Three Valleys Housing

Three Valleys Resident Engagement: Major Improvement and Decent Homes Programme.

Client: Three Valleys Housing Association

NewmanFrancis in partnership with Just Housing were commissioned by Three Valleys Housing Association to identify, develop and procure their decent homes programme and in so doing involve tenants throughout the process.

NewmanFrancis acted as the bridge between the residents and the procurement team, with key responsibility to enable resident involvement and engagement throughout the whole process.

An important part of the project was moving tenants from being cynical and sceptical to being optimistic about the opportunity to influence decisions about the improvements to their homes. We ensured they received the training and support needed to fully engage in all the activities of the project.

We carried out fun and participative exercises that enabled tenants to effectively appraise resources, agree priorities and develop their decent homes works specification for the tendering process.

A significant achievement was the development of a "tenants Decent Homes Compact", which contained the delivery principles such as the customer care tenants expected to be in the contract, a code of practice for contractors working in tenants’ homes, a contractor’s code of conduct, and the choices that tenants should be able to exercise within the programme. This document was so influential it informed the contract details and invitation to tender. It also forms a legacy providing residents with a document that they can refer to as the decent homes programme proceeds.

The crucial part of the project was assisting tenant involvement in the contractor selection process. Tenants were involved in setting the quality/pricing scoring ratio for assessing contracts, they developed the criteria for assessing contract bids, set interview questions, and formed part of the short-listing and interview panel.

Over 150 tenants (3% of their stock) were involved in 16 consultation events and 3 training workshops and meetings over a six month period. Within the project evaluation process, 90% of tenants surveyed rated their ability to be involved in making decisions in the project as either excellent or good.

The client, Three Valleys, was very complimentary at the level of ability the tenants showed in their participation in the project. Three Valleys have since made two tenants regular members of what was an officer decent homes project team, enabling tenant representation in all ongoing key decisions about the decent homes programme. Some of the residents have gone on to be involved in the governance structure of the organisation.

NewmanFrancis are developing a programme of training that will assist Three Valley tenants to oversee, monitor and evaluate the programme.