I may be retired but I’ll never stop working for fellow tenants

From the ‘RAISE IT’ initiative to its nine-strong team of scrutiny partners, ForHousing has been doing a lot of work around scrutiny to ensure it can always be held accountable and deliver quality services. Retired tenant and scrutiny partner Janette Ball shares insight into the Salford-based landlord’s approach.

Though I’m retired, it has been another busy work month for me. And that’s just how I like it! 

Just this week, I have been running focus groups with colleagues to understand how ForHousing is practically delivering its organisational strategies, helping to give assurance to the Regulator of Social Housing and the board. ForHousing’s strategy is focussed on really putting tenants at the heart of everything and making a positive impact on their lives.  

It’s been more than 40 years now that I’ve been working and volunteering in the Salford community. I’ve always cared about making sure that social housing tenants are heard, respected, and get a fair deal. Everyone should have a safe, well-maintained home. 

I’ve been representing ForHousing tenants for many years and currently sit on the complaints and feedback panel and Scrutiny. As a ForHousing tenant myself, it means a lot to me. Along with my husband and son, I’ve lived in our lovely home in Swinton for 11 years now.  

In my work at ForHousing, I often invite people to take a step back and ask themselves, ‘would you be okay living like that?’. If the answer is ‘no’, then it needs to get sorted.  

I think of myself as an amplifier of tenants' voices and concerns. And though there are areas that we are pushing ForHousing to do better on, I genuinely do feel that they care, and I love the direction the organisation is going in.  

They have a great five-year strategy and that’s partly down to the fact that tenants have helped to create it. The ForHousing team has listened and followed through, which is why I feel optimistic, and I am pleased to continue in a role that I believe makes a difference.  

I don’t get paid for these roles, but I take them very seriously, and I love it. I treat them as I did in my previous career with the audit commission – mainly because of the people I get to meet and work with.  

Recently, we welcomed more people onto the team, and I love to see that it’s more representative of ForHousing’s neighbourhoods. We’ve got some younger members now too, which is fantastic. 

Our scrutiny partners 

My fellow scrutiny partners and I (there are nine of us) are responsible for holding ForHousing to account on its agreed plans. We’re keen that all tenants know they can raise things that matter to them, and that there are many ways to do this. It’s why ForHousing has its new ‘RAISE IT’ initiative, so tenants can give feedback and feel reassured that it will be acted on. 

Almost all the recommendations we make as involved tenants happen, so it’s not just a tick-box exercise. 

For example, we know many tenants have been rightly very worried about damp and mould. Four of my fellow volunteers have done a big exercise to collect views and gather people’s first-hand experiences of raising issues and having repairs completed. They reviewed everything and made some key recommendations, which ForHousing is taking seriously.

Almost all the recommendations we make as involved tenants happen, so it’s not just a tick-box exercise

Actions being taken as a result include establishing a working group to review all communication on damp and mould. This has resulted in better information and clearer communication. They’ve also been in touch with every tenant who took part in the exercise to make sure any outstanding works are being sorted. 

We’ll be holding them to account, and there are other areas we know are important to tenants that we are looking into too – including complaints and noise nuisance. 

TPAS success 

It was great to recently be involved in ForHousing’s thorough accreditation process with TPAS, the tenant engagement experts. Housing associations only get this accreditation if they meet TPAS national standards, are committed to involving residents, and deliver excellence in tenant engagement. It’s all led by tenants, and we were pleased that ForHousing scored 90 per cent (the pass rate is 80%).  

TPAS praised the structure of ForHousing’s customer involvement, the wide range of ways tenants can get involved, and how they are empowered to have their say. It also highlighted areas for improvement, including tenant satisfaction on complaints and repairs, which we’re already starting to work on.  

ForHousing really wants to listen to its tenants, learn from what we say, and do better. I’m proud to be a part of that, and I can’t see myself retiring from this role any time soon. 

• Find out more about ForHousing’s approach to Scrutiny