Customer Council Meeting Summary

Customer Council Meeting - 8^th June 2024

Our first in-person meeting of the year took place, at our Nottingham office, Waterfront House, Beeston, with a mixture of residents attending in-person and online. As always, we had a tightly packed agenda to discuss, here is a summary of our key discussions:

CSC Update & G15 Resident Group Update

Lynda, our Head of Customer Voice provided the group with an update on the previous Customer Services Committee meeting, advising that Kush Rawal, Executive Director of Customer Service was in attendance and had all his team in attendance along with him. Lynda also spoke about a key discussion that was had at the Customer Services Committee meeting and that was that there has been a review of the what policies the Customer Services Committee can review, as previously the committee could only review and have customer influence on the complaints policy, however a revised list has now been approved meaning that the committee can now review and oversee compensation policy, anti-social behaviour, customer voice, repairs, recharges, call lettings policy, stair casing policy, and our resales policy.

Pamela, our Customer Council Chair then gave an update on the previous G15 meeting, Pamela advised that at each G15 meeting, CEO’s from housing associations are in attendance to speak about current themes and trends within the housing sector. Pamela also noted that in September, a G15 residents group is launching to help raise the profile of the current G15 group.

Regional Chairs’ update (verbal)

As we currently have a vacancy for a chair on our Midlands Regional Panel, we only had two of our Regional Chairs in attendance at this meeting. Ashley, our North London Regional Panel chair started off the discussion by advising the group that the North London Regional Panel feel that there has been a small positive change in repairs satisfaction, but still noting that they feel there is a long way to go to reach a high satisfaction rate. Megan, our Customer Engagement Co-ordinator, provided a brief update following the Midlands Regional Panel, stating that recruitment is well underway for a new Chair of the Midlands Regional Panel. Finally, Lynda our Head of Customer Voice provided an update for the South and South London Regional Panel and advised two of the Customer Resolution Managers attended this meeting and discussed complaints with the panel.

Back to Basics Discussion: Effective Handling of Complaints

This quarter, all three of our Regional Panels and our Customer Council were asked to discuss the effective handling of complaints at MTVH, and as a result of this were asked the following question: “Have you made a complaint in the last 12 months, and if yes how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your landlord’s approach to complaints handling complaints?” Ashley, our North London Regional Panel Chair shared the results of this discussion from the North London Panel and advised that the panel agreed that MTVH’s complaint handling is okay, but there is lots of room for improvement. George, our South London Regional Panel Chair, shared that his panel pointed out that the MTVH website doesn’t allow a feature to reopen a closed complaint and his panel expressed that they believe this would be a highly beneficial feature for MTVH to implement. Finally, Lynda, our Head of Customer Voice, shared the feedback from the Midlands back-to-basics discussion, and the main theme that the Midlands Regional Panel agreed on was that when logging a complaint, if you are familiar with technology the website is very straightforward, however someone who isn’t familiar with technology may be put off raising a complaint as some of the Midlands Panel members pointed out that the only way that is advertised to raise a complaint is via the website.

Annual Effectiveness Review Update

Earlier in the year, the Customer Council & all three Regional Panels completed the mandatory Annual Effectiveness Review survey. Nisha, our Customer Engagement Manager presented the group with an update of the Annual Effectiveness Review, following on from the completion of the survey. One key point that was shared within this update is that Customer Council members will no longer be paid for meetings that they do not attend. Nisha also pointed out that in the survey it came across that there is a little bit of a disconnect between the Customer Council and the three Regional Panels, and there seems to be a little confusion as from each group as to what each group is doing. Nisha concluded this presentation by advising that the Customer Voice Team are currently looking at the training offer for the involved residents, and more details are to come with this within the coming months.

