Supporting Scrutiny

With tenant-led scrutiny now becoming more established, and some very positive outcomes being reported, one question that I have regularly heard posed is how tenants should be supported in carrying out scrutiny reviews. Support can come from various sources, but is usually provided by officers and/or by an independent advisor. For scrutiny panels to be able to operate without support they need to have skills, experience, resources and confidence to succeed. Providers who set up a scrutiny regime without ensuring that these are in place could be accused of setting tenants up to fail. Whilst there may be some (hopefully very few) providers who would willfully set out to do this, despite having a negative view of scrutiny, I would hope that the majority of social housing organisations would make some positive attempt at making sure scrutiny is a success.

So, can support be provided by a landlord without jeopardising the independence of the scrutiny panel? Clearly, it is a matter of determining how that support will be provided and ensuring that the input is genuine support and not taking over the leadership and responsibility from the panel. Perhaps this is where independent support can be useful. Independent tenant support emerged as a vital aspect of the stock transfer process, providing advice and guidance to tenant groups and information to the wider tenant body, on the often confusing and tortuous route through officialdom and bureaucracy. So, does tenant-led scrutiny also require this input from independent advisors? Well the answer has to come from tenants themselves. Each scrutiny review is different, and it should be up to tenants who are involved in the process to determine whether or not they should have support which is outside the organisation. Clearly, there should be a constructive partnership which emerges, with tenants, officers, and if required, independent supporters, working together towards shared aims around improving services.

What should the support be aimed at? Again, this should depend upon the skills and experience of the tenants involved. It might be support to enable panels to select certain services for review, or assisting in developing a project plan for a review. Support may be needed for locating the source of evidence, or in the drafting or writing a report. The key aim in all the support that is provided should be to build the skills and experience of the tenants who are involved in scrutiny. Those providing support, from without or outside the organisation, should aim to reduce their input as those skills and experiences develop.

Whatever the source and the type of support that is provided, everyone involved should make sure that the overall outputs and outcomes from the review are tenant-led, and are seen to be tenant-led. This can be a challenge in itself, but certainly not beyond the wit and means of all those involved in scrutiny.

New Anti-Social Behaviour Legislation

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill is currently making its way through the Parliamentary process. When the Bill is passed and becomes law, there will be far-reaching changes to the ways that social landlords and other agencies, deal with incidents of anti-social behaviour. The promise by the Coalition to abolish ASBOs will be kept, and many other orders and legal remedies will also be removed, and replaced by new orders. These changes are designed to reduce the numbers of legal orders that are available to tackle ASB and to streamline the remedies that can be used. Also, with a nod to localism, the Government intend to introduce a 'community trigger' which will place duties on enforcement agencies to deal with incidents of ASB.

In short, the Bill proposes the introduction of the following:

• A new Criminal Behaviour Order
• Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance
• New Dispersal Powers
• Comunity Protection Notices
• Public Space Protection Orders
• Closure of Premises Orders
• New Grounds for Possession of Secure and Assured Tenancies for ASB

As the Bill progresses through Parliament, we will be highlighting any important discussions and amendments to the Bill.

It is important for social landlords to be fully aware of the implications of the new legislation and for front-line housing officers and ASB teams to prepare for these changes.

Once the legislation has been passed, Learning4Housing will be providing open access and in-house training workshops which will highlight the changes and the new approaches that will be needed to meet the legal requirements.

Training will also be provided for tenants and board members, as they will also have important roles to play in making the most of the new legal framework.

For more information, please contact David on 07986 246406 or at david@learning4housing.co.uk 

Developing Skills for Housing Officers

As a trainer, I am often asked to deliver courses for front-line staff who deal with tenants and other customers on a daily basis. Whether these are called housing officers, neighbourhood officers, or tenancy officers, or something else is immaterial. They all do a very difficult job in an increasingly difficult environment. Social housing is changing and all front-line staff need to be equipped with the skills necessary to enable them to do their job. These are sometimes call inter-personal skills or 'soft skills'. This does not mean that they are not important. Housing officers often need to deal with tenants who are distressed, angry, upset, confused, and aggressive. These situations require an ability to maintain a calm and confident manner, which does not lead to escalation of problems. I know from experience that this can easier said than done, but taking positive steps to develop these skills is clearly a step in the right direction.

