Resident Training

At South Essex Homes, we believe it is important to provide opportunities for our residents to get involved in volunteering, education and employment opportunities. This includes upskilling residents to hold us accountable as their social housing landlord, in order to improve the service we provide.

One way this is possible is attending the training courses provided by national training programmes and organisations such as TPAS and Four Million Homes, as detailed below. At the bottom of this page we have also compiled several free training opportunities available to residents.

Four Million Homes

Four Million homes – who are funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – provide free high-quality training for social housing residents who’s goal is to inform and raise awareness of social housing residents' rights.

They offer free training courses and webinars covering topics such as how to protect and promote your rights as a social housing tenant, how you can engage with your social landlord or housing association to support them in decision making, and how to run an effective residents association.

TPAS

TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) is another training provider offering a wide range of sessions available to residents.

Through TPAS you can learn more about government white papers, how Scrutiny works, how to engage with residents of your neighbourhood to support your community and more. Through TPAS you are also able to meet the Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway, and submit questions for him to answer in the live session.

 

One of our residents said...

“I have been on many of these online courses and have found them interesting, informative and enjoyable. I have learnt a great lot and awarded a certificate at the end of most. Some of the courses I have been on include: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Social Housing Legal Requirements, How to run an effective Residents’ Association,  Complaints: Know your rights Anti-Social Behaviour and many more

Every course I have been on has given me more knowledge and encouraged me to be more involved with how we as residents can help SEH to be a better landlord and look after us all as tenants

Following the training courses and focus groups which I attended, I went on to get more and more involved with residents and officers of SEH until I ended up on the board.

I have attended many training courses and have enjoyed them and meeting like-minded residents-I would encourage you to get on these courses.”

 

If you are interested in any of the above, please visit these websites for more information:

Four Million Homes- https://www.fourmillionhomes.org/

TPAS- https://www.tpas.org.uk/tpas-events/training-and-events

Alternatively, if you have any ideas on how South Essex Homes staff can support you with training or there is any training in particular that you would like to see South Essex Homes make available for residents, please do get in touch by contacting residentengagement@seh.southend.gov.uk 

Free Local Training

Below you will find several local training opportunities and links to advice and information regarding a variety of topics from IT assistance, to understanding your rights as a tenant.

If you complete any of the courses listed below please be sure to fill in a feedback form here so that we can continue to tailor our training reccomendations to you, our residents.

Community building and social skills

  • Folk Like Us – SAVS (savs-southend.org) — Take a look at the 3 different ‘hubs’ with various projects and social groups for older residents. 
  • SAVS also have several other groups for building social skills, for new mums etc 
  • Trust Links - mental health support projects in EssexTrust links have several services/projects to boost social skills and wellness, such as befriending for older residents, gardening groups etc as well as social events and fundraisers.

Fire Safety

  • Our Fire Safety Manager at South Essex Homes is able to provide a fire safety session, where he will share fire safety advice with residents. If you are interested in attending a session please tell us using the feedback form below, this will help us to plan how many people would be interested and where the session should be held.
  • Online Training Feedback Form

Understanding your rights and responsibilities as a tenant

You can find furher advice and information below: