RAISE IT: We’ve listened and learned from you with our first Scrutiny exercise: damp and mould

In April, we began our first Scrutiny exercise: damp and mould. We asked tenants to get involved, have your say and RAISE IT to influence our services and make change happen.

What is a Scrutiny exercise?

A Scrutiny exercise is when a group of tenants get together to investigate a specific service, to understand what we currently do, take away findings from tenant experiences and key information to make recommendations for improvements. We will then work together to put things in place to act upon your feedback. Listening and learning from you, to make positive changes.

Our Scrutiny exercise: damp and mould included five tenants who are a part of our tenant Scrutiny group to investigate:

• Your experience with our damp and mould services
• The information available about damp and mould

This included an interview with 19 tenants who recently received a damp and mould repair to listen and learn from their experience.

What did we learn?

The exercise had six key findings, with four recommendations for improvements:

• To review the information we share through the ways we communicate damp and mould such as the newsletter and website to make sure the messages are consistent
• Further information should be provided around heating properties and what the cost may be to heat your home
• We should look at the use of digital communications and explore other non-digital methods to signpost tenants to guidance and information
• We should look into the cases where damp and mould works have not been completed in a timely manner and prioritise any outstanding works.

We’ve listening, and learning and acting upon recommendations by:

• Creating a working group of maintenance and communications colleagues and involved tenants to review all communications in relation to damp and mould
• Review the information we provide both digitally and offline and update this with potential cost implications for heating homes to avoid damp and mould
• Launching our tenant newsletter that is also available as a printed version. This will include damp and mould messaging. We will also look into sending a damp and mould flyer to all tenants through the post
• Contacting all tenants who were interviewed as part of the scrutiny exercise to make sure all outstanding works are progressed and prioritised. We’re now back in target with damp and mould timeframes and we’re currently reviewing communications to reassure and update tenants about any outstanding work..

By listening and learning and acting upon your recommendations you have influenced the way we do things – helping us to continue to put you at the heart of decision making. Thank you to everyone who got involved to make positive changes that positively impact the lives of social housing tenants. To learn more about what Scrutiny is and to get involved in future exercises, click here to find out more.

For more information about the Scrutiny exercise: damp and mould, click here.