Agenda item - Resident Involvement Review

Report of Executive Director Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing.

1)              That the recommendations set out in the resident involvement review action plan in Appendix 1 of this report are agreed.  These can be considered in two groups:

2)              Action 1 – a recommendation to continue with, and review the four Area Panels for the remainder of the municipal year, to develop more engaging agendas and to make recommendations at the end of this period to strengthen the formal resident involvement structure.

3)              Actions 2 – 34 a body of recommendations covering all aspects of resident involvement work.

12.1   The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing which provided an overview of the resident involvement review and made recommendations based on its findings to broaden resident engagement in Housing’s landlord services. The report was presented by the Housing Services Operations Manager.

12.2   Councillor Moonan thanked all the residents for their valuable work on the report. As Chair of one of the Area Panels she looked forward to seeing how the review would result in improving meetings and setting agendas. Councillor Moonan commented that Chairs of the Area Panels should think of how they measured the success of the Panels and how they achieved what they set out to do.

12.3   Councillor Mears concurred with Councillor Moonan’s comments. She was pleased to see that the Area Panels would be ongoing and stressed the importance of the review.  Councillor Mears referred to Page 128, paragraph 3.13 of the report concerning the Tenant Scrutiny Panel. The Panel had been set up after the Housing Management Consultative Sub-Committee had been disbanded with the idea that tenants would be active in reviewing and scrutinising housing management and that they would be fully engaged. Councillor Mears and former Councillor Randall had attended a meeting with tenants and the Chair of the Scrutiny Panel where tenants had expressed the view that they were very unhappy with the way Scrutiny was being serviced. Tenants had expected to be fully engaged in scrutinising housing management and this never happened.  The Panel had been serviced by one particular officer who worked really hard to help the tenants carry out this work. Tenants would have liked there to have been more than three service reviews but this was not possible.

12.4   Councillor Gibson set out an amendment from the Green Group as follows:         

“That the recommendation 2.2 is amended, with text added as shown in bold italics, so that the report reads as follows:

2.2 Action 1 – a recommendation to continue with, and review the four Area Panels for the remainder of the municipal year, to develop more engaging agendas and to make recommendations at the end of this period to strengthen the formal resident involvement structure.”

12.5   The amendment was seconded by Councillor Phillips. The amendments were later accepted without a vote.

12.6   Councillor Gibson appreciated the hard work that had gone into the review, particularly by the tenants. The recommendations from the review needed to be taken very seriously. Councillor Gibson referred to Recommendation 34 – Star Survey. He commented that this was an important opportunity for the Task and Finish Group to analyse the findings of the Star Survey and identify where service improvements could be made. Councillor Gibson noted that unhappiness with neighbourhood should be looked at.  He suggested widening this to include the energies of the Area Panels as well. This would achieve a meaningful and measurable change by the time of the next Star Survey. He supported Councillor Moonan’s comments about agreeing the outcomes.

12.7   RESOLVED:-

(1)      That the recommendations set out in the resident involvement review action plan in Appendix 1 of this report are agreed.  These can be considered in two groups:

(2)      Action 1 – a recommendation to continue with, and review the four Area Panels for the remainder of the municipal year, to develop more engaging agendas and to make recommendations at the end of this period to strengthen the formal resident involvement structure.

(3)      Actions 2 – 34 a body of recommendations covering all aspects of resident involvement work.