Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Civic Hall, Leeds, LS1 1UR. View directions

Contact: Ian Parr 0113 3783330  Email: Ian.Parr@leeds.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

60.

Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

1  To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

 

2  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

 

3  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

 

RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:

 

   No exempt items have been identified.

Minutes:

None.

61.

Late Items

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.

 

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes.)

Minutes:

None.

62.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Stanley Burton (SBu), Peter Middleton

63.

Minutes -

To confirm as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held on 16th April 2021

Minutes:

RESOLVED – The minutes of the previous meeting held on 16th April 2021 were passed as a true record.

64.

Chair's Update

To receive an update from the Chair on scrutiny activity, not specifically included on this agenda, since the previous Board meeting.

Minutes:

JG updated the board that due to the recent local elections the next meeting of the Housing, Environment, and Communities board will take place in July. JG as Chair of the TSB has been invited to attend future meetings.

JG informed board members that Councillor Coupar will move within the council to a new portfolio to be Executive Member for Resources. JG expressed his thanks on behalf of himself and the board for the support Councillor Coupar has always given to the Tenant Scrutiny Board. Councillor Mary Harland will take over Councillor Coupar’s role as Executive Member for Communities. Councillor Mohammed Rafique will now become Executive member for Environment and Housing. The Tenant Scrutiny Board look forward to working with the new Executive Members.

 

JG had meeting on the 15/05/2021 with Mandy Sawyer, Ian Montgomery and Andrea Purdy (Chair of VITAL). MS and IM provided an update regarding the present and future of the Tenant Engagement service. A Zoom meeting will be held on the 14th June to convey that same information to all involved tenants including TSB members. The involved tenants of the citywide forums will receive a call from Ian Montgomery’s team regarding this meeting, which the Chair encourages all members to attend if possible.

 

65.

Stage 1 findings - Key themes and content for inclusion in stage 1 report.

Inc;

Wider Tenant Engagement

User Centred Design

Your Voice Leeds

Ways of working during Covid

Minutes:

JG noted that this is the first time that recommendations for a review would be discussed within the context of a meeting so could be a positive experience to take forward to future reviews.

 

TSB recapped the content of the previous meetings comprising stage 1, and the importance of capturing the positive and/or negative feelings of the board for each topic discussed.

 

The meeting of the 25th September covered a broad range of engagement offers from other housing providers around the country and invited opinions from the present members. The online question and answer sessions were met with agreement according to the September meeting minutes, but questions were raised regarding the context of such sessions. YD clarified there does not necessarily need to be a context as the meetings can be an open forum or may have a pre-designated topic to cover. JG asked what the appropriate equivalent council officer level would be to attend the session, YD answered that officers of Mandy Sawyer’s level and area housing managers would be similar to positions held within existing housing suppliers that run these sessions. Board members agreed these sessions would be useful if carried out by Leeds City Council.

 

Online tenant forums are utilised by other housing suppliers to varying levels of success, and since the September meeting ‘Your Voice Leeds’ has begun to expand to perform a similar role. Board members agreed that Your Voice Leeds has the potential to be similar but does not yet fulfil that purpose, with RI adding that improvements are needed across the platform before it could be considered successful as an online forum. Regarding single-issue discussion groups – where residents are consulted on topics based upon their interests for example issues within a single area or a specific type of repair – Board members were in agreement that Your Voice Leeds currently performs this function to an extent when there are projects in a geographic area of Leeds, however it does not target non-local issues in the same way.

 

Regarding incentivising input, board members were in agreement that it would positively affect the number of people seeking to get involved, but concerns were raised that it would attract people for the wrong reasons and that a balance is needed if it is going to be implemented successfully.

 

There has already been some cross-boundary work for the TSB in their joint meetings with Gateshead ALMO which at the time of the present meeting would have become a part of the council. Recounting the experience the board agreed that as well as larger scale sharing of ideas is also possible to work on specific issues with other authorities and to look at each other’s individual services and that the experience with Gateshead had been positive and would like to try it again if possible.

 

User-centred design has already been implemented by the Council to improve some of their services, which Ian Montgomery covered in one of his presentations. User-centred design is a broad descriptor and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

66.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

1.00pm Friday 18th June 2021, via Zoom

 

Minutes:

The next zoom meeting is scheduled for Friday 18th of June at 12:45 for a 1.00pm start