Agenda item

Your Voice Leeds - Katie Bell

·  Demonstration of Your Voice Leeds as an online tenant and community engagement tool.

·  To consider using Your Voice Leeds to inform and engage with tenants about the review into tenant engagement

Questions welcomed

 

Minutes:

KB gave a demonstration of ‘Your Voice Leeds’ a new platform to engage with tenants and residents, as part of a year-long trial. Users can see up-to-date information about the live consultations from the service as a whole, allowing residents to leave comments and suggestions in a variety of ways. The site is also accessible on different devices.

 

The number of visitors to any page and the feedback they give in response to the consultation can be monitored, giving useful insight from a wide range of tenants and residents – including those not able to attend more traditional ways of getting involved and giving feedback.  The site went live with its first consultations in early November, with residents being invited to take part. Although in the early stages, so far there have been some 300 page views, with 9 tenants signed up at the time of the meeting.

 

The site is able to analyse comments and key words, collating all individual feedback as well as identifying generally positive or negative responses. As more consultations are published on Your Voice Leeds, tenants in those areas can be encouraged to sign up to give feedback.  The aim is to open up how we engage with tenants and residents so that more and more residents have an opportunity to give feedback. The service can also then give feedback to those who took part, sharing a summary of the findings and how we’ve taken their feedback on board. 

 

IM offered creating a consultation page for the Tenant Scrutiny Board, giving information about the board, letting tenants know about their current review, and inviting a wide range of tenants to give their input into this.  It can also appeal for new tenants to join the board. 

 

JG noted that the site will be useful to be able to send and monitor surveys as the board has done previously and will not restrict responses which would allow for comments to be gathered and potentially feed into the current investigation. IM confirmed it may be possible to reach a much broader range of tenants using the site that the board had been previously unable to do.

 

JG asked what the potential longevity of the site is after the year’s trial has passed. IM responded that it is very likely that the subscription will be renewed due to the cost effectiveness of the engagement it. Your Voice Leeds also supports Housing Leeds working on tenant, resident and community consultation with other services, albeit under the ownership and responsibility of Housing Leeds.

 

JG asked what the provisions will be for tenants who are not online, IM replied that Your Voice Leeds is in addition to and not instead of all of the currently existing methods of engagement. Tenants will still have support to be able to access online content – so it’s about adding what for many is an accessible way to give feedback.

 

JG asked how tenants are able to access the site, KB confirmed that the only details required are an email address, a username, and the first line of the users’ postcode so their rough location in Leeds is apparent. Tenants can be invited to join by clicking on a link in a text, email or on social media.

 

JG suggested that RI would be an effective lead on following up Your Voice Leeds, RI agreed that she would be willing to work with Katie and colleagues to draft the TSB consultation.