Customer Experience Strategy Update

Serena, our new Director of Customer Experience joined us for this meeting and provided the Customer Council with an update on the progress of our Customer Experience Strategy. Serena advised that the reason we are creating a strategy is to ensure that all MTVH colleagues are held accountable for our customers feelings and experiences. Serena shared with the group that we have currently reviewed over 6000 customer data points, and we have surveyed customers specifically asking what MTVH do well and what MTVH could improve on. Serena also advised that a survey was carried out for colleagues of MTVH, asking them what they feel the organisation could improve on. Serena advised that the next steps for the strategy include Serena attending the board strategy day and the Customer Services Committee meeting and all the feedback from these meetings will be collated and a draft strategy will be formed.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review Final Update 2023/24 & longlist discussion for 2024/25

Megan, our Customer Engagement Co-ordinator presented a final update on this years CLS cycle, advising that all three reviews have now been completed and that the final CLS report is in the finishing stages. Megan also asked the group to think about any topics they would like to see scrutinised in the coming year and urged the Customer Council to send through any suggestions to the Customer Voice Team.

Mendip & Penine House, Edmonton

Kate Gibson, our Project Director, spoke with the group about the current progress herself and the team have been making with Mendip & Penine House in Edmonton, North London. Kate advised the group that a structural survey was carried out at Mendip & Penine house and it was reflected in these surveys that Mendip & Penine house are currently not fit for purpose, Kate and the team are working to ensure that residents who are currently residing in Mendip & Penine house are relocated to an area that they feel comfortable in. Kate advised herself and the team have until September 2026 to relocate everyone, and the Customer Voice Team will ensure to keep the Customer Council updated on the progress of this project.

Chief Executive Update

Lynda, our Head of Customer Voice, updated the group on the recruitment of our new CEO, advising the group that MTVH have successfully appointed Mel Barrett as the new CEO of MTVH, with Mel due to start Autumn 2024. Two of the Customer Council members present at this meeting got the opportunity to interview Mel and both of these residents had great things to say about him.

A look at the year ahead: Customer Council

Finally, our last item on our agenda was for the Customer Council to discuss what they want to achieve in the year ahead. A key discussion point from this topic was that the group feel as though it would be beneficial if the group could have updates on if the actions have been implemented and how far along the actions are, as this would demonstrate the Customer Councils effectiveness. Lynda also mentioned to the group about the new consultation that is going to be sent out to residents in the coming weeks, which is STAIRs, Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements, and this looks at residents being able to access their social housing landlords information more broadly.

Customer Council Meeting – 22^nd February 2024

Our first Customer Council meeting of the new year and final one of the financial year took place online via teams, we had a tightly packed agenda to talk through, here is a summary of some of the key discussions had:

Update from Customer Service Committee

Pamela, our Customer Council Chair, provided an update to the Council about what had been discussed at the recent Customer Service Committee Meeting which Pamela attended. Pamela shared with the group that key discussion points from the recent Customer Service Committee meeting were regarding disability awareness, building safety, communication, communal repairs, and compliance testing.

Regional Chairs’ Update

All three of our Regional Chairs provided the Customer Council with an update regarding what was discussed at their most recent Regional Panel meetings. The Chair of the South London Regional Panel started off this update by advising the group that at their most recent panel meeting there was an update on the progress of our new CRM system. The Chair of the South London Regional Panel also advised that there were discussions around communal repairs and how these are logged with MTVH. At the North London Regional Panel, the Regional Repairs Manager attended and discussed the obstacles in completing repairs and explained the potential reasons for the drop in repairs completed first time. In our Midlands region, the Chair advised that the last Regional Panel meeting went very well and there was lots of positive discussions had during the meeting.

Back to Basics Discussion: Helpful & Respectful Engagement

This quarter, all the Regional Panels and our Customer Council members were asked to discuss the topic “Helpful & Respectful Engagement” from the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard. The feedback from this discussion will be collated and shared by the Customer Council Chair to the Customer Services Committee to highlight areas of satisfaction and concern for residents across the organisation. Key themes across all areas related to an improvement in communication from MTVH, difficulties in delivering usual service due to the roll out of CRM, and the attitude of contractors carrying out works towards MTVH residents.

