Gateway to putting tenants first

Since its inception in April 2008 Gateway Housing Association has worked hard to establish itself and to deliver on its promise to put tenants first

Formed when Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Housing Association (BGVPHA) merged with the black and minority ethnic (BME) landlord Labo, Gateway manages 2,700 properties dispersed throughout east London, mainly in Tower Hamlets. Its stock, eight per cent of which is shared ownership, ranges from one-bedroom properties through to family homes and includes 400 sheltered units.

One of Gateway’s biggest achievements so far has been truly engaging and involving its tenants in the everyday running of the organisation, as resident involvement manager Mo Ali explains: “The statement that we have is ‘residents at the heart’ which is about, more than anything else, ensuring that the services we provide are tailored to meet residents’ needs.

“It is about making sure that our residents are not just consulted at final stages but involved right from the outset and are helping to shape the agenda. We are keen to make sure that resident involvement actually leads to real outcomes for our residents which improve quality of life.”

A range of forums that have been set up over the past year include the Residents’ Panel, which was one of Gateway’s merger promises. It gives residents the opportunity to influence the organisation at a strategic level and two of its members sit on the board.

“The panel looks at the strategic direction of Gateway and has looked at our corporate planning process as well as monitoring the organisation’s performance,” says Ali.

Many of the resident groups monitor services. Resident Approved, for instance, is a reader panel which scrutinises documents and information supplied by Gateway, such as information leaflets, to ensure they meet residents’ needs, are resident friendly, easy to understand and don’t contain obscure abbreviations and acronyms.

The responsive repairs and maintenance core group, oversee and monitor the main responsive repairs contractor, making sure that KPIs are being met and getting resident input on how services can be improved. While a team of 12 mystery shoppers covertly test services, identifying areas for improvement. “One of our mystery shoppers is a wheelchair user and when we moved into our new office she visited to make sure it was DDA compliant and came up with some suggestions that officers hadn’t initially identified,” says Ali.

Several improvements have been made to the office and to publicity material as a result of feedback from the mystery shoppers, as Ali explains: “Initially the reception area was away from the rest of the customer service team and it was felt that the layout was not as warm and welcoming as it could be. We also indentified that we didn’t have facilities for small children.

So we have brought the reception area closer to the customer service team and now have an area for young children.”

There is also a range of forums tailored to meet the needs of specific groups of residents, for example a leaseholder’s forum, which allows leaseholders to talk about issues that are relevant to them and acts as an important consultative group.

And Gateway is working with its younger residents to set up a young people’s forum. “For us it is about making sure that we are reaching all of our residents,” says Ali. “Our young people are the future of Gateway and that is something that our main residents groups have also recognised. We need to get young people involved in the process so that their views are helping to shape how Gateway moves forward and they are a key part of our profile.” Its work with the younger generation has included sending out a survey for younger people with questions about key issues and how young people want to get involved with Gateway. And this year’s Residents’ Fair was organised in conjunction with young people.

“Traditionally in terms of consulting residents you would normally go to the adults in the household but last year we carried out this specific survey for young people,” says Ali. “We found that a lot of our young people were not just interested in traditional young people’s activities but in the bigger picture as well.”

The Residents’ Fair is just one way that tenants can get involved in Gateway on a less formal level and social events are regularly held to bring residents together.

“Social events are a really important way of breaking down barriers and getting people to meet,” says Ali.

Recent events include the One World event, which took place at a sheltered scheme and aimed to bring people from different cultures together and to break down barriers, and a fun day organised by Central Ocean Residents’ Association and funded by Gateway.

Following on from its work with young people Gateway plans to organise inter-generational events to bring its youngest and oldest residents together. “We are the largest providers of sheltered housing in Tower Hamlets so we are looking to have some inter-generational projects this year to allow our young people’s forum to work with the older residents,” says Ali. Tower Hamlets is an ethnically diverse area and Gateway works to make sure that it meets the needs of all of its residents, while bringing people from different backgrounds together.

“Our residents come from so many backgrounds and I think one of Gateway’s real strengths is that we have such a diverse community. We make sure that events reflect the diversity of our residents in terms of venues and the times they take place. For example we would make sure that they are neutral venues, certainly places where alcohol is not served and we provide Halal food. We also make sure that meetings are held at times that are good for our residents, for example based around prayer times which is something that the residents identified as a way of ensuring that we include as many people as possible.”

Ali acknowledges that the merger and associated changes have brought many challenges but feels that good progress has been made in establishing Gateway as an organisation in its own right.

Gateway also underwent a short notice inspection by the Audit Commission in October 2009 and has just submitted its action plan in response. “The action plan had a lot of input from residents,” says Ali. “We held focus group meetings to look specifically at what residents thought we should include, talked about it at the Residents’ Forum and Panel, and also consulted individuals through surveys, so we were able to get a wide range of people’s views.”

“In a relatively short space of time quite a lot of changes took place and adapting to those changes has been the biggest challenge we have faced. BGVPHA and Labo had strong identities so it is about getting that sense of identity for Gateway and we are certainly working towards that,” says Ali. “It is something that doesn’t happen overnight, it is about making sure that we build for the future and learn lessons from that transitional period.” Gateway’s aims are about celebrating its diversity while having “one vision” for the community and tailoring its services to residents’ needs.

“In terms of our general values and vision it is about putting the needs of communities and our residents first, making sure that we listen to residents and engage with them and that we treat people with respect. It is also about being honest, open and accountable in all that we do,” explains Ali. “We want to be more than just a landlord. We want to raise the aspirations and life experience of all of our residents and empower them so they can fulfil their potential. We also want to contribute to the wider regeneration within East London particularly with the Olympics but key to it all is putting the needs of our communities and residents first.”

Much has been achieved since the merger but Gateway aims to build on resident engagement and empowerment in years to come with the residents’ panel continuing to play a central part in its strategic direction. And true to its word resident involvement has been central to the organisation’s action plan for the future.