Customer Scrutiny Panel
ANNUAL REPORT
Who we are
We are a key part of how Stockport Homes is governed and how it meets its obligations to give tenants and customers a role in scrutinising and reviewing how the company performs and how services can be improved. This is known as ‘co-regulation’. Our Terms of Reference state “The CSP will be recognised within the formal structures of the organisation to ensure that customers are measuring, testing and monitoring the services they receive.”
This Annual Report provides an update on the activities of the Customer Scrutiny Panel covering the period April 2022-March 2023.
Who are the members
We currently have 7 members
In the last year, our longest serving member, Pat left us after nine years of service. “During my 9 years with the CSP I have experienced how our input has helped Stockport Homes to know what customers need and it has been great to win awards along the way. I enjoyed my role within the CSP and would encourage more customers to join.”
We also appointed two new customers to the panelMihaela and Peter!
I have been a tenant with Stockport Homes since November 2021 and I joined the CSP last summer. What can I say about the CSP since I have joined? That is a wonderful team who work hard to get the best results from their review and for the tenants of Stockport Homes. I am so grateful that I am a part of the team.
Mihaela
Being a new member of the panel, I feel I have fitted in well and am comfortable taking part in meetings and discussions. I feel that my comments are appreciated and understood by the other panel members and am pleased with the progress we have made in improving services to customers. I was encouraged to join the panel further to my involvement in the Customer Monitoring Group and the Customer Appeals Panel, both of which I have been a member of for many years.
Peter
At the beginning of 2023 we also appointed our new Chair, Bob. He was elected by the other members to lead the meetings and providing continued support to the panel, over the next 12 months.
We come from across the Borough including the Town Centre, Hillgate, Brinnington, Cheadle, and Woodley and we all have an interest in helping our landlord improve its services which ultimately benefits all Stockport Homes customers.
We need new customers to join our group to help strengthen what we already do! We aren’t looking for any specific skills or experience, training and support will be available to anybody who joins. We’re a friendly group and all of our meetings are engaging and fun! We’re proud to be part of the panel and would encourage every customer to give it a try. More information on the Panel and what is involved is available on our CSP pages at www.stockporthomes.org/customer-scrutiny-panel
Support for the CSP
We receive support from an Independent Mentor, Jayne Boote, who assists us when we carry out reviews, making sure we can ask the right questions, get the right information, to have the greatest impact.
Jayne has many years of experience working with tenant scrutiny groups and we appreciate her support.
Jayne says “Stockport Homes have always had a commitment that the CSP should have independent support to enable them to undertake effective scrutiny. This commitment has enabled the CSP to choose and scope topics for review, select appropriate scrutiny methods and produce a report independently of Stockport Homes. My role is to equip the CSP with the tools they need to undertake effective scrutinies”
The Governance and Scrutiny Team at Stockport Homes support us with the arrangements for the Panel.
Our aim
The biggest part of our work is carrying out Service Reviews. This is where we take a detailed look at services and how customers experience those services. Where it is needed, we make recommendations about where we think Stockport Homes should consider making changes or improvements. Some of these will have positive short-term results for customers, others might take longer to lead to changes in how services are delivered.
Once we have completed a Service Review, our report is given to the Service Manager to enable the service to formulate an action plan on how they intend to respond to our recommendations and provide us with a timescale on implementation. We see this part of the process as vital in developing our relationship with the service and allowing us to monitor the changes made. We then report our findings and recommendations directly to the Board of Stockport Homes and the Service Manager informs the Board of the action plan.
Each review provides a great learning process for both the CSP members and for staff at Stockport Homes, and the scrutiny process evolves with each review.
Every year, the CSP aims to complete at least two reviews of Stockport Homes’ services and over the last year, we’ve been to achieve that. The services we reviewed are:
• Homechoice Service – How easy it is to apply for a home
• Damp, mould and condensation - How effective SHG are in responding to reports of damp and mould.
The difference we make
Our first review of the year was the Homechoice Service, who customers engage with to apply for a home at Stockport Homes. Because most residents of Stockport Homes have at some point used this service, we felt that it made sense for us to assess how easy it was to apply for a home and how effectively applicant’s expectations of the service are managed.
We focused our review on the customer journey of the application process. As part of the review, we undertook a number of activities to help us form judgements about how effective the service was. These included reviewing letters from throughout the customer journey, reviewing information on the website and surveying 2,020 applicants who had applied for a home within the last six months for their views on the service.
We found that overall, the Homechoice Service is good, and applicants can easily apply for a property and clear information is available on how to bid for a property. We did however find that that improvements could be made regarding communication between the service and applicants. We hope that our recommendations of improvements to the service will help customers who use the service.
A number of our recommendations relied on a new Homechoice system being developed. Because of this, we asked to be consulted on the new system before it was rolled out to customers. In March, we met with the Homechoice Manager, who provided a demonstration on the system and they asked for feedback on its effectiveness from a customer’s perspective.
The difference we make
Our second review of the year was the Stockport Homes’ approach to damp, mould and condensation. Because of the current spotlight on this area in the sector, we felt that it was important for customers to scrutinise it and potentially look for things that could be changed to improve the service and how its delivered to customers. We identified that the scope for our review would cover the quality of information available to customers on damp and mould and how effective SHG are in responding to reports of damp and mould.
