1st Annual Tenant Panel Conference A new age of accountability
Monday, 28th November 2011, York Racecourse
In conjunction with:
Tenant Panels are the Government’s preferred route to deliver a new framework of accountability for landlords which is designed to ensure tenants have a real say in how services are delivered in their local area. This is the Northern Housing Consortium’s and Scrutiny & Empowerment Partners (SEP) first conference aimed specifically at Tenant Scrutiny Panel members and those involved in supporting them. It will provide an excellent platform to learn, network and to share good practice. The Government’s agenda for tenants to play a bigger role in the management of their homes is unfolding through the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) draft directions to the Tenant Services Authority (TSA), the Localism Bill soon to receive Royal Assent, and the new tenants standards, including the tenant involvement and empowerment standard, out for consultation in November by the TSA. Looking at the real practical issues the programme will concentrate on: Different models and approaches taken by housing providers Effective Tenant Panel development Tenant Panels on complaints (the democratic filter) Tenant cash-back and the right to manage Recruitment, selection and skilling of a Tenant Panel Development in government policy around tenant scrutiny and housing Understanding landlord performance How to challenge housing organisations to ensure scrutiny powers are effective Proportionate accountability – getting the balance right Working with existing governance structures Attend the conference and you will: Hear from policy makers Understand the timetable and requirements for change Consider the impact of these changes for landlords and tenants, boards and elected members Find out who will be doing what and how – what the new arrangements will look like Hear good practice identified by sharing some of the early findings from the report on the co-regulatory champions Hear examples from pilots and front runners on cash-back and right to manage Learn some new techniques and find out how to support each other Learn about approaches that deliver empowerment and engagement locally
Who should attend? Any tenant or landlord interested in staying ahead of the new agenda; tenants and leaseholders; Directors of Housing & Repairs; Policy, Improvement and Performance Managers; Community and Tenant Involvement Managers
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Delegates will be able to record 4 Continuing Professional Development hours for attending this conference.
Programme 9.30
Registration, refreshments and exhibition viewing
10.00
Joint chair’s introduction and welcome Yvonne Davies, Director, Scrutiny & Empowerment Partners Ltd (SEP) Ian Wright, Head of Member Relations, Northern Housing Consortium
10.20
New standards and consumer protection Graeme Foster, Strategic Regulation Manager, Tenant Services Authority The TSA will discuss the proposed changes from the DCLG final directive. In particular they will concentrate on: Changes in regulation and the regulator's role Economic regulation and consumer regulation Highlights of the regulator's consultation on the new framework Principles of serious detriment The role of boards and tenant panels
10.40
Lessons learned from the TSA’s Co-Regulatory Champions Jessica Crowe, Executive Director, Centre for Public Scrutiny The Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) is completing a report with SEP into the CoRegulatory Champions and will discuss the preliminary findings to date: What is scrutiny? Good practice case studies Hints and tips for landlords Hints and tips for tenants The timetable for the delivery of final report
11.15
Professional practice sessions 1. Involving young people in tenant panels and scrutiny Hannah Fitzhenry, Customer Excellence Officer, Helena Partnerships Craig Fletcher, Project Officer, Young People, Helena Partnerships Tenant, Helena Partnerships Are you having trouble engaging young people in scrutiny or other involvement activities? Helena has been successful, come to this workshop to find out: How they recruited, engaged and now involve young people in scrutiny, service reviews and other participation events. The case for involving young people, and hints and tips for doing this effectively The benefits this has brought to Helena Partnerships and their Panel
2. Presenting information to senior staff and boards Catherine Little, Policy and Initiatives Manager, South Oxfordshire Housing Association Nasreen Razaq Al-Hamdani, Vice Chair, Tenant Scrutiny Group, South Oxfordshire Housing Association When you have completed your service review, it is time to pass on the information you have learnt and to ask for change. By attending this workshop, you will understand: The approach to preparation of recommendations Writing reports – hints and tips How tenants build confidence to negotiate and become assertive Presentation skills Presenting to senior managers and the board– hints and tips
