Rotherham Council on their Landlord Accreditation
Tuesday 29th of August 2023
James Smith, Tenant Engagement Manager, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council tells us about their recent Tpas Landlord Accreditation and how they found the process.
Your name, role and organisation
James Smith, Tenant Engagement Manager, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Why you decided to go for the accreditation
We wanted to really test our tenant engagement offer and understand how we were performing and where we could do better. The external assessment was really useful in sense checking where our offer was at and giving us a steer on how to improve our offer.
How you found the accreditation process
The accreditation process was very supportive, and we had a great experience. Tenants and key stakeholders were all involved which we thought was fantastic.
What difference achieving accreditation has made to you/your organisation
Our Tenant Engagement Team has completely changed since the accreditation, with Asim Munir moving on after 15 years at RMBC. Accreditation has helped our new Tenant Engagement Manager to assess where our offer is at and start making progress towards making improvements.
It's also demonstrated to our tenants that we really value their engagement in Rotherham, and has strengthened our relations with them, and with Rotherfed.
What you are currently working on, having completed accreditation
Some of our current work includes:
- We have re-designed our Tenant Engagement Website to cover lots of the recommendations and help us to ensure clear and transparent information is communicated with tenants, and allow people to better interact with us, and make suggestions on-line
- We have developed a set of expenses, incentives and support guidelines which is currently working it's way through the sign off process.
- We have appointed a provider to undertake the TSMs perception survey
- We are currently making a business case to re-procure the Tenant Federation Contract, and are awaiting a decision on this
- We co-created the screen team with tenants. The team meet every month to look at our publications and make sure they are user friendly for other tenants.
- We are currently arranging the annual garden competition, Rotherham Show, and Tenants Open day.