Member Spotlight
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It’s our members that make Tpas such a great organisation to be part of and what better way to show this than with our member spotlight feature.
Each month we will invite one of our members to share their engagement achievements, tips and ambitions, allowing you to keep bang up to date with what others are up to across the sector.
Member Spotlight - Wigan Council 
We asked Liz Ramsden, Operational Manager at Wigan Council to share some of the work they are currently doing.
If you’d like to contact Liz about any of the below, click here
Give us a little known fact about your organisation
April 2024 marked 50 years since Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council was formed, uniting 14 districts into one shared identity under the Progress with Unity banner – 2025 will see us moving into the new era and uniting through the Progress with Unity motto once again.
Tell us about a time that engagement has made a difference to your services or communities?
Engagement makes a difference every day to our tenants or our services either on a small individual level or as part of a wider service change. Taking time to really listen is sometimes the difference our tenants want.
An example would be - Following on from a number of complaints from our tenants, our Housing Advisory Panel (HAP) carried out a scrutiny exercise on our caretaking service. As a result of the extensive work carried out by the scrutiny panel, their comprehensive report was the catalyst for major changes being implemented to our caretaking service and the wider housing teams.
These changes resulted in the caretaking service becoming once again a visible presence on our estates, a first point of contact and our tenants knowing who their local caretaker is, this had a domino effect and triggered a further look at wider frontline services to make sure that they were not only visible but also accessible to our tenants.
What are you currently working on when it comes to engagement?
We have just launched our Tenant Voice & Engagement Strategy (Jan 2025) following 12 months of engaging with our tenants to find out how they would like to get involved, how we can support involvement and how we can remove any barriers to getting involved. A key part of the strategy is ensuring there is buy in across all housing services to embed tenant voice and experience into their service delivery, review and improvement.
Over the next few months, we will be launching some new opportunities with our Better-Connected Community Fund – youth offer, to try and encourage our younger members in communities to get involved and make a difference. We will also be rolling out tool shed pilots that equip tenants with access to gardening tools and holding more tenant voice focus groups around repairs, complaints and lots more.
In addition, we are also planning some fun activities to boost engagement, as part of this we will be holding 4 Better Connected Community fun days to really get out into our communities, find out their views on our services and have some fun along the way.
Why did you decide to join Tpas?
We have been members for as long as I have worked in engagement, so I can’t tell you why we joined but I can tell you why we stay! To be able to get great advice, hear about best practices from Tpas and other organisations and to take advantage of the training, webinars and events. It also gives us the opportunity to meet in person with other engagement staff and tenants from across the country, share ideas – pick each other’s brains!
We're always keen to learn and Tpas give us the tools and techniques to continue to grow. Recently, we have really valued the feedback from Tpas in the development of our Engagement Strategy and in building the knowledge, skills and confidence of our tenant representatives that sit on our Housing Advisory Panel.
What is your top engagement tip?
To be as accessible as possible and have a variety of opportunities where tenants can be involved on whatever level suits them – using different methods, times, locations and removing barriers. Ensure that everyone that expresses an interest is given the opportunity to get involved – we want everyone to have a voice! Make sure it’s meaningful and always feedback on what difference they make.
What’s the one thing you are really proud of when it comes to engagement?
To pick one thing is really hard….but I’m really proud of the Tenant Voice and Engagement Team and all our engaged tenants who work together to make a difference. The team are always thinking of new and innovative ways to engage with our tenants and aren’t afraid to think outside the box. If something doesn’t work, we learn from it and we try something different. In the two years that the team has been in place, I’m amazed at how far we have come – we have launched a dedicated Tenant Voice Facebook page, tenant newsletter, held several focus groups that have led to service delivery change and recruited over 300 actively engaged tenants to name a few.
Previous Member Spotlights
January 2025 - Worthing Homes
December 2024 - Lumensol
October / November 2024 - Orbit
September 2024 - Gentoo
August 2024 - Watford Community Housing
July 2024 - BFT Mastclimbing
May / June 2024 - Stonewater
April 2024 - Hull City Council
March 2024 - Partners Foundation
February 2024 - Red Kite Community Housing
January 2024 - St Leger Homes of Doncaster
December 2023 - settle
November 2023 - Flagship Group
Sept / Oct 2023 - Hinckley and Bosworth Council
August 2023 - Tenants Hub CIC
June / July 2023 - Dovecotes TMO
May 2023 - Stockport Homes
April 2023 - TPTracker
March 2023 - Metropolitan Thames Valley
February 2023 - West Kent
January 2023 - Fairhive
December 2022 - Platform Housing Group
November 2022 - Integrated Solutions - City Plumbing
September / October 2022 - Homes Plus
August 2022 - Aspire
May 2022 - Arches
April 2022 - Acis Group
March 2022 - wdh
February 2022 - Michael Dyson Associates Ltd
January 2022 - South Yorkshire HA
December 2021 - Gateshead Council
November 2021 - LiveWest
October 2021 - YMCA Thames Gateway
September 2021 - Bernicia
August 2021 - Anglian Building Products
July 2021 - Warrington HA
June 2021 - Futr
May 2021 - Vale of Aylesbury HT
April 2021 - Aaron Services
March 2021 - Soha
February 2021 - North West Leicestershire DC
January 2021 - Vinci Facllities
December 2020 - Ongo
November 2020 - Places for People
October 2020 - Community Gateway Association
September 2020 - Dacorum BC
August 2020 - Eastend Homes
July 2020 - Connexus
June 2020 - Gridizen
May 2020 - Grand Union Housing Group
March / April 2020 - Onward Homes
January / February 2020 - Estuary HA
December 2019 - Muir Group
November 2019 - Blackpool Coastal Homes
October 2019 - Texthelp
September 2019 - Greatwell Homes
August 2019 - Selby DC
July 2019 - North Star Housing Group
June 2019 - Rotherham MBC
May 2019 - Homes for Haringey
I'd like to be in the spotlight
If you'd like to be featured in our Member Spotlight and highlight the work you are doing, please get in touch by emailing lisa.holt@tpas.org.uk.
Why choose Tpas?
Well established
We've been promoting, supporting and championing tenant involvement and empowerment across England for over three decades
Not for profit
Investing in Tpas means benefitting from the latest tenant involvement policies and practices but also securing and supporting the future of the tenant involvement agenda
Accreditation
We offer the only independent evidence-based accreditation scheme that assesses resident involvement arrangements.
Expert advice
Our shared knowledge, expertise and experience with staff, tenants, landlord and contractors are the building blocks of this organisation.
Find out more?
For more information please contact our dedicated membership team