Get Involved

Vale Homes is keen to ensure that it listens to and works with tenants and leaseholders, providing opportunities to improve and develop the services it provides.

We have just launched our Tenant Compact. The Vale Homes Tenant Compact is an agreement between Vale Homes, its tenants/ leaseholders and Contract-holders and covers how their voices and opinions are heard, valued and how action is taken to help deliver better service outcomes based on their expressed needs. See below:

Tenant Compact

The process of involving tenants and leaseholders in decision making about the services we offer is called, Tenant Participation.

We believe that engaging and listening to our tenants and leaseholders is key to getting things right, as our tenants/leaseholders are the experts on how our services are being received.

In our view tenants and leaseholders, input should be a central part of how we manage our homes, our leasehold properties and tenancies. We are keen to provide opportunities for tenants/leaseholders to work with our teams to design and deliver services.

There are a number of definitions of Tenant Participation and Tenant Engagement, a widely used definition is provided by TPAS Cymru, “Tenants Participation is a way for tenants and landlords to share ideas and co-operate. It's a way for the tenant to be involved in the decision-making process that occurs during discussions about improving the standard of housing conditions and service”.

TPAS is the Tenants Participation Advisory Service and details about what they do can be found on their website:

tpas.cymru

Tenant Participation Useful Documents

Get involved and have your say on the services delivered by Vale Homes

Get Involved Leaflet

New tenant induction training and training for Resident Groups, the Working Group, Quality Design Forum and the Service Quality Assessors

Tenant Involvement Training Programme

Welcome to your Jargon Buster and Acronym De-Coder of abbreviations we may use

Jargon Buster

Our vision for engaging with our tenants and leaseholders

Tenant and Leaseholder Participation Strategy

How can you get involved?

There are a range of ways in which you can get involved:

Get-Involved@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

Tenants and Residents Groups

We have over 60 tenants regularly taking part in discussing local issues on estates and in their communities, including estate conditions, anti-social behaviour, facilities, parking and getting involved in decision making on the practical changes we can take to address these issues.

Future meeting dates:

Colcot Residents Association - November 15th, 17th January 2025. 1-2pm in Colcot Community Hall, Keats Way, Barry.

Star Residents Association - 28th January, 11th March, 29th April, 3rd June from 4:30-6pm in the POD St Luke's Avenue, Penarth. All held on Tuesdays.

Redlands Residents Association - 6th January 2025 from 10:30-12 noon in Redlands House lounge area, Penarth. All held on Mondays.

Dinas Powys Residents Group - 6th January, 3rd March, 28th April, 23rd June, 18th August, 29th September, 24th November 2025 from 2-4pm in Youldon House, Fairoaks, Dinas Powys. All held on Mondays.

Longmeadow Court Scheme - 25th November, 16th January 2025 all running from 11-12:30pm. Held in the Lounge area in Longmeadow Sheltered Scheme, Cowbridge.

The Vale Homes - Tenant Working Group

This group consists of 20 Tenants living in areas through the Vale of Glamorgan. It is an umbrella group of tenants made up from different Resident Groups/individuals who meet every 6- 8 weeks to consider Strategic Issues affecting their housing services e.g. monitoring the delivery of the Tenant Participation & Leaseholder Strategies, new policies, performance, new services and initiatives.

The meeting dates for the Tenant Working Group are:

All are held on Thursdays 10-1pm in the Dunraven Room, Civic Offices, Barry.

30th January, 27th March, 22nd May, 24th July, 18th September, 13th November.

Our December Annual Christmas Event will be held on Thursday 12th, 11-2pm.

The Quality Design Forum (QDF)

Consists of 6 tenants who oversee the Welsh Housing Quality Standards guidelines/programme of works and larger works projects which are being undertaken including visits to New Build projects.

The future dates for QDF meetings:

All are held on Thursdays 1-3pm at the Alps, Wenvoe.

Sheltered Housing Forum

Consists of residents from the 5 Vale Home Sheltered Housing Schemes who meet every two months to discuss matters related to Sheltered Housing and other local matters of interest.

The future meeting dates for the Sheltered Housing Forum:

Monday 27th January at Redland's House

Monday 28th April at Longmeadow Court AGM -

Monday 28th July at Crawshay Court

Monday 27th October at Fairoaks

11:30am - 2:30pm

Housing and Communities Scrutiny Group

Consists of 4 tenant members from the Working Group, Senior Housing staff members and Councillors who review performance and consider new project proposals and ideas.

FestiVale Staff/Tenant Group

This group meet regularly to discuss new ideas for the Annual Tenant FestiVale event which is usually held in August. They assist attendees at the event to complete Satisfaction Surveys, provide ideas on how communities and areas can be improved and ensure that all those who attend have a lovely day out. This event is free to all tenants and their immediate family and a free snack/drink is provided on site via a voucher system for all.

Providing feedback in surveys and questionnaires,

Not everyone can spare the time to take part in the different groups available. But you can still give your views on our current and proposed services by completing questionnaires and surveys whenever you can.

To become involved in any of our tenant participation initiatives or just to find out more, please contact:

Heather Powney

Senior Tenant Liaison Officer

07702338840
hpowney@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

Mark Ellis

Community Investment and Involvement Officer

07826 020707
markellis@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

Shani Payter

Community Investment and Involvement Officer

07813068324
spayter@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

Future Developments

Going forward we will be offering tenants additional opportunities for involvement which include, becoming a Critical Friend by training as a Service Quality Assessor (SQA) and training as Mystery Shoppers.

What are Service Quality Assessors (SQAs)

SQAs will help us to scrutinise the services we deliver in detail, providing constructive challenge on Why and How services are delivered the way they are.

The type of services the SQA will scrutinise will be determined by the level of complaints we receive from service areas. The SQA will make recommendations on what needs to change and why covering what is working well and what isn’t. This will be key to enabling Vale Homes staff to provide improved services to our tenants, providing Value for Money and delivered in a Timely Manner.

What are mystery shoppers?

Mystery shoppers will periodically complete “Mystery Shopping” exercises and test out how services are actually being delivered and whether they are delivered to the correct standard and, if not what changes are required.