To understand how customers use the service and how effective it was, we carried out a number of activities that included, assessing the communications customers receive when they report issues, reviewing information that is available on the website and we also conducted a survey with customers who have reported an issue in the last twelve months.
We found positive elements to the service, such as customers can easily report issues relating to damp and mould and that there is a clear process in place for responding to initial reports. However, we found that some improvements were required to a number of elements of the service and therefore we recommended that the service undertook their own thorough review taking into account our findings. This has since taken place and our recommendations were quickly addressed. One of the outcomes that we were pleased with was the creation of a Damp, Mould and Condensation Response Team, that will include a quicker initial attendance at a customer’s home following a customer’s report of damp, mould or condensation.
We’ve also been
• Reviewing how we decide on what reviews to do so that they are based on what we know tenants care about and will be able to improve their experience
• Reviewing how we do our work to make sure that we’re getting the right information and checking the right things
• Improving how we can involve other customers in the process so that we can draw on their experiences
• Making sure we’re keeping up with changes in how Stockport Homes operates
• Working to improve our communications with other tenants about what we do and the impact its having
We plan to make some changes and improvements in the next 12 months to make us even more effective and to make sure customers are kept informed of our work and achievements.
What else we’ve done Annual Report to
Customers
Every year Stockport Homes develop an Annual Report to Customers to provide information about important things that have happened over the last 12 months. This year when the decision was made to make the annual report a virtual report, rather than a paper report, some of our members were asked to be part of the filming, where important issues, such as the cost of living crisis were highlighted. The annual report can be found on this link www.stockporthomes.org/about-us/annual-and-financialreports/annual-reports
Customer Monitoring Group Awards Judging Panel
Over the last year, we have continued with the role of the Customer Monitoring Group, which meets three times per year. The role of the group is to monitor performance and other various projects across Stockport Homes and provide feedback to Stockport Council’s Member Committee, which is a meeting between Stockport Homes and Councillors. This is a valuable way for us to engage with Stockport Council so that we can give our views on how Stockport Homes are performing.
In August, some of our members were part of the Customer STAR awards and ASPIRE colleague awards judging panel. These awards are where customers and colleagues of SHG are celebrated for their recent successes and after being nominated for an award, the judging panels were provided with the responsibility to choose the eventual winners.
PlaceShapers – Regulator of Social Housing
In September, one member of our members attended an event hosted by the Regulator of Social Housing where customers from across the North West were invited to talk about the things that matter to us. This was a great opportunity for us to have our voices heard at a regional level and help the Regulator continue its work delivering the aims of the Social Housing Regulation Bill.
Greater Manchester Housing Providers Home Energy Efficiency Booklet
In October, Stockport Homes developed a Home Energy Efficiency booklet that would be shared with Greater Manchester Housing Providers. Because this was potentially an extremely useful document for housing providers and customers across Greater Manchester due to the cost-of-living crisis, we were asked to review its contents and suggest changes before it was publicised. This allowed us to make sure its contents were as customer friendly and accessible as it was informative.
Customer Engagement Menu of Involvement Review
In February we carried out a short responsive review on the SHG’s ‘Menu of Involvement’. This entailed a review of the effectiveness and accessibility of the information provided to customers about the different ways they can get involved.
We thought it was a useful resource for customers to access information about all the different avenues of customer engagement and involvement, but asked for a few changes to be made, to ensure it was as accessible as possible.
National Federation of ALMO’s (NFA)
In February some of our members met with the NFA to talk about how SHG approach customer scrutiny and provided some examples of past reviews that will be incorporated into a nationwide report from the NFA on tenant scrutiny.
The NFA were impressed with our work, and as a consequence invited our chair, Bob McGechan to attend the NFA Annual Conference in Birmingham in April to be part of a customer scrutiny question and answer showcase. This is another opportunity to talk about scrutiny and celebrate the work of the CSP.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
In March we were consulted on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures that were introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing. We were asked to provide feedback and views on the effectiveness of the methodology of surveying customers on their satisfaction.
What we’re doing next
We will be working with our Independent Mentor and Stockport Homes’ officers to explore how we can get even more out of scrutiny, by working in new ways and making sure that the voice and experience of customers is central to how we choose our reviews and the recommendations we make.
In the next year, we will also be reviewing at least another two service areas that we think would benefit from our input. We hope to use new ways to highlight our work to other customers, making more effective use of social media, and improving how we present our findings to the Board at Stockport Homes.
We’re always keen to welcome more customers to get involved in our work, either as members of the Panel or in reviews about services that affect them, their families, and communities. You could make a difference by becoming the next Panel member!
Conclusion
We’re all proud to be able to work with Stockport Homes to improve the services and experiences of our fellow customers, and grateful for the support of staff at Stockport Homes for helping us in that work.
To find out more about what we do, and the impact tenant scrutiny has visit www.stockporthomes.org/csp You can even make suggestions about areas we might look at.
If you’re interested in getting more involved in what we do and making a difference, contact 0161 218 1263 or governance@stockporthomes.org
