Community Call for Action
Resident led self regulation
The Customer Senate is in place to scrutinise and recommend improvements to services offered by Salix Homes and is now formally recognised within the governance structures of the organisation. The structure ensures that customers are measuring, testing and monitoring the services they receive and are integral to the development of the business. The Senate will undertake a minimum of three scrutiny exercises each year.
What is a Community Call for Action?
It is important that the wider body of customers that Salix Homes serves has an opportunity to influence the areas of the business that the Customer Senate will scrutinise. The Community Call for Action has been introduced to allow customers to request that the Customer Senate scrutinise an area of the business on your behalf.
How does it work?
If you are concerned about the quality of a service that Salix Homes is offering you or your neighbours then you can approach the Customer Senate to request that they scrutinise the service. Before you can submit a Community Call for Action you will be required to complete a pro-forma detailing your concerns, the actions you have taken to resolve your concerns, any service failures by Salix Homes. If the failure of the service affects other people, for example your neighbours, you will need to explain why this is. You can ask for support to complete this pro-forma and the Customer Senate will identify an officer to help you.
What happens next?
The Customer Senate will consider your request and offer advice how a Community Call for Action can be submitted and you will be offered advice how to do this, where necessary an officer will be identified to help you. A Community Call for Action will usually be in the form of a petition. You will be advised how many signatories you need to collect to submit the petition for consideration. The number of signatories will be representative of the area in which you live or the number of customers affected by the service failure. A Community Call for Action may be requested by an individual customer who receives a specific service, for example, a wheel chair user and the service failure may be limited to an individual customer or a small group of customers receiving a similar service. In these circumstances it may be difficult for the customer to collect evidence and signatories from other service users and the Customer Senate will identify an appropriate officer to work with the customer to gather any evidence required to support their request for a Community Call for Action. Occasionally the Senate may consider that the service failure is so significant that no further evidence is required and will accept the pro-forma as a Community Call for Action.
Submitting a Community Call for Action
Any Community Call for Action will be considered at the next scheduled meeting of the Customer Senate. When considering any Community Call for Action the Senate will look to identify systematic failures or persistent service delivery failure. They will also look to see if the petitioners have attempted to resolve the situation through the channels that are available, for example, the complaints procedure.
Making a decision
Once the Senate have considered all the information provided they will determine what happens next. The Senate may decide that the avenues to resolve the issue have not been explored and those opportunities need to be exhausted prior to any Community Call for Action being accepted. Your issue may be referred to the appropriate Service Specific Panel to monitor and identify improvements for service delivery If there is sufficient evidence the Senate will accept the Community Call for Action. The Community Call for Action will be scored before being scheduled into the annual programme of scrutiny. You will be advised of the outcome by the Customer Senate.
Scoring a Community Call for Action
All business areas are scored prior to being scheduled for scrutiny. A scoring matrix is used that considers performance, customer satisfaction and complaints. The Senate also consider if the service is business critical. The Senate will be provided with the relevant performance and management information to score the business area and additional points will be awarded for a Community Call for Action.
Annual Programme of Scrutiny
The Senate will scrutinise four business areas each year, each scrutiny activity takes 13 weeks to complete. A final report of the findings together with recommendations is presented to the Board of Salix Homes. The Board will consider the report and delegate the task of responding to the recommendations to the appropriate Business Manager. The Business Manager will agree an action plan with the Customer Senate to improve service delivery and the action plans are monitored by the relevant Service Specific panel on behalf of the Senate.
What happens if a serious failure of service is identified?
If the Senate consider that your evidence identifies a serious failure of service delivery they will make immediate recommendations to resolve the issues prior to any scrutiny taking place.
Right of Appeal
If you are not happy with the decision made by the Customer Senate you have a right of appeal. You should submit your appeal in writing within 28 days to:
Service Improvement Officer
Salix Homes
Diamond House
2 Peel Cross Road
Salford
M5 4DT
An independent panel will be convened to consider your appeal. The panel will be made up of a minimum of 4 and maximum of 6 representatives of the seven service specific panels. There will not be a representative of the panel that serves the specific business area, for example, if the Community Call for Action is in regard of maintenance there will not be a representative of the Investment and Development Panel. The panel will consider the Community Call for Action together with the decision of the Senate. The decision of the appeal panel will be final.
Further details
For further details please contact the Customer Senate at customer.senate@salixhomes.org alternatively contact Margaret Graham on 0161 779 8840 or at margaret.graham@salixhomes.org.
Community Call for Action Pro-Forma
