Change in action: Co-creating a new resident governance structure with Southern Housing

Change in action

In December 2023, the National Housing Federation (NHF) and Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) published a joint update on our work on the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR), one year since the independent panel made seven recommendations for the social housing sector.

Our ‘Change in action’ series of case studies highlights best practice so far from housing associations navigating the changes set out in the BSHR. If you have a question about the recommendations, or want to get in touch, please contact us.

Southern Housing was formed in December 2022 through the merger of Optivo and Southern Housing Group. We own or manage over 78,000 homes and serve 167,000 residents across London, the South East, the Midlands and the Isle of Wight.

With our merger finalised and the Better Social Housing Review rightly re-emphasising the importance of resident involvement, we took the opportunity to take a fresh look at how we involve residents in scrutiny, decision-making and the shaping of services.

We wanted to embed our residents’ voices into the heart of our new organisation, so we created an extensive new resident governance structure. This new structure complements our existing resident involvement schemes and co-creation teams, meaning residents have three distinct ways of getting involved.

How we did it

We co-created the new structure with our residents. During the merger process, we established a resident governance working group formed of residents from each legacy organisation, in a 50:50 split.

The working group heard from various organisations (some specialising in social housing) about how they go about engaging with their residents or customers and acting upon feedback. Using these best practice examples, the working group then designed a new resident governance structure for Southern Housing, which was then approved by our Board.

The challenges we faced

We wanted to ensure residents from a wide range of backgrounds were a part of our new resident governance structure so that our residents were well represented.

From January 2023, we ran a major recruitment campaign. We recruited from across our diverse resident population to find people who wanted to work with us on service and quality improvement: 54% of applicants were female, 32% were ethnically diverse, 30% living with a disability, and with an age range of 24–71. In the end, we received nearly a thousand applications.

To improve the accessibility, we moved all meetings to the evening and made them virtual. We believe this allowed us to recruit from a wider, more diverse pool of residents, including those working in full-time employment, who bring a unique and important perspective.

'We wanted to ensure residents from a wide range of backgrounds were a part of our new resident governance structure so that our residents were well represented.'

How does the new structure work?

Our working group’s final co-created structure for resident governance has made a big impact to Southern Housing.

Four of the twelve places on our Board are now reserved for residents, a figure we believe is unsurpassed in the sector. We hope this shows our residents how serious we are about hearing their voices at every level, and it sets the tone for our newly merged organisation. Our wider organisational structure comprises of a mixture of both regional residents’ panels and thematic panels looking at resident priorities, such as complaints and resident policies.

The Resident Scrutiny Panel is the primary platform for residents to scrutinise our performance. This panel is made up of residents from across our regions, and it aims to carry out several scrutiny projects each year.

The Resident Scrutiny Panel selects projects by looking at various data sources, including topics raised by residents on social media and Resident Panels, as well as our key performance indicators. The Panel conducts its own investigative work, collecting residents’ views from surveys and interviews and working with Southern Housing colleagues and contractors.

The Panel then writes up a report with recommendations, which is presented to the Resident Strategy Group and Executive Team. Crucially, their work doesn’t end there. The Panel plays a key role in ensuring our action plans are delivered and make a difference to the everyday experience of being a Southern Housing resident. Now, the Resident Scrutiny Panel is looking at damp and mould, and we’re keen for our residents to scrutinise even the most difficult issues.

'We wanted to embed our residents’ voices into the heart of our new organisation, so we created an extensive new resident governance structure. This new structure complements our existing resident involvement schemes and co-creation teams.'

The future

There’s a range of experience levels amongst residents involved in our new Resident Governance Structure. We want everyone taking part to be able to participate equally. To do this, we offer a toolkit of training and resources.

The support we offer includes webinars, training with the Housing Ombudsman, one-to-one support, memberships with the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) and Housing Quality Network (HQN) and job shadowing opportunities.

In the future, at Southern Housing, we’d like to see ongoing best practice sharing within the sector to further enhance the possibilities of resident governance.