Border exchange

Posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
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The Forward Together Panel (FTP) is never shy of shouting about its success and this month the group had the opportunity to share its experiences with tenants from across the border.

The Panel welcomed tenants and staff from Westward Housing’s Strategic Overview Group (SOG) to Charter’s head office in Newport. Westward Housing, which has homes in Devon and Cornwall, is a union of Tarka Housing and Westcountry Housing. Their tenant panel, the SOG, was formed last year to make sure that tenants had the opportunity to consult on the merger; like Charter’s Panel, SOG also reports to Board.

The meeting was arranged through DOME consultants, who managed the creation of the FTP in 2010.

Both groups were keen to discuss how tenants can influence service delivery, how to keep people involved and best practice.

“I found the meeting useful and feel proud of the FTP and how they were willing to share their experiences,” said FTP member and Neighbourhood Manager Ruth Newman. “We come from different parts of Britain, but there was a lot of benefit in talking about how we get tenants involved.”

Westward Housing has had success with social media and the Panel were eager to find out about the gains of using it. In return, Westward was impressed with the FTP’s range of tenant involvement activities, such as the popular cooking course Come Dine.

“They have invited us to Tarka’s next Tenants Panel AGM and we have gladly accepted,” said tenant FTP member Miechel Wilkinson from Pontypool. “It was great to learn from them. They loved our tenant magazine, Contact and our t-shirts, too!”