Tenants' Voice - Improving Services group

We are delighted to have a group of tenants who volunteer their time to look at the services we provide from a tenant's perspective.

They helped us create this annual review to help others understand what they did and achieved over the past year.

Read the Tenant Improving Services | Annual Review here.

In April 2023, the Tenants’ Voice - Improving Services group selected the planned maintenance service as their next area of review. Tenants met with colleagues from across Progress Housing Group to learn about the service and what this delivered to tenants.

Our involved tenants carried out their review over a number of weeks, providing their report and findings to the planned maintenance service in November 2023. The review identified eight recommendations, mainly relating to communication and information provided to tenants about what they can expect from the planned maintenance service.

• The planned maintenance team have been working hard to implement the recommendations. Six recommendations are already complete including;
• New letters for tenants to provide clear information about appointment times, what to expect and who to contact.
• The process has change to make sure new bathrooms and kitchens are measured, colour choices selected and work carried out in a timely way.

The remaining 2 recommendations are to provide video information and update the policy document.  Bother are ongoing and due to be complete by March 2025.

PDF Summary Report

PDF Full Report

At the Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group meeting in July 2023, tenants identified communication as their next area for review.

The review is complete, and tenants have made six recommendations, including how to ensure Progress Housing Group applies the Group's style to all letters sent out, how to ensure external contractors adopt the Group's communication principles, and how to build customer confidence in online and automated services.  

• One recommendation is complete, with the updates to the Customer Access Strategy action plan being provided to the Tenants’ Voice – improving services group.  The remaining 5 recommendations are ongoing, including developing a new customer service style RAMP
• R – resolve issues
• A – adapt our services
• M – make it easy
• P – proactive communication

And introducing the training plan for colleagues across the Group.

RAMP training is currently being delivered to colleagues across the Group.

PDF Summary Report

PDF Full Report

Earlier this year our Aids and Adaptation team got together with our Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group to have a look at what the service is, what it provides to tenants and the benefit this brings.

The service covers a massive area covering about 180 different local authority areas.  It provides services to tenants living in RWP, general needs and independent living homes.

Tenants heard that there are 2 different categories of aids and adaptations available, minor – like fitting a grab rail and major – like fitting a wet room with level access shower.

Whilst reviewing the service, tenants looked at:

• Information available to Progress Housing Group colleagues
• Policy and procedure guides
• Information sent to tenants
• Satisfaction information

They found that Progress Housing Group relies on external groups when carrying out major aids and adaptations.  This involves an assessment by occupational therapists to make recommendations on the work needed.

Following their review tenants made 9 recommendations on how  the service could be improved from a tenants perspective.  The recommendations included:

• Look at letters to make sure timescales are clear for tenants.
• Introduce a second satisfaction survey after 6 months to find out the benefits for the tenant.
• Find out how satisfied tenants are with communication of the process.
• Look at information provided to tenants to make sure it is clear how to make the first step in asking for an aid or adaptation.

Carly Mustoe, Head of Housing Operations at RWP, said: "Supporting our tenants through tailored aid and adaptations is not just about accessibility, but enabling independence. Having our customers and tenants involved in improving our processes helps us better understand how to best deliver our services."

Aids And Adaptations Simplified Report 

Aids And Adaptation Report 

Tenants chose to carry out a review of communal areas within blocks of flats and independent living schemes in January 2024.

They carried out their review over the summer months focusing their attention on the cleaning and window cleaning of communal areas.  Whilst carrying out their review tenants looked at;

• Presentation by Head of Operations (Homes an Opportunities)
• Performance information
• Information provided to tenants
• Visited 4 schemes receiving cleaning services
• Looked at information on the website
• Looked at information provided by other housing providers

Tenants completed their review at the end of August and presented their findings to the service team.  They made 9 recommendations including;

• Look at making information available in more accessible ways
• Check all communal areas have up to date information about the service
• Look at different ways for tenants to report when something goes wrong
• Look at how much detail is provided to tenants on the service, so people know what to expect

An action plan is currently being developed by the team and updates will be provided to Tenants’ Voice – improving services meeting in the future.

Communal Areas Simplified Report 

Communal Areas Report

Our Tenants' Voice – Improving Services group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting in October.

Tenants heard our plans to send quarterly surveys as part of the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

These are part of the new Customer Standards framework and will enable tenants to scrutinise their landlord's performance effectively.

We will use these results to improve our services and increase satisfaction. Tenants discussed that this was a good way to ensure we were accountable and listened to feedback.

The Tenants’ Voice group also looked at the Tenant Annual Review, which includes performance information for tenant services from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.  Tenants said they liked the look of the report, which was easy to read and provided good information

The meeting also received an update on the out-of-hours service review, with three recommendations ongoing. The new telephony system has reduced the abandonment rate from 35.7% to 19%. We are now considering plans to extend the in-hours repairs period from 8 am until 8pm.  This includes sessions with tenants to find out what they think would work well. We will also look at getting more survey responses from our RWP supported living tenants.

Seven recommendations from our community safety review have now been completed. This includes promoting the work of our Community Safety Team and how to report anti-social behaviour, a review of letter templates and updating information on our website. We are working on a process where community safety officers agree with tenants on how and when they will provide feedback on their cases.

The next area to be reviewed by the Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group is how we communicate with our tenants.

The current review of the planned maintenance service is complete, with the report being finalised by tenants before they provide their findings to the service team in November.

Tenants were then invited to join colleagues at our Black History Month celebration lunch at Leyland House. They heard from Clinton Smith, from Preston Black History Group, about the many achievements of black men and women. They also enjoyed Caribbean food and learnt more about the culture and accomplishments of black people during a quiz.

Our Tenants' Voice – Improving Services group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting in January.

