Current policy debate is increasingly centred on developing ways for citizens to influence the development and direction of public services. Many would argue that housing has been at the forefront of work towards this aim, developing tools that can be used across all public services. TPAS (England), as a membership organisation with 300 social landlords and 1,000 tenant group members, plays an important role in the agenda, delivering training, conferences, seminars, and information services to both landlords and residents.
TPAS (England) grew out of the success of its sister organisation, TPAS Scotland, which was set up in 1981 (there is also a TPAS Wales).
The Duke of Edinburgh's Inquiry into British of 1985 noted the effectiveness of a model which opened a forum for landlords and tenants acting together. The English service was launched in 1988.
The backbone of TPAS's member service is the national information service. The service, which is largely funded by the ODPM, provides a free phone line to members, and maintains an extensive library of tenant and community involvement good practice information. It produces a wide range of popular briefing papers.
The website could probably claim to be one of the most effective sources of information around community involvement, supporting around 123,000 free downloads each year.
In the last couple of years, reacting to clear views from its members, TPAS has worked to raise its policy profile by responding to a broad range of consultation from the ODPM, Home Office, and the Housing Corporation. It is supported in this role by its distinctive governance structure, which brings residents and landlords together through elected regional committees, a National Consultative Forum, and an Executive.
Recognising that a key challenge in community involvement is the engagement of under-represented groups, TPAS was particularly pleased to deliver third party consultation for the Home Office on its Strength in Diversity exercise in September '04. It has been an enthusiastic supporter of Tenant Participation Compacts, and continues to argue strongly that documents that set out clearly negotiated local frameworks for involvement can become the bedrock for community involvement across all sectors.
In recent years, TPAS has particularly focussed on issues around antisocial behaviour and nuisance, recognising, along with government, that this has been an area of clear concern. For many, TPAS is probably best known for its conferences, seminars, and training. It runs a full programme of regional and issue based conferences, and in recent years has delivered the Housing Corporation's Housing Association Residents' Conference. Its Annual Conference, which doubles up each August with the AGM, continues to be the largest resident involvement conference in the country, attracting in excess of 800 delegates. In 2004, TPAS was pleased to work with the International Union of Tenants' Tri-ennial Congress, bringing the rare opportunity for residents and involvement professionals from around the world to share views.
TPAS continues to deliver a part of the national tenant training programme, as well as provide tailored commercial training provision.
TPAS's consultancy arm grew out of 'section 16' TMO and tenant training work. In recent times, it has been a major provider of Independent Tenant Advice work in delivering the Decent Homes Standard.
TPAS has always brought a highly ethical approach to its work, turning down commissions when it was felt that residents would not be fully involved in decision making. It is particularly proud of its work in supporting the roots of regional tenants' organisations – such as FORT SW and the North West Tenants' Forum – and it has been working for a couple of years with TAROE (Tenants and Residents of England), on the development of their business plan.
Other recent highlights have included a project on 'Tenants as Inspectors' of landlords, a CD-Rom of video clips on effective techniques for involvement - which featured both text and audio translation services - and recent research into approaches for resolving disputes between landlords and tenant groups, all of which were funded by ODPM's Innovation into Action fund.
It will come as no surprise that this is a period of considerable change for resident involvement. During a climate of focus on efficiency, central budgets for involvement activity have been under pressure. Ironically, at the same time, Government rhetoric around community involvement has never been greater. TPAS is changing to meet these challenges, and increasingly looks to different sources of funding for work it knows it has to do. For instance, the development of the TPAS website, and the creation of a web information officer post were initially funded by the Lottery.
TPAS members have argued for the need to make a bigger commitment to developing work around under-represented groups, and the Lottery have just supported the recruitment of a specialist Young Persons' Participation Worker.
All of this work is seen in the context of making broader connections across government, the public and private sector, and communities. It has never been possible to think of housing as a service alone, because people don't think of their lives in that way. Increasingly, TPAS recognises that, in order to support residents to have a meaningful say, it has to develop the tools that work for more than just bricks and mortar.
TPAS knows that there is much it can bring to the Active Communities agenda, but it has been a challenge to get away from the tenant/housing tag. TPAS has recently completed a project in partnership with a residents group and the Home Office, which demonstrated that communities, through people acting together, can help to reduce vehicle crime by 50%. This is one example of the changing role of TPAS, and the progress being made.
For further information about TPAS, please visit the website at www.tpas.org.uk, phone us on
0161 868 3500, or write to us:
5th Floor
Trafford House
Chester Road
Manchester
M32 0RS
