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Section 3 Issues and concerns in research and consultation

Beyond surveys: using other approaches – Grampian Housing Association

First formed in 1975, Grampian Housing Association now has over 3,000 rented, shared ownership and factored properties spread across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray. Grampian has been an active developer of new social housing in the region. It provides housing management services to local agencies providing specialised support and care and it is also involved in a range of Wider Action projects to promote social inclusion. The Association was inspected in December 2004.

Grampian use a number of approaches to gather service user views. Many of these are survey based and face issues of customer apathy which reduces response rates and difficulties getting service users to commit time to giving feedback. The Association is considering what other approaches it can use to address these issues and to ensure that it fully understands the perspectives of all of its customers.

Grampian has a customer participation strategy that provides a framework for the provision of information to Grampian tenants and residents. It also provides a number of opportunities for tenants and residents to give their views on service and strategy development and reviews of policies and practices, both through collective participatory mechanisms and those aimed at individual service users.

A number of surveys to gauge customer opinion have been used. Grampian conduct a postal Customer Satisfaction Survey every five years. The last one was in September 2004 and achieved a response rate of 48%. They also undertake regular, smaller scale surveys using the Customer Panel. Other surveys are conducted about new developments or in response to concerns about certain issues related to service delivery or the wider community. Post-repair surveys are also conducted.

Grampian also gather feedback on services and allocations by housing management staff during visits to new tenants and they have carried out a number of specific comprehensive consultation exercises in recent years, including a review of rent policy. They also hold occasional customer conferences which involve external speakers and Grampian staff as facilitators of workshops and a question and answer session with senior staff and board members.

As well as an annual report, the Association issues a regular newsletter ‘Keynote’; this has occasional area specific inserts to reflect the different issues pertinent to different parts of the Association. The 2004 inspection report suggested that service users should be told how performance is improving over time and how the performance of Grampian compares with other Associations; a special performance issue of the newsletter is planned in response.

What else could Grampian do?

Grampian has been giving this some thought. They feel that some of the findings from the recent Satisfaction Survey appear to contradict those from other recent surveys. For example, there seemed to be discrepancies between levels of satisfaction within the same area and between responses to similar questions in the recent Panel survey. This may reflect a need to better understand differing expectations of service provision by different groups of service users. More in-depth, qualitative approaches may be useful here.

Grampian have come to the view that they need to consider ways in which satisfaction can be more immediately, quickly and easily tested after the contact with the customer has taken place. They are piloting a telephone exit survey where a dedicated Customer Service Officer telephones all tenants reporting emergency repairs the day after the repair was reported to ascertain their experience of the service. Grampian is also in the process of reviewing its approach to complaints.

Whilst not prescriptive, this guidance contains a number of other possible approaches that may help to avoid research fatigue and encourage the participation of under represented groups such as young people. For example, adopting a utilisation-focus, participatory methods, and making research and consultation as inclusive as possible.

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