Tenant scrutiny: involving young people Caroline Field November 2011

Tenant scrutiny? Tenant scrutiny is intended to give tenants influence over the priorities and performance of their landlord and give tenants the power to effect change We had to question: Do we do this in Riverside already? Do we do enough of it? Is it working right everywhere in Riverside? How do we change what we are doing?

Riverside A national housing association with over 50,000 properties Founded 1928, and grown by improvement and development, stock transfer and merger Turnover £249million We provide care and support services to over 6000 people We work in 169 local authorities We are a Co-Regulatory Champion

Co-Regulation events Four events at which tenants explain their co-regulatory working, looking at - Local regeneration programme – Lee Valley Young people - Cambridge Older people - Anfield Supported services in general needs housing - Bromley

Scrutiny in Riverside: taking a national perspective to involve all We have a busy tenant structure, which creates opportunities for people to be engaged in the way they chose ─Not just meetings ─Not just older people We can’t just run it from Liverpool when we have homes in 160 Local Authorities We have to operate at scheme level where we have specialist schemes

Scrutiny in Riverside 2011 Riverside National Service Scrutiny Panel 18 members Maintenance Scrutiny Group 1 member Maintenance Scrutiny Group 1 member Customer Service Scrutiny Group 1 member Customer Service Scrutiny Group 1 member Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Group 1 member Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Group 1 member Service Improvement Review Groups 3 members TASQ team 1 member TASQ team 1 member Tenant Inspectors 1 member Tenant Inspectors 1 member Divisional Services Scrutiny Groups 10 members Area Scrutiny Panels or Neighbourhood Forums

Riverside Group Board National Tenant Scrutiny Panel Federation Housing Services Committee Divisional Boards Divisional Services Scrutiny Groups(10) Tenant Inspectors Group TASQ group Maintenance Scrutiny Group Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Group Service Improvement Review Groups (3 per year) Scrutiny in Riverside 2011 Area Scrutiny Panels or Neighbourhood Groups Customer Service Scrutiny Group GovernanceTenantsScrutiny Business Groups Issues Groups Divisional Tenants & Residents Groups Local TARAS

Making sure young people are heard Working locally Working on projects Giving something in return Finding their voice

Some younger people’s projects in Riverside Pennine Junior Wardens Peppercorn Lodge Foyers: Liverpool and Cambridge Visions of Life – dvd

Pennine Junior Wardens Working with local Community Wardens Supported by local school Older Junior Wardens now mentors

Peppercorn Lodge, Ipswich Helping Young Parents through Empowerment Peppercorn Lodge provides support for eleven young homeless families developed a partnership of empowered young parents, supportive housing staff and local agencies our team worked with the young parents to produce a video about the issues they face, it helps agencies understand the obstacles young mums and dads face and educates their approach to them

Foyers As well as providing supported accommodation, our Foyers aim to enable disadvantaged year-old young people to achieve self- reliance and independence A Foyer is not just a place to live, it is a place that helps young people to achieve the goals they have in life. This could range from looking at education, training and employment options to how they are going to live independently in the future. Our Foyers have a panel of young people who meet with the scheme managers to discuss services

Visions of Life Getting young people and older people to together Multi media training for young and old Improving community cohesion Improving digital inclusion

Managing locally, learning centrally Scrutiny must be owned locally Riverside may receive expert and structured constructive criticism directly from tenants who will have their own evidence on which to base their views Local boards may receive a direct challenge from the tenants if they think it necessary: We need to share the learning points

Tenant scrutiny in support of change We need to better understand from tenants what it is they want to see change about our services Tenant scrutiny should give us much more of this