What is scrutiny?
Scrutiny aims to give tenants and Retirement Living leaseholders more power in holding their landlord to account for their decisions, performance and conduct. We have a Scrutiny panel that have had training to support them to deliver this function. They will look at different elements of our service in detail to identify what works well and where improvements can be made. Our last project was in 2019/20 but we hope once the situation improves with Covid 19 that we can carry out further projects with our Scrutiny group.
If you would like to become involved in Scrutiny or would like to know more please email our Tenant Involvement Team: tenant.participation@wealden.gov.uk
The Role of the Retirement Court Manager
In 2019/20 the Housing Scrutiny Panel carried out a review on the role of the Retirement Living Court Managers. This project included interviewing members of the Retirement Living Team, shadowing Court Managers, and conducting surveys and interviews with Retirement Living tenants about the service.
Overall, residents reported that they were happy with the service provided by the Retirement Living Team and that they felt reassured by the Manager’s presence and being able to contact them during working hours, even during lockdown. Residents also said that their Court Managers had an ‘open-door’ policy and were pro-active in raising and following up repairs.
Tenants reported that before the COVID-19 restrictions the Court Managers supported a variety of social events and activities to take place. However, some residents said that they would like more support for activities and formation of Resident’s Groups in their Court. The Scrutiny Panel agreed with this and have also recommend a pilot project to investigate if Court Managers could support other vulnerable people within the local community.
As a result of the Scrutiny review, once COVID restrictions are eased the Retirement Living Team will be investigating the need for support in the wider community and how it could be delivered. The Team will also be working with Tenant Involvement staff and Retirement Living residents to support more activities, and develop more Residents Groups within the Courts. We would like to thank the members of the Scrutiny Panel for their time and input into this project.