Prospect’s Tenant Scrutiny Group completed their training last week and received certificates to mark their great achievement.
Over the last five weeks they have learnt how to carry out scrutiny, from identifying which Prospect services to look at through to producing a recommendation report. In their final training session they carried out a mock exercise, including practising an interview with a member of Prospect’s staff with questions they had prepared beforehand. They then used this to produce a couple of recommendations. Prospect would like to thank the tenants involved for all their hard work, and for the commitment they showed in attending weekly training sessions. They will now meet again in March to choose a service to scrutinize.
Tenant scrutiny was introduced by the 2010 Housing Scotland Act to give tenants the opportunity to hold their landlord to account, ensuring they are meeting the standards and outcomes of the Scottish Social Housing Charter. Scrutiny groups use a range of measures including performance and benchmarking data as well as activities including mystery shopping, staff interviews, tenant inspections and surveys to assess the landlords’ services. The aim is to produce a report with recommendations which will then be implemented by the landlord.
As well as being a way of improving services for the benefit of all Prospect tenants, being part of the group is also a great opportunity to meet new people, gain new skills and make a positive difference locally. If you are a Prospect tenant and would like to join the group or want to know more about tenant scrutiny, please contact Prospect’s Housing Manager Catherine Louch on 0131 458 5480.
