Keep up to date with what's happening in the world of resident involvement. 

Mystery shopping

In September 2024 a group of nine residents volunteered to be mystery shoppers of our Customer Contact Centre - carrying out 'shops' by both telephone and email. 

Mystery shopping is a way for us to involve residents in shaping the delivery of a service that is designed for them. Our mystery shoppers play a very important role by giving us a true picture of how West Kent interacts with residents. 

You can read the full report from the 2024 mystery shopping here: Mystery shopping 2024

If you would like to be involved in mystery shopping in 2025, please register your interest here. 

New homes advisory group

We have an opportunity for residents with an interest in new developments and sustainability to be part of an advisory group that will help shape the design brief for new homes.

The group will meet with our Development team twice per year, to discuss proposals for any new projects. You will ideally have experience of living in a new-build property, and be happy to share these experiences to provide feedback and guidance.

We know that the design of our new homes is a subject that many residents feel passionate about, and we expect to receive a high level of interest in this new opportunity! 

If you are interested in getting involved, please email residentinvolvement@wkha.org.uk or complete the application form online here.

Resident Inspectors - Nurture

The resident involvement team are meeting regularly with our grounds maintenance contractor, Nurture, to raise any issues that our Resident Inspectors find. We hope to get any issues resolved promptly and will feedback to the Resident Inspectors with a regular monthly newsletter. You can see the latest Resident Inspectors newsletters on the link below:

Resident Inspectors Newsletter - December 2024

Resident Inspectors Newsletter - November 2024

It is important that we continue to collect feedback and share your findings with Nurture, so that they know what is going well and what improvements need to be made. 

If you would like to join our inspectors then please get in touch by emailing residentinvolvement@wkha.org.uk or completing a short online form to register your interest. 

Estate Services Review

Throughout the summer of  2024 we carried out a large project that focused on the services we deliver to our estates and neighbourhoods.

We received feedback from over 600 residents across Edenbridge, Deal, Tenterden, Sevenoaks, Ashford, Cowden, Medway, Maidstone, Leigh and Swanley, about what their priorities are and how we can better manage our estates and communities.

Your feedback is being used to develop a new Neighbourhood Management policy that sets out how we will work with residents and partner agencies to improve services and ensure our neighbourhoods and communal areas provide safe, attractive and well maintained places to live. 

Domestic Abuse Policy

In October, a group of seven residents joined us for a focus group to  review of our domestic abuse policy. They provided valuable feedback and suggestions on what should be included in our policy update. 

In the meeting we were also joined by representatives from DAVSS, a local domestic abuse service, to offer their guidance and support to anyone who is experiencing issues personally.

A new version of the policy is now being drafted by our Community Safety Manager and we will soon be requesting further feedback so please keep an eye on the 'current consultations' page if you'd like to be involved...

If you want to report a domestic abuse concern to West Kent, visit our dedicated page here.

If you, or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse please contact The National Domestic Abuse Helpline free, 24 hours a day 0808 2000 247

If you, or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 999.

Communications Co-Production Group

In October, the Communications Co-production group worked with us on a new animated video to explain the process for making complaints. They agreed the script and were the first to see the animation and provide feedback. 

The group provided feedback about some of the animated images being used. The images were updated based on their feedback, and the overall pace of the video was slowed down to make it easier to follow.  

Keep an eye out on the front page of the website and social media for the final complaints video coming soon...

If this group sounds like something you would like to be part of then it's not too late to get involved! Please contact us on residentinvolvement@wkha.org.uk or 01732 749908 to find out more.

Help tackle tenancy fraud…

In June, a group of five residents joined us for a focus group to help in the development of West Kent's first ever policy on Tenancy Fraud. Tackling tenancy fraud is important to ensure West Kent homes are available to those in genuine need of social housing.

As a group they discussed what they already knew and didn't know about tenancy fraud, which helped us understand how much explanation is needed within the policy.

The group reviewed other policies, and suggested the following steps we could take to prevent tenancy fraud:
•    Collecting a photograph of a new resident at sign-up, checking against proof of ID (eg passport) and keeping on resident file for reference. 
•    Updating photos when someone moves between WKHA properties
•    Carry out tenancy audits to validate who is living in properties 
•    Make unannounced visits to homes that WKHA do not hear from to check that the correct person is residing there.
•    Provide a wide choice of options for reporting

All of these suggestions were included in the final policy which the group then later reviewed to confirm it was easy to understand. 

If you want to find out more about Tenancy Fraud, you can also visit our tenancy fraud page.

Aids and Adaptations Policy

We appreciate the feedback provided by our residents about the draft policy relating to Aids and Adaptations. We will use the feedback to finalise the policy and we will update those involved in this process once the policy is ready to be published.

Please continue to review our consultations page for other policies you can help to shape. 

Resident Inspectors

We have appointed an initial group of Resident Inspectors to review the standard of grounds maintenance undertaken by Nurture. We will be appointing a second group of residents in the next couple of months to cover more homes and also cover the standard of communal cleaning.

If you would like to get involved, you can review the Resident Inspectors section of our opportunities page.

Consultations and policy changes

We've previously consulted with residents on several policies, procedures and service changes. We want to use your feedback and unique experience of our services to make positive changes at West Kent.

  • Maintaining Your Home policy

In spring we asked for feedback from our Resident Influencers group on a new version of the Maintaining Your Home policy. You can read some of the feedback we received and how it influenced the new policy here.

  • Cyclical decorations

Thank you to the 338 residents that were able to provide us with their feedback in relation to cyclical decorations in November 2023. We've summarised how your views were used here.

A group of residents met at the end of January 2024 to score the social value part of our tender process for cyclical decorations. It's important that our residents contribute to the procurement process and help make decisions about what our future operatives will be contributing to across our communities.

  • Pets policy

We're reviewing our current pets policy in view of the recent changes to legislation.

Our newly formed Resident Influencers group initially helped to provide some feedback and a wider consultation online will take place soon to get further views on a draft policy.

  • Customer portal

A small group of residents reviewed the tenant portal and advised that the sign-up and login process was confusing, as the instructions for password criteria weren't clear. Based on this feedback, we've reviewed the communication we send to residents, when asking them to re-register for the portal.

We hope this will help to make the process easier for our residents when the portal is introduced to more residents.

  • Unacceptable behaviour policy

Residents suggested the policy should also apply to staff. The process for reporting unacceptable staff behaviour is through our complaints procedure, so we made sure this was clearer in the policy.

That's our news - but what are your views?!

You can find out more information about reviewing policies as part of our newly formed Resident Influencers group here. Alternatively, keep an eye out on our consultations page to have your say on any wider consultations.