Reflective Practitioner
Reflective Practitioner Consulting and Working with Residents Mapperly Park lacks any form of community consultation highlighting the priority need for a tenants association and community groups. This also seems to suggest that the staff may have little or no experience and training in tenant participation. Therefore it would be in Jane's interest to look closely into national/local government policies and strategies involving community consultation. Under the guidance and provision of government initiatives and strategies, any developments in tenant participation might be regarded as a success - considering the fact that Mapperly Park has never had a tenants association. Government Policies Best Value Perhaps the most important development in the social housing sector has been the government's drive to implement 'Best Value'. A key objective of 'Best Value' is the provision of quality service by consulting tenants/residents about their views and priorities. Involving the community is not enough, because in order to do so it is essential that staff are well informed, experienced and trained in providing quality customer care, for example the quality of service delivered by call centre staff handling the tenants queries. It is important for the LA to treat the tenant as a key player in the Best Value review as it can only work to their advantage. (Pitt and Murray 1999). The government’s decision to implement Best Value nationally derives from research highlighting the low level of tenant participation adopted by LA's; Ø The majority of LA's do not use consultation techniques to inform decisions. The Audit Commission found even where consultation was undertaken 3/4 of authorities did not link the result of consultation to decisions particularly if the decision involved resource allocations. Ø The Quality of individual consultation exercise is patchy - there is a need for greater priority of this work and recognition that designing effective methods of consultation and analysing results is skilled work. Ø Few authorities evaluate their consultation programmes - it is essential to do this in order to make consultation inclusive, plan improvements, reach different sections of the community, and use resources effectively. ( Recent Audit Commission findings, RP handbook). Current research into LA HIP returns highlight that few LA's have a comprehensive approach to tenant participation whilst just over a third of LA's have dedicated housing officers. The research also identified that 73% of tenants were most likely to be consulted in decisions involving home improvements and 59% involving improvements to the estate. The most common method of participation was through tenant associations (86%), there was also the presence of tenants federations (53%) and community councils with tenant representatives (50%). The research managed to identify a key weakness of LA tenant participation strategies, this being the failure to effectively monitor and evaluate services by not involving the tenants in the process. Involving tenants/residents in have well the service is provided is a central component of the Best Value ethos, which requires that landlords demonstrate how tenants are involved in the process of reviewing, monitoring and evaluating services, for example through benchmarking performance. The research concluded that LAs approached tenant participation with a top - down viewpoint, therefore regulating level of participation by the tenants. On a positive note the findings form the research indicated that LA's were very committed to improving the delivery and standard of community involvement. (CRESR, Roof, March/April 2000, RP handbook). Tenant participation is crucial if Best Value is to be delivered to the required standard, therefore "Involving tenants in the delivery and management of housing services is probably the essential ingredient of quality." (Paul Schofield, Inside Housing). Feed back from recent seminars throughout Wales carried out by TPAS Cyrmu and the Welsh Tenants Federation, highlighted that many tenants were genuinely enthused by the ideas which underlie Best Value, i.e. everyone working together to make sure services keep on getting better. (Inside Housing, 'Blocking The Path', 12/04/02). DTRL - Tenant Participation The DTRL highlight that TP is vital if service delivery is to be improved. It is only through TP that the housing service can be improved and provide a quality of life for the local community. For example some LA's are developing 'tenant compacts' in order to incorporate the Best Value ethos. The objective of the compacts is to ensure that tenants have the opportunities, means and incentives to decide how they should be consulted and involved in decisions on housing strategies, investment options and on housing services.