Resident Engagement Toolkit
Introduction
Developing and delivering a successful retrofit project requires a strong resident engagement plan. This toolkit explains the importance of resident engagement and will help you to develop a strategy following best practice to deliver retrofit outcomes to a high standard.
Contents
Summary
This toolkit has been developed for retrofit projects because they require a different approach to resident engagement. This is because they can be more disruptive and less familiar to residents than the usual planned programme of works. This toolkit presents information about resident engagement that is likely to be relevant to your retrofit plans. This toolkit can also help support your future applications for retrofit grant funding.
Who should use the toolkit?
The toolkit has been designed to help Social Housing Providers, Local Authority (LA) officers and other stakeholders involved in Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund with the delivery of the retrofit project. Those responsible for delivering and monitoring the end results of the retrofit project will get the most value from the toolkit.
This toolkit will support you to create a detailed engagement plan that considers ways to reach eligible landlords and residents. This will also include messaging, how to reach all of your residents, and anticipating possible risks such as residents who decide to drop out of your retrofit scheme.
When should you use the toolkit?
Use this toolkit whilst developing the retrofit project, and in securing support and funding. It should be used from the initial outline application stage, during project delivery and after the retrofit is completed.
It is essential for contractors to understand the importance of resident engagement within their role. For this reason, a resident engagement plan should be included within any contract specification and be regularly updated and refined as new information becomes available.
This toolkit is viable for both long term and short term ‘one off’ retrofit projects.
How should you use the toolkit?
This toolkit has three levels of increasing detail:
• Level 1 – a brief introduction
• Level 2 – a framework for co-ordinating effective resident engagement during retrofit works, organised into key resident engagement stages
• Level 3 – an explanation of the key actions for each resident engagement stage, with high level guidance and a checklist for each stage. This also includes links to masterclass videos, external reports, guides and a final ‘Summary of Recommendations’
Recommended process
1. Read the information in Levels 1 and 2 to understand the toolkit basics
2. Use Level 3 to check the key actions required for each stage and ways to bridge any gaps