Resident involvement - Hyde Housing Association

Resident involvement in social housing in the UK and Europe
as well as fostering the potential for greater involvement as residents saw their
actions bearing fruit. Some residents had experienced negative incidents where,
for example, a project they supported had been cancelled without explanation,
or an initiative to install equipment had been clumsily handled with residents
not fully informed on what would happen.
‘It’s an adult to adult relationship, not adult to child. We can all make
rational decisions.’ [Manager, E1]
‘People are afforded the respect of knowing we can’t do that because x.
As long as things are explained it’s all good. It’s a critical friend thing.’
[Resident committee chair, E1]
Examples of good practice cited include:
• E3 routinely offered ‘you said – we did’ feedback in newsletters (as did other
study organisations). It also published an annual ‘What matters to residents’
report bringing together results from surveys covering a wide range of
activities and highlighting both satisfaction trends over time and the
types of suggestions for service improvement coming from residents.
• E2 staff completed ‘impact assessments’ to appraise the effect of any
resident involvement activity. They were encouraged to think about the
eventual impact and outcomes at the planning stage. The organisation was
working on producing the first organisation-wide annual impact assessment
in 2011.
6.7 Chapter summary
For residents in the study it was important that their views and suggestions
about services were taken seriously and that, where feasible, such contributions
resulted in real change to landlord operation. For them, such changes offered a
concrete demonstration that organisational claims to an open, customerfocused
culture held water. Crucial here are the ways that resident panels and
the like interface with the wider governance and managerial structures of
the organisation.
Landlords sought to be responsive to residents’ expressed wishes in a variety of
ways. These could be direct reactions to an individual consumer’s request or
complaint, they could be policy changes influenced by service user feedback
research, or they could be more embedded policy changes originating with
resident involvement forums. Some landlords had initiated contact with hardto-reach
groups, then used the feedback from these interactions to develop
appropriate ways for them to become involved.
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