We are delighted to have a group of tenants who volunteer their time to look at the services we provide from a tenant's perspective.
They helped us create this annual review to help others understand what they did and achieved over the past year.
Next meeting
- Next quarterly meeting are
- Thursday 12 September 1.30 to 3.30 pm at Leyland House and Teams
- Tuesday 3 December 10.30 to 12.30 at Leyland House and Teams
If you would like to find out more, suggest a service to be reviewed, or would like to book a place, please get in touch with the Customer Voice Team at community@progressgroup.org.uk, or call Diane on 01772 450669.
Your Tenants' Voice - Improving Services group completes reviews on different areas of the organisation.
This is to identify what we do well and recommend improvements in areas where we could improve. When conducting a scrutiny review, tenants carry out various activities.
This can include interviews with employees, looking at performance information and survey results from other tenants, looking at policy documents, mapping out processes from a tenant's perspective and looking at what other housing providers do.
Tenants then meet with employees to discuss their findings and produce action plans to implement their recommendations.
To find out more about our Tenants' Voice group, including how to join or make a suggestion for a service review, please get in touch with your Customer Voice Team: community@progressgroup.org.uk or 01772 450669
Copies of previous minutes from the Tenants' Voice group are available upon request from the Customer Voice Team.
“Joining the group helped me recognise what you can influence to create positive outcomes. I want to make a difference and make my community a good place. Communication challenges remain, so I would like to see listening skills included in training.”
Scrutiny reviews
Tenant Improving Services | Annual Review
Out of hours repairs service review
The group completed a review of the out-of-hours service in October 2022.
They made six recommendations to improve the service for tenants who contact Progress Housing Group to report a repair outside of normal office hours.
Three of the recommendations have been implemented, including:
- Additional information is provided on the website to explain what is meant by an emergency repair
- Tenants receive a confirmation when the trade operative is on their way to carry out the out-of-hours repair
- Training is provided to colleagues to make sure tenants with specific requirements are supported when requesting an out-of-hours repair.
- The remaining 3 recommendations to investigate the reason for abandoned calls, review the out of hours policy and increase the number of satisfaction surveys completed are ongoing with completion due by end March 2025
Read the summary report and full report here.
In April 2023, the Tenants’ Voice - Improving Services group selected the planned maintenance service as their next area of review. Tenants met with colleagues from across Progress Housing Group to learn about the service and what this delivered to tenants.
Our involved tenants carried out their review over a number of weeks, providing their report and findings to the planned maintenance service in November 2023. The review identified eight recommendations, mainly relating to communication and information provided to tenants about what they can expect from the planned maintenance service.
- The planned maintenance team have been working hard to implement the recommendations. Five recommendations are already complete including;
- New letters for tenants to provide clear information about appointment times, what to expect and who to contact.
- The process has change to make sure new bathrooms and kitchens are measured, colour choices selected and work carried out in a timely way.
The remaining 3 recommendations to provide video information, update policy and review how satisfaction surveys are provided is underway and due to be complete by end March 2025
At the Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group meeting in July 2023, tenants identified communication as their next area for review.
The review is complete, and tenants have made six recommendations, including how to ensure Progress Housing Group applies the Group's style to all letters sent out, how to ensure external contractors adopt the Group's communication principles, and how to build customer confidence in online and automated services.
- One recommendation is complete, with the updates to the Customer Access Strategy action plan being provided to the Tenants’ Voice – improving services group. The remaining 5 recommendations are ongoing, including developing a new customer service style RAMP
- R – resolve issues
- A – adapt our services
- M – make it easy
- P – proactive communication
And introducing the training plan for colleagues across the Group.
The Tenants’ Voice – improving services group chose to review the management of communal areas within properties after looking at performance information. The review started in July and is expected to end in September 2024.
PDF Summary Report - coming soon
PDF Full Report - coming soon
You said, we did - coming soon
Latest scrutiny updates
Tenants' Voice Scrutiny Update - October 2023
Our Tenants' Voice – Improving Services group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting in October.
Tenants heard our plans to send quarterly surveys as part of the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures.
These are part of the new Customer Standards framework and will enable tenants to scrutinise their landlord's performance effectively.
We will use these results to improve our services and increase satisfaction. Tenants discussed that this was a good way to ensure we were accountable and listened to feedback.
The Tenants’ Voice group also looked at the Tenant Annual Review, which includes performance information for tenant services from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. Tenants said they liked the look of the report, which was easy to read and provided good information
The meeting also received an update on the out-of-hours service review, with three recommendations ongoing. The new telephony system has reduced the abandonment rate from 35.7% to 19%. We are now considering plans to extend the in-hours repairs period from 8 am until 8pm. This includes sessions with tenants to find out what they think would work well. We will also look at getting more survey responses from our RWP supported living tenants.
