As part of our campaign focussing on getting all our residents involved in shaping the services we offer, we learn more about our supported and sheltered housing resident forum.
We recognised that traditional ways of reaching our residents in this these tenure groups often didn’t work well. Support or care needs, age, exclusion and society’s increasing reliance on technology to communicate meant the people who live in supported housing were often left unable to participate and their voices went unheard.
To address this, last summer we set up our supported and sheltered housing resident forum. The diverse group is made up of resident representatives from a mixture of tenures and supported housing types. They meet quarterly to voice the issues that are affecting them and their neighbours and give feedback on service delivery. We ask their advice on changes and ideas we propose to improve our service.
We offered our group of involved residents technical support to attend meetings online and training to give them the confidence to contribute, challenge and make recommendations to us. We also reimburse travel expenses when the group meets in person.
The group officially launched in September 2023. By the end of last year, they had elected a chair and deputy chair. Since its inception the group has helped with:
- Providing feedback on how we can best support our local officers in their roles
- Understanding how we can communicate important information to residents who aren’t digital
- Recommendation for service charges - a presentation to residents who reside in our supported housing to help them better understand what they are being charged for and why
- Providing feedback on estate contract management and the way opportunities to comment on estates are advertised to supported housing residents
- Gaining an understanding on the range of support needs of residents and the geographical spread of our supported housing, providing senior staff with knowledge and insight into how service delivery issues can have profound impact on the wellbeing of older, frail residents
Below we meet some of the group.
Roy is a resident at Baths Court in Shepherds Bush. He runs an arts group at the scheme and has recently joined our supported and sheltered housing resident forum.
Jimi is a resident at Amber Court in Stratford. He was involved in helping set up the supported and sheltered housing resident forum and has since joined as a representative. He also supports us with management training when it runs at our Stratford Halo site.
June is a resident at Len Williams Court in Maida Vale. She’s involved in a resident community group, called Elder’s Voice there. She’s also joined the new supported and temporary housing resident forum as a representative.
As well as meeting as a group, some members have gone on to offer their services with other involvement opportunities. Simon, the group chair, recently helped with scoring the supplier submissions for the re procurement of the electrical safety contract. You can hear more about his experience later in our campaign.
If you’d like to get more involved in shaping the services we offer, keep an eye on the resident involvement page on our website. We’ve added an upcoming opportunities section so you can easily see what’s coming up.
