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If you want to get involved with our activities in the community, the PHA involvement register is open to anyone living in Cornwall, not just PHA tenants.
This means you can have your say and be directly involved in improving and changing PHA's services and activities in your community.
The involvement register allows you to be involved in many different ways - allowing you to choose which way suits you best. Ways of getting involved include;
- panel meetings
- telephone surveys
- postal surveys
- focus groups
- internet discussions
- community meetings
Frequently asked questions:
What is the Residents Involvement Register?
It is a list of people who are interested in contributing towards improving the way PHA delivers its services and who want to get involved in some way or another.
What is involved once I have filled out the application form?
Once PHA has received your registration form, we will log it with the names of other people who would also like to be involved. We will note what sort of involvement you would like to have (i.e. attending panel meetings or postal surveys). We will also note what area of PHA service that you would like to be involved with. For example, we would not invite you to attend a panel meeting if you have stated that you would prefer to be involved with surveys, OR, we would not ask you about your opinion on our website if you have stated that your interest is in repairs and maintenance.
How much time will I need to give, will I have to attend a lot of meetings?
You will not be expected to put in a lot of time. A panel meeting will last for approximately 2 - 3 hours, telephone surveys between 5 and 30 minutes and a postal survey will take less than 5 minutes. It is up to you if you want to accept a panel meeting invitation, and you do not have to attend more than one if you do not want to.
What are “panel” meetings?
Panel meetings are when we invite people who have an interest in the service that PHA provides to share their thoughts about the service. These meetings are quite informal and usually last three hours. Refreshments are provided and transport can be arranged if needed. Participants are also given a £15 attendance allowance for every panel meeting that they attend.
At panel meetings, a member of staff will do a short presentation on the service we are concentrating on at that particular meeting. You will then be asked to contribute your opinions or share any experience that you have had in that area. All comments made by panel members remain confidential and we use these comments when reviewing our services. Although there is a serious purpose to these panel meetings, they are always very informal and many previous participants have found them to be both informative and sociable.
What sort of questionnaires and surveys are they?
All questionnaires are sent out by post with a reply paid envelope for your convenience. These can be on a variety of topics and some common questionnaires that we use are around issues relating to newly built properties, painting contracts, window replacements and day to day repairs.
Surveys can be postal, by telephone, face to face interview or even by e-mail if you have access to the internet.
You will not be asked to complete a questionnaire on a topic that you have not expressed an interest in getting involved with.
What is involved in community meetings?
These may be on services in a particular geographic area where there is no active residents association. It could be that we are planning on running a repair contract on an estate and we would like to meet with residents before completing our plans. In this way, we can ensure that tenants priorities are included in any contract – and in the event that we cannot accommodate some of these ideas, we can explain the restrictions.
What is a focus group?
A focus group is very similar to a panel. The main difference is that the topic under review or is to be challenged is not a core business activity. For instance, we may convene a focus group to look at the priorities for PHA in the next few years. In this case we would compare what tenants’ priorities are compared to those of the management team of the Association
Who else will be involved in the involvement register?
The register is made up from people who have expressed an interest in helping to shape PHA’s services to a more customer focussed one. The register is therefore made up from: - tenants, leaseholders, staff of PHA, staff or volunteers from the voluntary and community sector, the local authority, housing applicants, PHA Board members, health representatives and others.
If you're interested in joining the involvement register, please contact Claire Welsh using the link at the bottom of this page, or complete the form below.
