Warrington Housing Association Scrutiny Panel
Warrington Housing Association Scrutiny Panel (WHASP) work with the Association to review our procedures and policies from a customer perspective. WHASP complete four reviews each financial year, making recommendations to the Board on changes the Association can make to improve the customer experience. On this page you can find out about our current WHASP members, the reviews they have completed and are scheduled to complete and how to join.
We sat down with our current WHASP members to ask them about their experience of WHASP:
Julie
I have been a WHA tenant for 22 years and joined WHASP in 2008, and I am now the WHASP Chair. We get involved in site visits, property voids, customer satisfaction calls, approving marketing materials and representing both WHA at conferences both in person and via video.
We have input into policies such as customer service, maintenance and complaints, so many it is hard to remember all we have done! We have reshaped the language around disability to make it more inclusive.
Between WHA Board and WHASP we set a schedule of policies to review throughout the year. For each review we have a 12-16 week deadline so we have to have the momentum to get things done. Our report goes back to the Audit and Risk Committee and if they are happy, it gets reported to Board as an approved document and the process is reshaped.
Gill
I began my journey moving from Focus Group to a new group called the Scrutiny Panel. I volunteered mainly because it sounded very interesting and because I am nosy, I wanted to see what it was all about. There have been many changes, but it is still a great platform for tenants to give their view on many issues. These views are sent to the WHA Board and if possible acted upon. I feel that I have spent some of my spare time helping other tenants. I am happy to say that it is a very friendly panel, we deal with lots of different issues, but we are not always serious. We go on training courses, but have also met for food and drinks outside of WHASP.
Lesley
I have been a member of WHASP on and off since 2008. I was a part of the originally named Focus Group and was asked if I was interested in helping to set up and become a member of the new WHASP – which I obviously was!
My favourite part of being on WHASP is that I get to put information and ideas into practice that helps both WHA and their customers, the panel work to understand the needs of both. Every member of WHASP wants to help make improvements in your everyday needs.
Michelle
I joined WHASP in 2019, after a conversation with my Housing Officer. I was most interested in the way WHASP look at improving things for customers – I like talking to and meeting new people, so I thought it would be good for WHA and my confidence.
Maureen
I was interested to know what WHASP was all about so I came to a meeting in 2010 to find out – and I am still a member 10 years later! I enjoy going to conferences to discuss with other Housing Associations how WHA can improve our service for customers. I also enjoy talking to other tenants at engage events to truly understand what we can do for them!
WHASP complete a total of 4 reviews each Financial Year. Below you will find the reviews we we have coming up in 2020/21.
TLF Customer Satisfaction Review
This review will involve a deep dive into our Customer Satisfaction Survey and recommendations to Board for improvement.
Tenant Engagement:
This review will see our WHASP review and develop a marketing plan to broaden our engagement with tenants in line with our Neighbourhood Strategy and Customer Involvement Policy for recommendation of actions.
Click here to see our Action Plan .
Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct
WHASP will review both the Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct to ensure it upholds the key principles of the scrutiny panel – independence, formality and power to effect change.
Click here to see the updated action plan.
Customer Involvement Strategy:
WHASP will consult with WHA residents and customers to ensure the Customer Involvement Strategy is up to date and put into practice by WHA.
Welcome to our WHASP Blog
Welcome to our first WHASP blog, we hope it is the first of many! The idea is that each of us will provide a short update after each meeting to let you know what we have discussed!
The aim is to ensure that we are sharing updates with you all about the work we are doing with WHA on your behalf.
The WHASP action plan, with Covid changes, we have had to rejiggle a lot of our plans for 2020-21 and as a group have agreed to:
- Review the WHA website – we are keen to make this more interactive and customer friendly
- Look at the new customer portal – this will be open to all customers so they can make payments, book repairs, check rent accounts and make comments about the service you are receiving from WHA.
It is going to be a lot of work but enjoyable, we are all new to this but are determined to learn our new skills!
We have also decided as a group to sponsor a charity called The Hygiene Bank!
Thanks
Julie!
If you would like to be involved with the scrutiny panel, to help scrutinise our performance and help improve our customer experience. Please contact our admin team here
Our WHASP look forward to welcoming you to our team.
