Tenant Participation

Tenant Participation - How to get involved

Great Yarmouth Community Housing is committed to working with tenants to improve the services that we deliver and to make our estates and neighbourhoods better places in which to live.

Our aim is to keep our tenants well informed about what is going on and to give them every opportunity to have a say in how their homes are managed and services are provided. This can be as simple as answering a questionnaire or as involved as sitting as a Tenant Member of the Community Housing Board.

Ways to be involved

We have a wide range of ways to be involved. These include the following:

Surveys & Questionnaires

Tenants & Residents Associations

Tenant Links

Area Housing Panels

Service Delivery Working Groups

Great Yarmouth Community Housing Tenants’ Forum

Sheltered Housing Forum

The Community Housing Board

Other informal meetings and focus groups

The Partnership Agreement or Tenants Compact

The Tenants’ Compact, or Partnership Agreement as we like to call it, sets out

(1198Kb)

the ways in which Great Yarmouth Community Housing will provide information to tenants, the opportunities there are to get involved, what support will be given and what we are trying to achieve.

This is a joint agreement drawn up between tenants and staff after considerable work. All tenants have been sent a copy but if you would like another copy please contact tenant participation staff on 01493 846521 or 846115. You can also download the agreement here (1198Kb)

Communication

All tenants will receive a Tenants News and Views, the tenant newsletter twice a year. The latest issue can also be downloaded from the further information box. We will also deliver leaflets and newsletters to your door if there are specific things going on in your area which tenants need to know about.

Tenants will receive a copy of the tenant participation agreement detailing the ways to become involved. To view the newsletter click on the picture above or click here

Training and support

Encouraging and supporting tenant participation is part of the role of all staff. However, our Tenant Participation Officers have the specific task of supporting the development of individual tenants who want to get involved as well as helping them to get Tenants and Residents Associations set up and to keep them running. They are the first point of contact for anyone wanting to get involved. They can be contacted on 01493 846521 or 846115.

Training is available to help tenants become involved and financial grants are available to set up or support groups.

Surveys & Questionnaires

Every two years a satisfaction survey is sent out which asks tenants how they feel about the homes and neighbourhoods in which they live and the services that we provide. Not all tenants receive this survey but in 2008 about half of our tenants were randomly picked and sent the form. The results of this survey provide us with lots of information about what is really important to tenants and helps us to plan how we provide and improve services in the future.

As well as the main tenant satisfaction survey, we also send out survey forms and questionnaires on a range of other issues. In particular when tenants have received a service from us we often follow that up with a quick questionnaire to make sure that they are satisfied and if not then why not.

Tenants & Residents Associations

Tenants in some areas have got together to form Tenants and Residents

Associations. These groups are open to all tenants and residents of a neighbourhood and look at how the area can be improved and how services can meet the needs of local people. Some also organise social and other activities for different members of the community. Current Tenants and Resident Associations working in partnership with Great Yarmouth Community Housing are;

Beatty Close Community Association
Halfway House Tenants and Residents Association
Middlegate Community Association
Rural North Tenants and Residents Association
STAR – Shrublands Tenants and Residents Association

For further information on your local group please contact the TP team.

Tenant Links

Tenant Links are tenants who are not part of a formal Tenants and Residents

Association but are interested in getting involved in different activities, either in their own area or in a particular part of the service.

Area Housing Panels

Area Housing Panels are organised by Community Housing and are a way of tenants getting involved without having to take on the responsibility of organising meetings themselves. Once a year a meeting will be held in each neighbourhood so that all tenants in that area can come and hear about what is going on.

Service Delivery Working Groups

Tenants who have a real interest in a particular service can get involved in one of four Service Delivery Working Groups. These are lead by the key managers in each service and provide an opportunity to tenants to look in detail at how the services are run and how they can be improved. The four Service Delivery Working Groups are:

Finance and the Capital Programme
Repairs and Planned Maintenance
Tenancy Services
Environmental Services
Communication
Tenant Participation

Up to six tenants sit on each group, where a group is full a tenant can ask to go on a waiting list.

Great Yarmouth Community Housing Tenants’ Forum

The Tenant’s Forum is where tenant representatives from across the Borough

of Great Yarmouth come together to discuss the issues that matter to tenants.

Community Housing will consult with the Forum on important issues relating the service locally and will also provide updates on what is happening at a national level.

Sheltered Housing Forum

Once a year we will hold a meeting in each of our sheltered housing schemes, inviting tenants to tell us what they think about the services we provide. These meetings are very informal and usually held over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

The Community Housing Board

The Community Housing Board is made up of 6 elected Members, four councillors from the party that controls the Council and two from the opposition, three tenants and three independent board members.

From 2009, any tenant can stand for annual election to the Board if they are nominated by ten other tenants. Details of those who have been nominated will be sent to all tenants who will then be able to vote for who they want to be the Tenant Board Member.

Other informal meetings and focus groups

If any tenant or group of tenants has a good idea or an issue that needs resolving, the Tenant Participation Team will be happy to come out to visit and see what help they can give.