We want to involve you in everything we do...

We want to make sure we are giving our best services to you and the communities we work in. To do this you need to be at the heart of what we do. There are lots of ways you can get involved. Please see below for different ways that you can make a difference to our services.

What is ‘getting involved’?

It is your chance to have a say in what we do and how we do it. We do not only want to know what you think about our services, we also want to work with you to improve them. With the diversity of our residents in mind, we have designed a menu of ways to encourage as many people as possible to become involved in our work. You can give as little as an hour a year or as much time as you want to give, it’s your choice.

You can ‘pick and mix’ how you get involved. It only takes a little amount of time to make a big difference. These are some of the ways in which you can get involved, which one suits you?

Satisfaction and Telephone Surveys

 

We really want to know what you think of our service so from time to time surveys are sent out to our residents and service users to get your views so that we can improve on our service.

Resident/Scheme/Street Meetings

These are held regularly on your scheme to let you know news on what is going on in your area.  These meetings are useful to get your opinions on everything that affects you in a scheme so you are involved with the decision making process at a local level.

Residents Representatives

Resident Representatives are voted in at scheme meetings. They meet regularly with scheme managers to discuss matters that affect you at your scheme and also represent your scheme by attending service panel meetings for your service area.

Service Area Panels

These panels meet regularly with other service users from the same part of the business. They review policies related to their service area, contribute towards the First Option newsletter, review resident activities sharing good practice. They are also involved in the decision making process for approval of service panel grants.

Mystery Shopping

We use mystery shoppers to test our services. The shopper calls or visits our officers and then tells us how they are treated. Our staff doesn’t know who the shoppers are.

Service User Training and Development

From time to time we hold training courses for our service users such as Adult Literacy. These can help develop your skills and confidence grows and you will also learn more about certain aspects of our company.

Have Your Say Sessions

These take place 3 times a year and will involve about 40 people from different parts of Arena Options. It is a structured session where you will get involved with up and coming reviews of Group wide service or policies. It also focuses on ‘You said we did’ which shows service users what changes have been introduced as a result of your involvement in previous activities.

Focus Groups

These are usually one off informal meetings to consult our service users about important issues. They are a good way to have your say if you do not have time to commit to regular meetings.

Resident Associations

Some schemes have resident associations. They are a good way for getting together with your neighbours to talk about things affecting your local area. They can be used to organise social events, support local campaigns and increase community spirit.

Website review group

This group meets occasionally to review the content our website in order to make it more ‘user friendly’.  Or service users can help with this group via their own computers at home.

Arena 300

The Arena 300 will comprise at least 300 residents drawn from right across the Arena Group. It will act as a consultancy team for Arena to call upon when reviewing service delivery. Residents in the 300 team will share information and comments with other residents, enabling them to devise solutions and improve services.

*Tenant Inspector

Tenant Inspectors are trained to evaluate our performance in certain parts of the business such as how we carry out repairs. Tenant inspectors also talk to other residents about the services they receive.

*Resident Board Member

Members are involved in the decision making that affects the whole company. The Board makes important decisions about how the organisation is run and the work we do. It is made up of residents, members from the business community, and people with high levels of experience in public sector work.

*We have a formal recruitment process for becoming a resident board member or Tenant Inspector for which we advertise via our website and First Option newsletter.

We will support if you want to get involved by paying for any reasonable travel expenses and the cost of care for relatives and children who depend on you. We will arrange meetings and events at different times to suit everyone’s availability, making sure buildings are accessible and provide information for you in different formats.
SO WHY NOT GET INVOLVED!!

If you would like to get involved with any of the above, please complete the form below and we will contact you with further information.