Our Board

Question

Submitted by a resident of Viking Court, Saxon Gardens Estate - to have good community spirit, resident is encouraging other residents to attend the monthly meeting organised by Shoebury Resident Association at Shoeburyness Library where issues related to the area are covered. The meetings are held during working hours, and request that South Essex Homes send a tenancy officer to these meetings and ensure that all repairs duly reported are timely addressed.

Response

Request for a Tenancy Officer to attend the Resident Association meeting - unfortunately only one resident attends the sessions, and it has been explained to the resident that SEH will review attendance and focus our time where there is more resident engagement.

Repairs - the new Customer Improvement Plan (CIP) has been discussed with the resident, and they attended the first CIP meeting, they will be invited to all future meetings.

Other areas where the resident and the estate have been supported by our Resident Engagement Team are:

Support for residents managing noticeboards - the Resident Engagement team have built excellent relations with residents in general needs and sheltered schemes who assist staff with promotion of services, events and activities. In relation to the notice board at the estate the Resident Engagement team and nominated resident continue to keep noticeboards updated and the residents are happy with this arrangement.

Shoebury Youth Centre Community Hub - attendance by residents is low but our Resident Engagement Officer for that area attends every two months but if more residents attend this will be reviewed.

Timely communication was raised as an issue and there is now a shared mailbox for the Resident Engagement team to ensure all correspondence is acknowledged and addressed as soon as possible.

Resident Engagement on the estate - a door knocking exercise was undertaken in March to gather residents' feedback on events and activities, the conclusion of which saw a couple of residents sign up to be part of the Resident Advisory Panel and an Estate Day was held in June at Beaver Tower and Saxon Lodge a further event is to be held in August (which will involve Viking Court residents).

The Resident Engagement team attend established Resident Focus Groups such as Income Management and plans are underway to establish further groups for Estates and Resident Engagement itself.

Question

Do South Essex Homes Board members have regular appraisal?
Are their allowances and expenses made public?

Response

All South Essex Homes’ Board members undertake annual appraisals.
The total remuneration for Board members can be found in the Annual Accounts.

Question

I would be most grateful if you could kindly clarify for me the nature of the relationship between South Essex Homes and Southend Tenants and Residents Federation and how that compares with the other 21 ALMOs and their residents’ relationships. 

Is South Essex Homes currently an active member of Tenant Participation Advisory Service? 

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Response

South Essex Homes has worked in partnership with the Southend Tenants and Residents Federation since the group’s inception.  The Federation was formed originally as an umbrella group representing all of the Residents Associations, Block and Street Voices and Focus Groups made up of residents living in Southend Council’s homes and communities.  SEH has engaged with the Federation as an important forum for consulting with residents over the years, considering matters such as changes to policies but also as a conduit for communication where the Federations wished to raise issues that were affecting residents city-wide.  SEH is aware that there are currently vacancies in the Committee of the Federation and is working with former members to develop new groups and create interest from other residents living in our neighbourhoods.

SEH wrote to the National Federation of ALMOs regarding other ALMOs relationships with residents but there was no information available.

SEH are not currently members of TPAS however this can be reviewed if residents have identified benefits for renewing SEH’ membership.