Get involved

There are lots of ways to get involved – no matter your age, background or where you live.

We want our customers across Wheatley to help shape our priorities and tailor our services to you.

Our Group Engagement Framework, Stronger Voices Stronger Communities, sets out our approach to engagement ensuring the customer voice is at the heart of our decisions

There are lots of ways to get involved – no matter your age, background or where you live. We encourage diversity and want to ensure our services are inclusive for all.

As well as our Customer Voices programme, we carry out consultations and host conferences where you can tell us about the big issues and ensure your voice is heard.

Customers can visit their registered landlord's website to find out how they can get involved:

Scrutiny Panels
 

Our Group Scrutiny Panel is another way customers can get involved; ‘scrutiny’ is all about reviewing performance, through a partnership approach, and working with officers to identify improvements for services.

To enhance our approach, we have recently expanded our Group Scrutiny Panel to over 30 Customer Voices from across the four social landlords that make up Wheatley Group.

We rotate meetings around our offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dumfries. This gives the Panel the opportunity to hear directly from and engage with staff.

The Panel have met four times in the last financial year, in May, August, November and February – the next meeting will be in May 2024.

The Panel scrutinise our Group performance quarterly against Scottish Social Housing Charter indicators, choosing the performance priorities they wish to focus on. The Panel are currently focusing on:

  • Anti-social behaviour resolved
  • Repairs timescales and satisfaction
  • Complaints timescales
  • Lettable houses that become void, average days to re-let, and tenancy sustainment

The Panel also receives a spotlight focus at each meeting; at it's last meeting, the Panel looked at environmental services and welcomed our Director of Environmental Services to present an overview of the vast service, some recent progress and work underway.  In August 2023, the Panel's spotlight session focussed on allocations.

The Panel are supported by Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) to help enable them to exercise their scrutiny role effectively, such as through additional training sessions.

In addition to quarterly performance meetings, members of the Panel can also undertake thematic reviews, which is a deeper dive into specific service areas. Members of the thematic group identified repairs communication as an area for review and commenced its work in July 2023, with an initial planning meeting taking place and then a visit to the Customer First Centre in August 2023.

Following the review, the repairs thematic group worked with TPAS to develop a report with recommendations.  The group then met with staff to discuss their report and its findings, co-creating solutions to the recommendations.  Members of the group have attended Board meetings to discuss their experience with board members.  The group will support monitoring progress and will meet with staff in June 2024 to review improvements made and underway.

Find a summary of the report here or read the full report here.

You can also hear what customers had to say by watching the video below.

In February 2024, members of the Panel met with staff and kicked off their next thematic review.  Customers have decided to focus on our Neighbourhood Environmental Team (NETs) Service and Waste Management.

For further information, contact Morgan English by email at morgan.english@wheatley-group.com