Tenant Involvement Policy

Venture Housing Association is committed to the involvement of those we house, in the continuous challenge of improving our services and to acting upon the evidence of consumer research. (Business Plan aim no. 11).

We recognise that not everyone will want to join a tenant’s group or attend meetings and will therefore ensure that a variety of methods are available to allow all tenants to have the opportunity for involvement.

The Association is committed to providing equality of opportunity and will ensure that all involvement opportunities are equally accessible to tenants regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, age or social class. (Business Plan aim no. 8).

To achieve our involvement objectives we will:

• Encourage involvement by a range of methods including suggestion schemes, surveys, informal meetings, focus groups, panels, tenants associations, tenant’s forum and Board membership. We also welcome tenants suggestions on any alternative forms of involvement
• Provide support for those wishing to become involved, this will include giving advice, financial assistance, practical assistance e.g. typing and photocopying and providing training when necessary
• Provide tenant resource facilities in both Wirral and Liverpool, which can be used by tenants groups and individual tenants for accessing IT and other equipment e.g. phone, photocopier, fax
• Provide clear and honest information and make sure that any consultation with tenants is followed up with appropriate and timely feedback. Information will be made available in different formats and languages on request
• Have a dedicated member of staff with overall responsibility for tenant involvement, whilst also ensuring that involvement is embedded into the work of all members of staff
• Will carry out an annual impact assessment which will review our involvement methods and involvement statement and lead to an action plan for improvement

Impact Assessment

This will take place during April each year and will be reported to the May Board Meeting.

In order to carry out an effective assessment we will ensure that all forms of tenant involvement that have occurred during the year are fully recorded. It will be the responsibility of a nominated person in each department to inform the central record keeper of any relevant activities as they take place.

In April each year, the tenant involvement group will meet to discuss the year’s activities, analyse the impact they have had on the Association, revise the involvement statement if necessary and produce an action plan for the coming year.

The impact assessment will incorporate all forms of involvement such as:

• Tenants newsletter
• Tenants panel
• Tenants satisfaction survey
• Void visits
• New tenancy survey
• Complaints monitoring

All activities will be compiled in a table, which will outline what has been done, what the outcomes were and future recommendations e.g.

This will then lead to the production of the annual action plan e.g.

• Neighbour Nuisance and Anti-social Behaviour
• Harassment Policy
• Tenant Involvement Policy
• Rent Management Policy
• Repairs & Maintenance
• Out of Hours
• Right to Repair
• Void Standard
• Right to Compensation
• Repair Priority Guidelines
• Rechargeable Repairs
• Code of Conduct
• Affordable Warmth
• Partnering Document