How to achieve effective scrutiny in your Organisation

Mal Harrison

TPAS Associate Consultant

• About TPAS

• What support and advice we offer

• Scrutiny Lounge

• Tenant Central

Our knowledge and experience Developed concept of resident-led Scrutiny

– 2011 ‘Tenant Scrutiny Now and in the Future’

– 2011/12 Growing Together programme trained 1400 tenants

– 2012 Secrets of Success Scrutiny Events reaching over 700 people

– 2013 Awarded Tenant Empowerment Programme Tenant Central

– Champion and promote excellence-National awards

Key focus for TPAS • Groups at various stages

• Support to enable effective meetings

• Support to carry out effective scrutiny reviews*

• Inspire through sharing best practice

• Strong focus on communication and liaison with Landlords and scrutineers

• Recruitment

• Training and development

Meetings

• Attend meetings debrief/plan ahead • Effective participation and contribution • One to ones/coaching and feedback-self reflection • Interim Chair support • Check understanding papers, minutes, develop

agendas, programme of meetings to support scrutiny reviews-pre meetings/email/phone access

• Support information requests

Scrutiny Reviews • Revisit – past reviews health check • Support evidence based topic selection • Develop a Project Plan – what is project

management? • Support task and finish groups – collation of

evidence sources and analysis desktop and reality • Support reporting, qualitative recommendations and

feedback – tracking – improvement plans • Next steps and the development of a future

programme • Report on progress and achievements

Inspire • Provision of sector examples and reports • Field trips • Ensure access to member case studies and latest

news and developments • Quality Assured Scrutiny principles upheld

– Clearly defined and real power, tenant led and independent, clear roles, decisions based upon information, scrutiny is embedded in performance, equality and access.

Communication

• Liaison with Landlords and

scrutineers

• Landlord teams including monthly updates

• Board and subsidiary Boards/Cllrs - support updates

• Advice on areas for improvement

• Email, phone access

Recruitment • Understand diversity of customers

• Understand where there are issues around representation and access

• Build on current numbers

• Awareness events and programme

• Recruitment programme

Training and Development

Training and Development • One to ones, debriefs, coaching • TPAS public courses • E learning – Level 2 accreditation

– Understanding scrutiny and performance

• CIH Level 3- Resident Scrutiny • Tenant Central – access to additional support and a

free session (host) • Health check – outcome based assessment of group

and individual appraisals (needs)

Why TPAS? • We add value to your project

• Experience of supporting more than 40 organisations to develop scrutiny nationally

• Delivered scrutiny training to over 200 organisations

• National experience with a bespoke approach for your organisation

• TPAS policy and best practice knowledge hub

• Quality Assured Scrutiny principles

Where did the Scrutiny Lounge come from?

The Independent Scrutiny Group from Howard Cottage Housing Association

What the Independent Scrutiny Group wanted?

Relaxed networking for tenant members of Scrutiny Panels NO Officers NO Consultants pitching for work To get a perspective from tenants about how its going To establish a network of Scrutiny Member contact for future use

Making it happen

Securing sponsorship for a free event

Willmott Dixon Partnerships volunteered the venue and facilities TPAS volunteered to pay for lunch and put together the promotion and organisation of the day

What did happen

Discussion Points Generated by the Independent Scrutiny Group at Howard Cottage

Housing Association

Issue 1 - About your scrutiny meetings

When did you first set up your Scrutiny Group? How did you recruit members? How many meetings do you hold on average each year? What are your meeting quorum level and overall membership numbers? Do you block book your meetings in advance or hold them as and when necessary? Do you have any issues with membership commitment?

Issue 2 – Project & Topic Selection

How do you approach topic selection? What is the range of topics you have undertaken? Have you had any access to information issues? Can you tell us about the kind of recommendations you have made and how successful/unsuccessful these have been when you get to Board level?

What are the Board response timeframes and arrangements in place for monitoring approved recommendations? Issue 3 – Your reports to Board and after Do you have any meetings before your report goes to Board for service managers to explain difficulties of implementing your recommendations? How well have your recommendations been implemented after approval? Are recommendations and progress of these published for wider tenants to see clearly the progress and achievements of your work?

Issue 4 – Other Topics Should members of a scrutiny panel be paid? Who should set the budget and agree it with the board?