Sharing Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) Outcomes Update

Our Head of Customer Voice, Lynda shared a presentation with the group explaining what gets done with the back-to-basics responses from the Customer Council & Regional Panel meetings and actions following on from this. Lynda advised the group that there is a process underway to quality check repairs once deemed completed. Lynda also presented to the group the new ‘no access card’ which was an action taken from the previous back to basics cycle. The ‘no access card’ will be posted through property doors when contractors are unable to gain access to the property. Lynda also advised that a toolbox talk is being developed in order to improve disability awareness for contractors.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review update

Our Customer Engagement Manager, Nisha updated the Customer Council on the current work across our three regions to complete three collaborative scrutiny reviews. Nisha advised that the first review, which was centred around the ending of the Axis contract was very interesting and a lot of recommendations that came out of this review were already in the pipeline to be implemented at MTVH. The second review was centred around colleague induction at MTVH and Nisha advised that an online session was held where the scrutiny group looked at the documentation that is sent out to new starters of MTVH. This scrutiny group also attended an in-person colleague induction, and the group provided us with feedback and recommendations following this. Nisha concluded with the final review that was yet to take place, which is taking place at MTVH’s Chalkhill estate where participants will be doing a walk around of the estate with the Contracting Estate Manager and Housing Operations Manager and will be discussing what good looks like. Nisha also updated the group on the progress of the Service Charge Collaboration Group and advised that their first meeting took place in January and the most recent letter relating to management fee’s were influenced and reviewed by the Service Charge Collaboration Group.

The next meeting of the Customer Council will take place in Nottingham, on 8^th June.

For our last meeting of 2023, the Customer Council met at The Johnson Building, Farringdon on 18^th November with members attending either in-person or online. This was a planned meeting with a busy agenda and the following topics were discussed:

Chair’s update including update from CSC (verbal)

Our Customer Council Chair provided the Customer Council with an update regarding what had been discussed at the most recent Customer Services Committee (CSC) meeting. The Chair informed the group that at CSC the back-to-basics framework was discussed and that the back-to-basics information was well received by CSC. It was agreed in this meeting that the feedback following on from this back-to-basics cycle will be shared with Customer Council members in due course.

Customer Services Update

The Executive Director of Customer Service at MTVH gave the Customer Council members an update of what has been going on behind the scenes at MTVH, including the recent Customer Services restructure and the current vacancies across

Regional Chairs’ Update

All three of our Regional Chairs provided the Customer Council with an update regarding what was discussed at their most recent Regional Panel meetings. The Chair of the North London Regional Panel advised the group that the North London panel is now full, following a successful recruitment drive. There was also discussions around building safety and security within apartment blocks. In our Midlands Region, the panel is now also full, following another successful recruitment drive. There was also a discussion held regarding building safety and workmen from MTVH having awareness regarding residents with disabilities. Our South Region have one vacancy on the panel left to fill yet still having a very successful recruitment drive.

Back to basics discussion – building safety

This quarter, all the Regional Panels and our Customer Council members were asked to discuss the topic “How satisfied or dissatisfied are you that MTVH provide a home that is safe?” from the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard. This feedback from this discussion will be collated and shared by the Customer Council Chair to the Customer Services Committee to highlight areas of satisfaction and concern for residents across the organisation. Key themes across all areas related to contractor awareness, communal area maintenance and repairs communication with MTVH.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review update

The Customer Engagement Manager updated the Customer Council on the current work across our three regions to complete three collaborative scrutiny reviews, with residents and MTVH colleagues attending. The topics selected for this scrutiny review were selected by our Customer Council members in September and these topics are: Lessons learnt - The end of a maintenance contract, MTVH Colleague Induction and The role of estate inspectors and how we would like to see this role implemented. The recommendations from these reviews will be shared at the June Customer Council meeting with the Customer Council members.

Looking ahead to 2024 – What do the Customer Council want to achieve

Finally, at the end of the meeting, the Council discussed collectively what the Customer Council would like to achieve in 2024. The key themes that came out of this discussion were that the Customer Council would like to look at how MTVH communicates with residents, the Customer Council also agreed that it would be beneficial to look at what the Customer Councils shared vision and end goal is. The Chairs of our three Regional Panels also discussed potentially extending the times of their Regional Panels as they have recently identified that the slot they currently have is not long enough to have productive discussions.

