3. 3
Resident Scrutiny Panel Chair’s Statement:
It has been an eventful and productive year for the
Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP). At the beginning of 2014,
Cottsway’s Agenda 8, modernising restructure was well
underway and as a result, the timing wasn’t right to
undertake a scrutiny project for either Cottsway or the RSP.
Several areas were scoped for our next project, however;
these areas were heavily involved in the restructure and
it was felt it would be counterproductive to undertake a
scrutiny during this time of immense change. Therefore,
we made a group decision to suspend scrutiny activity
and take time to strengthen our terms of reference,
establish a finance sub-group, and impact sub-group. The
finance sub-group monitors, forecasts and approves RSP
expenditure and is also responsible for submitting the
annual RSP budget proposals to Cottsway’s Board. The
impact sub-group captures and measures the impact
and/or outcomes of our implemented recommendations,
monitors the RSP’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
and oversees our annual plan. We also produced our first
report which documented our achievements and activities
since the RSP’s inception in 2011.
My vice-chair, Jo, and I, decided we wanted to facilitate
our own away-day in 2014, instead of hiring an outside
facilitator. We not only thought this would demonstrate
Value for Money (VFM) but also would give us an
opportunity to tailor-make a programme concentrating
specifically on teambuilding and tighter cohesion as a
group. Jo and I both received training in Belbin, which
helped us to create effective team-working and gain
clearer understanding of the dynamics within the panel.
It also enabled us to see where a member’s strengths
were not being capitalised on or used to greatest effect.
Belbin has helped us to uncover and maximise untapped
potential within the panel. During the away-day we
created: our purpose statement, our mission statement,
and developed our operating principles for greater team
working. We also began to formulise a template for
each scrutiny role – a step-by-step guide to streamline
uniformity and consistency in capturing the evidence. This
not only helps new RSP members to understand and learn
the process of each step, it can also be helpful in unifying
and clarifying the evidence collected; streamlining the
process for the report writing team.
Cottsway’s RSP have been a leading Best Practice example
on the national stage of housing. Our award winning
scrutiny model has been seen at the Chartered Institute of
Housing’s (CIH) SE Annual Conference (2014) in Brighton,
and the CIH’s SE Practitioner’s Conference (2013/2014).
As the RSP Chair, I was approached to co-develop a
Scrutiny Conference for CIH that took place in London,
December 2014. Never a panel to rest on our laurels, this
year we have undertaken a Quality Assured Scrutiny (QAS)
audit to find out what we do well and discover areas
where improvement is needed. QAS is commissioned by
the CIH, the Tenant Participatory Advisory Service (TPAS),
and Housing Quality Network (HQN). We are looking
forward to getting the results and learning from the
experience.
We completed our 4th scrutiny on ‘How do Cottsway Learn
from Complaints?’ and we are in the beginning stages
of scrutiny # 5 – looking at Cottsway’s voids standard. Jo
and I are completing our Belbin accreditation and we
plan to facilitate our annual away day once again in July.
Unfortunately this year past also saw the resignation
of several panel members, due to ill health, and family
commitments. While being on the panel is a commitment
and a lot of work, training is provided and the skills
and confidence you develop can help in many areas of
life. Looking forward – the RSP are a strong panel and
would love to encourage anyone who is interested and
wants to make a difference to: ‘Improve services and
communication between Cottsway and Residents.’ Please
contact us for more information on how to get involved.
In May the RSP are planning on hosting an open-day
event to share more about why scrutiny is important,
what scrutiny is, and how we do it. The RSP team will be
there to answer any questions you might have and see if
you could make a difference too. Please keep your eyes
peeled for more information. We hope to see you there!
Leslie Channon
Scrutiny Panel Chair
4. 4
Leslie Channon [1]
Chair of the RSP and Winner of
Cottsway’s 2014 ‘Resident of the
Year’ Award
As a busy single mum of two small boys,
besides my role as RSP Chair, I am currently
in my final six months of my Master’s
degree in Housing Studies at the University
of Westminster. My dissertational research
will explore the social impact (benefit) to
residents from becoming involved with
their landlord. I currently serve as a Board
member on the Chartered Institute of
Housing’s South East Board. I have spoken
nationally on co-regulation and Cottsway’s
Award winning Scrutiny Model, and co-
developed a successful CIH SE Scrutiny
Conference in London.