What came out of it?

It worked!

15 organisations attended – from Huddersfield to Hertfordshire

Debate and discussion extended far wider than expected

All wanted TPAS to help facilitate a network so people could keep in touch

Launched at our South Conference Scrutiny Lounge Report is available upon request through

TPAS by contacting leanne.farrell@tpas.org.uk or emma.wallington@tpas.org.uk

Pick the points that interest you

Tenant Empowerment

& Tenant Panels

Training Programme

Coregulatory

Champions

Tenant Central is…

• A national programme of FREE training and support to

help social housing tenants engage with their

landlords and communities

• 3 Programmes

– Tenant Panels – 700K

– Tenant Empowerment - £500K

– Community Cashback - 120K

Tenant Central is…..

• Funded by the Tenant Empowerment Grant

Programme

• Administered by DCLG

• Funding of £1.2 million over 2 years – 2013-15

• Managed by TPAS

• Supported by Partners

Co-regulatory Champions:-

SOHA, Salix ,Riverside,

Wirral Partnerships,

Community Gateway, New

Charter HA, Wherry HA,

Amicus Hozizon, Helena

Partnerships, Family HA

TPAS Partners

What does it look like

• A national training programme delivered in venues

across England, In House and accessible through E

learning

• Events and networking opportunities

• Information and Advice

• Guidance and Support to groups

• Tenant to Tenant Training and Support

• Community Cashback grants to help manage local

services

Access to the Programmes

• Aimed at social housing tenants

• Open to Leaseholders

• Staff can attend – but have to pay

• Tenants given priority places

Tenant Panels Programme – what does it look

like

• 200 x Face to face courses – Public

– In house

• 14 x Events

• 1 x E learning accredited course

• Click through E learning courses

• On line visual guides

• Training needs

assessment and learning

plans

• How to Guides

• Support to groups

• Case studies

• On line discussions

• Involve Peer Mentors

3 course themes

• Inspire courses to empower tenants and help them to be more confident in engaging with their landlord and leading community activity. i.e. engaging social media

• Inform courses to support new Tenant Panels or individual members in understanding their role and developing the skills needed to undertake Tenant Panel activity

• Improve courses to support existing Tenant Panels by helping them to review their approach and effectiveness

Courses for Tenant Panels

An Introduction to Tenant Panels

Shaping and Improving Services

Tenant Scrutiny

Planning and Monitoring

Effective Meetings

Team Building

Access for all

Dealing with complaints

Reviewing and evaluating your approaches

Be Inspired Course Topics

Getting Involved

Setting up your group

Being an Effective Group

Raising the Cash

Managing a Project

Tacking Community Issues

Engaging with Social Media

Setting up a Tenant Management Organisation

The Money

• Staff can attend but have to pay £100 (plus VAT)

• Delegates invoiced £15 if they fail to turn up to a

course

• Aiming to build up a bursary to fund travel and

childcare costs for those who cant afford to attend

otherwise

Community Cashback in a nutshell

A group of tenants want to run a local service better or more cheaply than their landlord

A community cashback agreement is signed between tenants and landlord

Any savings are kept by the group as 'Cashback' to spend on local improvements or community

benefits

Community Cashback Agreements

Cutting grass or maintaining plants in shared spaces

Carrying out surveys or consultation

Repairs to homes, shared spaces or empty property

Helping with accompanied viewings and with arrangements to welcome and settle new tenants

Cleaning and looking after shared spaces

Making sure residents stick to their tenancy or leaseholder agreements

Community Cashback Starter Grants

• A small grant up to £3K

• To help groups get things going

• Need landlord support

• TPAS working closely with NFTMO

Access to Community Cashback

• Total contract value must be below the European

Union competition regulations threshold (about

£160,000)

• Cannot last longer than 5 years

• Tenant groups may need to incorporate (e.g. as an

Industrial and Provident Society or Community Interest

Company) if employing staff.

Contact Details

• Tenant Panel Advice Freephone 08000 356 351

• Current TPAS website - www.tpas.org.uk/tenantcentral

• Bespoke website - www.tenantcentral.org.uk

• Tenant Central e mail info@tenantcentral.org.uk

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Questions?

• Contact Emma

Wallington TPAS Consultancy Manager South 07969215125 or emma.wallington@tpas.org.uk