Our mid-summer meeting of the Customer Council took place online on the evening of Tuesday, 15th August. This meeting was the first to follow the customer developed "back to basics" format with topics selected by the Customer Council members for discussion and at least 50% of the agenda kept free for open conversation and feedback to MTVH colleagues. This meeting also introduced a new approach to recording actions agreed at meetings, our "you said, we did, you felt" log, which will capture not just the actions from meetings but what has been done and whether or not Council members are satisfied with the response.

Feedback following CRM customer information session

At the start of the meeting, Council members shared their feedback about the recent online information session for members of the Regional Panels and Customer Council about the new CRM (customer relationship management) system being introduced to MTVH from October this year. Members reported that they found the session informative and were happy with the approach taken but did ask that future sessions consider having various speakers and sharing the slides in advance for customers to read. A future information session about MTVH online services is planned and will take into account the feedback from the Council members.

Chair's update from Customer Services Committee

Pamela, our Customer Council Chair, provided an update to the Council about what had been discussed at the recent Customer Services Committee meeting which Pamela attended. The Committee approved the newly published Residents' Annual Report which members of the Customer Council, Regional Panels and Residents' Associations had helped to form.

Updates from Regional Panel meetings

Each of our Regional Panel Chairs shared a brief update of what had been discussed at their recent Regional Panel meetings. In our North Regional Panel, a Chair from a local Residents' Association attended the meeting to advise the Panel members about what the Association does in the local community and to share feedback to the Panel members. The Chair of the Midlands Regional Panel advise the Council that work had been underway in his region too to encourage the formation of Residents' Associations with 3 groups formed in recent months.

Back to Basics quarterly discussion

This quarter, all Regional Panels and Customer Council were asked to discuss the topic "keeping homes in good repair" from the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard. The feedback from this discussion will be collated and shared by the Customer Council Chair to the Customer Services Committee to highlight areas of concern and satisfaction for residents across the organisation. Key themes across all areas related to communication of repairs and variety in contractor performance.

Following on from the discussions the Customer Council have asked for an overview of the process MTVH follow when there is a serious event such as a power cut or water supply issue that affects residents for a significant period of time. The Head of Customer Voice will be sharing this with the Council members before the next meeting.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews (CLS)

The Customer Council voted on topics for the next cycle of CLS during June and at the meeting they were shown the long list of topics suggested. The Council will now vote on the top three topics for review during August with the first CLS review of this cycle beginning in October.

The next Customer Council meeting will take place in London on Saturday 18th November 2023.

The first Customer Council meeting of the new financial year was a busy one. We have had a new Chair join us, Pamela, who has worked with the Chairs of our three Regional Panels to develop a new approach that will link all of our customer groups together while still keeping the local focus in our Regional Panels and the national focus within the Customer Council.

Back to Basics

During March this year, all members of the Customer Council and Regional Panels completed the involved customer annual effectiveness review. This review helps our Chairs and Customer Voice team to understand what's working well and what needs to be done differently to enable our customer groups to be effective in representing the voice of MTVH residents. The review identified that lots of good work had been completed in the past 12 months but that the Regional Panels and Customer Council felt that they weren't joined up and wanted to find a way of working together more effectively, to really amplify customer voices across MTVH. The Back to Basics approach was designed by the Chairs of each customer group and will see customers in each region and on the Customer Council discuss a particular topic each quarter. The feedback from each Regional Panel will be shared with the Customer Council and then the combined feedback from all groups will be shared by the Customer Council Chair with the Customer Services Committee, a sub-committee of the MTVH Board. The Customer Council will vote on the topics that can be discussed as part of this approach during June.

Back to Basics also means a change in approach to how our customer group meetings are run. From next quarter, all agendas will have a 50:50 focus, 50% of the time for presentations or engagement on MTVH topics, 50% for open discussion with group members sharing their views and experiences. We are all really looking forward to seeing the new approach in action and hearing the feedback on the first discussion topic in the months.

