Chapter 1 give residents a stronger voice

13 MAY 2011

This year at Chapter 1 we have added resident inspections in our effort to give the residents a stronger voice about our work. We had the chance to trial the method through being a trailblazer in the Tenant Services Authority's local standards pilots.

We know we have a lot of talented residents at our projects, residents with great potential and we want to develop that potential. The residents participating in the pilot come from Exeter, Yeovil, Hackney, Southampton and St. Leonards-On-Sea. Each project sent 2 residents to be trained in London. We now have 10 fully trained resident inspectors well equipped to assess services and give the residents an even stronger voice. All the standards in the pilot come from residents with the focus being on getting the customer service they need and want. Chapter 1 feel resident inspections are important because it means the experts, those that have been through the services, can evaluate the quality of work being done. The beauty of the training was that it was tailored to Chapter 1's work and circumstance. None of the projects are exactly the same and the needs of the residents differs, the training had to be customised to suit the differences of the projects.

The training was fun, afterwards the residents said they could not wait to put their new skills to the test.

The first steps of the inspection schedule is now complete and the work has been a great success. The resident inspectors have been visiting each other's projects, evaluating evidence, interviewing staff and residents. The inspections have enabled us to make accurate assessments of the quality of customer service the projects deliver. The pilots and inspections have shown that the organisations residents are indeed the experts and have the ability and commitment to help keep Chapter 1 at its best.