Scrutiny Group

The Scrutiny Group helps us to improve our services. The feedback helps us make sure what we do always helps our customers, leaseholders and residents.

We provide customers the opportunity to scrutinise our services in several different ways:

Deep Dives:

Each year our involved customers will undertake a series of in-depth assessments called deep dives. These are customer-led taking place over several sessions. This includes:

  • Scoping the Review - Determine the key issues and objectives and identify who you need involvement from within the business.
  • Gather & Evaluate the Evidence – Undertake consultations through meetings and workshops. Then consider all the evidence within the context.
  • Report and Make Recommendations – Feedback outcomes and discuss conclusions which have been reached.
  • Monitor – Review if changes are being implemented. 

In 2024, we held Deep Dives on our Empty Homes and Complaints Process where several recommendations were implemented, and these can be viewed on our ‘You Said We Did’ page. You can also view further details of the sessions completed below.

Empty Homes: After receiving a series of complaints about the condition of properties customers were being offered, we decided to review our overall process with customers across the city. We held five initial sessions where we explained the entire empty homes process to customers and then took them on tours of several properties that were either empty (void) or ready to let. During these sessions, we gathered valuable feedback from customers on how we could improve satisfaction. Following this, we hosted a follow-up session to review the lettable standard and adjusted the questions in our customer satisfaction surveys to gain deeper insights. In 2025, we will be able to share the new version of the lettable standard, which has been co-designed with customers.

Complaints: We reviewed our complaints process with customers, which included evaluating our policy and procedures. We asked customers to assess our self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, and to review the outcome letters we send to ensure a consistent tone of voice. Additionally, we organised drop-in sessions across the city to ensure we gather feedback from as many customers as possible about the issues they may be experiencing.

Task and Finish:

We invite customers to come into the business and discussed specific topics which will impact them. We then take the feedback received and look at making changes which will positively impact our customers. In 2024, we held sessions on the following topics:

Policy Reviews:

Where a policy will impact our customers, we will invite our involved customers to a session to discuss the proposed changes. We will then seek recommendations to ensure the policy is customer friendly. In 2024, we completed reviews on the updated Allocations Policy as well as completing sessions on the Repairs and Maintenance Policy and the creation of a Decants Policy.

Benefits of being in the group:

You will:

  • Meet other customers from your communities
  • Help us improve our services for customers
  • Gain new skills and experiences

How to get involved:

If you're interested in getting involved or you'd like more information, please get in touch with the customer engagement team for an informal chat: