What is consultation?
Consultation involves asking for peoples’ views in order to consider them before reaching decisions.
We allow time for tenants to make decisions, landlords to consider them, and for both agree to the outcome together.
Effective consultation helps to design and deliver services people want. It’s also a good way to measure service delivery and effectiveness.
How we consult our customers
Housing Services is committed to improving service delivery and increasing customer satisfaction by making sure that we meet our customers’ needs.
We have developed a range of options to ensure participation is maximised. This is supported by an annual calendar of consultation events.
We consult on a number of topics, including some where we have a statutory duty to do so. We also carry out large scale surveys, such as our tenant satisfaction survey, to gather views on the services we provide.
To comment on North Ayrshire Council consultations, visit the Community Planning Partnership website.
Why is consultation important?
In order to continually improve our services, we need to regularly collect and use feedback from customers, which is then utilised to improve service delivery.
It is also important that we feed back to those who have participated, so that they know that their views have been listened to and are being acted on.
We use a number of methods to provide this feedback, including:
- producing an annual consultation report
- sending information to Registered Tenants’ Organisations and the North Ayrshire Network
We know from our tenant satisfaction surveys that the ‘Tenants Chat’ newsletter is a popular way of providing feedback to tenants, residents and all service users. We will use this forum to highlight how tenant engagement has shaped or improved our service.
Comments, compliments and complaints
If you have a comment, compliment or complaint about any part of the Housing service, you can report it easily to any member of staff.
We are committed to providing high quality customer services. We value complaints and use information from them to help us improve our services.
You can access a leaflet outlining the process on how to complain, comment or compliment a service or staff member:
- at most local Council offices and customer contact centres
- online
- in local libraries
Local Housing Strategy Forum
The forum discusses local housing challenges and contributes to the development of the Local Housing Strategy.
Topics can cover:
- regeneration
- homelessness
- special needs housing
- pressured area status
- affordable and rural housing needs
To attend, please contact the Development and Strategy Team.
Landlord events
We hold 2 landlord events per year, to meet and discuss challenges within the private rented sector. To attend, email the Private Sector Advice Team, or call 01294 324644.
Older People's Housing Event
For residents and stakeholders to discuss housing issues affecting older people in North Ayrshire. Contact the Older People's Team on 01294 324031.
Tenants Fun Day
This annual event is held to engage with the wider communities of North Ayrshire.
North Ayrshire Housing Register (NAHR) Survey
A phone survey is carried out with 10% of applicants on the North Ayrshire Housing Register.
Other satisfaction surveys
We ask for tenants' views through comments slips, in our Customer Connections Strategy (PDF, 1.74mb).
Please note: the Customer Connections Strategy may not be fully accessible to all. If you require a printed version please contact the Tenant Participation Team: tenantparticipation@north-ayrshire.gov.uk, 01294 324869.
Reporting a significant performance failure
The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) can consider issues raised about 'significant performance failures', defined by the SHR as something a landlord does, or fails to do, that puts the interests of its tenants at risk, and which the landlord has not resolved. This is something that is a systematic problem that does, or could, affect all of a landlord's tenants.
If a problem like this affects you, report it to us. If you have told us and we haven't resolved it, report it to the SHR.
