5. Customer Involvement

47www.stockporthomes.org 47

5. Customer involvement

48 www.stockporthomes.org

Customer involvement

The CustomerInvolvement Team. Together we can make a difference!

What is customer involvement?Customer involvement is what happens when customers tell us what they think about the services they receive and have a chance to influence the decisions that affect their home and neighbourhood.

In order for Stockport Homes to improve the services we offer to you, we need to know what you think. We provide a wide menu of involvement and this section will give you brief details of the options available. You can choose to be involved as little or as much as you like depending on your own interests and thetime you have to spare.

We’re here to help youStockport Homes has a Customer Involvement Team dedicated to helping you get involved in any way you choose. We will be happy to provide you with information, advice, support and development. We offer training where necessary and we will reimburse out-of-pocket expenses. We can also help with taxis for people with mobility needs and childcare or carers’ costs.

To find out more contact the team on:

Telephone: 0161 474 2862Email: customer.involvement@stockporthomes.orgText: 07891 949 399Fax: 0161 480 4358

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Customer involvement

The area forums provide a valuable opportunity for you to decide how our Estate Improvement and Community Fund budgets are spent and influence how our services are delivered.

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How we consult and involve our customersWe are strongly committed to involving customers, as you can see from the range of ways you can get involved below. You can look at the choices available and select the best one for you.

Stockport Homes’ Board

Stockport Homes’ Board governs the decisions made on behalf of the organisation. The Board contains 13 members, five of which are Stockport Homes’ tenants.

Area forums

Area forums are public meetings which are held in the east and west housing areas of Stockport. They give customers a valuable opportunity to speak directly with housing staff and ask questions of housing managers. It is an opportunity to influence how money is spent on improvements where you live. There are also specific forums arranged for leaseholders and sheltered housing residents.

Customer Scrutiny Panel

The Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) is a group of customers who look in detail at how we deliver our services and dig deep into what we do and how we do it. The CSP choose which services they want to review and how they want to gather evidence. This could include customer inspections, site visits and asking questions of staff and managers. The CSP make recommendations directly to the Performance Sub-Group of the Board, ensuring that we always take your views into account and are meeting your needs and priorities.

The CSP are supported by an independent mentor who provides impartial advice and guidance. We offer full training and support to all customers who get involved.

Customer action groups (CAGs)

CAGs operate for different service areas and meet on a regular basis throughout the year. They involve a range of customers and staff who work together to influence, shape and improve

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Customer involvement

We offer a wide range of free learning and training courses to all customers through our ‘Skills for Life’ programme.

the services we deliver for customers. CAGs are open to all customers and provide a forum for discussion and ideas sharing in an open and accountable way.

Various CAGs you can get involved with:

• Anti-Social Behaviour• Customer Involvement• Diversity• Financial Inclusion• Leaseholder• Stock Investment and Repairs• Tenancy and Estate Management• Performance

Free customer training - Skills for Life

We offer a wide range of free learning and training courses to all customers through our ‘Skills for Life’ programme. Courses are run in a six monthly cycle. We work in partnership with a range of other local agencies and training providers throughout Stockport and aim to provide something for everyone. There is no limit to the number of courses you can attend.

Estate walkabouts / inspections

You can get together with housing staff to inspect the area around your neighbourhood to identify any problems and agree actions and timescales for solutions. You can look at other areas as well as your own. We keep you informed of the changes we have made as a result of your taking part.

The details of these are advertised in ‘Dates for your diary’ which is delivered with your quarterly customer newsletter - ‘Stockport at home’.

Community champions

Community champions represent the flats or the road where they live. They feedback important information to neighbours and report issues to improve standards where they live. They receive support and valuable training and an opportunity to network with other champions. Anyone can be a community champion.

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Customer involvement

The Quality Panel are a group of customers who inspect and carry out reality checks of services to see whether they are up to standard.

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Community groups

There are a number of community groups across Stockport and these are a great way to get together with your neighbours, discuss any problems affecting your area and make suggestions for how these can be resolved. Some groups are less formal than others and if there isn’t a group in your area already then we can help you set one up. We can provide a start-up grant, support and training. The Customer Involvement Team can supply you with a starter pack full of useful information and tips about running a group.

Quality Panel

The Quality Panel are a group of customers who inspect and carry out reality checks of services to see whether they are up to standard. The Quality Panel use the following ways to carry out inspections:• Mystery shopping which can be done via telephone from

the comfort of your own home or by calling in person, for example, visiting a reception area at one of our offices.

• Reality checking through carrying out site visits or spot checks to check the standard of service delivery. This includes checking the Grounds Maintenance Service or visiting empty properties to check they are up to our standard for being re-let.

• Perception surveys which involve customer inspectors carrying out in-depth interviews with other customers to gain a deeper insight into their views.

• Circle group - pairing up with another organisation to inspect each others services.

Working groups

Customers get together on a regular basis to discuss issues that affect a particular project or area of service that is looking to improve. These groups include:• Sheltered Housing Working Group (SHWG)• H3 Group (Helping the Homeless into Housing) • Focus on you - made up of service-users of the

Resettlement Service.

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Customer involvement

Whatever way interests you, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved at Stockport Homes and you will not be out of pocket.

Readers’ Group

To ensure our documents are customer friendly andeasy-to-read, we send them to our Customer Readers’ Group. This group read over the document and make suggestions over the content and design of it. Once the document has been agreed, it is given the Readers’ Group symbol to show that it has been approved by customers.

‘Stockport at home’ Customer Editorial Team

The Editorial Team goes through the Stockport at home customer newsletter to make sure that it is clear and easy to read. They also provide suggestions for future articles.

Young, Engaged and Active in Housing (yeah)

There are many 18-25 year olds who live on our neighbourhoods and we are always looking to create opportunities for them to give us feedback on our services and how we can improve. We have a group of young people who we contact regularly by text, email, telephone and post with different opportunities to get involved. This group is open for any young customer to join and they can get involved in a variety of ways from completing surveys or attending workshops, helping us develop projects to improve services or attending training courses on a variety of topics. We also offer lots of activities for young people to get involved in.

Post and telephone surveys

We can send you a postal survey about the service that you receive from Stockport Homes which you can complete and return in a pre-paid envelope or we can carry out a survey over the telephone.

We are constantly developing new ideas and initiatives to involve customers based on your feedback. For up-to-date information please visit the Stockport Homes website www.stockporthomes.org or contact the Customer Involvement Team (see page 48 for details).