Housing(Scotland)Act 2001- Guidance on Tenant Participation

Listen

Housing(Scotland)Act 2001- Guidance on Tenant Participation

PART 3: TENANT PARTICIPATION STRATEGY

Tenant Participation

29. Section 53 of the Act covers two broad areas. It sets out the duty on local authority landlords and RSLs to prepare a tenant participation strategy and introduces the concept of "registered tenants organisations", with this register being maintained by the landlord and being made available for public inspection.

30. Section 53(1) sets out the requirement for the development of a tenant participation strategy. The purpose of the tenant participation strategy is to achieve continuous improvement in landlords' performance in supporting and enabling tenants to participate, consistent with best value principles, by listing and prioritising the actions, agreed with tenants, which would achieve improved practice. The strategy should be a living organism that grows and develops; a partnership agreement that is subject to regular review by landlord and tenants, to reflect their evolving relationship.

31. Many landlords will have a tenant participation strategy in place already. The Act, however, makes specific provision as to what the strategy should include, for example working with registered tenants organisations, which an existing strategy would be unlikely to cover. As a result, it is essential that all relevant landlords go through the strategy development process. In the first instance, this tenant participation strategy would need to be finalised by 31 March 2003.

32. The drawing up of this first strategy should be seen as a starting point and it would be appropriate to include in the strategy how and when it will be reviewed. It may be that some initial strategies will be relatively simple. This is not a problem, provided the strategy has been drawn up in consultation with tenants and is meaningful, achievable and has measurable targets. As policy and practice in relation to tenant participation develops, tenant participation strategies will evolve. In any event, as the landlord and stakeholders should review the strategy, it is important that targets remain meaningful, measurable and achievable, whilst recognising the longer term aspirations of its partners. It is also important that the strategy is expressed in plain language and is user friendly.

33 .Section 53(1) states that the strategy is about promoting the participation of tenants in the formulation of policy. Specifically, this is where it relates to the management of housing accommodation and the provision of related services, where they affect tenants. In practice it would be useful to link this to other areas of landlord activity. This could include broader community involvement, community learning and regeneration strategies. Landlords will already be carrying out many of these broader activities that will help deliver the tenant participation strategy.

34. The tenant participation strategy should specifically include (as required by section 53(2)):

(a) provision as to:

(i) the arrangements for obtaining and taking account of the views of registered tenant organisations and tenants as to the matters on which the landlord should make proposals of the type referred to in Subsection (1) and the nature and content of such proposals;

(ii) notifying registered tenant organisations and tenants of the matters on which the landlord expects to be making such proposals;

(iii) the information to be provided to registered tenant organisations and tenants about such proposals and their likely effect; and

(b) an assessment of the resources (including financial and other assistance to bodies comprised of or representing tenants) required, and a statement of the resources proposed, to give effect to the strategy.

Preparation of the Strategy

35. Where a landlord is developing a tenant participation strategy, it is essential that this is done in consultation with tenants, including existing tenants organisations. There is the potential that some tenants organisations will not see engaging with the landlord on the development of the strategy as a priority. Landlords should make every effort to involve as many groups as possible.

36. A key factor is the importance that the landlord places on the process. If it is seen as a high priority for the landlord, then this may help bring groups on board. The point is to have a document that reflects the landlord's objectives in developing and promoting the strategy and takes on board the tenants' perspective. This is particularly important, as the strategy is not simply a statement about the landlord's policy in relation to tenant participation. It should reflect how the landlord proposes to work with tenants, both as individuals and as members of registered tenants organisations.

37. There are, of course, practical issues for landlords in consulting on the strategy, especially where there is little or no tradition of tenant involvement. The actual approach will vary from area to area but some techniques could include:

  • a newsletter to all tenants inviting an input to the development of the strategy - although this approach should be backed up by more proactive activities such as leafleting, roadshows, public meetings, individual surgeries, helpline or website (landlords would need to consider and plan for these well in advance);
  • working with existing groups - if a landlord does not have an established relationship with tenant groups, then making contact with organisations which have made representations to the landlord may be a useful start;
  • liaising with the local federation, where this exists - will give immediate access to a number of groups, although the landlord will need to establish how much the federation represents local groups and, in the case of RSLs particularly, whether a federation based around a local authority landlord has members who are tenants of the RSL (the registration of federations is discussed further under registration criteria);
  • holding an event, either in local areas or centrally - this approach will require work and resources on the landlords part to bring tenants together, particularly where tenant organisation is weak. There can also be issues here that a group of interested tenants is not in itself a tenants group for, as the registration criteria makes clear, a group must have some form of constituted structure. A meeting of interested tenants may be a useful starting point for promoting the setting up of tenant groups.