Update from Geeta Nanda, CEO

The Customer Council heard from Geeta Nanda, MTVH CEO, during the meeting. Geeta shared her thoughts on the importance of the Council and Regional Panels and how these groups had impacted decisions within MTVH such as our submission to the Department for Levelling Up Homes and Communities about the Social Housing Rent Cap consultation and Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard consultation, both of which contained direct feedback from our Customer Council members. Geeta also praised the Customer Council and Regional Panel members for their contribution to the development of and participation in our new approach to scrutiny, Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews, and highlighted some of the recommendations she has seen coming through from these reviews.

A member of the Customer Council asked Geeta what one things she would want to see being done at MTVH to improve customer experience with our services. Her reply was well received - for all MTVH colleagues to work on keeping our customers informed, even when there is no new information, just remember to keep communicating. All colleagues have been shared this answer and there is a lot of work taking place to make sure that communication with our customers is improved.

Update from Kush Rawal, Executive Director of Customer Services

Kush joined the Customer Council meeting and provided an update on an internal project that Council members had previously been involved in, the Right Side Up project. This project aimed to enable our Local Housing Managers and front-line colleagues to be more visible and contactable by customers. Kush shared the milestones that had been achieved in the project including the delivery of the Customer Hub, our team that respond to housing related phone calls, emails and digital contacts, allowing our Local Housing Managers to have more time to spend with customers in their areas. There has been a big increase in demand for these services with the Customer Hub receiving 15,000 calls and 4,500 emails in May alone.

The Council were told that there is more work to do within the Right Side Up project and that the project will continue to evolve as the needs of our residents change. Kush shared information about the work our Assessment and Support and Empowering Futures teams have delivered to support residents since the Right Side Up project was implemented. These include helping nearly 2,000 residents in financial hardship in the past year and ensuring residents had access to warm spaces during the winter.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review Progress

Finally, Nisha Aslam, our Customer Engagement Lead, shared an update with the Customer Council about the progress of our Continuous Learning Scrutiny (CLS) Review cycle. The first cycle of the CLS reviews is nearing completion with the recommended actions being confirmed at the moment. Our next cycle of CLS reviews is now beginning and the Customer Council are currently voting on which topics should be scrutinised this coming year. There's more information about our Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review process here.

Our next meeting is due to take place online on 15th August however this date may be subject to change based on Council member availability.

Our first Customer Council meeting of the new year and the final one of the financial year took place online via Teams. We had a jam-packed agenda to talk through as always. Here is a summary of some of the discussions had:

Update from Customer Service Committee

The Chair of the Customer Council is also a member of our Customer Service Committee, a sub-committee of the MTVH Board. The Chair advised the Council members about what had been discussed at a recent meeting of the CSC including an update on the Customer Experience Strategy and ongoing work to make sure that the response to any damp and mould reported by customers in their homes is effective.

Regional Panel Updates

Each of the Regional Panel Chairs provided an update about what has been discussed in their regional meetings. In the South Region there had been positive discussions following a presentation from the regional Head of Housing about work underway to respond to anti-social behaviour. Discussions were also held with regional repairs colleagues about how they are responding to customers with concerns about damp and mould in their homes and about the impact of the cost of living increases on local residents. In our Midlands Region the Panel met with the Regional Director of Housing and had a general discussion about customer experience in the region, discussing works underway and how these will positively impact local residents. Our North Region met with their regional Head of Housing and regional repairs leads as well as the MTVH Lettings Operations Manager to talk about a new approach to mutual exchanges which will allow residents to follow their mutual exchange through an online system.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews

Our Customer Engagement Lead, Nisha, updated the Customer Council on the work underway across our three regions to complete three collaborative scrutiny reviews with residents and colleagues. Each of the three topics were selected by our Customer Council in September and the results and recommendations from the reviews will be shared with the Council at our next meeting in June.

Customer Voice Framework Progress

Finally, Lynda, our Head of Customer Voice, give an update to the Customer Council about progress so far on the Customer Voice Framework delivery plan. All actions outlined in the Framework are now underway and as priorities for customers are changing, some additional activities are being undertaken. A highlight of the update was about the work being done to increase the number of customers we hear from through a series of listening activities that are in progress at the moment. Some of the listening activities being completed are hearing from customers who have never been involved in MTVH customer engagement before and are working on improving our lettings experience, our new mutual exchange system and supporting our residents who experience domestic abuse. There will be many more opportunities to take part in a listening activity in the future and for customers who are interested in this, they can email yourvoice@MTVH.co.uk to find out more and register their interest in taking part.

