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.”