Kate Newbolt - TPAS Consultancy Manager Central Emma Wallington - TPAS Consultancy Manager South

Where did the Scrutiny Lounge come from? The Independent Scrutiny Group from Howard Cottage Housing Association

What the Independent Scrutiny Group wanted?  Relaxed networking for tenant members of Scrutiny Panels  NO Officers  NO Consultants pitching for work  To get a perspective from tenants about how its going  To establish a network of Scrutiny Member contact for future use

Making it happen Securing sponsorship for a free event Willmott Dixon Partnerships volunteered the venue and facilities TPAS volunteered to pay for lunch and put together the promotion and organisation of the day

What did happen

Discussion Points Generated by the Independent Scrutiny Group at Howard Cottage Housing Association Issue 1 - About your scrutiny meetings When did you first set up your Scrutiny Group? How did you recruit members? How many meetings do you hold on average each year? What are your meeting quorum level and overall membership numbers? Do you block book your meetings in advance or hold them as and when necessary? Do you have any issues with membership commitment? Issue 2 – Project & Topic Selection How do you approach topic selection? What is the range of topics you have undertaken? Have you had any access to information issues? Can you tell us about the kind of recommendations you have made and how successful/unsuccessful these have been when you get to Board level? What are the Board response timeframes and arrangements in place for monitoring approved recommendations? Issue 3 – Your reports to Board and after Do you have any meetings before your report goes to Board for service managers to explain difficulties of implementing your recommendations? How well have your recommendations been implemented after approval? Are recommendations and progress of these published for wider tenants to see clearly the progress and achievements of your work? Issue 4 – Other Topics Should members of a scrutiny panel be paid? Who should set the budget and agree it with the board?

What came out of it? It worked! 15 organisations attended – from Huddersfield to Hertfordshire Debate and discussion extended far wider than expected All wanted TPAS to help facilitate a network so people could keep in touch Scrutiny Lounge Report is available upon request through TPAS by contacting

What happened next? TPAS asked to further promote the concept (hence this session!) Approaches coming from across TPAS Membership nationally

Today Mirroring a snapshot of the Scrutiny Lounge Testing the appetite for a TPAS Scrutiny Lounge network Looking for more and deeper networking needs of scrutiny members

Pick the points that interest you

Future Scrutiny Lounge Networking  How interested would you be in an online network?  What is your preferred option; 1. A Scrutiny Lounge Facebook Page 2. An network where any member can post questions and receive answers back 3. Any other suggestions?  Would you be interested in more Scrutiny Lounge events? Should these be regional or national?  Are you happy for TPAS to work up some options for the network?

The Framework Should TPAS retain the ethical approaches of;  No Consultants selling services – not even TPAS!  Sponsorship of events by landlords, contractors and others? - Free events, only pay for your travel Should the Scrutiny Lounge remain a tenant scrutiny member initiative only? Or should it look at events for Scrutiny Support staff?

How useful has this been for you? I’m very interested and want to add my contact details to be kept informed of developments I’m moderately interested but would rather visit the TPAS website when it suits me I’m not interested at all