Tenant Scrutiny Panel Terms of Reference
The Tenant Scrutiny Panel group is made up of tenant volunteers, working towards improvements to housing services planning.
- Purpose of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel
- Tenant Scrutiny Panel undertakings
- Tenant Scrutiny Panel methods of scrutiny
- Recruitment of Panel members
- Management of the Scrutiny Panel
- Equality and Diversity
- Monitoring and review
Purpose of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel
The Tenant Scrutiny Panel group will be independent from housing. Supported by Performance and Strategy.
It will:
- examine housing services
- identify areas for improvement
- look at long-term service planning
- monitor delivery of the Local Offers agreed each year
- monitor services, performance and make recommendations
- challenge weakness
- undertake one-off in-depth examination of specific service aspects
- look at policies and procedures of other Registered Providers and how they deliver services
- prioritise work on services which show low tenant satisfaction
Tenant Scrutiny Panel undertakings
The Scrutiny Panel will undertake the following.
The Panel will produce a work plan of its activities. It will choose topics for the work plan based on the following:
- performance information
- satisfaction information and will focus on topics with a low tenant satisfaction
- senior Housing Officers may suggest topics for scrutiny
- topics received from residents /Residents Associations
Tenant Scrutiny Panel methods of scrutiny
During an inspection, the Tenant Scrutiny Panel will use one or more of the following activities:
- interviews with tenants
- interviews with staff
- site visits
- shadowing staff
- holding focus groups
- surveys
- desk-top investigations
The Scrutiny Panel may set up task and finish groups to work on parts of the scrutiny process. These groups will report to the Scrutiny Panel and will only be in place while doing their work.
The Panel will work in a partnership way with Senior Officers through reviews of policy and procedure and/or producing new policy/procedure. They will make sure tenants views are considered throughout the process.
The Scrutiny Panel will feed back to tenants and staff on its work through:
- Open Door
- the Annual Report
- the website and intranet
- other methods
Panel members will attend other resident involvement events, as appropriate, to discuss their work.
Scrutiny Panel members, with their support officer will identify training and development needs. They will take part in training and development sessions as appropriate.
Recruitment of Panel members
Tenants can join the panel if they:
- are not employees of City of York Council
- are not in rent arrears without an agreement to repay
- have not breached their agreement to repay arrears
- do not have a notice seeking possession in place for a breach of tenancy
- are not subject to any anti-social behaviour order or investigation
The scrutiny panel may co-opt additional members with no voting rights to the panel if they feel they add a particular skill or expertise that is not on the existing panel.
New members of the panel will agree formal and informal training to help them fulfil their role.
Management of the Scrutiny Panel
It is expected the panel will meet monthly, with at least 10 monthly meetings. More meetings may be arranged if needed.
The panel will be made up of up to 12 panel members.
50% + 1 of current members of the panel must be present for any decisions to be made at a meeting.
The panel will reach decisions by consensus. If this is not possible members will vote on an issue, a majority of one will be required to agree a decision. In the event of a tie the chair will not have a vote and the issue will not be agreed.
Council Officers who support the panel will try to make sure the panel is independent.
A Chair will be elected for a 1-year term. Members can nominate themselves.
Tenant Scrutiny Panel members must declare any personal interest. The Panel will decide if that member should withdraw, be allowed to speak but not vote, or be allowed to speak and vote. Personal interest includes any potential benefit for family and/or friends.
Members will be expected to attend 75% of meetings and not miss more than 3 meetings in a row. The panel may agree to long term absence based on panel members’ individual circumstances.
The Housing Equalities and Engagement Facilitator will support and facilitate the scrutiny panel.
All members of the scrutiny panel will be expected to comply with the City of York Council code of conduct.
Tenant scrutiny panel members who do not comply with the code of conduct will be asked to resign by the Tenant scrutiny panel.
Scrutiny panel members must not talk about confidential information to anyone outside the panel. Members who break confidentiality will be asked to leave the panel.
If a scrutiny panel member wishes to resign, they should inform the Chair via the support officer in writing or by email.
Equality and Diversity
The scrutiny panel will try to be representative of the tenants it serves and will encourage applications from all groups of tenants.
The scrutiny panel will consider equality and diversity in all aspects of its scrutiny work.
Monitoring and review
Each year a health check of the panel will take place to make sure it is performing its duties well. The tenant scrutiny panel will lead the health check in partnership with The Housing Equalities and Engagement Facilitator.
The Terms of Reference will be reviewed each year as part of this process.