Suffolk Housing is committed to involving our residents as much as possible in our decision making and shaping our services. We do this through resident involvement and anyone can be part of it, from filling out a survey to becoming a member of our Tenants Voice, there are all sorts of ways you can be involved.
By taking part in resident involvement you can make a real difference to your home and local community so please do have a look at our options below to see what you can be involved with.
- Tenants’ Voice - this is a committee that consists entirely of our residents. They are an important part of our decision making progress and have 3 members on the board of management to represent the views of residents. Tenants' Voice meet every 6 weeks at our offices and discuss and make decisions relating to our housing policy for all our properties. Tenants' Voice members work as representatives of their local area and work with Tenant Friends to make sure residents’ issues and concerns are heard. Tenants' Voice also monitor and review our quarterly performance to ensure we are meeting the standards our residents expect.
- Resident Service Inspectors (RSI) - our RSI team are a small group of volunteer residents who look at the performance of a specific area of our business. They perform 3 inspections a year and work with us to help identify the good and bad parts of a service. They do this by reviewing our performance data, job shadowing and interviewing staff, Mystery Shopping, talking to other residents. At the end of their inspection they provide a report for Tenants Voice and Board who review and make changes based on their recommendations.
Please see our latest Resident Service Inspectors Report on our repairs service.
- Mystery Shopping - our residents have a unique perspective on how we are performing which is why we ask residents to occasionally test our performance by posing as a normal customer and recording how we perform. How much time you put in is up to you and most of it can be done from the comfort of your own home, although we may invite you in to discuss your experience of the service. We reward our Mystery Shoppers with a £10 ‘Love to Shop’ voucher, which can be spent at most High Street stores, for every mystery shopping survey they complete.
- Editorial and Readers Panel - do you have an eye for detail? If so this might be right for you. Residents who join our Editorial & Readers Panel will be sent our new publications and policies before they are made public. Members of the panel are provided with a feedback form where they can write their comments or concerns about the documentation, once we receive the form we make any changes necessary based on the feedback the panel has given us. All documents approved by the panel have an Editorial and Readers Panel stamp of approval.
- Tenant Friend - we are looking for residents who can represent the views of other residents in their neighbourhood. By volunteering to be a Tenant Friend you would be a point of contact for us in your local community and welcome new residents. We ask Tenant Friends to accompany their Housing Officer on their neighbourhood estate walkabouts and make us or their local Tenants Voice member aware of any issues in their local area.
For more information on how to get involved, please see section 7 in your
Tenants' Handbook or read our
Residents' Menu of Involvement. It tells you all you need to know about resident involvement and all the different ways you can join in.
To see how resident involvement has influenced and made a difference, please view our
Resident Involvement Impact Report 2011.