You can get involved in lots of ways, here’s a selection of what we do. If you want to get involved speak to your NRO or download, complete and return the getting involved leaflet on the right.
1 Customer satisfaction surveys
Local or group-wide surveys to get your opinions on how you think we are doing on general or specific topics.
2 Block/scheme/street reps
Someone who is nominated by their neighbours to be the block, scheme or street representative and act as the link between the neighbourhood and us.
Useful for telling us about the issues in your area without having to set up and maintain a residents’ group or residents’ association. Reps help to pass on other residents’ views in a structured way.
3 Walkabouts
Staff, residents and agencies walk around the area to see and record what is going on, highlight any issues and offer possible solutions.
Useful for seeing at first hand what the issues are and how they could be tackled.
4 New tenant sign-up visits
A tenant and/or member of staff visit new residents to welcome them to the neighbourhood and its facilities.
Useful for identifying how residents may want to be involved in the future and to check they have everything they need.
5 Customer Inspectorate
Residents are trained to test out existing services, such as lettings or repairs, to help us find out where we need to improve our services.
Useful for measuring our performance against the set customer service standards we promise to deliver.
6 Video diaries
Residents identify ‘hotspot’ areas of concern on camera/video.
Useful for gaining views in non-verbal formats.
7 Scrutiny Panels
Harvest has Scrutiny Panels throughout the Group and customer panel members meet on a regular basis to review and monitor performance. Scrutiny Panels also undertake scrutiny of service delivery areas and can make suggestions and recommendations to Board on potential service improvements.
8 Focus groups
Where a small group of people meet on a ‘one-off’ basis to focus on a specific topic.
Useful for getting together with staff to discuss your views about a specific topic.
9 Working group
A group of residents who meet staff to make sure a project or piece of work is improved by residents’ opinions.
Useful for enabling you to get involved through regular commitment to a project.
10 One-off consultations
We hold one-off consultations on big issues like lettings policy or repairs that apply to everyone. We usually hold several different sessions with customers from across the Group.
Useful for making sure we get a broad range of views from our customers across the Group.
11 The LINK and other local newsletters
These are produced and sent to all tenants. They include neighbourhood news with features from your area. You can get involved by joining the Access and Customer Care Panel or sending in your ideas for features or stories to: TheLink@harvesthousing.org.uk or to your local NRO.
Useful for sharing your stories, news and ideas or to ask us about specific topics.
12 Resident open days and local information days
We ask you for your views and opinions as part of a fun activity day.
Useful for giving us feedback in an informal setting.
13 Open discussions
We hold open and informal discussions between residents and staff on a particular topic.
14 Housing surgeries
Where we give a standard time, date and venue for you to come and talk to us on a one-to-one basis.
15 Estate agreements
Where the residents, agencies and staff agree on a formal set of standards for their neighbourhood and regularly monitor the services based on them.
Useful for setting minimum standards that residents and local services in the neighbourhood aim to work towards.
16 Annual scheme inspection forms
Joint annual inspection of the neighbourhood by residents, staff and relevant agencies.
Useful for seeing at first hand, once a year, what the issues are and what we could do about them.
17 Kids committees and youth forums
Where young people can meet formally or informally to suggest areas for improvement.
Useful for getting young people’s views of our services and how to improve them.
18 Tenants’ Open Day
Where tenants can meet staff from different areas of the Group, such as Community Safety, Harvest Response, Manchester & District, Derwent & Solway, and Frontis, and can learn more about us and our services.
Useful for promoting our services and getting direct customer feedback on areas for service improvement.
19 Mentoring/shadowing
Where residents can shadow or work with staff or other residents (or both) on a specific project, meeting or neighbourhood initiative.
Useful for introducing residents to new projects or ways to get involved. Residents can also work with each other to share experiences and learn from their good practice.
20 Customer involvement panels
Customer involvement panels enable tenants and managers to discuss issues that affect all tenants in a particular area, such as spending priorities, our policies and performance.
Useful for tenants influencing and advising managers on what needs to be done differently in our neighbourhoods or services.
21 Access and Customer Care panel
Attending a panel or focus group to discuss methods of communicating with residents, customer care and service standards. This could mean reviewing and improving our services, brochures, leaflets, website or handbooks. Or it could mean being part of a reading panel (in person or by post or email) to make sure our communication is clear and tells tenants what they need to know.
Useful for working with us to create useful, interesting and user-friendly information.
22 Homeowners Forum
An opportunity for leaseholders and homeowners to contribute to, influence and be consulted on policy, standards and service delivery across our leasehold services.
Useful for ensuring leaseholders’ views influence the future development of their service.
23 Continuous improvement groups
Every year we will have a number of groups looking at specific areas that you have told us are important to you. Each continuous improvement group looks at one area or service, reviews how well we are doing and recommends ways it could be improved.
Useful for getting direct customer input into recommended areas for improvement.
24 Estate management committees
Residents are members of formal estate management committees with a set role for chair, secretary, treasurer etc.
Useful for residents who want to set up a more formal structure for resident involvement.
25 Management boards
We have several tenants on our boards of management but we are always on the look-out for more recruits. We provide full training and support to people who want to do this, and tenants who have taken part often find it very rewarding.
Useful for ensuring there is always a direct customer input at the management board level.
26 Residents’ associations and groups
A residents’ group is informal, while residents’ associations must be constituted with a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Staff can be invited to attend meetings to answer particular queries.
Useful for residents who want to get together to discuss how their estate or neighbourhood is being run. It is a great way for residents on a scheme, estate or neighbourhood to have a collective voice, arrange social events and build community spirit.
27 Tenant management organisations
Residents act as a management organisation with a formal board.
Useful for residents who want to set up a very formal structure for resident involvement, as a standalone organisation in its own right.