Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors T A Bond, R J Frost and N A G Richards.

There were no substitute members appointed.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To confirm the attached Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 25 April 2018 and 16 May 2018.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 25 April 2018 and 16 May 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak does not apply to any items on the agenda.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

The Democratic Services Manager advised that no members of the public had registered to speak on items on the agenda to which the public speaking protocol applied.

There were no decisions taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 2 July 2018in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

There were no items of business.

There were no items of business.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members. Call-Ins are heard by the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee unless it decides to refer the matter to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petitions

       There are no items for consideration.     

There were no items of business.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration.

RESOLVED:   That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration.

Members were asked to email their key questions relating to local health services to the Democratic Services Manager.

RESOLVED:  That the Work Programme be noted.

Representatives from East Kent Housing will attend to answer the key questions set by the committee in respect of East Kent Housing and tenant representation arrangements.

The Committee welcomed the Chief Executive (East Kent Housing), Director of Customer Services (East Kent Housing) and the Chair of the Dover District Tenant Group.

Q1.    How do tenant reps find out and represent the views of tenants?

          The ‘Engaged Tenant’ role meant that tenants were not providing a representative role but rather sharing their experience and knowledge with East Kent Housing (EKH). The Engaged Tenants were not a point of contact for other tenants’ problems and as a consequence, their contact details were not publicised. This change in role was supported by the former tenant representatives.

          There were currently four Engaged Tenants for the Dover District with three more who were in the process of becoming engaged tenants or had expressed an interest in doing so. The maximum number of Engaged Tenants for the Dover District was twelve. For comparison purposes, Canterbury currently only had 5 Engaged Tenants.

          There were no elections for Engaged Tenants and there were no fixed terms of office. This position would be reviewed after 12 months to see how it had operated. EKH had advertised for the position of Engaged Tenant and offered support with training and coaching for successful applicants.  

          The Engaged Tenants were only reimbursed for costs as payments for the role could cause issues with benefits for some potential applicants.

          EKH had a dedicated councillor contact point to ensure that elected members could fulfil their representative role in respect of tenants and also encouraged direct contact from tenants about problems. EKH had adopted a variety of engagement methods to get feedback from tenants.

Q2.    How do tenants know who their reps are, and how to get into contact with them? Or are there no longer tenant representatives as such – or are they subsumed within the Local Groups? Are these up and running – have not been invited to the Aylesham one, for example?

          There was one group for the Dover District with a maximum of 12 tenants on it. However, in addition to this non-members of the group could come and speak at the meetings and EKH tried a number of different methods to engage tenants.

Q3.    I understand there have been there is the issue of resignations from the Area Board; what is happening, and have these people been replaced?

          The Area Board no longer existed.

Q4.    EKH state that “as part of our Customer Access Strategy we set out the range of options that are available for communications with residents this includes face to face, letter, phone, email and through our website. Where residents have expressed a preference we will use that as appropriate” What does the last bit mean?  How are tenants empowered to say they want paper copies of newsletters, etc.?

          The tenant magazine was published twice a year and tenants had the option of getting paper copies if they wished. EKH also communicated with tenants through a number of other methods, including social media.

Q5.    Anecdotally, there seem to be problems with the new heating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.