Community Safety scrutiny review

Our Tenants' Voice - Improving Services group decided to review the Community Safety service after tenant satisfaction was lower than 85%.

We decided to focus our review on:

• How easy is it for a tenant to report anti-social behaviour (ASB)
• How tenant expectations are managed when tackling ASB issues
• How tenant satisfaction is obtained and used to improve the service

To carry out the review, we:

• Received a briefing from Progress Housing Group colleagues telling us how reports of ASB are responded to
• Looked at information on the website
• Looked at standard letters
• Looked at how satisfaction information is received and used

We found that the following areas were working well:

• There is clear information on the website about the service and what tenants can expect
• It is easy to report ASB issues
• Tenants are told if their complaint is classed as level 1 or level 2 and when they can expect to get a response from the Community Safety Team
• Tenants and the Community Safety Team agree on what the next steps will be
• There is an app that can be used to record noise issues on a mobile device
• All tenants using the service receive a satisfaction survey

We also made nine recommendations on how the service could be improved further to provide a better experience for tenants.

Since completing the review, seven recommendations have been implemented, with two being progressed.

• The completed recommendations have seen an improvement in the standard letters being used. They are now in plain English with a summary box, which clearly highlights information to tenants.
• A link to the 24/7 Life & Progress tenant support and wellbeing service is also promoted on the Community Safety section of the website and included on all community safety letters sent to tenants.
• Information on the website has also been improved, providing a link to the community trigger for all local councils and a link to testimonials from tenants who have had support from the service.

Tola Adesemowo, Head of Operations, told us why she valued the review carried out by tenants: “We welcomed this review of how we deliver the Community Safety service, particularly as some of the tenants involved in the review had direct experience of anti-social behaviour and how we deal with it.  

We hope the improvements made will be positively received and will make a real difference to tenants experiencing anti-social behaviour.”