Change in action: Putting residents first with Sanctuary

Change in action

In December 2023, the National Housing Federation (NHF) and Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) published a joint update on our work on the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR), one year since the independent panel made seven recommendations for the social housing sector.

Our ‘Change in action’ series of case studies highlights best practice so far from housing associations navigating the changes set out in the BSHR. If you have a question about the recommendations, or want to get in touch, please contact us.

At Sanctuary, we know listening to our residents and acting on what they tell us has never been more important. Our corporate strategy states our absolute commitment to put our residents first and make sure that they are the basis of everything we do.

Our scrutiny panel assessed us against the Social Housing White Paper and asked us to build on our solid base by giving residents more of a voice with our Executive Committee and Board. The panel felt this ‘top table’ engagement was particularly important when we’re creating new strategies or thinking about changing service delivery.

When we asked our residents more widely about what’s most important about how we engage, more than 3,000 told us the same.

Shaping our future

We’ve listened and acted. Through our resident engagement strategy, we committed to give our residents many more opportunities. We’ve created a new resident advisory panel to help us develop new strategies and ways of working and have increased the number of residents on our Group Housing Board to four.

We emailed more than 50,000 residents across England and Scotland to ask if they were interested in joining our new advisory panel. Attracting residents from all different backgrounds and experiences was crucial. We made this clear in our recruitment materials, including asking what support we could provide each resident to be a successful panel member – for instance technology or transport to enable participation.

Videos from our Group Chief Executive, Craig Moule, some involved residents and other senior colleagues stressed how important the panel is. Residents told us how useful our videos were where they were unable to read or write or had other communication challenges.

'We emailed more than 50,000 residents across England and Scotland to ask if they were interested in joining our new advisory panel. Attracting residents from all different backgrounds and experiences was crucial.'

Learning from residents’ lived experience

Over 500 incredibly diverse residents expressed interest in joining and we met with about 50 to hear what they would bring. We selected 10 for the new advisory panel and strengthened our scrutiny panel too. It features residents from all walks of life across our services, including residents living in supported housing. We’re also involving many residents who came forward in other activities, including mentoring our senior and operational teams with their lived experience to inspecting our estates or procurement.

A two-day induction was held with the advisory and our scrutiny panels in March. This was to help them understand their role and give them the chance to tell us what they want to achieve and the support they need to succeed.

Engagement with our Group Board is fundamental as it ensures our Board members have direct insight into the lived experiences of our residents. Both panels met our Board personally on day one of their induction and we’ve introduced resident-led estate inspections involving Group Board and Executive Committee members.

The first advisory panel meeting was in May. Members gave us feedback on how we can enhance our engagement locally, views which are now being acted upon by the leaders of those services. The advisory panel has met with Craig and our Chief Financial Officer Ed Lunt as we plan budgets and strategy for next year. The advisory panel provides a welcome resident perspective to help improve our decision-making, while our scrutiny panel focuses on our performance and investigates where they think we should improve.

'Residents asked us for more opportunities to have a seat at our ‘top table’ and we’re involving them more in a range of strategic decisions.'

A seat at the top table

We appointed an independent Chair with a wealth of experience to help both panels succeed. The independent chair has supported the panels’ development, enabling them to elect a Chair of their own, who’ll become a member of our Group Housing Board. Sanctuary’s Learning and Development team is also working with the panels to help them be as effective as possible.

We believe through these panels we’re doing more than ever before to give residents a meaningful say in what matters most to them. Residents asked us for more opportunities to have a seat at our ‘top table’ and we’re involving them more in a range of strategic decisions.

We’re now involving residents in our recruitment and assessment processes for all senior management positions, including at executive level, to ensure they play a pivotal role in the development of our senior leadership.
We look forward to the panels continuing to be a vital part in shaping our future together.

Who to speak to

Charlotte Deshmukh (Programme Manager, Strategic Communications and Campaigns)

020 7067 1039

charlotte.deshmukh@housing.org.uk

@ChrltteDeshmukh