Item 11 - “Involving You”, West Dunbartonshire Council’s Tenant Participation Strategy 2021 - 24 Progress Report
West Dunbartonshire Council · 24 August 2022
Back to Housing & Communities Committee — 24 August 2022 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by the Chief Officer, Housing and Employability Housing and Communities Committee: 24 August 2022 __________________________________________________________________ Subject: “Involving You”, West Dunbartonshire Council’s Tenant Participation Strategy 2021-24 - Annual Progress Report 1. Purpose 1.1 This purpose of the report is to provide the Housing and Communities Committee with an annual progress report on the implementation of “Involving You”, West Dunbartonshire Council’s Tenant Participation Strategy which covers the period 2021-24. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Housing and Communities Committee: (i) Note the progress and achievements made in relation to the implementation of the first year of the strategy’s action plan, including the key role played by tenant representatives in improving housing services. 3. Background 3.1 The Council has a statutory obligation under the Housing (Scotland) Acts 2001 and 2010 to produce and adequately resource a Tenant Participation Strategy to evidence a strong commitment to involving tenants in shaping and improving housing services. 3.2 Our current Tenant Participation Strategy called “Involving You” covering the period 2021 to 2024 was approved by the Housing and Communities Committee in February 2021. This strategy builds on the positive developments of previous strategies successfully implemented since 2001. 3.3 In addition to being a legislative requirement, involving tenants and other service users in decisions about their homes and communities is now accepted as best practice for all social housing providers. The Tenant Participation Strategy supports this Council’s commitment to deliver positive outcomes for our tenants and wider communities. 3.4 West Dunbartonshire Council continues to be an exemplar organisation in supporting tenant participation activities. The Council was the first local authority in Scotland to be awarded Gold Accreditation by TPAS Scotland (Tenant Participation Advisory Service - Scotland). This followed a robust scrutiny of our tenant participation provision and included TPAS Scotland examining our practices and interviewing tenants and staff. The service scored an overall grade of 6 which equates to “an excellent provision of tenant ITEM 11
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participation with outstanding sector leading strengths in the majority of standards”. 4. Main issues 4.1 “Involving You” is underpinned by the following strategic vision:- “West Dunbartonshire’s Housing Services’ vision for tenant participation is one of sharing information with our tenants, future tenants and other service users in a variety of ways; providing opportunities for them to express their views in a way that suits them; listening to and acting on tenants’ views to improve the housing services we provide and allowing our tenants to scrutinise our performance”. 4.2 The aims of the strategy are to: • Improve the culture and practise of involving tenants across housing services; • Improve feedback to tenants to show where they have influenced or shaped the housing service; • Promote and provide a wide range of options for tenants to get involved; • Encourage involvement of under-represented groups; • Ensure that tenants are aware of the options available to shape housing services; • Assess our performance in line with the Scottish Social Housing Charter and involve tenants in our Annual Tenant Report; • Ensure that resources we put in place and practices we carry out are adequate to support and develop tenant involvement; and • Make sure that we communicate effectively with tenants and provide good quality, accessible information that tenants want. The strategy has a comprehensive set of actions aimed at achieving these key aims over the 3 year period and progress in terms of implementation at the end of Year 1 is summarised below (Appendix 1 sets out the full detail of the action plan). “Involving You” Tenant Participation Strategy 2021/24 Total Progress at end of Year 1 7 35 0 0 0 42 Action Status Key Completed Not Started; In Progress Check Progress Overdue Cancelled
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Improve the culture and practise of involving tenants across housing services 4.3 Improving the culture and practice of Tenant Participation across housing services is a key aim to ensure that changes are embedded across all housing service areas. 4.4 Key achievements during 2021/22 include: • All Tenant Participation activities being sustained whilst Covid-19 restrictions were in place; • Virtual meetings facilitated to ensure that tenant representatives had regular access to the Housing Convener, Senior Housing Managers and all relevant officers; • Published an annual Tenant Participation performance report (attached as Appendix 2); • The production of an electronic quarterly Tenant Participation for tenant representatives, Elected Members and staff to maximise awareness of tenant participation activities; • Publicising outcomes of consultations as well as tenant involvement in WDC/WDTRO (West Dunbartonshire Tenants and Residents Organisation) Liaison, Joint Rent Group, Scrutiny Panel and TRA (Tenant and Resident Associations) activities to demonstrate the impact tenants can have; • Created an online ilearn course for staff to increase understanding of Tenant Participation and the role staff play. Improve feedback to tenants to show where they have influenced or shaped the housing service 4.5 The Consultation Toolkit continues to be used to facilitate effective feedback to tenants when reviewing policies or practices. In 2021/22 it was used in the review of the Allocation Policy, Local Housing Strategy and the Rent Setting process and consultation summaries were provided as part of the background papers provided to the Housing and Communities Committee. 4.6 Housing News is used to publicise outcomes from consultations to help encourage more tenants get involved and demonstrate that they can influence decisions and policies. Direct feedback also given to all tenants attending the virtual rent setting meeting. 4.7 A consultation calendar is created and published on the Council’s website annually which aims to ensure that tenants are aware of when they can give their views. There is also a consultation outcome section on the webpage to demonstrate the impact tenants views have had. 4.8 Tenants and Residents Associations are also supported to demonstrate their achievements at a more local level as well as using the Housing News to promote their activities.
