Engagement Review
Friday 1st of May 2020
Stock holding Local Authority with around 40,000 properties Urban Authority in former industrial city in Northern England Mixture of type and age.
What were we approached to do?
Tpas was asked to review the current engagement framework as the previous framework was not delivering meaningful outcomes or perceived to be representative.
Tpas worked with the established task & finish group to provide an external perspective with regards to:
- What good looks like across the country with a particular emphasis on stock holding Local Authorities
- How the organisation compares to national best practice, the proposed new Tpas standards and the regulatory expectations
- The ‘ultimate aim’ is to have an independent appraisal of where the organisation’s engagement arrangements are currently at to inform their further work
What did we do?
We utilised an appreciative inquiry model of investigation to identify what worked well
Tpas staff hosted and facilitated focus groups with stakeholders such as elected members, staff, involved residents, Tenant Group representatives, senior staff and frontline workers
What were the successful outputs and outcomes?
One of the first successful outcomes was that the project spoke to residents not previously engaged
There was a high degree of buy in which meant well attended and facilitated sessions that helped support the recommendations to the task & finish group
Tpas left a range of specific recommendations to improve the overall activity profile:
- Develop an Engagement Strategy to reflect the organisation’s vison and values and the consumer standards
- Develop digital methods of engagement to widen the pool of involved customers
- Develop, with tenants and leaseholders, a clear set of service standards
- Review the role of current panel and consider ways of transforming into an assurance committee/group
- Use targeted engagement activities, linked to the business plan and service area plans, to plan outcome focussed engagement activities