Tenant Led Inspections

The tenant led inspections project is being run by the Stirling Tenants Assembly who are a registered tenants organisation made up of tenants from all over the Stirling Council area.

What is it?

Tenant led inspections is where tenants independently from their landlord inspect the service in a professional manor. It's a way for tenants to monitor and evaluate the performance of their landlord and be in a position to improve the service.

What are the aims of the TLI project?

• To improve landlords service and practice.
• To enable individual tenants to influence key decisions.
• Maximise individual tenant involvement at the heart of housing service development and delivery.
• To create opportunities for tenant involvement and increase tenant involvement.

How is an inspection carried out?

A team of tenants will be selected from interested tenants. This can be a small team of 4 to anything up to 10. It really depends on the size of the area being inspected and what methods will be used to carry out an inspection. Each inspection can be carried out differently, as the methods used to inspect a service can change. Some of the methods that could be used;

Mystery calling and shopping.
Work shadowing.
Informal process inspection.
Desktop audits.
Interviews and surveys.
Attending meeting.
Visits.

Don't worry if your not sure what is involved in carrying out some of these methods, as training will be given and no tenant will be asked to do something they are not comfortable with.

The information collected will be gathered together and a report will be written highlighting the services strengths and weaknesses, with suggested changes.

What happens to this report?

The report will be sent to the Council and a meeting will be arranged between the inspection team and an officer. At this meeting an action plan will be developed to carry forward any suggested changes to the service within an agreed timescale. At a later date (about 6 months) another meeting will be arranged to discuss the action plan and what has been carried out.

What would be expected of me as an inspector?

The actual inspection will take about 8 weeks to complete meeting one day a week. This timescale includes training. Once a tenants has committed themselves to an inspection team we need to know that they are committed at least until all the information is collected, but preferably until the report is written or the first meeting has been held with the Council.

We would hope that tenants will keep coming back to be inspectors so we can build up several teams which will enable the project to carry out more than one inspection at a time.

What will tenants get out of being an inspector?

Other than knowing how you have improved the service being provided by your landlord you will learn new skills and knowledge. Some of the skills and knowledge that you may acquire are:

• Carrying out interviews
• Developing questionnaires / surveys / interview questions
• Understanding polices and strategies
• Facilitating meetings
• Listening
• Communicating
• Writing reports
• Collecting data

You will also meet other tenants who are interested in improving the service. Get to know staff from other local offices and in viewforth. Depending on what area is being inspected you will have an insight into the job of the housing officer and front line staff.

Tenant Inspectors win top Award

Tenant Inspectors, supported by Stirling Tenants Assembly, have won a prestigious Award for their project to examine the Estate Management policy in two areas, Raploch and Fallin.

Co-operation was received throughout from Stirling Council, both at a local level and from Senior Officers that resulted in the Council adopting recommendations suggested by the Inspectors.

The Award, which is sponsored by Communities Scotland, Chartered Institute of Housing, TPAS, and Lovell's, is for Inspection, Reporting and for production of a “How to…” Guide for other tenant groups.

Figure 1 : Some of the Members of the TLI Group with their award.
Pictured are, Back Row: Michael Griffith and Alex Lamb.
Front Row: Mary Rainey, Donald Budge & Philomena McClung.

The Award (left) is in glass on a plinth, with the inscription of the sponsors and titled:
Good Practice Awards
Winner 2007
Tenant / Residents Group Participation Award.

Well done to all at the Tenant Led Inspection Group. Particular thanks should also go to Stirling Council Local Area Managers and Staff, and also to Senior Staff at Housing HQ. Thank you too, to Tenant Participation Advisory Service for their guidance and support. Finally, thank you to Communities Scotland for the funding.

Recent Work TLI Homeless

Tenants Inspect Homeless Service

The Tenant led Inspectors team, in conjunction with the Stirling Tenants Assembly, carried out an inspection of Stirling councils' homeless services last year. We wrote an extensive report which we presented to the council.

After interviewing staff members at Springkerse house who all seemed to have a good perspective on what is required of them, we met with some of the service users'.

We inspected some of the homeless flats at Springkerse House and found them to be very well laid out and more than adequate for the needs of the people who use them. Following this, we had a visit to some of the bed and breakfast establishments within the community. Some of these were better than others.

We made some recommendations to the council and they are giving consideration to implement them.

Some of the recommendations we made are:-

More effort to meet with people in the rural areas, without them having to travel to Stirling at their own expense.

Ceasing to use temporary accommodation outside Stirling

Ceasing to use accommodation where individuals have to share. (This has caused problems in the past).

Giving more notice of the allocation of a permanent home before people have to move in and start paying rent. (The current time is three days).

Creating provision for (or working with an existing organisation) a furnishing recycling service that people can furnish their homes cheaply.

These are just a few of the recommendations we have made should anyone want a copy of the full report we would be happy to send it to you if you contact Stirling Tenants Project office at Springkerse on 01786443543.

Philomena Mc Clung

Open Day

Stirling Council “Open Day” for tenants

The Stirling Tenants Assembly (STA) are being asked to take part in an “OPEN DAY” being organised by Stirling Council for tenants.

The open day is being held in the Albert Halls, Dumbarton Road , Stirling on 7 th JUNE, 2008 from 10.30am to 3.00pm . There will be a number of information stalls as well as a display of new kitchen/bathroom systems currently being installed in tenants homes over the coming months.

The STA will be on hand to talk to tenants and answer any queries about issues in their areas and to share a “crack or two”.

More details will emerge nearer the time and information posters will be available in your local community Libraries etc. So Watch out for them!

We hope as many tenants as possible will come along on the day to ask questions and see for themselves what their Housing Department is doing, and more importantly what we, the STA, are doing on their behalf.
Don't forget – 7 th June!

STA Conference

The annual conference of the Stirling Tenants' Assembly will be held in the Golden Lion Hotel, King Street, Stirling on Saturday 13 September 2008.

This is an opportunity for all tenants in the Stirling Council area to meet, hear future plans and voice their opinions.

The morning session will have speakers from local and national government with time set aside for questions, before the discussion groups are held.

The discussion groups will be based on subjects which are relevant to tenants and it is hoped many tenants will wish to put forward ideas.

The afternoon session will include the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Stirling Tenants' Assembly ( STA).

The conference is free, but it will be necessary to book a place to assist catering arrangements.

Further details will be publicised when speakers are confirmed and topics for discussion have been decided.

For the moment, put this date in your diary!