The regional Champion for the West Midlands is Moorlands Housing, part of the Harvest Housing Group

RICS West Midlands Launch Event

A highly successful launch event for the West Midlands region was held in February 2010 in the Moathouse Hotel, Stoke. 42 representatives from 32 organisations attended the event which was a mixture of informative presentations and interactive group sessions.

The day began with a brief introduction from Nick Grubb, introducing the Resident Involvement Champions network and its aims. Graeme Foster,Assistant Director, Tenant Excellence from the TSA delivered an up to date view on ‘The Standards Framework and Customer Involvement’.

Paul Seymour, Director of Moorlands Housing and Service Development, then presented an overview of ‘Customer Involvement at Harvest Housing Group’.

Mirroring the National Conference in October 2009, the afternoon was all about group work and sharing best practice ideas. Every person on the tables put forward an idea from their organisation and each table then decided on one idea between them. The ideas were then put to the vote for a £250 prize for the winning organisation. Some fantastic ideas and initiatives were discussed by the 6 table entries.

The winning idea was presented to Hayley Doswell from Fry Housing Trust for the work they are doing encouraging engagement and developing skills for ex offenders.

Next steps

We will be looking to deliver a learning exchange, the first of several, in May 2010. The subject matter, following feedback from the launch, is likely to be around Scrutiny Panels and Impact Assessments. We will look to host this more centrally in the area and invite people to come forward with facilities and also to lead sessions, which should be very interactive.

The second National Conference will be held in Birmingham this year. We aim to deliver this in November and are currently sourcing venues. The London event was very successful last year and we hope to mirror this success but also to make the conference more accessible to those in the North of the country.