Posted 07.01.15
As the Tenant Central programme draws to a close, Project Coordinator Caroline Wolfenden reflects on its many successes.
The Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) received funding to deliver a free tenant training and support programme under the banner of Tenant Central.
The programme started in April 2013 and runs until March 2015. It is designed to inspire tenants to be involved, inform new and existing Tenant Panels about good practice and ways of working and to help existing Tenant Panels improve their approaches to scrutiny and service improvement.
The programme has delivered over 300 learning opportunities in all of the regions across England - including a mix of public and in-house face to face training; accredited training; e learning; scrutiny and involvement lounges, regional events and conferences. Thousands of tenants have gained new skills and experience to assist them in their involvement activity.
We have also provided Tenant Groups with grants to help them manage landlord services and we enrolled Peer Mentors to help us deliver tenant to tenant support.
The website is a valuable source of information which includes 51 good practice case studies and 13 'How to Guides' on a variety of involvement and empowerment topics.
We have received positive feedback about the Tenant Central Programme:
"I would like to thank the trainers at TPAS and Tenant Central for giving me the knowledge and confidence to stand up and challenge and I would encourage tenants to get involved with your training, especially young people."
"The benefits from the training have reached all of our residents as complaint handling has improved and there is enhanced use of customer feedback to help improve and shape service delivery across the organisation."
"We heard about 'Give it a Go Grants' and quickly realised we had a fantastic opportunity to do our own gardening - and effectively get paid for it by having our service charge reduced accordingly."
The Tenant Central programme finishes in March 2015, so we urge tenants and landlords to make the most of the opportunities and resources available before time runs out.
Visit our website for more information at www.tenantcentral.org.uk, or get in touch on 0800 035 6351
