Resident engagement

We define resident engagement as being about working with our residents to deliver housing services in a way that matters to them. We want to work in partnership with our residents as they are best placed to tell us what is going well and to highlight to us if things have gone wrong. We want residents to be able to see how their views have been taken into account and how their voice influences our decisions.

We aim to be accessible to all of our customers in a variety of ways that both suit and interest them. We offer a range of ways for customers to be involved and we are constantly keeping this under review. We also welcome any ideas as to how you would like to be involved in the future.

Benefits of getting involved

Your involvement will directly influence and improve our services for everyone. Depending on how you get involved, we could also provide you with a reference if you’re looking for work. You’ll meet new people – both staff from Arun District Council and other residents and neighbours. Getting involved can also be rewarding and enjoyable. We hope you’ll find getting involved both interesting and a worthwhile experience.

Three people assist an elderly lady in a wheelchair to fill a plant pot with soil    An Osbourne employee and a young girl in a high viz jacket holding milk bottles converted to hold paint

How to get involved

To find out more, or to register your interest, please email residentengagement@arun.gov.uk with your name and address and your contact details. Alternatively, you can call 01903 737635 and speak to our resident engagement officer, Kat Rance-Shilbach.

Opportunities to be involved

Garden competition

Just in 'thyme' for the summer, we are excited to announce the return of our gardening competition!

This competition is to celebrate and recognise residents who take pride in their outside spaces. Whether you're a seasoned gardener, or just trying to 'branch' out, please take a look at our 'tree-mendous' prizes up for grabs and get 'growing'!

The competition will be open from 12 May 2025, and the closing date for all entries is Friday 8 August. Winners will be announced by Friday 22 August.

Full details are on our garden competition 2025 poster [pdf] 1MB

Community Grant Fund

We are looking for applications and assessors. Have you had an idea that will improve your local area? You could apply for a community grant fund! Or maybe you would like to help us decide where some of our money is spent? You could be a grant assessor - these residents review the community grant fund applications to ensure they meet the aims of the scheme. Assessors will either recommend approval or suggestions for amendments to applications that are not adopted and they champion the scheme in the local area. Find out more on our community grant fund page.

Surveys

Take part in one of our ad-hoc surveys. This might be about when you first moved into your property, once you've had a repair completed, or if you've had to report some anti-social behaviour, for example. We would like to hear about your experience. Please register your interest in being in our bank of contacts by emailing residentengagement@arun.gov.uk with your name, address and contact details.

Estate Walkabouts

Join your neighbourhood housing officer on a local inspection of the area. This is likely to be two or three times per year, for one hour. You will get the opportunity to highlight any issues that you may have noticed in communal spaces.

Our upcoming dates are as follows at 9:30am :

  • 21 June - Barnham (starting at Foxes Croft)
  • 16 July - Rustington (starting at Goodwood Close)
  • 22 August - Wick/Highfields
    • The Chilgrove Community Hub will be hosting a free breakfast club for junior volunteer litter pickers!
  • 10 September - Yapton (starting at Blenheim Road)

Please register your interest in inspecting your estate by emailing residentengagement@arun.gov.uk with your name, address and contact details.

Readers

Are you able to proofread our publications? Would you be interested in reading some of our communications first? When we produce our biannual newsletter and we make changes to policies and procedures, we'd like to run it past our resident readers first! You can pick and choose publications that interest you.  Please register your interest in being a resident reader by emailing residentengagement@arun.gov.uk with your name, address and contact details.

Coffee Breaks

We will be reinstating our coffee breaks from July 2025, which will be held by your Housing Officer and/or a Repairs Officer. These breaks will be held up to three times per year and will take approximately one hour. 

The coffee breaks may also be attended by additional agencies including AgeUK, Wiltshire Farm Foods and Arun Wellbeing and Community Safety teams who may hold activities and informative talks on subjects that encourage independent living, such as health, wellbeing and lifestyle support groups, technology skills and assistance and familiar games such as bingo and bites!

If you live in one of our sheltered schemes, please come along to one of our coffee breaks and talk to us about any issues that may be arising in your scheme or gather together to think of additional activities we might be able to assist in arranging.

We look forward to seeing you.

