Residents to be asked their views on plans to improve how the Council’s Housing Services communicates with residents
A major consultation to improve the way Hackney Council’s Housing Services talks and listens to residents and gives them greater opportunities to help shape the way the service is delivered is being launched this week.
From Thursday (9 June) residents living in Hackney Council homes will have the chance to have their say on a new draft Resident Engagement Strategy - designed to ensure residents are at the centre of everything the service does. The 12-week consultation will run until Sunday 4 September.
The draft strategy, built on the feedback of residents and staff, looks at how the service can better communicate with residents. It also looks at how it can provide more opportunities for them to get involved in influencing services and enhancing the quality of life on their estates.
Last year, thousands of residents took part in surveys, focus groups and informal discussions to provide their views on how the service currently engages with them. This included people from communities who do not usually interact with the Council, including from the borough’s Turkish, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Somali and Chinese communities, as well as different faith groups.
The feedback highlighted the way the service engages with residents needs to improve. It also showed it needed to do more to involve residents in shaping its services, offer a broader range of ways for residents to give feedback, and provide better support to residents’ groups.
The draft strategy identifies five strategic priorities to help address the issues residents raised:
- embedding a Resident First culture across the Housing Service
- supporting residents groups to thrive
- widening the ways residents can engage with the service and promoting more digital engagement
- ensuring residents can influence decision making and drive improvements across the service
- promoting engagement activity that strengthens communities
The consultation will be available online at consultation.hackney.gov.uk/hackney-homes/res-consultation from Thursday 9 June and a number of estate-based events are being planned throughout the summer giving people more information about the draft strategy.
I want our Housing Services to be much more responsive to our residents' concerns and suggestions and ensure we have a culture where every resident's voice is valued and respected.
People living in our homes need to have the confidence that we are listening to their feedback and acting on it, whether they are a tenant, leaseholder, shared owner or homeowner.
Over recent years we have not always done this as well as we could or should have done. Last year our residents clearly told us we needed to improve how we communicate with them and make them feel able to play their part in helping us shape and deliver services that meet their needs.
In developing this strategy we have listened carefully to this feedback and outlined the changes we are seeking to make to address the issues raised. I would now urge everyone living in a Hackney Council home to get involved in this consultation so we can deliver on our ambitions and meet the needs of our residents.
Successful resident engagement can deliver real change and improvements to our estates and the quality of our residents’ lives.
We have been working closely with the Council’s Housing Services over the last year to help strengthen their approach to resident engagement, and this strategy reflects the outcome of this work.
We would urge as many Hackney Council homes residents to get involved in helping to finalise this strategy which, when agreed, will hopefully mark a new and positive chapter for resident engagement in Hackney.
All residents taking part in the consultation will be entered into a draw to win £100 in Love2Shop Vouchers. All of the responses will help shape the final strategy that will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet in the autumn.