38. Landlords should determine the most appropriate way to engage on the development of the strategy. Where tenants and tenant groups are not engaged in the strategy from the start, there is a greater chance of it being seen as a paper exercise. As the review and development of the strategy involving tenants is a key component, having tenants engaged at the start makes this more straightforward. This review should be ongoing and on the basis of measurable outputs, for example, meetings held, information issued, number of tenants groups set up, responses to consultations or meeting attendance. Each landlord should, however, determine in consultation with tenants the most appropriate indicators to adopt.

Developing the Strategy Process

39. The requirement to develop a tenant participation strategy has a number of key stages. The first stage is to establish a baseline as to how the organisation is performing. There are a number of ways to do this, for example a tenant participation audit, carried out internally or by an externally appointed consultant. TIS has prepared a Tenant Participation Healthcheck for landlords to self complete, to assess performance. A copy is attached at Annex A. Landlords can tailor this for their own use. Further healthchecks should be carried out on a regular basis and may involve tenants. The Tenant Participation Advisory Service has also produced guidance on auditing (see bibliography at Annex D).

40. Once the strategy is published it should be the subject of ongoing review. The review process should be set out in the strategy and agreed as part of the consultation with tenant and registered tenant organisations. It should include agreed standards against which performance can be measured. These should be linked to the original aims and objectives of the strategy itself.

41. The strategy should also set out the arrangements for registration of tenant organisations and the mechanisms for appeal against non-registration, removal or refusal to remove an organisation from a registered list.

42. The effectiveness of a landlord in developing and monitoring the tenant participation strategy will be one of the topics covered as part of Communities Scotland's inspection process, see Communities Scotland's website: http://www.inspection.communitiesscotland.gov.uk /

Obtaining and Taking Account of Views

43. The legislation on this is quite clear - landlords have to seek and take account of the views of tenants organisations and individual tenants as to the matters on which the landlord should make proposals and the nature and content of such proposals and they must set out in the strategy their arrangements for doing so.

44. Section 53(2)(a) recognises that participation is a two-way process and that this means landlords asking tenants for their views before they formulate proposals on which they will be required to consult their tenants. This means that tenants are engaged in the agenda setting process. In other words, a landlord who is thinking about making changes to its policy on allocation of houses, for example, will be required to consult tenants as to what their views are on such a proposal, before the proposed changes to the allocations policy are drafted up and put out to consultation. Where there is a registered tenants' group in an area, it is likely that detailed discussion of such proposals will take place through consultation with that group. This does not, however, negate the landlord's duty to consult individual tenants as well as tenants groups. In practice, therefore, and taking the example given above, the landlord would be required to write to tenants seeking views, either direct - through public meetings, questionnaires, etc. - or through the registered tenant organisation. The landlord would then be required to go back out to consultation with tenants and registered tenant organisations on the detail of any proposals subsequently drawn up.

45. Many landlords use a number of tools to seek tenant views, including: conferences; attending tenant group meetings; setting up focus groups or tenant panels and tenant satisfaction surveys. There needs to be some way to interact with proposals, so while surveys may be useful in seeking the views of a wide number of tenants, they may not lend themselves to more detailed discussion. The mechanisms adopted to seek views need to be able to establish proposals, identify views, provide a forum for response and debate and engage as widely as possible with tenants.

Assessing the Resources Required

46. In order to raise the status of the tenant participation strategy beyond the simply aspirational, the Act requires that the tenant participation strategy contain an assessment of the resources required and resources proposed to implement the strategy. One of the key principles of the National Strategy, "Partners in Participation", outlined at the start of this guidance is that registered tenant organisations will require adequate resources for organisation, training and support. Resources need not simply be funds committed but might also include:

  • access to premises to serve as an office and for meetings;
  • administrative support (for example, taking minutes at meetings, photocopying, sending out mailings and booking meeting venues);
  • support to help develop the capacity to build/maintain representative organisations;
  • funds to produce written information, hold events, meet travel/subsistence expenses;
  • access to independent advice.

47. Agreement is needed between the tenant representative group and the landlord about how resources will be controlled. Landlords should ensure groups are granted control of resources where groups wish the control and can demonstrate that they have the experience and capacity to fulfil this role.

48 .In establishing the resources required, landlords should not simply consider this from their organisational perspective but should ensure that, as part of the participative process in drawing up the strategy, the reasonable aspirations of tenants are taken into account.

49. In any event, tenants must be involved in any discussion about resources for RTOs in the context of the wider tenant participation strategy and the strategy should detail the resources that are to be provided and any arrangements for monitoring and control of expenditure.

Page updated: Tuesday, May 16, 2006