Jo Bunyan [2]
Vice Chair of the RSP and Chair of
the Impact Group
My background is in leading and facilitating
improvements within the NHS, I’m well
into my second year of being a Scrutiny
Panel member and have been successful
in becoming Vice Chair of the RSP and
Chair of the Impact Group. I am enjoying
representing tenants and being able
to use my experience towards making
improvements within CHA for the benefit of
the residents and the organisation. We are
continuing to demonstrate the importance
and value of having a Residents Scrutiny
Panel by regularly reviewing and developing
how we scrutinise areas of CHA this will
mean we are consistently improving too.
Chris Spencer [3]
Chair of Finance sub-group
I’m now retired but throughout my working
career I have gathered 40 years experience
in a sales and marketing role. I hope that I
can use the knowledge and experience in my
job and personal life to create a better future
for all Cottsway residents.
Christine Ledamun [4]
My past experience of starting up new
businesses, my life experience and my age is
what I bring to the panel. I lived in Spain for
ten years and came back to the UK to help
my daughter.
Dave Chapman [5]
Having been a Resident Inspector with
Cottsway prior to the forming of the Resident
Scrutiny panel and having experienced the
way in which Cottsway encourage tenants to
participate and challenge them into finding
ways to improve the service provided for the
tenants it seemed a natural progression for
me to become more involved and apply for
the RSP. Having been selected and although
at times it has been challenging, with the
support I get from Cottsway and fellow RSP
members I am still enjoying the experience
and hopefully along with the other members
of the panel we are making a difference for
the tenants.
Gillian Browning [6]
I have been a member of the Resident
Scrutiny Panel for three years now and I must
say it has been a great experience. During
this time I have been given so much support
from the other panel members plus lots
of training from Cottsway. This has helped
me gain knowledge about how Housing
Associations operate so that I can make a
positive contribution to the panel. I would
definitely encourage other residents to join
this panel as you would be well supported
and your voice could make a difference.
Gill Sollis [7]
I have always lived in the Witney area and
used to run my own business. I joined the
resident scrutiny panel in April last year and
was on the CSI panel before this. I joined the
RSP to help make things better for Cottsway
residents
Andy Cross
I’ve worked at Cottsway for over 13
years now, all of this time engaging with
residents and trying to get them involved
in helping shape services and improve the
business. In my time at Cottsway there
have been huge changes, but I’m still as
passionate about what I do and have a firm
belief that the involvement of residents
is a key part of the business. Working
alongside the Scrutiny panel, and other
groups, you see how dedicated and determined residents can be and
what a difference can be made - the scrutiny panel should be proud
of what they have achieved. I’m sure there are other residents in our
communities who are just the same – why not come give it a try?
Vicki Paxford
I’ve worked as the Communities Manager at
Cottsway for almost six years and have had
the pleasure of working with the Scrutiny
Panel for the last four of those years. As
well as working with us to improve services
to all residents the Scrutiny Panel also hold
us to account on your behalf, challenging
us to look at what we do from a residents’
point of view. Personally, I really enjoy
seeing how Panel members have grown
in confidence as they work together as a team, learn new skills and
increase their knowledge of the social housing sector. I would really
encourage anyone who is interested, for whatever reason, to find
out more and think about joining the Panel as the benefits for the
individual, our residents and Cottsway itself are huge.
Meet your Resident Scrutiny Panel
1 2
5
43
6 7
Meet the Support Team
Could this
be you?
5. 5
Our Achievements: 2014/15
At the beginning of 2014 Cottsway’s Agenda 8 restructure was
underway and the RSP collectively decided to take time to
review and strengthen our own operating procedures:
• Established a Finance sub-group with Terms of Reference
• Established the Impact sub-group with Terms of Reference
• Appointment of a Project Manager for each Scrutiny
• Facilitated our own Away-Day (VFM)
• Belbin team roles individual and team
• Carried out team temperature check
• Completed Scrutiny # 4 - complaints
We listen to
each other
We are not afraid
to challenge
We respect each
other’s opinions
We seek
support when
needed
We don’t interrupt
each other in
meetings
We are
punctual at
meetings
We keep
meetings to
time
We reflect and
improve how we
scrutinise
Accountability
• Respond to emails
• Fulfilling roles/tasks allocated
We use iPads to
communicate –
i.e. FaceTime
Our Team Culture:
We trust
each other
What we are proud of:
6. 6
Scrutiny 2 Repairs
As part of Agenda 8, CHA recognise that mobile working will
make a big difference. Currently some of our recommendations
are held back due to this, once mobile working is in place a lot
of the recommendations will dovetail in such as; offering 2 hour
appointment slots, offering evening and weekend appointments,
texting appointment reminders. Residents will also be able to support
their repair requests with photographic evidence, this means that the
repairs operatives will know exactly what the problem is and come with
the right equipment to complete the repair. Mobile working will also reduce the
amount of time the operatives spend back at base collecting job paperwork. By stopping
sending the repair acknowledgement letter CHA have saved around £12,000 per year.
