This is my eighth Annual Report. Read and hopefully enjoy!

 

Consultancy

 

RB Kingston

 

I continue to support KRISP, the resident scrutiny panel for RB Kingston. They remain an inspiration, being continually resilient and thoughtful about their role. They have produced reports this year on voids and Anti Social Behaviour.

 

Slough BC

 

Along with my colleague Jane Eyles we supported the recruitment of new involved residents, led a session on shared Vision and Value for tenant involvement, and drew up terms of reference for their new Resident Board.

 

Clarion

 

I provided initial training for the Clarion North London Scrutiny Committee. This allowed them to identify their first topic for review and I helped them with drawing up the scope of that review.

 

Spitafields

 

I did a desktop review providing assurance on compliance with the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard.

 

Cannock DC

 

Following on from my earlier review of tenant engagement I supported the recruitment, induction and training of the Housing Improvement Panel. This included supporting the scoping and drawing together their findings from the review of gas safety.

 

One Housing

 

I supported the recruitment of a Resident Board Member. This involved drawing up an interactive day with candidates taking part in a board discussion involving real board papers. Not only were candidate Board member identified but all involved would be well placed to be involved in the future. I’m grateful to Hilary Milne for her support and contributions to make the day a success.

 

One Manchester

 

This involved scrutiny training for their scrutiny panel, and supporting their current Communications Service Review.

 

LB Croydon

 

I led two interactive training sessions for residents interested in joining LB Croydon’s new Performance Monitoring Group.

 

Non-Executive

 

The Guinness Partnership

 

I’ve been a Board Member of the Guinness Partnership for three years, and now chair the Service and Performance Committee. I also serve on the Remunerations and Nominations Committee. These roles are challenging, insightful and profoundly rewarding.

 

Healthwatch Salford

 

I’ve now been Chair of Healthwatch Salford for the past 4 years. It’s been a pleasure working with Board colleagues, staff and volunteers to ensure that the voice of patients and the public is heard on health and social care issues. We remain well governed, financially stable and increasingly effective. Our work has been centred on Salford but also meant working with fellow Healthwatches in Greater Manchester to ensure our voice is heard at that level too. I’ve been a member of the Greater Manchester Population Health Delivery Board and have just joined the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership Board.

 

Housing Ombudsman

 

Along with my five colleagues I’m pleased to have served a second year on the Panel of Advisors to the Housing Ombudsman. We have regular meetings to discuss issues including corporate planning, business planning and Housing Ombudsman Scheme. We’ve welcomed the new Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway and look forward to the enhanced role of the Ombudsman as set out in the new Scheme. I’ve also done a presentation to Housing Ombudsman staff on my experiences of tenant involvement, scrutiny regulation and compliance. I also attended two joint Ombudsman/HQN sessions on complaints, and repairs.

 

Resident Board Member

 

I joined the Board of Directors of my tower blocks last year. Our blocks have inflammable expended polystyrene (EPS) cladding and I was part of a successful campaign to gain a substantial contribution from the developer of the blocks. Even with this contribution there remains a substantial amount of action before the cladding works can commence. We have just received a First Tier Tribunal allowing us to charge for the cladding works and hope that the works will start later this year, following a Section 20 consultation. I also took part in recruitment of a new Managing Agent.

 

Other

 

Learning from Regulatory Downgrades

 

I published my sixth report and am pleased to see both the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman doing more proactive messaging.

 

Speaking Engagements

 

I chaired a session on Learning from Crisis at the NHF Board Excellence Conference

 

I spoke on the Social Housing Green Paper for an Ark Academy training session.

 

I spoke at the Southwark Homeowners Conference on my report into

 

Judging

 

I was pleased to be a judge for the 2019 Northern Housing Awards.

 

Media

 

I’ve been interviewed on Talk Radio on building safety and issues facing social housing.

 

Running

 

I completed my first half marathon in 2 hours 3 minutes!

 

Acknowledgements

 

Special thanks to my partner Angela for making sure that there are other equally rewarding parts to my life outside of work.

 

Thanks to Jane for working with me and her support.

 

Thanks too to the following without whom none of the above would have happened! Jackie, David, David, Kelly, Raewyn, Sian, Gill, Monique, Geof, Mark, Mo, Jayde, Paul, Aamer, Christine, Earl, Kevin, Mark, Morris, Omer, Sheebaa, Trevor, Rebecca, Matthew, Shah, Sheena, Nirmal, James, Amanda Brian, Sandra, Hilary, Richard, Wendy, Beth, Adam, Bernard, Seth, Mavis, Jitesh, Chris, Vanessa, Katherine, Catriona, John, Neil, Peter, Mandy, Linda, Mike, Samantha, Chris, Chris, Bob, Debbie, Ian, Andrew, Ted, Andrea, Richard, Kevin, Elizabeth, Frank, Sarah, Paul, Delana, Mark, Elyse, Jackie, J, Sam, Kate, David, Peter, Andy, Jo, Marilyn, Neil, Ian and Dave.