Residents Consultation

On Thursday 8 July, we invited residents along to our head office to find out how they experienced our services. Thank you to everyone who took part in this successful consultation, which forms part of our ongoing commitment to improve our performance and the services we deliver.  

In particular, we wanted feedback about how we meet the Tenants Services Authority (TSA) new regulatory standards – the six criteria that social housing providers must meet – and how we can progress further. You can find out more about the TSA’s six standards here.

We also wanted to discover how best to enhance and build upon what we provide at a local level, what the TSA calls our 'local offer'.

As part of the consultation, we organised:

• Workshops sessions, led by our staff, on the following standards – Tenant Involvement and Empowerment; Home; Tenancy; Neighbourhood and Community; and Value for Money. Each workshop included an overview of the standard as well as our own assessment of how we’re doing. Staff asked residents to consider what we do well, what could be done better and the improvements that could be made.
  
• A session on 'local offers' and residents’ views on the approach we should take.

Lots of valuable and constructive feedback emerged throughout but common themes emerged:

• Residents identified the need for better communication across Peabody as well as to residents.
• The importance of 'getting it right first time'.
• More complaints should be resolved at stage one.
• The need to empower our front-line staff.
• That residents valued consistency in our services.
• The importance of understanding our customer profile and using it to engage effectively with all residents and make improvements.
• How residents would like greater clarity about the standard of service they can expect so they can assess value for money, quality and performance.
• That it was particularly important to provide new and existing residents with better information about our services and about what was expected from them.

You can find a detailed summary of the issues that were raised at the workshops here

Local offers 

During the 'local offers' session, residents looked at how we at Peabody carry out our local operations and services and how we can improve them.

The TSA has not defined “local” and asked us to consult our residents on what this means to them – allowing us the flexibility to ensure that services are tailored to fit our customers and circumstances.

What followed was a constructive and useful discussion. The group identified that a 'local' offer could refer to a geographical area (estate, region or city), a particular group of customers (e.g. younger, older people) or represent a variation on a corporate standard, adapted to meet local circumstances wherever possible.

Overall, it was apparent that residents valued consistency – in terms of standards, service delivery and information received. They recognized that local circumstances may, nevertheless, make it preferable to vary an approach. For many, the main consideration was 'getting the basics right' and there was a desire for a minimum corporate standard to be adopted, clearly communicated and achieved.

• Read about the local offer 'trailblazers' that the TSA has set up elsewhere

We at Peabody will be addressing all the issues brought to our attention during the consultation as a priority. We will publish our action plan by 1 October 2010 which will include information about how we are meeting the standards and the improvements we are putting in place.

Your views are important to us. If you have any comments about our approach to the standards, or if you’d like to help us decide how best to keep residents informed or work with us on our annual report, please contact info@peabody.org.uk by Friday 6 August 2010.

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