The next meeting of the Customer Council will take place, in person in Nottingham, on 3rd June.

November's Customer Council meeting was held online via Teams. There were two meetings of the Council held in November with an additional meeting taking place on 9th November via Teams with colleagues from our Insight team. This additional meeting was to allow members to ask questions about how we measure customer satisfaction at MTVH as a formal discussion about this took place in our planned meeting on 19th November.

As always, there was a full agenda for meeting and here is a summary of some of the items discussed:

Update from Customer Service Committee

The Chair of the Customer Service Committee (CSC) attended the Customer Council meeting and provided an update with the Ahunna, our Customer Council Chair, about what the CSC has been focusing on. This included information about how we respond to damp and mould reports in customers' homes and how feedback from customers through surveys, complaints and customer groups was being brought to the CSC to help them make decisions about MTVH services.

Regional Panel Updates

Each of the Chairs of our three Regional Panels provided an update from their regions. The Midlands Region had recently heard from the Head of Customer Accounts and Lettings about the work of her team to improve support for residents receiving Universal Credit. This region had also heard from the Specialist Complaints Lead about new training for MTVH colleagues to assist with complaint handling. In our North London Region, the Chair shared that she had provided a response to the Social Housing Rents Consultation which had been discussed at September's meeting and that her region had heard from their regional Complaints Lead about how her team is learning from customer feedback through complaints. In the South London Region a discussion had been had about the effects of anti-social behaviour on local residents with the Regional Director taking this feedback forward to engage with local community partners. There was also a discussion about the mutual exchange procedure with the Lettings Operations Manager.

All three Regional Panels also discussed the upcoming Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews taking place across the three MTVH regions in the next 3 months.

Monitoring MTVH Performance

Following on from our additional meeting on 9th November, the Customer Council considered options for how they can monitor MTVH performance on customer-centred services. The Council discussed the options and agreed to vote on their preferred option during December. The result of this poll will be shared at the next meeting in February.

Customer Voice Framework Progress
Lynda Davis, Head of Customer Voice, shared an update with the Customer Council about progress so far on the Customer Voice Framework. There are 11 actions within the Framework and 10 of these are already underway. The YourVoice@MTVH online platform is one of these actions.

Our Customer Council met at the Clapham Park Cube Community Centre on 24th September with members attending the meeting either in person or online. This was a planned meeting of the Council with a full agenda of items to be discussed:

Updates from Customer Service Committee, Regional Panels and Service Charge Group

The Council were given an update from the Chair about the recent meeting of the Customer Services Committee which is a sub-committee of the MTVH Board focused on delivery of services to our residents. Each of the Regional Panel Chairs also gave an update to the Council about their recent Panel meetings.

Reporting on how we are doing

A discussion was had about a new format for presenting performance information to the Council. This format had been developed through discussions with each of the Regional Panel Chairs during the summer months and focused on providing clearer information about key indicators of performance such as overall resident satisfaction. It was agreed that more information needed to be provided to the Council members about how customer satisfaction is measured. This will be presented at our next meeting in November.

Choosing topics for Continuous Learning Reviews

The Customer Council discussed a number of topics that could be reviewed as part of our continuous learning review programme. A survey of Council members will be completed in October to decide which three topics will be reviewed this financial year.

Customer Voice Framework progress

Lynda Davis, Head of Customer Voice, and her team gave the Council and update on their progress in delivering the Customer Voice Framework. This included a demonstration of the YourVoice customer platform and an update about knowledge sessions planned for engaged customers in October and November.

Social housing rents consultation

Jahanara Rajkoomar, Director of Community Investment, presented an overview of the current Social Housing Rents Consultation which is being completed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. This consultation is open to all social housing providers and tenants for response until 12/10/22 and more information can be found here. A representative from the Customer Council has agreed to format a response to the consultation on behalf of the Customer Council.