Scrutiny 1 Lettings
Following our first scrutiny CHA have introduced what
they call a journey meeting, this takes place regularly
and from this a formal structure has been put in place to
monitor and report for each property the time the property
has been empty, the time taken to do any work required in the
property (this is now all done in-house) and when it has been
re-let. This is to minimise the turnaround time as an empty
property means that there are people not being accommodated
and that the organisation is not earning money.
Progress a
Imp
Resid
Quality
Sustainability
of Change
The impact group was established as a subgroup of
the RSP with the purpose of:
• monitoring and reviewing all scrutiny recommendations and agreed
actions
• establishing the impact of scrutiny recommendations, in
terms of resident and staff satisfaction, value for
money, sustainability and quality.
• monitoring the progress with the RSP’s
annual plan, including agreeing
amendments
• lead on the production of the annual
report to residents and stakeholders
• Report to residents via the annual
report
7. 7
Scrutiny 3 Anti-Social Behaviour
Following RSP recommendations the policy has been reviewed and there is now clarity of
what is and isn’t ASB and what the expectations for residents are regarding CHA’s response
to ASB. The ASB process has been redesigned, CHA now have dedicated staff
as leads for ASB. Describing them as the go to people for specialist
knowledge, this means that staff have someone to go to for advice
or who can take on complex cases. This also means that by
having a greater knowledge on the floor they are able to
deal with cases more efficiently. CHA are taking more
ownership for the outcomes and have improved their
communication with residents. Multi agency working
has improved and there has been a very positive
response from the police in how CHA are dealing with
complaints.
Scrutiny 4 Complaints
Following recommendations CHA have re written
the policy on complaints to ensure it is a solid policy
to deliver against. It is currently being reviewed by
a group of residents who were previous complainants
for feedback, this will be valuable as they are residents
who have experienced the previous process. As per
recommendation CHA have committed to the Chartered Institute
of Housing Complaints Charter to align processes and policy against
it and to enable them to improve, learn and measure service. CHA
are focussing on getting the processes and structures right for
the complaint process before they can begin to implement the
recommendations around learning from complaints. This will
ensure that there is a consistent and standardised approach to
complaint handling and that the policy and procedure align and
comply with current regulation – good practise.
CHA state that the overall aim for the complaints process is
to make it more holistic and ensure it works for the customer.
They feel that they are not sure they would have achieved this
without scrutiny. As an organisation CHA see scrutiny as people
who challenge the current position, and in turn see that staff also
have this responsibility, collaboratively this will create a culture of
continuous improvement. CHA also report that overall the pace behind the
delivery of recommendations is greater now than it was previously. Also, as
the residents scrutiny panel learn and improve from each scrutiny it undertakes the
recommendations are more clearly defined, this enhances the value scrutiny brings and
enables staff to get better at creating and delivering action plans around it.
and Impact
pact
dents
Staff
Value for
Money
8. 8
Scrutiny 5 – Condition of Cottsway’s
Empty (Void) Properties
The Scrutiny Panel will undertake a scrutiny on the standard (condition) of empty
properties using Cottsway’s own Empty Property (Void) Standard: “Clean, Safe and
Secure”. As part of our scrutiny we will visit empty properties, hold resident focus
groups, undertake resident and staff interviews, and look at Cottsway documents in
a desk top review. After gathering the evidence, the RSP will report their evidence
based findings in the form of a written report and make recommendations for
improvement to Cottsway’s board.
Scrutiny 6 – Interdepartmental Communication
Scrutiny 7 – Service Charges
Scrutiny 8 – Cottsway’s Improvement Strategy?
Our five Key Drivers:
What will make
a difference to
residents
Using feedback
from residents
What would you like to
see us scrutinise?
