How to get involved
To ensure we continue to improve our services in a positive way for our residents and neighbourhoods, we invite you to get involved and have your say.
Your feedback helps us to understand what you expect from us, so we can shape and monitor our services to suit your needs.
The training and support we offer to help you get involved also gives you the chance to develop skills you can use in all areas of your life.
Sanctuary Housing provides residents with a wide range of opportunities to be involved in improving our services. This is vital to us in shaping our services based upon what you think is most important.
These opportunities include:
- Inspecting the condition of local estates with staff and identifying what needs to be improved, and agreeing what action will be taken
- Reviewing how specific services operate and how they can be improved. Most recently this has been focussed on our Customer Service Centre taking repairs calls in Hull and how we do at repairing jobs first time
- A specific group for leaseholders and shared owners which works with staff to improve the services we provide for those residents
- Influencing our approach to buying supplies and services by working on specific tenders. This activity is currently looking at kitchen suppliers
- Visiting our Supported Living services to give an independent review as to whether they would you would recommend them to your family and friends
- Seeing how we learn from complaints we receive and prevent them happening in the future
- Our National Resident Scrutiny Panel or similar groups holding staff to account as to how our services perform
For us to be able to contact you about any of these opportunities, and others as they are developed, we need your consent.
Please complete the Resident Involvement consent form to opt-in to notification of opportunities.
The Co-Regulation Team ensures that Sanctuary fulfils the requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) regulations and for residents to shape service delivery and scrutinise service performance. This includes the National Resident Scrutiny Panel (NRSP) and other scrutiny activity, producing the Annual Report to Residents in addition to providing guidance and support to help you set up a residents' association and on-going support once your group is set up by helping you to:
- Attract members to your group
- Run your group openly
- Apply for community initiative funding
- Ensure your group is representative of your community
Please take a moment to read our Resident Engagement Strategy 2019 (PDF 5MB) which provides a detailed overview of the various opportunities available.
If you would like to find out more about any of the opportunities detailed in our guide, please contact the Co-regulation team.
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David OnionsHead of Co-RegulationDavid takes a lead role in strategic decisions and direction of the team. He works closely with the chair of the National Resident Scrutiny Panel and heads of service to create and deliver resident scrutiny opportunities and co-production. |
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Michele PayneScrutiny and Co-Production ManagerMichele is based in the East Midlands and focusses on training and development across our involved residents. She leads our resident involvement activity in Sanctuary Supported Living, works closely with the Home Ownership Forum and also provides advice on the establishment of residents associations. |
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Sue NutterResident Engagement OfficerSue is based in the North West and takes a lead role in consultation within supported living services, she leads on the Family and Friends Community of Interest and supports the delivery of scrutiny activities within the team. |
Sanctuary is committed to having an on-going conversation with all of its residents, (regardless of tenure). Residents have been at the heart of the shaping and scrutinising services within Sanctuary for many years; this has been confirmed both by the accreditation received from the external, independent housing consultants Housing Quality Network, and the improvements to the service that residents everywhere receive as a result of residents holding Sanctuary to account.
The scrutiny process takes many forms; principally there is a National Residents’ Scrutiny Panel (NRSP) which meets quarterly, with senior housing staff. This is a formal panel meeting where Sanctuary’s performance against specific regulatory expectations is monitored, for instance, levels of customer satisfaction or how quickly empty homes are re-let.
This way the panel provides a ‘critical friend’ relationship with senior staff and an effective customer based challenge to service design.
The panel also has a practical function to actively review specific areas of service on a task and finish basis or continuously in some areas. This is carried out by groups of residents who are recruited to form ‘Communities of Interest'. An example of this is the Procurement Community of Interest which involves a small group of suitably experienced residents who work with the Group Procurement Team to establish new service contracts; the group has been involved in looking at selecting a new contractor for ‘lifts’ (elevators) in our flats and larger schemes, selecting a contractor for kitchen replacements and selecting a contractor for waste disposal around our offices and estates; this is done on a task and finish basis.
Examples of other Communities of Interests commissioned by the NRSP are;
- Estate inspections - They provide a snapshot of the appearance and condition of neighbourhoods and schemes and are jointly undertaken with residents and housing staff working closely together.
- Homeownership Forum - This involves a panel of residents who meet quarterly to review the services received specifically by leaseholders and shared owners.
- Family and Friends - Residents visit and review our supported housing schemes using a simple question to frame their visit; ‘would I want my family or friends to live here?’
It is important to attract individuals with the relevant skills, so residents are recruited via a formal application and interview.
You can find more information
If you would like to know more or apply for any of the opportunities listed, then contact the Co-Regulation Team at scrutiny@sanctuary-housing.co.uk.
National Residents’ Scrutiny Panel
Graham Jones
Bob Werrett
Terry Gill
Jean McDonnell
Clare Denton
Dylan Asphar