Other events

We also hold other events, such as:

  • customer journey mapping where we hold a workshop to understand a specific area of business that you've been involved with if we want to change a policy or process
  • gardening projects and odd-job days with support from our contractors
  • competitions with prizes such as Christmas tree and plant growing - we will usually send a text or email to you so you don't miss out!

Newsletter

We produce a bi-annual newsletter to let you know what's going on in the community. Read the latest edition here.

Housing for Older People Forum

Our Housing for Older People Forum (HfOP) is a quarterly gathering designed specifically for residents living in sheltered housing schemes. It provides a welcoming and inclusive space where residents can shape the agenda by choosing discussion topics that matter most to them. This collaborative approach helps us better understand residents' needs and continuously improve the services provided. Your voice is essential, and we warmly invite you to take part in shaping the future of your housing community.'

East and West Panels

We are currently developing our East and West Panels, which we hope to have in place by August 2025.

We are in the process of identifying a group from each side of the district that will be involved in the planning, development, and delivery of services, policies, and initiatives affecting their community by participating in these meetings and activities and sharing their experiences to influence decisions.

More information to follow soon!

 

Changes we have made

8 steps to engagement

We have created a process called 8 steps to engagement, which ensures our managers are always thinking about our residents before they make any changes to our policies and procedures. We will hold a database of interested residents and let them know there is a policy change and ask if you would like to be involved in reviewing the policy or procedure.

Our performance

We want you to be able to hold us to account for our performance. We have produced a document that shares all our targets and how we have been performing against them compared to the previous three months. This will be updated every quarter. Read this document and lots more about our aims online, including some examples of how we've listened to our residents.

We also learn and make changes to our service, based on feedback received from you. To find out more about this, visit our you said, we did page.

Resident Engagement Strategy 2022-2026

Our strategy sets out the work we will do over the next four years to engage with our residents.

Our vision is that by 2026 our residents will have every opportunity to engage with us in the ways that suit them, delivering meaningful and outcome-focused resident involvement where they can influence and shape our current and future services

The strategy is centred around five aims

  • make engagement easier
  • be accountable
  • improve communication
  • engage digitally
  • working with our communities

For information on how you can get involved contact us on 01903 737656 or by e-mail residentengagement@arun.gov.uk.

Please visit our housing strategies page to see our current Resident Engagement Strategy.

TPAS

We have joined TPAS to strengthen our commitment to resident engagement.

TPAS is a membership organisation, dedicated to bringing residents and landlords together to find solutions to improve services, save money and bring lasting change to communities.

Our tenants and leaseholders will have access to free membership benefits which include:

  • meeting other tenants in your region by attending free member events
  • keeping up to date with the latest housing policy and practice
  • participation in member forums and free webinars
  • access to the TPAS tenant only online networking group

To access your free benefits please visit: www.tpas.org.uk/member-search to register your profile.

tpas logo

Consumer standards lead and health and safety lead

Consumer standards lead

A dedicated consumer standards lead for the council is required by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. This is to ensure compliance of the council with the consumer standards as set out in the Act

This role is assigned to the Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities, Richard Tomkinson.

If the consumer standards lead is unable to act due to absence or illness, the council can identify an alternative person for that period of time.

The functions of the role are to:

  1. monitor our compliance with the consumer standards
  2. assess any risks of failure to comply with the consumer standards
  3. notify the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) of:
    • any risks of material failures by the council to comply with the standards
    • any material failures by the council to comply with the standards
  4. provide advice to the regulator as to how the council; should address risks and failures notified to them for the purpose of ensuring that we comply with the requirements of the standard

Contact information

You can contact Richard Tomkinson by e-mail Richard.Tomkinson@arun.gov.uk

Health and safety lead

A dedicated health and safety lead for the council is required by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. This is to ensure the health or safety of tenants of social housing.

This role is assigned to the Director of Environment and Communities, Philippa Dart. 

If the health and safety lead is unable to act due to absence or illness, the council can identify an alternative person for that period of time.

The functions of the role are to:

  1. monitor our compliance with health and safety requirements
  2. assess risks of failure to comply with health and safety requirements
  3. notify the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH) of:
    • any risks of material failures by the council to comply with health and safety requirements
    • any material failures by the council to comply with health and safety requirements
  4. Provide advice to the regulator as to how the council should address risks and failures notified to them for the purpose of ensuring that the council complies with health and safety requirements

Contact information

You can contact Philippa Dart by e-mail Philippa.Dart@arun.gov.uk