Tenant Participation

Getting involved and having a say

Directorate of Corporate Services

8781/20 What is Tenant Participation?

Tenant participation is about giving choices and encouraging tenants to have a say in how their homes are managed. County Borough Council is dedicated to involving tenants in the running of its housing service.

What does getting involved achieve?

Tenants play an important role in housing to ensure that resources are used in the best way to meet tenants’ needs. Tenant participation assists the Council to ensure:

• Delivery of a responsive and accountable Housing service • Quality decision making • Tenants are placed at the heart of Housing Services

Without tenants’ views and experiences of the service, it would be difficult to develop and improve the housing service to meet the needs and aspirations of tenants.

How can you get involved?

There are many ways to become involved. Some examples are as follows:

• Join the Caerphilly Tenants & Residents Forum - The Forum consists of individual tenants, representatives of recognised Associations, Cabinet Member for Housing and senior Housing Officers. The Forum works with Housing to deliver the borough wide Local Tenant Participation Strategy. The Forum is committed to improving the levels of Tenant Participation and has its own constitution, elects its own officers and currently has 27 members.

• Help to produce the “Housing Focus” Tenant Newsletter – A newsletter is issued at least once a year to all tenants in the County Borough. The newsletter provides information on service development, tenant participation, policy issues etc. and is produced by an Editorial Team consisting of officers and tenant representatives. • Join a Tenant & Resident Associations – Tenants are encouraged to participate in the housing service by seeking their views and opinions. One of the ways we do this is by supporting and funding recognised Tenants & Residents Associations. This enables the group to be independent and provides the Council’s housing department with a formal committee structure with which to consult on housing issues. There are currently 14 recognised Associations spread across the county borough.

Other Consultation Methods

• Continuous Quality Monitoring – The authority has implemented a continuous quality-monitoring programme, which seeks to measure service users satisfaction with key areas or functions of the service. Every month a sample of people are contacted who have accessed a particular service and asked to complete a short questionnaire on the quality of the service received. This enables the Housing Department to constantly monitor the key areas of our service over a period of time.

• One-off Focus Groups – Focus groups are held to discuss, for example, a particular aspect of the service or proposed changes. Groups of between 10-15 tenants can be randomly recruited and engaged in discussion on what their views are of a particular service or issue.

Local Tenant Participation Strategy

As part of our commitment to tenant participation the Council (in partnership with the Tenants & Residents Forum) have developed a Local Tenant Participation Strategy. The strategy titled a ‘Bright future for tenants’ sets out the visions and aims for tenant participation within the borough.

Our Vision is ‘To work together for a better future; bringing communities together and working as a partnership of tenants, staff and councillors’ How to find out more about tenant participation Please contact: Upper Valley Area Housing Office, House, William Street, Gilfach, , CF81 8ND Tel: 01443 873535 Email: [email protected] Fax: 01443 873533 Eastern Valleys Area Housing Office, House, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, NP12 2YW Tel: 01495 235229 Email: [email protected] Fax: 01495 235036 Lower Rhymney Valley Area Housing Office, Pontygwindy House, Unit 7, De Clare Court, Pontygwindy Industrial Estate, Caerphilly, CF83 2WA Tel: 02920 849838/39 Email: [email protected] Fax: 02920 849844 Gilfach Bargoed Neighbourhood Housing Office, 2 Park View, Gilfach, Bargoed, CF81 8QN Tel: 01443 875530 Email: [email protected] Fax: 01443 834214 Lansbury Park Neighbourhood Housing Office, 45 Atlee Court, Lansbury Park, Caerphilly, CF83 1QU Tel: 02920 860917 Email: [email protected] Fax: 02920 881815 Graig Y Rhacca Neighbourhood Housing Office, Grays Gardens, Graig Y Rhacca, , CF83 8TW Tel: 02920 853050 Email: [email protected] Fax: 02920 868997

This publication is available in other languages and formats on request.