APPENDIX 1

Lincoln Tenants Panel Annual Report 2013 Our vision: We have agreed that our vision over the next year is to change focus and to:

• be more strategic

• build capacity

• increase the development of our tenants What is resident involvement?

• All the activities and processes that the council undertakes as a landlord that helps it to know what residents and communities want

• All the activities that enable residents and communities to have more influence over decisions that affect them

What do we hope to get as a result of resident involvement?

• Information and influence which will help us to improve the service we receive

• Informed residents who are able to express their views

• Better value for money

• More satisfied residents

• More satisfied staff How we measure the impact of resident involvement Is resident involvement helping to achieve service improvement? It is hard to measure all of the results of resident involvement, however this report outlines the ways that involvement has made a difference by:

• monitoring performance and agreeing targets

• reviewing how residents have influenced changes

• asking residents about the successes we have had

• collecting information from residents and staff How resident involvement is organised Everyone is different therefore a variety of ways are needed to give all of our residents the opportunity to get involved at a level of their choice. There are lots of different ways to get involved:

• Through tenants meetings and community groups

• Through tenants and residents associations

• By participating in specially organised events, such as conferences and road shows

• Through writing articles or giving your ideas for our tenants newsletter ‘Home!’ Magazine and ‘Annual Report to Tenants’

• By carrying out mystery shopping

• By completing and returning our surveys

• Become a tenant inspector

• Join in one of our estate walkabouts and inspections

• Participate in our service focus groups

• Join our Home! magazine editorial panel

• Become a mystery shopper

• Become a member of the Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenants influence on policies and procedures and improving services During the last year we have been involved in influencing many service improvements. The main areas of our work is summarised below.

• Revising the procedure for estate inspections and feedback reports

• Launching of the handyperson scheme

• Agreeing local lettings policies for new build and Shuttleworth House

• Establishing an anti-social behaviour charter group

• Launching of post sign-up events

• Launching of a tenant inspectors for inspecting properties before they are let

• Changing the rechargeable repairs policy

• Changing how the painting programme is run

• Working towards changes to the tenancy agreement

• Working towards the Introduction of a pets policy

• Working to towards Introduction of a tenancy fraud strategy

• Developing a value for money strategy for housing services

• Setting of performance targets and local offers

• Setting up equitable tenancies

• Looking at the Housing revenue account business plan and self-financing

• Reviewing how empty properties are managed

• Procuring of the new Kier contract

• Establishing a tenants area on the website to allow documents to be shared with all tenant representatives

• Holding team talks whereby the chair, vice chair and tenant liaison team leader meet fortnightly with additional meetings with the assistant Induction meetings to set up two new service focus groups (one for young people and one for people with disabilities). director and interim tenancy services manager

Consultation We cannot always have a say in what happens as some things are changed by the Government, however we keep up the date with the changes and ensure that all tenants get updates on what is changing. The big changes that are taking place which we have been consulted on are:

• Housing benefit reform including universal credit and the bedroom tax

• Right to buy changes

• Rent increases Resident and community groups We are working closely with a number of community and residents group, but acknowledge that this is an area we need to improve on. Changes to our constitution

• Reviewing the panel’s constitution

• Raising the profile of the Lincoln Tenants Panel. The panel now has its own letterhead which is used for correspondence for tenants’ events

Home magazine and the annual report to tenants Changing the face of Home! magazine and the annual report to tenants Training and other events we have undertaken

• Attending the CIH annual conference in Manchester

• Visiting Shoreline to compare good practice

• Visit by Acis to compare good practice

• Tenant scrutiny training

• Complaints training

• Mystery shopping training

• Equality and diversity training

• Attending and supporting the East Midlands Tenant Participation Forum

• Tenant induction training

• Housemark benchmarking training

• Attending meeting of ARCH (Association for Retained Council Housing) Budget report A copy of the budget report is shown at appendix 1. Action plan to improve resident involvement

Area of improvement Method to be used

Who is responsible for the action

When will the action be done

Tenant Involvement and empowerment standard

Recruit more tenant representatives particularly from under represented groups, such as young