Seven recommendations from our community safety review have now been completed. This includes promoting the work of our Community Safety Team and how to report anti-social behaviour, a review of letter templates and updating information on our website. We are working on a process where community safety officers agree with tenants on how and when they will provide feedback on their cases.
The next area to be reviewed by the Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group is how we communicate with our tenants.
The current review of the planned maintenance service is complete, with the report being finalised by tenants before they provide their findings to the service team in November.
Tenants were then invited to join colleagues at our Black History Month celebration lunch at Leyland House. They heard from Clinton Smith, from Preston Black History Group, about the many achievements of black men and women. They also enjoyed Caribbean food and learnt more about the culture and accomplishments of black people during a quiz.
Tenants' Voice Scrutiny Update - January 2024
Our Tenants' Voice – Improving Services group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting in January.
Tenants received an update on the out-of-hours service review. Three of the six recommendations have now been completed.
The tenants discussed the ongoing recommendations, including a proposed change to extend the times when the in-hours repairs service will be available. It is hoped this will increase tenant satisfaction and reduce the number of out-of-hours calls.
Next on the agenda was an update on the community safety review, where tenants received an update confirming the final two recommendations are complete. This included a new communication process for everyone reporting anti-social behaviour.
The tenants also discussed the planned maintenance review, where most recommendations focus on communication and letters.
The tenants then reviewed our Customer Promises and Tenant Satisfaction Measures.
Tenants also heard from a member of the Continuous Improvement Team about its new programme aimed at improving our tenants' service experience and satisfaction. Our involved tenants were looking forward to sharing their experiences and feeding into the work through their scrutiny reviews.
The tenants discussed future topics they wished to review, which included aids and adaptations and looking into how we keep our communal areas clean and maintained.
Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services update – Spring 2024
Our Tenants’ Voice group held its quarterly scrutiny meeting at the end of March, where they discussed their latest service reviews and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code.
The tenants looked at the remaining three action points for the out-of-hours service review, which included receiving an update that the call abandonment fell to 20 % in February.
The group was generally happy with the service, remarking: “The out-of-hours response is very quick,” but communication still needed to be better.
The next item on the agenda was the planned maintenance review, with nine recommendations made. These mainly related to communication and information on what to expect regarding timescales and what the work involved.
The tenants then looked at the recommendations made for their communication review.
The discussion turned towards the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code and reviewing our policy in handling complaints at each stage. Our Head of Customer Experience Neil Bergin-Faragher talked about creating a positive culture where we see complaints as opportunities to listen to our tenants and learn from feedback. Neil also highlighted how we wanted to show the proactive actions we take following the feedback and how that will benefit tenants in the future.
The theme of listening to tenants was extended further as the final items on the agenda discussed two new opportunities to engage with tenants. These included inviting tenants to have lunch and chat with Board members, and setting up a governance committee with tenant members.
The next Tenants’ Voice scrutiny meeting will take place on Tuesday 18 June at Progress House, Leyland, or online via Teams. For more information on how to join, visit Tenants' Voice - Improving Services events | Progress Housing Group (progressgroup.org.uk)
- If any tenants have a service they would like to review in the future, please let our Customer Voice Team know by emailing community@progressgroup.org.uk.
Tenants’ Voice Scrutiny update – June 2024
Our Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group met in June. Here is a summary of what they talked about.
Tammy Bradley, our Executive Director (Operations and Support), told tenants about a new proposal to help tenants to access information about the management of their homes. This is a national proposal called STAIRs (Social Tenant Access to Information Requirement). The consultation has closed, but here is a link to find out more information: Consultation on the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements - Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - Citizen Space (levellingup.gov.uk)
Over the past few years, the Tenants’ Voice group has been helped by an independent mentor, Jayne. Unfortunately, Jayne is no longer available to do this, so we talked through other ways to provide this help. A number of suggestions were made. We are looking into these and will provide more information at the next meeting.
Tenants received an update on the progress being made on their recent reviews. This included:
- A change to appointment times for day-to-day repairs being available from 1 July. Appointments can now be made for some repairs from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday with an option for Saturday morning appointments.
- All letters sent to tenants who are having work to replace kitchens and bathrooms have been updated. The new letters were shared with the group, who thought they were much easier to understand.
- Our Customer Service Style framework, RAMP, is being introduced across the Group to help improve the way we communicate with tenants and customers. RAMP stands for
- R – Resolve issues
- A – Adapt our service
- M – Make it easy
- P – Proactive communication
The next area to be reviewed by tenants was chosen. This is the management of communal areas within buildings. The review started on 10 July and will be complete by early September.
One of our tenants, Fiona, told us about the ongoing work of Stop Social Housing Stigma, a national tenant led group she is involved with. They are promoting involvement from tenants and housing colleagues from across the country – here is a link if you want to find out more: Home - Stop Social Housing Stigma
The next quarterly update meeting of the Tenants’ Voice – improving services group is Thursday 12 September at 1.30pm.
How to get involved