TPAS Housing Professionals Conference – it’s all about engaging communities
The recent TPAS Housing Professionals Conference saw TP Officers from across Housing Associations, Local Authorities and partners join together and look at strategies to engage communities across Scotland.
We had some interesting speakers to share their experiences and highlights from their projects to engage communities.
CEO of TPAS Cymru David Wilton provided an interesting talk on social media. David highlighted how our tenant audiences are getting younger, and we should consider how we communicate with this younger generation. Trends show that younger people watch TikTok over anything else. This is where they are sourcing information getting their news, advice, and inspiration. The other key channels they are using are Instagram Stories, Discord (community groups), BeReal and Snapchat.
As a result of the pandemic, tenants have lost their ability to engage with their local community, so we all need to find ways to re-engage these individuals. Make your questions specific to the types of customers you are trying to engage with and have a social media content plan. Yorkshire Housing is a great example of a Housing Association doing some interesting things on social media.
In conclusion, David said “It is time to move on from Facebook and do something different! Ensure your services are aligned so people can engage digitally and holistically – think digital by default.”
Conor Lanigan Stronger Voices Manager from Wheatley Group explored how they have changed tenant interest in methods of engaging.
Wheatley owns and manages over 94k homes, delivering award winning services to over 210,00 people across 19 local authorities in Scotland. Conor leads on community engagement where he is responsible for putting the customer voice at the centre of their business growth.
Tenants are changing in the ways they like to be engaged. Wheatley Group launched their strategy in 2021. Their vision was to shift the balance of power and control towards their customers, empowering them to make their own choices about the services and investment they want. The focus of their community engagement framework is
- We listen – You are heard. This is done through walk-abouts, surveys etc
- We consult and co-create – You influence and design with us through customer focus groups etc.
- We give power to you to decide on policy priorities – We support you to build capacity in your communities; your voice is stronger, and people listen to you.
Why do we all need to increase engagement?
- Customer satisfaction – better relations, enhanced reputation
- Value for money – targeting resources where tenants want us to
- Governance – improving scrutiny of our services (working with TPAS on this) and meeting our statutory obligations. Also using this to reach diverse communities.
Who benefits?
Business benefits – efficiencies and effectiveness of money allocation | improved customer satisfaction & improved services
Customer benefits – cater better for different tenant groups and communities.
What did Wheatley Group do?
- Future out what might work better
- Assess methods of communication
- Flexible and accessible forms of engagement
- Shorter surveys
- More use of digital
- Develop our understanding and awareness of how to do engagement
Key learnings from Wheatley
- Be more local in our communications – less corporate!
- Online works well for increasing numbers of customers – most of our customers have smart phones
- Overbook online focus groups (such as rent focus groups) – however if the topic is right, attendance will be high
- Once you get people engaged, keep them engaged and keep it flexible – look at incentives and a social aspect.
Stacy Angus shared insights into how handling complaints and managing tenant expectations has become an opportunity for Osprey Housing to engage tenants.
Osprey Housing has 1700 properties covering Moray, Aberdeenshire, the majority of which is family housing.
If a tenant is unhappy, the complaint is real to them. This is a great opportunity for the landlord to get involved with the tenant. Housing Associations should be approachable, proactive and be open to listening to tenant complaints.
It’s all about communication – it should never be a ‘them and us’ blame culture! Keep the tenant in the loop – ensure you tell them when you will get back to them and ensure you communicate with them all along the journey.
Leza reminded us about the key services TPAS Scotland offers to its members including;
- TPO catch up and tenants/staff webinars
- Desktop Review – audit of your TP practices & advice on how to improve your TP strategy
- Healthy Engagement Programme – all aspects of Tenant Participation & recommend improvements
- Accreditation Programme, reviewed by independent panel so people can get bronze, silver or gold award
- Certified qualification – TP Certificate.
- Online learning sessions – hourly sessions about areas you want to learn about
- Annual Conference – open to tenants and staff.
- HP Conference – open only to staff
- NGPA – National Good Practice Awards
- Regional scrutiny events
- 4 nations event (29 Nov) with TPAS Wales, England and Supporting Communities NI – specifically on rural areas
- Provide training to staff and tenants throughout Scotland & support and advice to members
- Members queries on the website
- Working with CX Feedback on membership surveys
And lots more. Make sure you check out our full range of services on the website
Fraser from CX Feedback spoke to us about their digital platform for using surveys and how they can really dissect the results so Landlords can target specific issues in an area. This enables Landlords to identify issues that they may not have discovered when using other survey tools.
Fraser was then joined by Susan McDonald from Kingdom HA who have recently used CX-Feedback and she gave some examples of how this has helped them identify issues head on and work with tenants to resolve these issues.
The discussion could have lasted all day as there were so many questions! TPAS Scotland are currently working with CX-Feedback on our affordability survey so don’t worry they will be back!
Two TPAS member organisations picked up their Gold Accreditation Awards at the conference – Tracey Wilson, Tenant Participation Manager at North Ayrshire Council and Max Scotto Tenant Participation Manager at Kingdom Housing Association. Tracey provided a great overview of the steps behind accreditation which are contained in their case study here.
Leza Lafferty said, “There were some interesting discussions at this year’s Housing Professionals Conference. Tenant engagement is a key focus for all TP Officers, and it was great to see so much best practice being shared around that topic over the two days. We had great speakers talking about different methods of collaboration and engaging communities and I know our audience went away with lots of new ideas. We’re looking forward to next year’s conference already!”