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Promote and provide a wide range of options for tenants to get involved 4.9 We continue to promote a wide range of options to encourage tenants to get involved in a way that suits them. We use the Housing News to advertise tenant group meetings and activities, as well as specific articles on the Joint Rent Group and Scrutiny Panel activities. The WDTRO also have a regular column which they use to promote their activities. 4.10 Tenant involvement in scrutinising Housing Services is also supported and the Scrutiny Panel’s reports are publicised in the Housing News, on our Tenant Participation webpages and shared with the WDTRO. 4.11 We have developed a digital hub via Mighty Networks as a more interactive and accessible option to increase tenant participation. It is being piloted initially by the Scrutiny Panel and has been well received. 4.12 We have promoted the personal as well as community benefits of getting involved/volunteering and created a leaflet to promote these aspects and used an article in the Housing News to focus on them. 4.13 We have helped embed the “Estate Walkabout” process for tenants to inspect their local area and ensure that agreed actions from these activities are recorded and updates provided, so that they are effective and encourage other tenants to participate. Encourage involvement of under-represented groups 4.14 Meetings with members of West Dunbartonshire Youth Development team have taken place, as well as with the Youth Alliance and YSORTIT, to explore opportunities to develop a Youth Housing Forum. There was not support for a specific youth housing forum but agreed a more effective option is for closer working with Tenant Participation. 4.15 Regular contact has been established with tenants at the Gypsy Travellers site at Dennystoun Forge to increase trust and offer dialogue opportunities in a way they are comfortable with. Ensure that tenants are aware of the options available to shape housing services 4.16 To ensure tenants are aware of the options available to shape housing services and budgets, we continue to promote these widely through Housing News, our Tenant Participation Updates and online. 4.17 Our annual rent setting consultation process continues to develop transparency around the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which tenants and the Scottish Housing Regulator are looking for. Our Joint Rent Group continues to meet
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monthly, with tenant volunteers and key housing and finance staff working jointly on improving the Council’s compliance with HRA Guidance, as well as making budget processes more transparent. Improve involvement in monitoring performance through our Scrutiny Panel and encourage tenant scrutiny activities 4.18 In line with the Scottish Social Housing Charter we continue to develop tenant involvement in monitoring our performance and becoming involved in scrutiny activities. During 2021/22, our Scrutiny Panel completed their sixth scrutiny exercise looking at the Council’s complaints process. A report was presented to the Housing Improvement Board in October 2021 and all the Panel’s recommendations were accepted and will be implemented throughout 2021/22. 4.19 We were able to recruit a new Panel member and training with them and refresher training with existing members who wanted it, was carried out in May 2022. Ensure that resources we put in place and practices we carry out are adequate to support and develop tenant involvement 4.20 We continue to review the resources required to improve tenant participation and tenant scrutiny. The Tenant Participation budget is monitored monthly and reviewed annually. During 2021/22 we have continued to support 12 Tenant and Resident Associations, the WDTRO, Sheltered Housing Forum, Joint Rent Group, pre-HACC (Housing and Communities Committee) Forum and Scrutiny Panel to help them function effectively. 4.21 Training opportunities have been more limited in the last year but we still encouraged tenants to take advantage of those on offer which included: • funded three tenants to attend the TPAS Scotland conference in Clydebank; • funded a Scrutiny Panel member to attend a TPAS Scotland Scrutiny online session on report writing; and • Provided in-house treasurer, secretary and chairperson training for all new office bearers. Make sure that we communicate effectively with tenants and provide good quality, accessible information that tenants want 4.22 We continue to ensure that we communicate effectively and provide good quality accessible information that tenants want, primarily through our quarterly newsletter Housing News which is delivered to all tenants. As part of the Accreditation process, TPAS Scotland commended us on the quality of our communication with tenants and in particular our Tenant Participation Strategy. 4.23 We continually update the content of our Tenant Participation webpages to keep them up to date and ensure they are a useful resource for tenant groups