What will lead
to improved
services &
organisational
performance
What is
manageable &
achievable
Take into
account strategic
direction &
department
restructures
9. 9
Training provided to the Scrutiny Panel
Top 10 tips for a successful Scrutiny
Look at issues that matter to residents; making a real difference in their lives
Have a clear, realistic, and achievable plan in place
Be open-minded – open to new ideas and view points
Invest in quality training
Think independently of Cottsway, whilst also maintaining a good relationship
Team-building, team-work, and support – utilising everyone’s strengths
Have full buy-in from Cottway’s Board and staff
Dedicated – invaluable support and knowledge
Robust governance shows accountability
Base findings on facts and evidence. We ‘triangulate’ evidence
Triangulate = capture evidence from numerous (more than two)
sources to firm and strengthen the facts.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
• Tenant Participation Advisory Service - Presentation skills,
• Housing Quality Network - report writing, running resident focus groups, interview skills,
moderation on each scrutiny, committee skills
• Microsoft Office applications
• Online training - Introduction to Governance, Introduction to Social Housing, and data protection
• Belbin accreditation
• T.A.P Coaching
External
Training
• Tenant Participation Advisory Service - Group Working, Personal Development, Housing
Finance, Regulation of Social Housing, Reform of Social Housing, Value for Money, Performance
Management, Chairing Skills, Scrutiny Away Day
• Repairs Workshop, STAR Workshop Coventry
• Trafford Hall Tenant Scrutiny Level 2
Workshops
• Conferences - Strictly Scrutiny and Money Matters, Welfare, work and more, Greensquare
Scrutiny Event, Co-regulation Conference, CIH South East Conference & Exhibition, Anti-Social
Behaviour Conference, TPAS Conference 2012 and 2013
• In House Briefings - Overview of Customer Services, Overview of Corporate Services, Overview
of Property and Development
• CIH South East Conference and exhibition 2013 & 2014
• CIH South East Practitioner Conference
• CIH South East Scrutiny Conference 2014
• CIH Complaints Conference 2014
Conferences
& Briefings
Data Protection Governance
Business Plan &
Bribery Act
Equality & Diversity Monitoring and Reporting
10. 10
How we Scrutinise
Scoping
meeting: to see
what we want to
scrutinise
Staff
interviews:
scripted in-
person
interviews
Resident
interviews:
scripted
telephone
interviews
Job
Shadowing:
follow a staff
member’s routine
job duties
Bench
marking:
compare results
against similar
housing
associations
Write the
report: document
evidence, findings,
and provide
recommendations
Present the
report to the
Board
Process
mapping: from
beginning to end
Desk top
review: to look
at the relevant
documents and
policies
Focus
Groups:
residents and/or
stakeholders – a
scripted structured
round-table group
to gather
evidence
Stakeholder
interviews:
scripted in-
person
interviews
Audit: to
monitor, take
stock, and look
for patterns or
inequalities within
a specified area
Moderation
meeting: an
external facilitator
leads the panel to
test the evidence
and/or see where we
need to investigate
further
Scrutiny roles
assigned to
members
Action plan
and implement
recommendation
11. 11
Next Steps 2015/16
Next generation of RSP members – succession planning
Host a ‘Recruitment Day’ in May
Further embed Scrutiny throughout the organisation to get the buy-in from all levels of the
business
Work on closer links with the Board so we have influence and be involved with the strategic
direction of the organisation
Annual Away Day – July 2015 – Establish our annual plan, team-build, re-group, reflect and
refocus
Continue networking with other housing associations to promote and share Best Practice!
Continue to speak at a national level on the work that the RSP has achieved so far
Use an improvement cycle after every scrutiny to evaluate and review how the RSP work
together in order to further develop and improve future Scrutinies
Further strengthen and embed the finance sub-group
Continue to embed and monitor the impact of our recommendations.
Carry out another team temperature check to monitor progress since the first temperature check
Review team culture – are we doing what we agreed we would do?
Document
current
processes
Implement
new processes
Review and
analyse
Explore
alternatives
Design
revised
processes
Improvement
Cycle
12. Cottsway House, Heynes Place, Avenue Two, Witney, OX28 4YG
Telephone: 01993 890000 • Freephone: 0800 8 766 366 • scrutiny@cottsway.co.uk
www.cottsway.co.uk
Cottsway Housing Association is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act
2014.
Resident
Scrutiny
Panel
