CLACKMANNANSHIRE TENANTS & RESIDENTS FEDERATION
MINUTES OF LIAISON MEETING
HELD THURSDAY 20TH MARCH 2014
PRESENT:Catrina Mackey (Chair);June Anderson; Susan Robertson; Rae Christie;
Sandy Pollock;Johanna Wilkinson ; Angela Leask; Cathy McDonald
Michelle Flynn; (Minutes), Graeme Perry;(SHR) Elaine McCaffery; Murray Sharp; Lindsay Allison : Council Housing Service
APOLOGIES:Councillor Sharp; Brian Doyle; Pat Duff;Jane McTaggart;
Min No / Agenda Item / Action / Target Date / Priority Ref1. / Welcome
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Graeme Perry from the Scottish Housing Regulator. A round the table introduction then followed.
2. / Apologies
Councillor Sharp,Brian Doyle, Pat Duff and Jane McTaggart gave their apologies for today's meeting.
3. / Minutes of Previous Meeting
Minutes of previous meeting on 12th February 2014 were approved -
Proposed: Sandy Pollock Seconded: Johanna Wilkinson
4. / Matters Arising
Voids - Group had not received their monthly void report which was delayed due to the moves to Kilncraigs. Francine will send this to the group shortly.
Hallpark build will be ready June/July 2014 providing 26 units and 35 bed spaces. Kenny advised that he will contact the Federation regarding a site visit prior to the units being occupied.
Mac West not able to give full details of road repairs and gritting as 2014/15 budget not agreed prior to his visit. Federation to email Mac directly as council budget has now been approved. / FA
KH
JA
5. / Housing Convenor Report
Councillor Sharp emailed the groupto tender his apologies as he would be attending the Housing, Health & Care committee and was asked to send a report in his absence. Catrina noted that no report had been received.
Meeting hoped to receive updated information following the budget 2014/15 budget being approved.
6. / Charter Outcomes Update
Guest Speaker - Elaine McCaffery - Housing Management Co-ordinator
Susan joined the meeting at this point.
Elaine gave an update on the council's progress in achieving the charter outcomes in preparation for updating the information to the regulator on 31st May.
- What we have done so far?
- Where the gaps are?
- Testing against the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) framework.
- How will we communicate our performance
- Benchmarking against other organisations.
Graeme from the regulator advised his colleague Lesley is open to coming out and visiting landlords in regards to the indicators.
Elaine advised that they had Sylvia and Lesley from the regulator for a visit and had exchanged several emails around clarification of Indicator definitions.
Elaine asked the meeting if the Council could add the Annual Return on the Charter (ARC) to the liaison agenda for the 15th May meeting as has also to go to Housing, Health & Care committee on 22nd May before being submitted to the Regulator on 31st May 2014.
The tenants report will also include
Including:
- Self assessment findings
- Charter Indicator performance & SHR Comments
- Satisfaction Survey findings
- Tenant Scrutiny findings
- Future improvements
- Regulators feedback on our ARC
Elaine advised that she had attended a workshop at the CIH conference
Stepping up to Scrutiny Programme. Run by CIH & Housemark, supported by the Scottish Government
Training programme covers tenants, staff and elected members
Consists of 3 stages:
Stage1 - Workshops
Stage 2 - Preparation for Scrutiny
Stage 3 - Final debrief on process
Participants can work towards formal qualifications as part of the programme. Tenant costs are covered by Scottish Government
Landlords have to fund their half of the cost with a few spaces left this year or could go into next year.
Catrina asked if the training would be separate for each group taking part and how would it be funded. It was advised that training would be separate and that the landlord element would be paid from the staff training budget.
Started process on how Clacks will respond to the HRA guidance and go over central support charges including transactions over £10,000 to be discussed at the 17th April liaison meeting.
Murray advised that John Jenkins the Regulator inspector would be reviewing Clackmannanshire SHQS returnstomorrow Friday. / MS
MS
7. / Garden Monitoring Procedure
Guest Speaker - Lindsay Allison - Neighbourhood Investigation Officer
Lindsay introduced himself to the meeting and thanked the Federation for inviting him along today following the circulation of the procedure at the last meeting.
Team of people working on estates with 2 dedicated estate management wardens. Catrina said she thought the process for dealing with culprits who do not do their gardens should be shorter. Lindsay highlighting that the majority of tenants keep their gardens up to date.
600 members are currently on garden aid and those who do not qualify are signposted to other organisations who may be able to assist such as CMEE.
90 pre season letters sent out to advise growing season starting with the system now fully automated, so can be used as evidence including photographs.
If a street has two gardens that are unkempt, then they can bring down the perception of the area. And gave an overview of a garden in Clackmannan and how it impacts on the wider area. Catrina asked what do we do in this situation and June asked if you had exhausted this procedure , what could you do?.
Lindsay advised there are 2 possible outcomes :-
Outcome 1: to get work done and recharge to the tenant. Noted that recent statistics given at CIH conference highlighted only 4% was recovered.
Outcome 2: a compulsory transfer to another property, but this is complex as requires a lot of consideration and need to be taken to the sheriff.
June gave an overview of a current situation in regards to a gardening initiative & funding situation, including a problem garden of an RSL and how could. the Council help.
June asked how much garden aid cost the Council and advised £95K to which June gave an overview of a possible way of saving money. CJS service was also mentioned.
Council has an environmental warden and you could get a copy of the guidelines from environmental services or on clacksweb . Cathy gave an overview of a garden from a private landlord and Angela advised to contact 01259 450000 in regards to tenants gardens.
All garden aid members are being sent a letter and an updated leaflet advising what work will be carried out during the growing season.
Rae asked what about shopping trollies and advised to phone the relevant supermarket. A discussion took place around Sauchie main street upgrade with Angela highlighting a high garden bed outside the post office restricting your view when crossing.
Sandy advised that an extra £150K has been added to the upgrade budget and Angela advised to raise this at the next Sauchie community group meeting and officers will raise it with the council.
8. / Scottish Housing Regulator Visit.
Guest Speaker - Graeme Perry - SHR Research Analyst
Graeme thanked the Federation for allowing him to attend their meeting today and gave apologies on behalf of the tenant assessor who was unfortunately unable to attend at the last minute.
Graeme is looking to find out what information the tenants have received about the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and their understanding about where the Council is today in completing the SHQS. Highlighting that tenants feedback is crucial to the work of the regulator.
Murray highlighted that clacks is 93% completed in terms of reaching the SHQS.
June advised that 3 members of the Federation are representatives on Region 4 of the Central Regional Network (CRN).Graeme advised that he is now chair of the SHR liaison group, but no agenda has been set yet. Looking for a meeting to take place in April with meetings to be held on a quarterly basis going forward,. Most representatives are Council & not private sector.
Graeme advised that some tenant assessors have been doing some mystery shopping in over 60 social landlords. Not sure how clacks have faired in this area.
Space for SHR narrative
9.
10. / Any Other Business
Housing Options Shop
June gave an overview of the Housing options shop launch which took place on Saturday 15th March at Kilncraigs advising that it was very busy, with lots of stalls and people were queuing for an appointment with some of the housing advisors.
John Gillespie - Bench
The bench is now ready and awaiting the Federation reviewing the suggested workers memorial garden area for the bench to be installed. Susan advised she would like to view the area before giving approval.
Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 17th April 2014 at 10am
Alloa Business Centre.