How to review, revise and revitalise your engagement for the New Year
Friday 14th of December 2018
Some of us were brought up on very different three ‘R’s – you know, Reading, writing and arithmetic!. But I want to talk to you about three ‘R’s’ with a different meaning – review, revise and revitalise.
Given the Governments new emphasise on engagement through its Green Paper ‘ A new Deal for Social Housing’ and the distinct possibility of more robust regulation around the consumer standards, the time is right to ensure that your engagement frameworks and engagement models will meet these new high expectations.
So here’s my advice for what you need to be doing right now:
REVIEW
Take a comprehensive, wide angle look at your engagement strategy. What does your current model look like? – Can you ensure that it’s measuring the right outcomes and impact for your engagement? Can you track how tenants priorities and issues are being listened to and acted upon?
REVISE
Take a serious look at how you can Co-design with tenants and staff to understand what’s working well and what is not working. For example, do you have a framework that includes hearing tenants voices who can’t or don’t want to attend meetings? How can you make better use of social media platforms? It’s about having a range of tools in your tool kit for engagement that includes both the face to face interactions as well as the digital interactions.
REVITALISE
By working together – staff and tenants you can co-create a more innovative, and interactive framework for engagement ensuring that it is fit for purpose, future proofed and includes a range of mechanisms to hear and act upon all different sections of your communities. Ensuring that everyone is truly enabled to influence, work in partnership and provide a ‘real’ critical friend role to the organisation.
That’s my advice to getting your engagement in shape for the future.
Tpas has been an influencer for ‘REAL engagement ‘ between tenants and social housing landlords for the past 30 years. We have a range of services to help support organisations and tenants to develop their approaches to engagement that offer the best possible solutions some of which include:-
- Reviews – SMART review of your current engagement framework
- Accreditations – PRO accreditation in engagement
- Future proofing workshops
- Co-design workshops with staff and tenants
- Training
Tpas membership – Access to the knowledge hub for Tpas members – case studies and good practice from across the sector
Get in touch if you think you’d benefit from our reviews or support to ensure your engagement frameworks are the best they can be now and into the future.