3. Recruiting and training tenant panel members Margaret Connor, Customer Involvement & Services Manager, Salix Homes Barbara Harper, Chair of the Customer Senate, Salix Homes Salix Homes have just completed a successful exercise to recruit new members to their panel. The new panel members came from diverse backgrounds, brought new skills and some are new to involvement. This was no accident, it is exactly what Salix set out to achieve. If you come to this workshop, you will find out: How Salix identified skills gaps and recruited new members How they identified training needs, using skills gaps How they delivered individual and group training and built confidence How they resource and support their panel
4. Tenant cash-back Ian Rumsam, Head of Home Works, Together Housing Group Tenant, Together Housing Group Together Housing Group (THG) is one of the national pilots for tenant cash-back. Cashback will become a regulatory requirement where tenants can do their own repairs and take a cash bonus from their landlord. THG will tell us how they are approaching the cash-back initiative through rewarding positive tenant behaviour and explain: What cash-back is How THG have worked with tenants who agreed to pilot the scheme which is now being tested How they deliver training and assessment to develop skills and enable tenants to carry out repairs traditionally delivered by their landlord The stages involved in setting up cash-back and handy hints and advice on how to approach this new regulatory expectation
5. Are you new to scrutiny? The process and early lessons learned Linda Levin, Director, Scrutiny and Empowerment Partners Ltd (SEP) Andrea Malcolm, Operations Director, Bernicia Group Tenant, Bernicia Group The team will explain how information can be scrutinized and the skills they use to scrutinize performance. Bernicia are quite new to scrutiny and will share information on what has worked for them and an honest account of issues which they needed to resolve. The session will cover: Fact- finding and analysis of policies, standards, benchmarking and performance data Best use of reality checks Techniques for success in observation, interviews and focus groups Making judgments and monitoring actions Structures for getting your messages across
6. What information is useful for scrutiny? Karen Perry, Head of Community Empowerment, Community Gateway Gill Lawson, Tenant Committee Member, Community Gateway Making best use of information for scrutiny is an art we all have to learn. Community Gateway will take you through what they use and how they use it to review services. For example: How they use facts to decide which services to scrutinise How they analyse information during scrutiny How they make best use of performance and benchmarking data How they keep an eye to what other landlords are providing for their tenants and best practice How they decide what it is important to use and what muddies their waters
12.10
Lunch and exhibition viewing
1.10
Complaints – all change! Rafael Runco, Deputy Ombudsman There are major changes ahead for the Ombudsman service and the way in which tenants can make complaints and get involved in their resolution. What are the expectations of Tenant Panels relating to complaints from the Localism Bill? How will the democratic filter operate? How can Tenant Panels get registered, are there any requirements? What is good practice in dealing with complaints? What support can the Housing Ombudsman Service give to landlords and tenants?
1.55
Presentation of the National Tenant Panel Accreditation Awards
2.05
Professional practice sessions 7. Modern ways to engage tenants – use of social media Paul Taylor, Head of Advance, Bromford Living Tenant, Bromford Housing Group Bromford have made interesting and innovative use of social media for virtual (on line) meetings, and have invited a wide range of tenants to participate. Join this workshop, get modern and find out: How to involve tenants through social media How to reach a wider audience, cheaply and effectively How to gather customer feedback using Twitter and Facebook
8. Recruiting and training tenant panel members Margaret Connor, Customer Involvement & Services Manager, Salix Homes Barbara Harper, Chair of the Customer Senate, Salix Homes Salix Homes have just completed a successful exercise to recruit new members to their panel. The new Panel members came from diverse backgrounds, brought new skills and some are new to involvement. This was no accident, it is exactly what Salix set out to achieve. If you come to this workshop, you will find out: How Salix identified skills gaps and recruited new members How they identified training needs, using skills gaps How they delivered individual and group training and built confidence How they resource and support their panel
9. Tenant cash-back Ian Rumsam, Head of Home Works, the Together Housing Group Tenant, from the Together Housing Group Together Housing Group (THG) is one of the national pilots for tenant cash-back. They are approaching the cash-back initiative through rewarding positive tenant behaviour. Ian will explain: What Cash-back is, How THG have worked with tenants who agreed to pilot the scheme which is now being tested How they deliver training and assessment to develop skills and enable tenants to carry out repairs traditionally delivered by their landlord The stages involved in setting up cash-back and advice on how to approach this new regulatory expectation
