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Placemaking Case Studies

Link Wentworth

Tenant Service Assessors pilot – Link Wentworth

At a glance

• Landlord: Link Wentworth.

• Location type: Organisational.

• Residents: 3,917 homes at the time of the pilot (2019 – 2020).

• Estate size and type: Organisation-wide initiative.

Background

What is the Tenant Service Assessors pilot?

The Tenant Service Assessors pilot was a successful project designed to test the applicability of a tenant scrutiny approach in Australia.  Under the Tenant Service Assessor (TSA) and tenant scrutiny models, tenants are encouraged to have direct and detailed input into a housing service area that they have selected.  The goal is for tenants and landlords to better understand the service area, and through an intensive focus on a particular service, make improvements for everyone’s benefit.

Project background

In 2019 / 2020, CHIA NSW was funded by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice under the Industry Development Strategy to test the TSA approach in NSW.  Link Wentworth was selected due to the involvement of their existing Tenant Advisory Group (TAG) and the organisation’s commitment to the project and to continuous service improvement.

Although the project was successful from both the tenants’ perspective and from Link Wentworth’s, there were some challenges:

• The Covid pandemic reached Australia at around the mid-point of this project.  This meant that the timeline was significantly disrupted, with around a year between workshop 3 and 4 and even after the project resumed, engagement was moved online due to the health vulnerabilities of some participants.

• Link Wentworth had commenced the process of amalgamating with Wentworth Community Housing before the project commenced, and the amalgamation proceeded to its successful conclusion during the project.

• Changes to a key IT system were introduced during the course of the project.  Overall, this was a positive change and it facilitated one of the key suggestions of the TSAs, which was improved identification and tracking of formal complaints through the system.  The system now provides robust functionality for tracking and recording feedback by the Customer Relationship team.  However, the system changes during the project did make access to complaints data more complex.

Step one: Tenant Advisory Group consultation

With the enthusiastic participation of Link Wentworth, and the endorsement of CEO and Executive, the TAG group were consulted about the project over a series of events and activities. The consultation discussed the principles behind TSA and examples of tenant scrutiny from UK social housing organisations. TAG group members were asked to vote on a service area for the project to focus on. They ultimately chose complaints handling as their priority for the project. 

As one of side benefits of the project was to grow the number of involved tenants, Link Wentworth and the TAG issued an open invitation for interested tenants to take part in the TSA process, with around 30 tenants taking part, in addition to the existing TAG. 

For the TSA approach to be effective, it is essential that participating tenants are supported to develop an understanding of the relevant legislation, regulatory and contractual requirements for the service area chosen so that they can take part as informed partners. Link Wentworth and CHIA NSW therefore ran training and briefing sessions on the legislation, regulatory requirements and Link Wentworth policy settings around complaints handling.

Step two: Review of complaints handling process

The next project stage was a detailed review of all aspects of the complaints handling process by the TSAs and the TAG group. A series of workshops were held and were facilitated by CHIA NSW and Link Wentworth managers. Link Wentworth staff from different departments took part, including front of house team members, complaints experts and policy staff. Their engagement was very positive, and throughout their approach was enthusiastic and focussed on practical improvements that could be made. These team members’ detailed knowledge of processes and the reasons behind them was essential.

The following workshops were held:

• 1st workshop – introductions to the TSA approach, participants and training / briefing session on complaints legislation, compliance and policies.

• 2nd workshop – definitions of complaints, understanding and awareness, detailed issue identification and TSA priorities for changes and mechanisms for service improvements.

• 3rd workshop – further review of complaints policies, including review of other CHPs’ complaints strategies, discussion of best ways for tenants and Link Wentworth to monitor change.

• Final workshop (#4).  Changes made as a result of TSA feedback, including comms campaign, flow chart and website and policy changes.

The project was very successful and provides a model for other CHPs to consider and implement as part of their tenant engagement toolkit.  The approach can be adapted to other service areas and could also be rolled on an area or estate basis.   

Input from tenants and staff from across different teams meant that a detailed analysis of complaints policies and practices was possible in a relatively short period of time and with a modest time investment.  The focus throughout was positive, practical and based on service improvement. 

The TSAs were able to bring a unique perspective as service users which was invaluable, and their engagement was constructive throughout.

Tenant feedback

Feedback from the TAG and the TSAs was strongly supportive of the project:

• They felt empowered in decision making.

• They liked to see changes made based on what they said, with a relatively short turnaround time.

• They liked the way project was presented and communicated.  Progress was summarised clearly and they could see a clear progression from TSAs recommending changes to service improvements being implemented by Link Wentworth.

• They felt involved every step of the way, with a positive feedback loop and all changes made relayed back to them 

• The changes made were clear improvements to the complaints handling process.

• Some extra tenants were engaged, beyond the existing TAG

• The TSA approach can be rolled out for other service areas in future to implement techniques to increase tenant’s direct involvement in monitoring and shaping services.

Both tenants and the CHP found the process valuable and illuminating and important changes in service delivery have been made as a result.

Overall conclusion 

The TSA pilot worked well, supported direct service improvements and could be rolled out by other CHPs and with other service areas. 

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This project was made possible by funds provided by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) under the NSW Community Housing Industry Development Strategy (IDS). The NSW Community Housing IDS is a partnership between CHIA NSW and DCJ.