Everyone deserves to feel safe, secure and comfortable in their home, and listened to and supported by the people who deliver their housing services. That’s why we’re carrying out two connected projects to improve how we respond to residents’ needs.
The first is a comprehensive review of our anti-social behaviour (ASB) service. The second is helping us develop our Right Support approach, which is about understanding your individual circumstances and providing appropriate support when you interact with our services.
Although the projects look at different areas, both are centred on listening to you, and using your experiences to shape better services.
Improving our ASB service
Anti-social behaviour can significantly affect people’s lives. It can include harassment, intimidation, vandalism, threatening behaviour, hate-related incidents or other behaviour that makes someone feel unsafe or unable to enjoy their home.
You told us that your experiences of reporting ASB haven’t always been as positive or consistent as they should be. Some of you were unsure what would happen after making a report, while others felt communication could have been better or that concerns were not always dealt with consistently.
We’ve listened to this feedback and recognise that we need to do more. Our ASB review will look at your experiences throughout the process, including reporting an issue, communication, case handling, support, outcomes and how cases are closed. It will help us develop a more consistent, responsive and resident-focused service that gives you confidence you’ll be heard, supported and kept informed.
Developing our Right Support approach
Alongside the ASB review, we are developing our Right Support approach.
This work is about improving how we recognise and respond to your individual support needs. It will consider areas including vulnerability, reasonable adjustments, the responsibilities and boundaries of a landlord, and what an effective support offer should look like.
We’ve already carried out a survey about this, so will use those findings and other information you’ve previously shared as the starting point. Further engagement will be targeted at areas where we need a better understanding or where you can help us test and shape the emerging approach.
How the two projects connect
The ASB review and Right Support project have different aims, however there overlapping themes – including communication, accessibility, trust, vulnerability and your expectations of our services.
This joined-up approach will help us:
Put you at the heart of the work
We don’t want to design services without hearing from the people who use them. Your experiences, ideas and feedback will play a central role in shaping both pieces of work.
For the ASB review, residents with experience of reporting or experiencing ASB will be invited to take part in a targeted survey. This will be followed by focus groups and, where appropriate, individual conversations, allowing you to explore your experiences in more detail and describe what a better ASB service should look and feel like.
For Right Support, we’ll first review what residents have already told us. If there are areas where we need a better understanding, or where we’d like residents’ views on potential changes, we’ll invite people to take part in more focused conversations.
When will resident engagement take place?
Resident engagement is planned to take place in stages between late October and mid-December. We expect the ASB survey to run from late October into early November, followed by focus groups and, where appropriate, individual conversations from mid-November into early December. Any further Right Support conversations are expected to take place during December. Look out for an invitation from our Customer Empowerment team to take part in these activities.
Working with Tpas
Both projects will be supported by Tpas, an independent tenant engagement organisation. Tpas will review the evidence, help us hear directly from residents and support discovery and co-design activities.
The resident discussions and feedback activities will be facilitated by Sonji Nurse, an experienced Tpas Associate with a background in resident engagement and service improvement.
Find out more
For more information about the projects, including how you can get involved, please email customerempowerment@wandle.com.