10. Presenting information to senior staff and boards Catherine Little, Policy and Initiatives Manager, South Oxfordshire Housing Association Nasreen Razaq Al-Hamdani, Vice Chair, Tenant Scrutiny Group, South Oxfordshire Housing Association When you have completed your service review, it is time to pass on the information you have learnt and to ask for change. By attending this workshop, you will understand: The approach to preparation of recommendations Writing reports – hints and tips How tenants build confidence to negotiate and become assertive Presentation skills Presenting to senior managers and the board– hints and tips
11. Scrutiny across boundaries Teresa Tierney, Head of Housing Services, Halton Housing Trust Mike Hall, Customer of Halton Housing Trust and Chair of Halton Cross Landlord Scrutiny Panel Peter Donegan, Resident Involvement Strategy Manager, Riverside Housing Group Are you in a housing group, a large landlord, or do you work with other local landlords? How can scrutiny work in these circumstances? Following a successful local offer of a cross landlord pilot on allocations, Halton Housing Trust set up a cross landlord scrutiny panel. Riverside are a very large landlord achieving scrutiny as a coregulatory champion across 50,000 homes nationally, both by theme – young and older tenants - and also across local authority boundaries. Together, Halton Housing Trust and Riverside will share: How the cross landlord scrutiny panel works How scrutiny works across group structures Hints and tips for getting the cross landlord engagement right How to simplify structures to enable scrutiny to meet local neighbourhood needs as well as addressing tenant group wider concerns
12. Coaching, networking, researching good practice – how can tenants maintain skills and knowledge for scrutiny excellence? Linda Levin, Director, Scrutiny & Empowerment Partners Ltd (SEP) How do you keep up to date with what everyone else is doing? How do you maintain your skills? How can you contact other tenants when you need help, wisdom and ideas? Where do you find good practice and how do you know it works? The team will facilitate an interactive session which: Provide a taster of coaching and mentoring and discusses the benefits and techniques you need to use to learn from others Advises you about the benefits of coaching, mentoring and networking Enables you to share experiences and knowledge to help each other to become more effective and confident in your roles
3.00
Refreshments
3.20
Tenant’s in control Christopher Simpson, Chief Executive, Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation, Leeds One of the requirements of the new tenant involvement standard will be to promote the Right to Manage (RTM). What is the Right to Manage? How big a leap would this be for tenants to manage? How the RTM works and how tenants take control of their homes How you might promote the RTM to meet the regulatory requirement
3.35
New housing strategy and the housing changes in the Localism Bill Tony Hatch, Policy Lead, Housing Management and Performance Division, Communities and Local Government Department November is a busy month for the Government on housing matters. The Localism Bill reaches the stage of Royal Accent, the TSA is publishing its new Standards and the Government is due to publish its National Housing Strategy. Tony will outline: Changes in the Localism Bill including expectation and permissions relating to tenure, allocations, homelessness and mobility The content of the new housing strategy including housing homelessness and support What’s next for Tenant Panels?
4.10
A Chief Executive’s perspective Kevin Dodd, Chief Executive, Wakefield and District Housing Kevin will outline the changes he sees ahead for Tenant Panels on scrutiny and complaints and the difference this will mean for housing organisations, governance structures and staffing.
4.25
Chair’s closing remarks
4.30
Close of conference
1st Annual Tenant Panel conference A new age of accountability Monday, 28th November 2011, York Racecourse Delegate fees All Tenants
£99
Northern Housing Consortium and SAP Member
£149
Non Member
£179
All delegate fees are shown excluding VAT. NHC SCRUTINYnet Members Subscribers to NHC’s lettings network will receive a 20% discount off full delegate fees and is limited to one delegate per organisation
How to book Online To book your delegate place at this event and to view our full terms & conditions and cancellation policy, please click below.
Book Online
Telephone To make a provisional booking please telephone our events team;
0191 566 1000 Please note any telephone reservations are made on a provisional basis and must be confirmed in writing within 2 working days.
Contact us For further information or if you have a query please contact a member of the events team: Telephone: 0191 566 1000 Email: events@northern-consortium.org.uk
Download a copy of the programme here