Engagement and Consultation
Past research found very few examples of almshouse charities that had made progress in developing methods of engagement and consultation with their residents. Here we look at how and why our partner charities have engaged and consulted within their almshouse community, especially with their residents.
Engagement and consultation are influenced by each charity’s history and local context, and may vary depending on their types of housing provision. Examples include staff and trustees working together, attending consultation meetings, engagement sessions and scrutiny groups. There are also examples of consultation and engagement with staff, including formal staff forums which meet regularly with trustee and senior staff attendance, as well as consultation with staff on specific issues.
One partner has a clear process for engaging and consulting on the charity’s vision and values, also using similar methods for developing their 5-year strategies:
“I did a lot of desktop research, but then I brought that to life through meetings with residents, with external stakeholders, with relatives and staff. I did workshops, surveys, questionnaires … [and] really refined what our mission was, going back to our original objectives [and our founder’s] vision”
(Governance 6).
Residents are also involved in staff recruitment, alongside senior staff and trustees:
“Finance is a really good example … [finance staff] need to understand that the services are people-based. Our Head of Finance was recruited … with a big presentation to a group of residents and questions and answers … [Our residents] have all worked or … have an interest, a skill … Two residents were with me on that process: one of them used to be an accountant, so actually they had more knowledge than I did”
(Governance 4).
The same partner has also signed up to the National Housing Federation Tenants Together initiative, see Additional Information below. The role of resident scrutiny panels is to consider changes to policies and procedures. Two partners have scrutiny panels. Both also have links with other charity scrutiny panels in their regions. As the Chair of one partner explained:
“For the scrutiny panel, we had a presentation from them at Board … about complaints and concerns, and they were really active about wanting to actually make differences”
(Governance 7).
Another partner explained that any changes to their policies always had to go to their resident scrutiny panel before going to the Board: a recent example was the need to remove gas fires to meet new regulatory requirements for energy performance. The charity also has a new Board initiative on resident engagement, aiming to do one or two service-level reviews each year. This is linked to their value-for-money strategy, with representation from residents, front-line staff and board members, starting with repairs notification:
“What is the impact on residents, on staff, on quality, on cost? … Could we improve it or is it as good as we think we can make it, as it is? We either get validation that we’re doing the best we can, fine, or we get some improvement out of it”
(Governance 17).
Some partners have consulted residents on specific issues at engagement sessions, such as examples of removing restrictions when updating the resident handbook: this included allowing residents to decorate their homes and other changes:
“We had a trustee with us, and [some residents] couldn’t understand why they didn’t have to write to ask for permission to go offsite, and to put it in writing to us that they were going on holiday for a week. …. Some residents were all for it, but the older generation just couldn’t get past that change”
(Governance 10).
Very few almshouse charities have residents as trustees. One partner has recently appointed a new resident trustee who also brings skills from their previous employment. Another small charity has had resident trustees for many years:
“I’ve been a trustee for two years. I’ve been [resident] here six years. The lady from here who was a trustee, she left [to move into a care home] … I said, ‘I would like to do that’ … I’m a great believer in ‘Live your life to the full‘”
(Governance 21).