In the not too distant past, being a housing officer was a relatively simple task of making sure the rent arrears was controlled, vacant properties were turned around quickly, and estates were well maintained. I recall from my days as a housing officer that although the job did have its difficulties, in the main these were simpler times. Today, the environment is very different. Welfare reform is certainly having an effect on the roles and responsibilities of the majority of housing officers. Often pushed into a role which is more enforcement based, housing officers have to use a wide range of skills in order to achieve results that are required by their organisations and also by their tenants.

Learning4Housing is responding to this changing environment by offering a new suite of training courses aimed at front-line housing staff - and this will include those who deal with the public by telephone as well as face-to-face. This training is designed to address those skills which have been identified as being particularly important in today's housing world. Skills around effective communication, especially active listening and questioning skills, as well as developing interviewing skills, negotiation skills, and the area around dealing with 'difficult situations' using assertiveness and effective non-verbal communication.


Courses are available for you to choose in a flexible way. Only you know the priorities for your organisations and for your staff. Learning4Housing is able to fit with your requirements and your needs. This might be arranging full day training sessions on one or two of the above subject areas, or providing refresher courses which cover three or four of the topics over one day. The choice is yours. Learning4Housing's unique 'pick and mix' approach is a tried and tested way of delivering training. With training budgets under pressure, you are able to select appropriate training to match your resources. We are happy to talk to you about your specific needs and to design a programme which meets your needs.

All my training is designed with the learner in mind. Practical exercises and group discussions, along with case studies and actual examples are used to give variety and interest to the training. Visual aids, including video, are used where appropriate, together with that all-important injection of fun into the proceedings!

If you find any of the above interesting and would like to find out more, please call David on 07986 246406 or email at david@learning4housing.co.uk to discuss how we can help your housing officers to help your tenants! 

Remember, a skilled housing officer is an effective housing officer!

New Year - New Housing Policies?

So. here we are in mid January already. The new year celebrations are dimming into the past, and resolutions have already been broken. But what about the housing world? Are the government resolving to bring about happier times for those who are homeless, living in overcrowded or damp, cold conditions? What can we expect from the government to try to alleviate these housing probems? Perhaps now that Mr Shapps has been promoted (some have unkindly said out of harm's way), can we expect a more constructive approach from Mr. Prisk?

Although it is early days, there are sadly no signs that the governement's line on housing is about to change. Welfare reform will soon be upon us, and the move to restrict benefit increases to 1% was passed by the House of Commons despite a few Liberal consciences being stired - perhaps by the memory of another famous Liberal - Beveridge, who laid the foundations of the welfare state in the 1940s. Although we are clearly living in different times, it is perhaps remembering the reasons that the welfare state was introduced. Beveridge and others realised that ordinary people needed a safety net in order to protect them from the impact of economic downturns. The slump and depression of the 1930s led to mass unemployment, poverty, hunger and depravation. So much that under the restrictive rationing introduced during the Second World War, many people were healthier and had better diets than they had in the years before. The welfare state was introduced by the post-war Labour Government - hardly a revolutionary government, nor a revolutionary policy. It was clearly a radical move though, and one that was hard fought for against the vested interests of the wealthy. The National Health Service, National Insurance, improvements to public housing, not only to replace those lost to the Luftwaffe, but to
bring about improvements in housing that had not been seen before. The widespread availability of warm, decent housing that was free from damp and from the worst excesses of private landlord, was something to be celebrated and was an aspiration for thousands of ordinary working people up and down the country.

As I said above, we are clearly living in different times, and new solutions are required to address new social and economic problems. It is worth remembering however, why the welfare state was established, and to think about what would be the state of the nation if it no longer existed. Perhaps the constant chipping away by successive governments, plus a classic 'divide and rule' strategy designed to demonise any recipient of welfare benefits, has led to some complacency amongst the public at large. Perhaps there is a time to think about our priorities as a country and to think about how we collectively need to care for our most vulnerable people.

So, in terms of housing, we wait to see the impacts of recent reforms on the provision of social and affordable housing, and hopefully, people will begin to realise what we are in danger of losing, before it is too late.