Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Housing and Contracts.

Scrutiny Committee – Community considered the report at its meeting on 12 November 2013 and its comments will be reported.

The report of the Assistant Director Housing and Contracts was submitted, seeking Members’ approval to improve the way that the Council involves its housing residents in the management and strategic direction of the services they receive.

The Assistant Director Housing and Contracts stated that the approach set out in the report reflected the Council’s commitment to new ways of working introduced by the systems review process and changes to the regulatory framework in which housing operated. It was likely that the methodology proposed in the report would be fine tuned to enable the Housing Performance and Projects Manager to focus on other tasks and to expand residents’ involvement beyond simply the remit of the Performance Scrutiny Partnership. He also commented that careful thought needed to be given on how best to recruit new members of the Performance Scrutiny Partnership going forward in order to obtain a representative cross-section of opinion.

The Portfolio Holder Housing and Customer Access clarified that the approach proposed was to streamline the current system and enable a strategic view to be taken with regards to resident scrutiny of the landlord performance management. He thanked the Housing Resident Involvement Manager for her exceptional work and the Chair of Scrutiny Committee – Community for his involvement as Chair of the Performance Review Committee.

Members discussed the issue of ensuring that there was a diverse representation on the Performance Scrutiny Partnership which could include the co-option of members on to the Partnership should it be appropriate.

Scrutiny Committee – Community considered the report at its meeting on 12 November 2013 and the comments of Members were noted.

RESOLVED to approve:-

(1)        the new direction for Housing Resident Involvement;

(2)        the proposal to dismantle the existing Resident Involvement Governance Structure and create a single Performance Scrutiny Partnership from 1 April 2014;

(3)        the redundancy of the Housing Resident Involvement Manager from 1 April 2014;

(4)        the creation of a new part time administrative role from 1 April 2014; and

(5)        that the Performance Scrutiny Partnership consider ways to ensure there is diverse representation on the Partnership.

The Assistant Director Housing and Contracts presented the report seeking Members’ approval for improving the way that the Council involved its housing residents in the management and strategic direction of the services they receive. He remarked that the approach set out in the report reflected the Council’s commitment to new ways of working introduced by the systems review process and changes to the regulatory framework in which housing operates. Also, because of the change over in Assistant Director responsibilities and as he was not the report author it was likely that the methodology proposed in the report would be fine tuned to enable the Housing Performance and Projects Manager to focus on other tasks and to expand residents’ involvement beyond simply the remit of the Performance Scrutiny Partnership. He also commented that careful thought needed to be given on how best to recruit new members of the Performance Scrutiny Partnership going forward in order to obtain a representative cross-section of opinion.

Scrutiny Committee - Community noted the report and requested Executive to approve:-

(1)        the new direction for Housing Resident Involvement;

(2)        the proposal to dismantle the existing Resident Involvement governance structure and create a single Performance Scrutiny Partnership from 1 April 2014;

(3)        the redundancy of the Housing Resident Involvement Manager from 1 April 2014; and

(4)        the creation of a new part-time administrative role from 1 April 2014.

(Report circulated)