Neighbours And Neighbourhoods News
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New Tenant Services Authority and their National Conversation
Monday, February 16 2009
The TSA is drawing up a brand new set of standards for landlords and they believe that these standards should be agreed with what tenants want firmly in mind. The National Conversation will see the TSA talking to tenants from across England to help to build a picture of the things that are important to them. The TSA hopes to get the views of thousands of tenants so it can draw up the standards and be confident that the standards are based on tenants’ views. The standards will be ready for in autumn 2009 and landlords will start to be measured against these in December 2009. These standards are very important as the TSA will monitor landlords to see how well they are delivering against them. The TSA want to involve as many people as possible and there are lots of ways that tenants can take part and get their views heard.
They will be holding number of regional events where they are asking landlords to nominate tenants to come forward. Four members of the MDHA Residents’ Association will be attending the regional event for South-East. There will also be an online survey available on their website http://www.nationalconversation.co.uk. You can also attend MDHA Local Conversation 19th February. Please read more details on the calendar of events. The first part of the National Conversation runs until March 2009. The TSA will then consider the views and information tenants have supplied and will start to draw up the first set of standards. In Spring 2009, they will consult again with tenants and landlords to ensure they are in the right track. The standards should be approved by Autumn 2009 and will come into effect after statutory consultation in December 2009. You can find out more information on TSA on http://www.tenantservicesauthority.org
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Involve a Resident Week 16 - 20 February 2009
A best value review involves members of staff and residents together in a Working Group. These groups make strategic decisions about how to implement service improvement in a particular area, and they may use surveys, interviews and focus groups to gain ideas. In the 2008 Empty Homes best value review residents and staff recognised that the process of letting empty homes was too segmented between departments. We now employ one member of staff to oversee the whole process and ensure that residents become settled into their new homes.
Focus groups are organised when a department needs to get detailed feedback from residents on a specific topic. For example, when MDHA received feedback from residents that they wanted changes to be made to the Contact Centre a specific focus group was held to discuss exactly what changes residents wanted to see. At the 2008 Contact Centre focus group residents asked for longer opening hours, a freephone telephone number, and more communication between the Contact Centre and other departments. Now all of these have been put into place!!!
Service forums are organised regularly by departments with the aim of using resident feedback to make wide ranging improvements to their service area. For example, Asset Management (Repairs &Maintenance) have held a series of Service Forums over the last three years and reviewed repairs priorities, repairs satisfaction monitoring and much more. At the 2007 Repairs & Maintenance Service Forum residents decided that our urgent 7 day completion time for emergency jobs should be changed to a 4 hour response time AND all our in-house trades staff now carry handhelds so that you can sign off maintenance jobs when satisfied!
Many changes to our services have come from the satisfaction ratings and comments made in surveys. For example, the satisfaction results from the status survey in 2007 showed that our residents in areas outside Maidenhead were less satisfied with our services than those who lived in Maidenhead. Based on these findings we have invested in our new Mobile Office. We now take our staff out to your neighbourhoods and offer services on your doorstep — details of which you can find in Streets Ahead.
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Residents’ Association members to gain qualifications
Thursday, February 12 2009
Rachel Bonner, Janet Thompson and Mark Bramble have started their qualifications in Community Action. They will be working with 3 staff members at Maidenhead and District Housing Association to develop their skills and find out more about their communities and how they can help them. Maidenhead and District Housing Association have teamed up with Windsor Housing and the Chartered Institute of Housing to offer the training.
We will be offering other residents the opportunity to apply in the future. Keep an eye out for more details of the progress that Rachel, Janet and Mark make. If you are interested in finding out more contact Johanna Barrett, Community Liaison Officer
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MDHA Residents’ Association have voted for their Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer for 2009
Friday, January 23 2009
Thank you again to everyone who voted for new members for the Residents’ Association Executive Committee. The new nominees who had been elected at the Annual General Meeting in December joined the Executive Committee for their first meeting in January.
At this meeting members voted for who they would like to take on the positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer for 2009. The following members have taken on the roles for the year ahead:
Rachel Bonner - Chair
Janet Thompson - Vice Chair
Jackie Corriette - Secretary
Mike Denne - Treasurer
Photos and details of members of the Residents’ Association Executive Committee can be seen on the Residents’ Association members page. Click on the toolbar to the left hand side of the screen.
Minutes of their meetings can be found by clicking in the Meeting minutes toolbar to the left hand side of the screen.
The Residents’ Association Executive Committee are currently putting together their plans for the year ahead. If you want to have your say contact Rachel Bonner
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Maidenhead & District Housing Association Residents’ Association AGM
Monday, December 15 2008
Thank you to all of those of you who took the time to vote for who you would like to represent you on the Residents’ Association Executive Committee. Over 200 people voted. Those with the highest votes were elected at the Annual General Meeting on 11th December, at St Joseph’s church hall, Maidenhead.
The 6 nominees with the most votes were Glenys McGraw, Fred Simmonds, Doreen Compton, Brian Shanks, Nicholas Drennan and Helen Doman. Their names, photos and details will be added to the Residents’ Association page shortly.
Thank you to all the nominees who put themselves forward and everyone who voted or made it along to the AGM.
Keep an eye out for details of what the Residents’ Association Executive Committee will be up to in the year ahead. They’re keen to have your feedback on what your priorities are. If you’d like to speak to them please contact Rachel Bonner, Chair
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