Reviews of Tenant Involvement
The starting point with reviewing tenant / customer involvement in the governance of your organisation is to clarify the outcomes you want to achieve.
As Tamsin Stirling said in her 2019 review of tenant engagement in Wales for the Regulatory Board “Is the intent behind engagement about improving services / performance, influencing decision-making and budget setting, empowering individuals / groups, ensuring accountability to tenants, seeking constructive challenge, other things?”
Desired outcomes might include:
• Decision making on strategic objectives and allocation of resources are demonstrably influenced by the tenants’ voice (e.g. channel shifting aspects of an ICT strategy)
• Organisational culture and values enable the organisation (at all levels) to undertake effective tenant involvement
• Tenants’ voices shape decisions on policies for customer facing services that are reserved for the board (e.g. safeguarding, health and safety)
• Tenant feedback on the extent to which their experiences of services have been listened to, acted on and learned from, are embedded throughout assurances received by the board
• Trust is built between board and tenants based on good communication, honest dialogue and transparency.
The strategies you employ to achieve these outcomes can vary, and can include one or more of the following:
Tenants on the Board
Board members who are tenants can bring a different perspective to a board’s decision making, increase the diversity of thought around the board table and so help guard against “group think”. However, how an association goes about recruiting, selecting and developing tenants as board members is critical to effective and equal tenant involvement in governance.
Critical success factors include:
• Separating recruitment from selection. The widest possible pool of potential recruits increases the chances of being able to select individuals with the required skill set
• A wide range of opportunities to get involved with their landlord to reach those who are not currently ‘involved tenants’
• Multiple channels for advertising roles
• A longer-term plan, offering training and assessment to prepare tenants for future board opportunities.
• Apprentice or trainee board member roles
One approach to tenants on the board is to invite the Chair of the ‘top level’ tenant group to attend board meetings. While not a board member, this works best where they participate in the meeting and not just observe.
Tenants on Committees of the Board
Tenants can be included elsewhere in the governance structure as independent committee members. Most often this is tenant membership of a board committee focused on operations and service delivery. On these committees, Board members sit alongside the tenant members and can have delegated authority for approving operational strategies & policies, monitoring performance, and even approving expenditure within limits set by the Board.
Alternative governance structures
Some associations have developed the role of members. While a fully mutual Democratic Body is still very unusual (limited to Community Gateways in England and Merthyr Valleys Homes’ tenant and employee mutual in Wales) shareholding membership has been opened up elsewhere.
Tenant Scrutiny Panels
Scrutiny groups can be a key part of a board’s approach to assurance. Success factors include monitoring of performance; in-depth reviews of services and operations (often agreed in liaison with the Board); and evidence-based scrutiny reports which can be used to draw up service improvement action plans.
Finally, you may want to look at your whole approach to tenant engagement. The London Assembly report on tenant engagement published in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Hearing Resident Voices in Social Housing (November 2018) suggested a useful set of principles:
1. Co-design services with residents from the outset
2. Co-design the resident engagement structure
3. Show residents how contributions are used to take decisions
4. Commit to transparency: full and open access to information
5. Clear simple and easy procedure for complaints
6. Buy-in from housing officers: face-to-face engagement
7. Support and work with independent self-organised and representative tenant groups
We can work with you to review your current approach, to look at how you can increase and improve involvement and to consider introducing new strategies.
As Tamsin Stirling said in her 2019 review of tenant engagement in Wales for the Regulatory Board “Is the intent behind engagement about improving services / performance, influencing decision-making and budget setting, empowering individuals / groups, ensuring accountability to tenants, seeking constructive challenge, other things?”
Desired outcomes might include:
• Decision making on strategic objectives and allocation of resources are demonstrably influenced by the tenants’ voice (e.g. channel shifting aspects of an ICT strategy)
• Organisational culture and values enable the organisation (at all levels) to undertake effective tenant involvement
• Tenants’ voices shape decisions on policies for customer facing services that are reserved for the board (e.g. safeguarding, health and safety)
• Tenant feedback on the extent to which their experiences of services have been listened to, acted on and learned from, are embedded throughout assurances received by the board
• Trust is built between board and tenants based on good communication, honest dialogue and transparency.
The strategies you employ to achieve these outcomes can vary, and can include one or more of the following:
Tenants on the Board
Board members who are tenants can bring a different perspective to a board’s decision making, increase the diversity of thought around the board table and so help guard against “group think”. However, how an association goes about recruiting, selecting and developing tenants as board members is critical to effective and equal tenant involvement in governance.
Critical success factors include:
• Separating recruitment from selection. The widest possible pool of potential recruits increases the chances of being able to select individuals with the required skill set
• A wide range of opportunities to get involved with their landlord to reach those who are not currently ‘involved tenants’
• Multiple channels for advertising roles
• A longer-term plan, offering training and assessment to prepare tenants for future board opportunities.
• Apprentice or trainee board member roles
One approach to tenants on the board is to invite the Chair of the ‘top level’ tenant group to attend board meetings. While not a board member, this works best where they participate in the meeting and not just observe.
Tenants on Committees of the Board
Tenants can be included elsewhere in the governance structure as independent committee members. Most often this is tenant membership of a board committee focused on operations and service delivery. On these committees, Board members sit alongside the tenant members and can have delegated authority for approving operational strategies & policies, monitoring performance, and even approving expenditure within limits set by the Board.
Alternative governance structures
Some associations have developed the role of members. While a fully mutual Democratic Body is still very unusual (limited to Community Gateways in England and Merthyr Valleys Homes’ tenant and employee mutual in Wales) shareholding membership has been opened up elsewhere.
Tenant Scrutiny Panels
Scrutiny groups can be a key part of a board’s approach to assurance. Success factors include monitoring of performance; in-depth reviews of services and operations (often agreed in liaison with the Board); and evidence-based scrutiny reports which can be used to draw up service improvement action plans.
Finally, you may want to look at your whole approach to tenant engagement. The London Assembly report on tenant engagement published in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Hearing Resident Voices in Social Housing (November 2018) suggested a useful set of principles:
1. Co-design services with residents from the outset
2. Co-design the resident engagement structure
3. Show residents how contributions are used to take decisions
4. Commit to transparency: full and open access to information
5. Clear simple and easy procedure for complaints
6. Buy-in from housing officers: face-to-face engagement
7. Support and work with independent self-organised and representative tenant groups
We can work with you to review your current approach, to look at how you can increase and improve involvement and to consider introducing new strategies.