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Joint Away Day for Customer Assurance Committee and Scrutiny Panel

Last Thursday (9 June) we held our first Away Day for our customer Scrutiny Panel. The panel was joined by members of the Customer Assurance Committee.

It’s really important that our work matches up to the expectations of our customers and through our Scrutiny Panel we involve our customers in the creation and scrutiny of our services, ensuring the voice of our customers is reflected in everything we do.

The Away Day was facilitated by the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) and focused on the changes in legislation currently influencing the social housing sector; the nine-step process undertaken to complete scrutiny reviews and a discussion about how the Customer Assurance Committee and Scrutiny Panel would like to work together moving forwards.

Our Chief Operating Officer Mads Nelson said: “Our new Scrutiny Panel is responsible for ensuring that the customer voice is heard by Citizen in a formal governance capacity in line with the Charter for Social Housing Residents’ White Paper requirements and the regulatory standards.

“It is so important to ensure our customers’ voices and views are heard at both executive and board level and that colleagues have the opportunity to engage with and listen to the views of our Scrutiny Panel. Our Scrutiny Panel are hoping to do up to three reviews a year and I’m colleagues will welcome their feedback on our services.

“It was fantastic to see everyone together and to get members thinking about how they will carry out scrutiny reviews and how they will interact and work together to ensure our customers’ voices and views are always being heard and acted upon. I’m excited about the future of our customer engagement and the positive difference these two bodies will have on Citizen.

“Our Citizen First customer service programme recognises that all feedback is invaluable and scrutiny reviews will provide another way of us getting this vital feedback.”

Customer Assurance Committee Chair and Board member Helen Scarrett said: “The best thing about our Scrutiny Panel is the diverse and committed group of customers. The views and ideas they share at each meeting gives us a new outlook and we make progress with every meeting.

“Both the Scrutiny Panel and Customer Assurance Committee will be instrumental in driving forward changes to services provided by Citizen to its customers, making them much more effective.

“This Away Day was the first meeting of the Scrutiny Panel and was the first time since the Customer Assurance Committee have met in-person since it was established in March 2021. It was great to see everyone and I’m really excited about the future.”

Scrutiny Panel member Janey Lansdell said: “I found the day engaging and relaxed. Not too much information and plenty of opportunity for communication with the other members.

“I feel enthused by the chance to have a positive impact on the customer experience at Citizen. I look forward to being able to bring my personal skills and experience to the group.”

Customer Assurance Committee member Rosie Pocklington said: “I found the day really interesting and inspiring.

“I have a much clearer understanding of what scrutiny is now, and how the Customer Assurance Committee can work with the Scrutiny Panel to improve the services Citizen offers.

“It was good to meet other members and the training was really informative and engaging. It was a day well spent.”

Following the Away Day, the Scrutiny Panel will continue with its learning around the scrutiny process and will complete up to three scrutiny reviews this financial year.

They will initially be investigating our void standard and the review will begin with a briefing from Directors and Heads of Service in July 2022.

The outcome of this review will be presented to the Customer Assurance Committee and our Board detailing their findings together with recommendations.

For media enquiries contact our Communications Team.

Customer Scrunity Panel Committee Away Day Web