Tenants received an update on the out-of-hours service review. Three of the six recommendations have now been completed.

The tenants discussed the ongoing recommendations, including a proposed change to extend the times when the in-hours repairs service will be available. It is hoped this will increase tenant satisfaction and reduce the number of out-of-hours calls.

Next on the agenda was an update on the community safety review, where tenants received an update confirming the final two recommendations are complete. This included a new communication process for everyone reporting anti-social behaviour.

The tenants also discussed the planned maintenance review, where most recommendations focus on communication and letters. 

The tenants then reviewed our Customer Promises and Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

Tenants also heard from a member of the Continuous Improvement Team about its new programme aimed at improving our tenants' service experience and satisfaction. Our involved tenants were looking forward to sharing their experiences and feeding into the work through their scrutiny reviews.

The tenants discussed future topics they wished to review, which included aids and adaptations and looking into how we keep our communal areas clean and maintained.

Our Tenants’ Voice group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting at the end of March, where they discussed their latest service reviews and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code.

The tenants looked at the remaining three action points for the out-of-hours service review, which included receiving an update that the call abandonment fell to 20 % in February.

The group was generally happy with the service, remarking: “The out-of-hours response is very quick,” but communication still needed to be better.

The next item on the agenda was the planned maintenance review, with nine recommendations made. These mainly related to communication and information on what to expect regarding timescales and what the work involved.

The tenants then looked at the recommendations made for their communication review.

The discussion turned towards the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code and reviewing our policy in handling complaints at each stage. Our Head of Customer Experience Neil Bergin-Faragher talked about creating a positive culture where we see complaints as opportunities to listen to our tenants and learn from feedback. Neil also highlighted how we wanted to show the proactive actions we take following the feedback and how that will benefit tenants in the future.

The theme of listening to tenants was extended further as the final items on the agenda discussed two new opportunities to engage with tenants. These included inviting tenants to have lunch and chat with Board members, and setting up a governance committee with tenant members.

The next Tenants’ Voice scrutiny meeting will take place on Tuesday 18 June at Progress House, Leyland, or online via Teams. For more information on how to join, visit Tenants' Voice - Improving Services events | Progress Housing Group (progressgroup.org.uk)

• If any tenants have a service they would like to review in the future, please let our Customer Voice Team know by emailing community@progressgroup.org.uk.

Our Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group met in June. Here is a summary of what they talked about.

Tammy Bradley, our Executive Director (Operations and Support), told tenants about a new proposal to help tenants to access information about the management of their homes.  This is a national proposal called STAIRs (Social Tenant Access to Information Requirement).  The consultation has closed, but here is a link to find out more information: ​​Consultation on the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements - Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - Citizen Space (levellingup.gov.uk)

Over the past few years, the Tenants’ Voice group has been helped by an independent mentor, Jayne.  Unfortunately, Jayne is no longer available to do this, so we talked through other ways to  provide this help.  A number of suggestions were made.  We are looking into these and will provide more information at the next meeting.

Tenants received an update on the progress being made on their recent reviews.  This included:

• A change to appointment times for day-to-day repairs being available from 1 July. Appointments can now be made for some repairs from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday with an option for Saturday morning appointments.
• All letters sent to tenants who are having work to replace kitchens and bathrooms have been updated. The new letters were shared with the group, who thought they were much easier to understand.
• Our Customer Service Style framework, RAMP, is being introduced across the Group to help improve the way we communicate with tenants and customers. RAMP stands for
  • R – Resolve issues
  • A – Adapt our service
  • M – Make it easy
  • P – Proactive communication

The next area to be reviewed by tenants was chosen.  This is the management of communal areas within buildings.  The review started on 10 July and will be complete by early September.

One of our tenants, Fiona, told us about the ongoing work of Stop Social Housing Stigma, a national tenant led group she is involved with.  They are promoting involvement from tenants and housing colleagues from across the country – here is a link if you want to find out more: Home - Stop Social Housing Stigma

The next quarterly update meeting of the Tenants’ Voice – improving services group is Thursday 12 September at 1.30pm.

Our Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group met in September. Here is a summary of what they talked about.

The group looked further into options to receive independent support and mentoring for tenants involved in scrutiny activity. 

They also received an update on the progress being made on their recent reviews.  This included:

1. Out of hours review – One of the recommendations was to look at why the call abandonment rate was high. It was suggested this could be repeat callers. Another recommendation was to look at why we were not getting many satisfaction survey responses. These are sent digitally with a phone survey for RWP tenants. The number of satisfaction surveys received had increased from 5% to 6.3%. Tenants agreed this recommendation is now complete.

2. Planned maintenance review – Five recommendations are already complete with 2 recommendations ongoing, these are linked to information about what to expect from the service on our website, and a policy review.

3. Communication review – A project designed to improve operational communication across the Group started in April 2024. Other recommendations include looking at a chatbot type facility to see if this would provide any benefits

Training has now begun for our colleagues on our new Customer Service Style framework, , to help improve the way we communicate with tenants, customers, colleagues and partners. RAMP stands for:

• R – Resolve issues
• A – Adapt our service
• M – Make it easy
• P – Proactive communication

4. Aids and adaptations review - The group looked at ways we could improve the letters we send out for aids and adaptations work. They also looked at ensuring a second follow up survey was sent after 6 months to allow for time to understand and use the new equipment.

The next area to be reviewed by tenants was chosen.  This will be how we engage with tenants during our annual rent review.  Session dates have been set for this review, which will start on 3 October. You can see these dates on the events section at the bottom of our homepage: Progress Housing Group 

• The next quarterly update meeting of the Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group is Tuesday 3 December, from 10.30am to 12.30pm at Leyland House and on Microsoft Teams.