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and to share meeting information. In order to be published on the Council’s website, all documents must comply with accessibility standards. 4.24 Our Facebook page has increased in terms of the number of followers it has, particularly during and since lock-down, and we use this to share local community news, activities and promote consultations and ways to get involved. 4.25 During 2022/23 the following key actions from the Strategy will be delivered: • Develop tenant involvement in the decision making process of setting rents, Capital Programmes and review of Business Plan; • Promote Tenant Participation webpages as resources available 24/7; • Publish an annual “Involving You” Tenant Report; • Promote training opportunities as an incentive to encourage more tenants to get involved; • Continue membership of the West Dunbartonshire Equality Forum and develop opportunities to promote tenant participation to wider groups; • Feedback to tenants so that we can demonstrate where our tenants and other service users have influenced or shaped the housing service 5. People Implications 5.1 There are no people implications from this progress report. There are 2 dedicated staff members funded from the Housing Revenue Account, focused on the development and delivery of tenant participation within the Housing Development and Homelessness Team. In addition, supporting tenant participation is part of the remit of all Housing and Homelessness staff. The strategy will therefore be delivered with input from staff across all of Housing and Homelessness Services. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 Actions required to take the Strategy forward in 2022/23 will be delivered from within current budgetary provision which is reviewed on an annual basis. 6.2 There are no procurement implications. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 The Council has a statutory responsibility to develop and implement a Tenant Participation Strategy. Our “Involving You” strategy reflects the priorities and aspirations of tenants and tenant representatives, therefore there is a risk that if its key aims are not met then this would produce an adverse reaction from tenants, tenant representatives and from the Scottish Housing Regulator. 7.2 Our Tenant Participation Strategy builds on the achievements made in developing good working relationships with tenants over the years, improving transparency and a joint working approach to involving tenants. The continued delivery of the strategy is therefore essential in demonstrating the Council’s on-
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going commitment to continuous improvement across Housing Services and putting tenants at the centre of our activities. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment 8.1 An Equality, Health and Human Rights Impact Assessment was carried out as part of the strategy’s development and found no substantive negative impacts. This does not require to be updated in respect of this progress report. 9. Consultation 9.1 Regular Tenant Participation updates including the implementation of the strategy are provided at the quarterly WDC/WDTRO Liaison meetings and the minutes of these meetings are circulated to our Tenant & Resident Associations, WDTRO members, as well as being publicly available on the Council’s webpage. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 The Tenant Participation Strategy is the overarching document setting out the strategic direction for engagement with tenants and future tenants. The implementation of the Tenant Participation Strategy will continue to support and contribute greatly to all five of the Council’s key strategic priorities. Peter Barry Chief Officer, Housing and Employability Date: 11 August 2022 Person to Contact: John Kerr – Housing Development and Homelessness Manager, Housing Development and Homelessness Team: telephone 07793717981, email: john.kerr@west- dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: 1. Tenant Participation Strategy 2021-2024 action plan 2. Tenant Participation Annual Performance Report 2021/22 Background Papers: Tenant Participation Strategy 2021-2024 ‘Involving You’ Tenant Participation Equality Impact Assessment Wards Affected: All