Home » About us » Podcasts » Link achieves TPAS accreditation
Link achieves TPAS accreditation
Sections on this page
Summary
The high quality of Link's tenant participation activities was formally recognised yesterday in the form of official accreditation from the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, also known as TPAS.
Listen to podcast using flash player
Please note that you will need an up to date version of the Flash plug-in to use the podcast player on this page. This can be downloaded from Adobe.
Download podcast as audio file
Transcript
Jane Smernicki:
[0:01] This is a podcast from Link Group on the 30th of March, 2010. To hear more Link podcasts, visit www.linkhousing.org.uk.
[0:12] The high quality of Link's tenant participation activities was formally recognised yesterday in the form of official accreditation from the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, also known as TPAS.
[0:23] Link is only the second registered social landlord in Scotland to achieve TPAS accreditation. It's a fairly new scheme, and when Lesley Baird, chief executive of TPAS, visited us yesterday, I asked her why TPAS had decided to introduce it.
Lesley Baird:
[0:38] We recognised that participation is a very, very difficult job to do, that involves a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of commitment from across the organisation. And it's a very specialized job, and we recognise that there's a lot of good stuff going on across Scotland, but there's no recognition that some people are doing really, really hard work involving tenants across the organisation.
[0:59] So we thought there was a gap there. We have to recognize this as being excellence in Scotland, so we decided that we would award an accreditation for organisation who, in our view, have achieved best practice.
Jane:
[1:11] Link's director of housing and technical services, Maureen Middleton, agrees that the accreditation scheme is about shining a spotlight on the good practice that takes place here at Link on a daily basis.
Maureen Middleton:
[1:21] Link Housing Association is delighted to receive this award from TPAS. It is a recognition of all the good practice that we currently employ in tenant participation. This award is going to spur us on to become even better at what we do.
Jane:
[1:36] Link's tenant liaison office, Lenore Suddon, coordinated the accreditation process.
Lenore Suddon:
[1:41] When I first heard about it, I got a bit excited and I decided it's something I thought we could do. When I looked into the 11 criteria that had to be met, I realised that we were practically achieving all of it. I thought we should go for it and recognise what we're doing as being really good practice, both staff and tenants.
Jane:
[1:59] It was quite a lengthy process. When did you start, and can you tell me about some of the things that you have to do?
Lenore:
[2:05] It took us five months from beginning to end. And to be honest, I really didn't anticipate the amount of work involved in it. But once we got started, there was no going back, really. And each criteria was broken down, some to two or three sections. Some were nine or ten sections. That involved tenants and documenting evidence to what we had done, and getting staff involved, shelter tenants, mainstream tenants.
[2:31] We actually had a couple of tenant and owner forums who came together. It was registered tenants' organisations, including owners, and they were really up to take part in it as well.
[2:42] It's great that we have it, and it does stand us in good stead. As Lesley said, there's few organisations that do have it. I feel real proud that Link got it.
Jane:
[2:51] And after all the hard work of the accreditation process, Lenore should feel proud, because TPAS have deemed Link to be a shining example of good practice in tenant participation, as Lesley Baird explains.
Lesley:
[3:02] I think it's fair to say that Link do far better on the ground than they do on paper, and that's one of the comments that they've taken on board.
[3:08] So if I were a tenant coming to Link Housing Association, I could pick up a new strategy and see actually there are lots and lots of opportunities for me.
[3:15] Link have worked really hard across the organisation, recognising that not everybody wants to be part of a tenants' group, but do recognise that people, although they do have a tenancy agreement, they have a right to participate at whatever level suits them.
[3:27] Link have picked up and run with that and have a range of options for tenants at a level that suits them best. Tenants are at the heart of the organisation, and clearly involved in decision-making across the organisation.
[3:38] We were very impressed with Link's performance.
Jane:
[3:41] Thanks for listening to this Link podcast. To hear more Link podcasts, visit www.linkhousing.org.uk.
