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Section 1 Introduction

1.03 The focus of the inspection process

The needs and views of tenants and other service users are at the centre of the regulatory framework. There is a strong emphasis on assessing the way organisations use feedback and consultation to improve services; a focus on the outcomes of the process of consultation, rather than the process itself. It is important that the process of research and consultation is strategic and inclusive rather than an end in itself. The approaches adopted should be appropriate for the purpose intended, rather than being based on assumptions about regulatory expectations.

An analysis of recent inspections of RSLs and LAs by Communities Scotland for this guidance suggests that most social landlords engage in some form of tenant consultation and involvement, and many seek feedback at least on some aspects of their services(1). However, a number of key issues are consistently referred to across a number of reports.

• There is little evidence of landlords taking a planned, strategic approach to research and consultation.

• There is a need to make the best use of the information that is already available to landlords.

• Satisfaction surveys conducted every few years are fairly common, but there is little information on the quality of the surveys and the data is not always analysed fully.

• Most organisations do not collect feedback on a regular basis and there is a need for more regular feedback than that provided by occasional surveys.

• There is a need for complementary qualitative approaches to data collection.

• Landlords are not always using the findings to improve service delivery.

• Few landlords give feedback to those who participate in consultation exercises.

This assessment is consistent with other research findings which show that although public sector organisations use a range of different approaches to consultation and gathering customer feedback, there is limited evidence that this has an effective impact on the quality of decision-making (references (22)). A recent review of performance management in local authority housing services concluded that performance management and self-assessment are under-developed in many organisations. The involvement of tenants in performance monitoring and service review and the collection and use of customer feedback information were among the areas identified as needing to be strengthened. Recent good practice guidance on performance management in housing refers to performance management as being as much about a set of values and embedding a particular organisational culture as adopting a particular system or framework. Making gathering and using service user views part of the organisational culture that values feedback and is open to learning is one of the current challenges facing social landlords in Scotland.

The self-assessment questions on responsiveness to service users have been revised to reflect this guidance.

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(1) This has been supplemented by the findings from Key Themes from Inspections – Tenant Participation, Communities Scotland, August 2005

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