
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Appendix 5: New Strategy – Our Approach to Tenant Consultation and Engagement A tenant consultation and engagement programme was delivered to seek tenant views and use feedback to inform the Strategy development. This ensured that the Strategy was genuinely co-produced by tenants. The Strategy early engagement survey ensured tenants across Perth & Kinross could express their views on: • The extent to which tenants currently get involved in TP. • The barriers to getting involved. • The main issues tenants want to get involved with. • The ways in which tenants want to get involved. The survey was promoted on social media and made widely available through Locality Housing Teams. The survey was open for three weeks and was made available in a range of formats including online and paper formats to encourage as many tenants as possible to take part. A total of 75 tenants took part in the early engagement survey. The results are similar to the recent pulse surveys outlined above but ‘other reasons’ for not getting involved include events not being held in a convenient place, insufficient online events and events being held during working hours. Survey feedback revealed the top five activities tenants that want to get involved in are: 1. Local neighbourhood 2. Repairs 3. Anti-social behaviour 4. New Council homes 5. Improvement to homes A Tenant Participation Steering (TPS) Group also ensured the delivery of a genuinely co- produced strategy. The Group consisting of tenants, tenant participation staff and housing service leaders was established. Eight tenants were recruited via the Survey and a recruitment drive promoted across localities. Two half day Tenant Participation Strategy development meetings were held with the TPS Group. The purpose of the sessions was to identify and agree the main issues that should form the priorities of the new Strategy, informed by the outcomes of the survey and tenant feedback. Draft Strategy priorities were then considered by a wider group of tenants at the Strategy Tenant Conference. Appendix 2 details what tenants’ comments are for each of the priorities. A final TPS Group workshop was held to agree the final the Strategy vision, the range of actions for delivery under each priority, and to finalise a new menu of opportunities for tenant involvement.
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A TPS conference was held to encourage wider tenant involvement and to ensure the delivery of a genuinely co-produced strategy. The purpose of the event was to produce a draft vision, priorities, and action points that should form the Strategy programme over the next three years. The conference was held using a hybrid format. In total,15 tenants attended, with the event successful in co-producing: • Three draft vision statements as prototypes to agree the final Strategy vision. • Agreement on the four priorities that should drive TP activity. • Draft action points to deliver each Strategy priority. As part of developing the new Strategy with tenants, the Early Engagement survey asked tenants: • How they would like to engage? • What were the current barriers to engagement? • What are the housing issues that mattered most to them? Feedback from wider TP strategy activity, including Steering Group feedback and the Strategy conference reflected closely the outcomes of the Early Engagement survey. This feedback was used to define the following recommendations for improving the approach to tenant participation and involvement: Improve the range of activities - Tenants would like to be offered a better mix of activities with more involvement enabled by local housing offices, e.g. locality involvement through thematic roadshows. Tenants highlighted that Perth & Kinross is a vast area with some feedback suggesting there is too much TP activity in Perth City Centre which is not accessible to tenants in rural areas. Improve TP Culture - Tenants would like to build better relationships with housing staff to improve trust. Tenants feel that there is a disconnect between what happens at TP meetings and how this translates in relation to their experience. Tenants would like more transparency on the decisions being made by the housing service. Fewer events - Tenants suggested that more informal opportunities to come together to discuss experiences would be beneficial as involvement in more formal events such as RTO meetings, scrutiny panels etc are challenging for tenants in work. A more person-centred approach - Tenants would like to see a more tailored approach to communication and help for people to get involved in the issues they care most about. Equalities - Tenants want to see more effort being made to capture the opinions of hard-to- reach groups such as young people and those with a disability. Ongoing commitment to TP Support - Tenants acknowledged the need for learning and development opportunities to support them to engage with confidence. Based on the outcomes of the Early Engagement Survey analysis, meetings were held with the TPS Group to discuss, identify and agree the main issues and emerging themes that should be addressed by the new Strategy. A tenant conference was held to further define and agree the Strategy priorities and the action needed to achieve positive outcomes. The Strategy priorities and actions identified were co-produced by tenants, informed by an evidence based on local and national good practice and working with tenants to identify what the main participation issues are. Four Strategy priorities were agreed with tenants focusing on a culture of TP, communication, having a say in what is important to tenants and working with communities.