150 East Kent Housing - Proposed new formal resident involvement structure PDF 592 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Mr Matt Gough, Director of Customer Services (East Kent Housing) introduced the item and made the following points:
· The proposals for improving the engagement of residents were developed through the participation of tenants’ representatives in workshops that were facilitated by an independent tenant advisor;
· The Internal EK Housing Improvement Board considered and agreed the proposals;
· Residents wanted a cohesive approach for engaging them;
· The proposed Residents Panel will have a strategic overview of processing views from residents and communicating these to management;
· The would be a new method of escalation of issues through the organisational structure;
· Once agreed there will be a need to make minor amendments to the current agreement with TDC.
In response to the presentation Members made comments and raised questions as follows:
· The process used by East Kent Housing was transparent;
· How was EK Housing going the monitor the new system;
· How was the organisation going to manage the influence of dominant individuals who sit on the Panel;
· Could the quorum of eight members of the Panel include at least one representative from each of the areas?
Responding to Member comments and questions Mr Gough said that:
· The selection criteria for individuals to sit on the Panel would include among other attributes; the ability to represent the views of residents at Panel meetings;
· EK Housing will provide skills training to the new Panel membership;
· Each area will select its own representative to sit on the main Panel;
· EK Housing would consider the suggestion from the Overview & Scrutiny Panel that ‘the quorum of eight members of the Panel should include at least one representative from each of the areas.’
The Panel agreed the following:
1. To endorse the recommendation to invite an appropriate Councillor(s) to attend local group meetings to participate and observe, in relation to local council services;
2. To note the proposed implementation timescales.