Home! magazine Word of mouth

Tenant liaison team All

Ongoing

people

Introduce facebook as a means of communication

Report Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

To be agreed

Explore the use of loyalty cards as incentives for tenants to attend meetings

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel

April 2013

Work towards National Tenants Organisation recognition

Steering group Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

April 2014

Get a TPAS health check Submit self assessment

Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

May 2013

Seeking premises to support the work of the panel

Report Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel Investment team

To be agreed

Continue with visits to other housing organisations to compare good practice

Visits Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

Ongoing

Review of the tenant involvement strategy

Report Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

March 2013

Continue to receive reports on call handling

Reports Customer services Ongoing

Set up a complaints panel Report Tenant liaison team Lincoln Tenants Panel

October 2013

Consider the findings of the STAR resident satisfaction survey

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Housing Support Services Manager

March 2013

Keep our local offers under review

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team Service Managers

Ongoing

Continue to scrutinise performance and service standards across all housing landlord functions

Reports Service Managers Ongoing

Home

Revise our new tenant survey and tenant exit survey

Report Tenant liaison team Service Managers Lincoln Tenants Panel

March 2013

Continue to hold new tenant chats

Meetings and reports

Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

Quarterly

Launch a decorating DVD Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

September 2013

Review our ‘Reporting your repairs’ information

Leaflet Lincoln Tenants Panel

April 2013

leaflet Tenant liaison team

Seek accreditation of Customer Service Excellence Accreditation (CSEA) for our responsive repairs service

Report Assessment

Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

To be agreed

Review the Lincoln Standard

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team Service Manager

To be agreed

Neighbourhood and community standard

Launch of scheme to encourage people to save through the Lincoln Credit Union

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Manager

To be agreed

Develop a strategy to address under occupation

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Manager

To be agreed

Seek accreditation of our anti-social behaviour service

Assessment and report

Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Manager

To be agreed

Developing a strategy to address under occupation

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Manager

To be agreed

Support our existing service focus groups

Communication Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

Ongoing

Improve our relationship with resident and community groups

Communication Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

To be agreed

Work more closely with neighbourhood boards

Communication Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

To be agreed

Review our tenancy management roles

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Managers

May 2013

Develop estate agreements

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Tenant liaison team

To be agreed

Consider proposals set out in The Green Deal

Report Lincoln Tenants Panel Service Managers

To be agreed

Appendix 1

1. Purpose of Report

1.1 To provide LTP members with an update on the position of the LTP budget. The report will show:

• Overall expenditure to date

• Expenditure in specific areas

• Amount of money remaining in the budget for 2012/13

2. Background

2.1

In order for LTP to operate successfully a budget of £21,000 2012/13 has been allocated and is in place to fund items including:

• Room hire for meetings and training

• Training

• Travel expenses

• Catering food expenses

• Stationery

• Accommodation*. The tenant liaison team manages the budget on behalf of LTP, however, LTP has overall responsibility and must approve any expenditure. *The LTP budget in 2011/12 increased from £16,000 to £21,000 for the provision of office space for LTP activities. However, the search for suitable accommodation is still ongoing.

3. LTP budget 2012/13 to date

3.1 Total expenditure up until 05 March 2013 is £7,824.26

3.2 However, a further £7,000 has been committed to pay for the increased cost of the Home! magazine.

3.3 Appendix A contains a further breakdown of the budget.

3.4 So far this year the LTP budget has been under spent.

4. LTP budget for 2013/14

4.1 The proposed LTP budget for 2013/14 has not yet been agreed.

Subject: LTP budget report Report by: Chris Morton

Date: 12 March 2013

Appendix A

Item Budget (£) Amount Spent (£) Remaining in the budget (£)

Training courses 6,000.00 510.00 5,490.00

Travel warrants 1,000.00 669.00 331.00

Other public transport 1,500.00 1,058.84 441.16

Catering 430.00 110.70 319.30

Printing 0.00 112.00 112.00

Stationery 300.00 233.52 66.48

Room hire 830.00 1,067.70 237.70

Conference/Seminar expenses 2,000.00 632.50 1,367.50

Item Budget (£) Amount Spent (£) Remaining in the budget (£)

Subsistence 1,020.00 0.00 1,020.00

Grants 720.00 0.00 720.00

Subscriptions 900.00 2,530.00

TPAS membership 1,615.00

Complaints training 420.00

Scrutiny training 720.00

EMTPF membership 675.00

3,430.00

Total 14,700.00 7,824.26 -6,875.74

Please note £7,000 was moved from this account to???? account? during the year. The original budget as at April 2013 was £21,700 Key: Remaining in the budget- Overspends are show in bold red.