We want you, our residents, to know that Sanctuary cares, because we absolutely do. This is reflected in our work with our two customer panels in developing strategies and new initiatives as well as holding us to account for our services. We are also investing in restructuring and training our teams to put customers at the heart of everything we do.
We want you, our residents…
We have all sorts of ways you can get involved in helping us deliver the quality of services you expect for both now and the future. Such as from being on a formal customer panel, to taking part in an estate inspection to completing a quick survey. You will hear more about some of these examples below.
Local Engagement
We know our residents want to talk to their local Sanctuary team about local issues.
Strategic Engagement
We want to strengthen the influence of the residents on significant decisions.
Customer Experience
We know residents want a better experience when raising day-to-day issues.
We recognise the need to be accountable to customers and to engage with you effectively. The first strategic objective of our Corporate Strategy is ‘Putting our Customers First.’ Our Resident Engagement Strategy for 2022-25: ‘Shaping our Future’ sets out this aim through strengthening local engagement, strengthening strategic engagement, and listening to every voice to improve the customer experience.
We made a clear commitment to increase the influence of our customers on strategic issues. One way we’re making this happen is through the engaged residents who make up our new Resident Advisory Panel (RAP). More than 500 customers applied to join the panel, enabling us to select a dozen diverse and knowledgeable residents with a range of lived experiences.
Our RAP works closely with our Group Board, Group Housing Board, and senior team. These residents share their views to make sure our customers’ voice is central to our decision-making. The RAP works alongside our Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP), a group that reviews our services. Both panels are supported by our Communities of Interest, groups of residents we bring together to focus on a topic from a customer’s perspective.
For the first six months, an independent chair supported both panels to help these new teams settle in. The members of each panel have now elected their own resident chairs, both of whom introduce this report.
You can find out more about the Resident Advisory and Resident Scrutiny panels on our website.
Resident-led estate inspections
We routinely visit our neighbourhoods and carry out estate inspections, in fact there is usually one happening across the country every working day. Estate visits involve our whole team, led by the local housing officer, we often have Group Board, Committee and panel members, senior and executive colleagues and most importantly residents/customers involved.
Family and friends test visits
The Family and Friends Test sees customers visit our Supported Living services. They are asked to find out about the service, talk to some of the customers who live there, and say whether they would recommend the service to their family or friends.
This simple concept gives us a diverse range of perspectives to help us improve and provide services in line with customer expectations.
We have around 37 resident assessors across England. We help them complete a DBS check before their first visit to protect any vulnerable customers.
Involved resident case study
Hear about the experience from an involved resident, passionate about the environment and sustainability.
I was asked to do some work for the Greener Futures Partnership, a collaboration of five housing associations including Sanctuary. The group works together to improve the energy efficiency and affordability of their homes, which includes retrofitting their schemes with green heating systems and insulation. With our collective knowledge, we work on different parts of the tendering process to deliver retrofitting more effectively. Each business made a pitch to us based on a scenario. Some of the contracts they were pitching for were potentially worth millions of pounds.
Explore the report
Your Home
We recognise that this has been a challenging year for our services. Despite this, you will see there were a number of significant achievements and there are more improvements for the year ahead.
Find out more
Your Services
Our teams have been hard at work supporting and engaging with residents across the country. Together we have made a difference in dozens of communities, adding value beyond what people might expect from their landlord.
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Your Sanctuary Community
Working at Sanctuary involves so much more than providing people with a safe and secure place to live. We strive to create neighbourhoods with a sense of community, one you are happy to call ‘home’.
Find out more