Tenant participation and involvement

The range of conferences includes  Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland,  Tenants Information Service,  Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) Scotland and the joint East Ayrshire Tenants and Residents conference.

We will always try to attend local meetings as and when invited where we will take note of your concerns and suggestions.

From time to time, we will hold meetings to inform you about our services or new legislation.

These are mini-surveys of our services that are carried out to better understand tenant satisfaction levels.

We offer advice and various methods of support for our Council tenants. Visit our information for tenants page for help and advice.

The  East Ayrshire Federation produces a  Tenants' Newsletter each year which is posted to all tenants and published on our website.

Our website  www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk can be accessed and contains information on Housing and related issues and service provision.

Each year, we will report our performance against each of the outcomes in the Charter to the Scottish Housing Regulator.  This will demonstrate how well we are performing and meeting the needs of our tenants, service users and other customers.

East Ayrshire Council tenants are invited to attend the annual joint Tenants & Residents Conference and able to raise their concerns and aspirations through a number of themed workshops. The feedback is used to shape future service delivery.

Community Champions provide an opportunity to gain greater knowledge of how Housing Improvement projects work and allows direct access to Council Officers whilst work is undertaken in a community.

The Community Champion acts as a vehicle between the Housing Improvement project and the community and is able to influence the delivery of the project.

They also are made aware of local organisations and encouraged to become more involved in such groups.  

Consultation events can vary and will be held in local venues to seek the views of all relevant people within the area, for example, new Council House building.

The Interested Tenants forum is a database of individual tenants and residents who have expressed an interest in housing consultations.

An umbrella organisation that represents Tenants and Residents Associations operating in East Ayrshire.

Members of tenants groups are invited to walk around their neighbourhood with Housing staff to identify problems, suggest action and improve communication and identify environmental improvements.

Tenants, service users and other customers are invited to attend a single or small number of meetings to discuss specific service delivery issues.

Residents meetings provide people living in East Ayrshire Council’s Temporary Accommodation Hostel with an opportunity to get involved and have their say on a range of matters in a relaxed environment.

Mystery Shopping is a form of market research for tenants to test the service and record their experience and impressions.

Becoming an RTO gives groups a recognised role in the decision-making process.  Landlords and RTOs should work together to identify policies and practices which they think need to be revised.

Representatives from RTOs within a geographical area meet with Housing Managers to discuss housing related issues and agree a range of environmental improvements for their area.

Tenants and residents associations provide a collective voice for people who live in the same area, or who have the same landlord. Members work together to improve housing and environmental standards in their neighbourhood and increase a sense of community.

Tenant-led inspections allow a group of tenants to conduct an inspection of a service provided by their landlord and make recommendations to the landlord on proposed changes.

Tenant scrutiny aims to give tenants and other customers more influence in holding East Ayrshire Council to account for its decisions, performance and conduct.  Tenant scrutiny puts our tenants, service users and other customers’ priorities, views and engagement with relevant processes at the heart of the organisation.

Senior Officers from Housing Services meet with members of the East Ayrshire Federation quarterly to discuss performance across a number of areas. This is then fed back to the wider membership of the East Ayrshire Federation thus keeping everyone involved.

This group, consisting of tenant representatives and Council Officers meet to review progress of Tenant Participation and Service User Involvement against the Action Plan aims.

Each year Council Officers meet with members of the East Ayrshire Federation to present the Council’s Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter.  This is a return which contains over 300 pieces of performance information and allows tenants, service users, other customers, staff and peer authorities to compare their performance against similar sized organisations.