Agenda item

6.1

Sally Kilic reported on the Community Team Engagement Review which had been undertaken by a Task and Finish Group (the Group) established by the Housing and Neighbourhood Advisory Panel.  The purpose of the Group was to review the current Community Engagement programmes/meetings and find out if they were viable as they currently were, or whether they could work in a better, and perhaps more cost effective, manner.  The meetings included in the review were:-

·                Citywide Forum

·                Community Engagement Partnership Group

·                Local Area Housing Forum

·                Local Estates and Investment Forum

·                Estates Working Group

·                Investment and Repairs Partnership Group

·                Sheltered Housing Forum

·                Customer Service and Equalities Partnership

·                Challenge For Change.

6.2

The main way in which information was obtained for the review was by means of a questionnaire which was handed out at the above meetings.

6.3

Sally Kilic went on to refer to the role of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations, which the Council was keen to see remain a key element of the community engagement structures, and also mentioned  the good engagement practices of the Sanctuary Housing Association which the Group had examined.  She also outlined the vision for community engagement which the Group had agreed, but added that there was no confidence in this vision at the moment.  In conducting its review, the Group had also taken into account the cost of community engagement and how the Housing+ initiative could contribute.

6.4

Some of the Group’s recommendations were as follows:-

·                The number of Citywide Forum meetings should be reduced to three per year.

·                The Community Engagement Partnership Group should meet every two months and should be used as a sounding board for the Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations. 

·                The Local Area Housing Fora should stay as they were, as should Challenge For Change.

·                The Cleaner, Greener Partnership Group meetings should be reduced to three per year.

·                There should be a 15 minute question and answer session at the start of every meeting, with the responses being minuted.

6.5

The Chair, Councillor Tony Damms, highlighted the need to address some of these issues and made particular reference to the amounts spent on community engagement in Sheffield compared with that of Rotherham, adding that any financial savings would contribute to improving Council properties.  He also commented that it was often  the same people attending meetings and asking the same questions.  In terms of the actual meetings, he felt that the Local Area Housing Forum should be the basic building block and that the Housing and Neighbourhoods Advisory Panel should continue, whilst Challenge For Change needed more focus and purpose.  He considered that the Citywide Forum didn’t have much of a future and could be organised by tenants if they wanted it to continue.  In contrast, the Tenants’ Conference was productive and worth funding.

6.6

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       thanks Sally Kilic for her contribution to the meeting;

(b)       notes the information reported; and

(c)        requests the Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services to work with tenants and officers to see what efficiencies could be made in the Council’s Housing Service’s Community Engagement budget.