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We're about listening

Mid Involvement Activities

Irlam Residents
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Join a Local Area Panel

Local Area Panels monitor local performance, develop strategies, allocate local budgets and contribute to service improvements. Meetings are held every two months, and you’ll need lots of enthusiasm, passion and dedication towards improving your local area. Find out more about what's involved.

Join a Service Excellence Group.

There are 12 Service Excellence Groups which support the delivery of the TSA Standards as well as driving excellence in service provision. Each group is sponsored by a Director and Head of Service, has a Chair and Vice Chair and has customer representation.

Become a Customer Inspector

City West Customer Inspectors are here on your behalf to make sure we maintain high standards and keep our promises to you. They test the quality of our services through a variety of real inspections and ‘mystery shopping’.

Customer Inspectors can help us by visiting housing offices and reading our publications as well as using our website and telephone service. They are an essential part of improving our service and making sure we meet our Customer Care Charter.

You can see more information about the different exercises we carry out and the improvements made as a result of these performance reports. Our customer magazine ‘Talking Trust’ can also keep up to date on our progress.

Tenants and Residents Associations

If you’d like to stand up and have your opinion counted maybe the Tenants and Residents Associations (TRAs) are for you. These groups comprise local volunteers from a defined area, like a housing estate, tower block or sheltered housing scheme. Groups formally recognised and supported by City West are open to all residents. 

In response to your comments we have sought to review the current TRA grant process. We have looked at current policy and compared with best practice in other housing associations to make the following changes. Please note these will be slightly amended following the recent TRA networking meeting. If you have any comments please contact your Customer Advisor by 10 February.

  • The TRA grant is now related to the work levels of the TRA. In the application form you will be given the chance to summarise your activities against key areas of work. This is opposed to the number of properties in a TRAs area as previously used which was agreed by all to be an inappropriate method.
  • Before a TRA can have their health check they must now get their accounts independently audited ready for the health check.
  • Only groups who have passed their health check are now eligible to apply for grant funding from City west. To aid this there is now clearer guidance for all on the requirements to pass the annual health check in the policy documents. 
  • In 2012 only, City West will do a mop up of all TRA accounts to get them independently audited. This will be done prior to your groups AGM to ensure they are spread throughout the year. For this year only the accounts audit will be separate from the Health check.
  • Groups can now apply for a maximum of £500 each financial year and those with premises can now apply for up to a maximum of £1000 each financial year. 
  • The application form will provide opportunity for TRAs to list the breakdown of how their grant will contribute to their running costs as detailed in the breakdown table. The group should work out the total running costs for a year against each item and then ask for a contribution towards these costs.
  • The group must spend the funds on what is stated in the application form and the activities stated in the form must also be delivered.
  • To monitor this a mid year progress report must be submitted to your CA on your progress to meeting the health check criteria as well as how your grant is being spent and what activities have been and will be delivered. This is also your opportunity to request any additional support, training and assistance with your TRA and grant spend.
  • Introduction of a Funding Agreement to ensure all parties understand the need to spend the grants on the costs specified.
  • Receipts will be requested during the Health check process for the grant spend. Your CA can advise you on the best way to do this.
  • The changes bring our grant process more inline with external funding applications. With more emphasis placed on what the group will deliver and how, on proper book keeping, on reporting on progress, gathering evidence and signing an agreement that ensures the grant is spent on what the application form stated.
The finalised grant process will be circulated to all groups
 

 

Join our Operations Group

This group reviews, challenges and makes recommendations on City West's operational performance and also acts upon the work of our Customer Inspectors. The group is made up of representatives from our Local Area Panels and other representative bodies.

Group members need to have an interest in what we do and be willing to work in a group environment with other like-minded customers. The group is made up of volunteers whose unique perspective on what we do is highly valued. To join this group you must be a member of a Local Area Panel.