Tenant Scrutiny Panel

Tenant Scrutiny Panel - previous Meeting Minutes

Tenant Scrutiny Panel Meeting - 1 April 2025 Minutes

Present:

Julie Hood, Housing Equalities and Engagement Facilitator
D. McLaren, tenant
J. Wormald, tenant
M. Flintoft, tenant
E. Middleton, tenant
E. Booth, tenant

Apologies: None received

Julie opened the meeting and welcomed everybody. Introductions were made.

Minutes and matters arising
Tenant Satisfaction Survey data Ian Cunningham Head of Business Intelligence Hub
Election of the Chair for the coming year
Satisfaction Data
Local Offer
Representation of Panel Members
Fairness and Respect Consultation
Mystery Shopping
Action
HEIP update
Action Plan
Any Other Business
Next Meeting

Minutes and matters arising

The minutes were agreed as a true record of the meeting.

The following were actions at the last meeting:

Ian Cunningham, Head of the Business Intelligence Hub, to be invited to the next meeting to present the data.
Invited and attending
To send a copy of the Domestic Abuse Policy to an individual member.
Sent
A copy of the Domestic Abuse factsheet to be sent with the papers for the next meeting.
Copy included with the papers
Code of conduct to be put on the website.
On the website
Julie to bring a list of satisfaction levels gathered to the next meeting.
On the agenda, list prepared
Julie to find out if information regarding disabilities is available.
On the agenda, information prepared
Feedback from the Anti-Social Behaviour Policy consultation to be brought to a future meeting.
This is being collated
Send the feedback from the Fairness and Respect consultation with the papers for the next meeting.
Information sent with the papers.
The Domestic Abuse Policy does not focus on evidence being necessary more about understanding risk and working with partners. Is this way of working across all Local Authorities?
A lot of local authorities are or have adopted this way of working. However, we do not know if all local authorities are working in this way.

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Tenant Satisfaction Survey data
Ian Cunningham Head of Business Intelligence Hub

Ian explained that his team support all City of York Council data systems, performance and resident satisfaction. This includes a wide range of consultations, from York Central and Front Street to the Tenant Satisfaction Survey for Housing. Housing is a small part of their work.

The Tenant Satisfaction Survey was sent to all tenants in autumn 2024. This was the first year all tenants had received the survey, mainly because we now have more emails for tenants which helps to keep costs low.

15.1% of tenants responded (1068 tenants). This is a similar response rate to previous years.

The satisfaction data is benchmarked against the Regulator for Social Housing and, where appropriate, Housemark.

We have to send the Regulator of Social Housing approx. half of the data collected in the survey annually. This is a relatively new mandatory process and includes compliance information.

As this is very new the consequences for not meeting targets is unclear.

Housemark is a benchmarking organisation we can sign up to. We can then benchmark against other similar Local Authorities. Housemark will 3 give advice based on similar Housing providers who are achieving higher satisfaction rates.

The results this year are disappointing and do not seem to reflect improvements to service. For example empty properties are being let much more quickly and first time fixes have increased. These do not seem to be reflected in the satisfaction figures.

The questions asked give an opportunity for tenants to let us know the reason if they are dissatisfied with a service. These comments help us to have a greater understanding where satisfaction is lower than we would expect.

There was a discussion about increased waiting times to report a repair and to get an appointment for a repair. The Panel also discussed first time fixes with several examples of repeated visits being necessary.

They raised the problem of tenants being dissatisfied with one area of service having a negative effect on other areas. If you are fed up waiting to report a repair satisfaction with all areas of service will be lower than if you could report a repair in a few minutes and get an appointment within a few days.

The full report is not available as yet. It will be sent to all Tenant Scrutiny Panel members as soon as possible.

As always, please could you encourage your friends, family and neighbours to complete the survey in autumn when they are sent out.

The Tenant Scrutiny Panel thanked Ian for coming to the meeting and look forward to receiving the report at a later date.

Action All members to be sent a copy of the report when available

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Election of the Chair for the coming year

This item was postponed to the next meeting.

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Satisfaction Data

This item was postponed to the next meeting.

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Local Offer

This item was postponed to the next meeting.

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A short break was taken

Representation of Panel Members

This item was postponed to the next meeting.

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Fairness and Respect Consultation

The feedback collected through this survey was sent with the papers for the meeting.
The Panel discussed several aspects and agreed that fairness and respect is about more than being polite.
They were pleased to note that training is being delivered by TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) in April.

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Mystery Shopping

Awaiting Senior Management Team suggestion for the next topic.

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Action

Julie chase Fiona to raise this at a Senior Management Team meeting.

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HEIP update

Work is ongoing to identify a contractor with capacity to undertake work to improve drying areas.

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Action Plan

Julie will update this and send it with the papers for the next meeting

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Any Other Business

Julie updated the panel about the repairs policy consultation. Reminders have been sent and the closing date is April 14. Members raised a question about being included as they haven’t received reminders. Julie will send to Panel members tomorrow

Action Julie to send reminders for the repairs consultations to all members tomorrow.

The length of waiting time for the phone to be answered when trying to report a repair was discussed. The day or time of day doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Julie will report this and try to find out waiting times.

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