Housing Scrutiny Panel

Details of the Housing Scrutiny Panel and how to get involved.

About the Housing Scrutiny Panel

The Housing Scrutiny Panel lets council tenants and leaseholders have a say and influence services that relate to the management of their homes.

The panel are a small group of tenants and leaseholders who work as a team to help improve services for all council tenants and leaseholders.

We look at the issues affecting tenants and leaseholders and make recommendations for improvement.

The role of the panel is to:

prioritise and oversee tenant led scrutiny activities
review evidence and make recommendations for service improvements
monitor and review agreed action plans
tell other tenants what the panel is doing and encourage them to get involved

How we work

You can find out how we work in our pdf Bristol Housing Scrutiny Panel terms of reference (139 KB)

How you can join the Housing Scrutiny Panel

If you care about tenants having a voice and can work as part of a team we'd love to hear from you.

There are many benefits to joining the scrutiny panel, for example, you can:

have a say about how the council could improve services to tenants and leaseholders
learn new skills for your CV and increase your knowledge about housing issues
share, learn and encourage others using your own experience
meet new people and work as part of a team

Information, support and training are available to help get you started.

If you're interested in getting involved contact Tenant Participation via tpu@bristol.gov.uk or call 0117 352 1444

Number of places on the panel

There are a maximum of 12 places available on the panel.

If all of the places are taken, you can join a reserve list until a space becomes available. The Housing Scrutiny panel operates under the council's equality policy and welcomes members from all backgrounds.

How scrutiny works

The panel is supported by the councils Tenant Participation Officer.

The officer and the panel members identify information and training to help the panel get ready to carry out scrutiny projects.

Once a scrutiny topic is agreed, the panel can request relevant information about service performance, targets and plans. They can also request exploratory interviews with staff and look at best practice. This evidence is used to inform its findings and recommendations.

Scrutiny projects can be short task and finish projects or can take around three to six months to complete, depending on the nature and size of the project.

What will trigger scrutiny

A request for scrutiny can be triggered by different reasons such as evidence of poor performance or low satisfaction affecting a majority of tenants and leaseholders.

Scrutiny requests can also be submitted via tenants' groups, like Tenants' Associations and Service User Groups.

To make a request, fill in the document Housing Scrutiny Panel request for scrutiny for council tenants and leaseholder tenants (2.17 MB) form.

pdf Criteria for prioritising scrutiny projects (1.19 MB)

The scrutiny panel cannot deal with individual complaints.

Make a complaint or give feedback with our complaints team.

How will scrutiny be carried out

Scrutiny is done in different ways. You could be looking at documents and procedures, or helping the service as part of a larger project to develop its approach and how it communicates with tenants during the process.

Dates and venue of meetings

The Housing Scrutiny Panel is hosting an online meeting for Bristol City Council tenants on the new Consumer Standards for Social Housing.

The meeting is on 25 September 2023, 6pm to 7.30pm.

Book your place on Eventbrite.

The panel normally meet on the second Tuesday of each month, between 10am and 1pm.

The panel may meet more frequently if they're undertaking a project or related activity.

Monthly meetings are online.

Our Scrutiny reports

We have completed a number of scrutiny reports which have recommendations and improvement action plans.

Tell us about a problem with a form, page or Citizen Portal account