Satisfaction surveys: your opinions really matter to us | News

Starting from Monday 25 September and over the next few weeks, around 800 tenants will be randomly selected for a short survey. Your insights will help us to understand how we’re doing and what we need to do better. Thank you in advance. 

 

What's the need for this survey?

It's important we survey a representative number of our tenants to make sure we understand your latest thoughts and know about your recent experiences of our services. 

The surveys and results help us to understand what we’re doing right or wrong, how we can improve and provide you with greater value for money, and so we can compare ourselves to other housing providers and identify best practice.

The Regulator of Social Housing has introduced new tenant satisfaction measures and this survey is crucial to these measures by recording how tenants think we're doing.

You can read more in the section below about the role these surveys play in tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs).  

 

Who would contact me about the survey?

A company called TLF Research would contact you. TLF is working on our behalf. 

As we all need to be aware of potential bogus callers and dodgy doorstep callers, any contact from TLF will only be about the satisfaction survey and information about our Resident Voices Channel (more information on this at www.boltonathome.org.uk/resident-voices-channel).

You won’t be asked to share any further information about yourself or your household.  

 

How and when would I be contacted?

Most contacts will involve a phone call. Some tenants will get an email or a form by post.

TLF will make calls during the day and into the early evening, but not later than 8:30 pm. If you miss a call, they will attempt to contact you again at another time.

Please don’t worry about getting a call or feel like you need to stay at home if you haven’t been contacted about doing a survey at a specific time. If you miss a call from TLF, they’ll simply try you again at another time. We don’t want this to be a concern or an inconvenience. And they’ll will never expect you to call them back, so there’s no cost to you. 

 

What would they ask me?

You would be asked to share your views and experiences of our services.

The questions focus on your satisfaction and experiences.

 

How long would it take to do?

It typically takes only a few minutes to complete.

 

Is my feedback confidential?

Yes, your feedback is confidential. 

TLF follows a special code of conduct for researchers. If you’re contacted, the code ensures that you and the information you share is treated with respect. For example, the interviewers won’t lead you towards a particular point of view and you’ll be given a range of options that will allow you to express your opinion, and your answers can be anonymous if you ask for them to be.  

 

How do I know my personal information is secure?

Your privacy and personal data is extremely important to us. 

TLF follows a special code of conduct for researchers. If you’re contacted, the code ensures that you and the information you share is treated with respect.

Our Privacy Notice explains how we manage your personal data. You can read it at www.boltonathome.org.uk/data-protection 

If you’ve any questions relating to your personal data, and our handling of it, please contact our Information Governance Team by email to IG@boltonathome.org.uk 

 

Why might I not be contacted?

Not being contacted doesn't mean your views aren't important.

Tenants will be contacted for the survey until we have plenty of responses that make sure the results are reliable, so you might not be contacted on this occasion. 

We welcome your views at any time, and you can provide feedback by phoning us on 01204 328000 or visiting www.boltonathome.org.uk/customer-feedback.

 

What if I don't want to take part in the survey?

We'd really appreciate your time to take part and give us your opinions if you can, but there's no obligation to do so.

 

Will you share the survey results?

Once tenants’ responses have been pulled together and analysed, we’ll share with you the main findings and what changes these have led to.

Our annual report for April 2022 to March 2023 is coming soon, and it’ll include results and actions from our last survey.

 

What are tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs)?

The Regulator of Social Housing in England introduced a new system for assessing the performance of social housing landlords in providing quality homes and services. This includes a set of tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) that landlords must report on, which will be used by tenants to understand how well landlords are doing. 

These measures were developed in a response to The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper, which outlined ways to improve conditions for tenants. 

The TSMs cover all types of rented social housing in England where the landlord is registered with the regulator. Landlords with 1,000 or more homes will be required to run a tenant perception survey every year to collect information for the TSMs. Landlords will be responsible for ensuring the survey results are meaningful and accurate, including getting enough responses, removing barriers to participation, and avoiding bias. 

The aim of the TSMs is to make landlords performance more visible to tenants and help them hold their landlords to account. The measures are intended to be clear and comparable between landlords, while also working as a package to show how well a landlord is doing in key areas. 

The new TSMs came in from 1 April 2023, with landlords of 1,000 or more homes now expected to send their first year of TSM data to the regulator in the summer of 2024, and the first year of data being published in autumn 2024. 

There are currently 22 individual TSMs, which cover five themes: 

• overall satisfaction, 
• keeping properties in good repair, 
• maintaining building safety, 
• respectful and helpful engagement, 
• and effective handling of complaints. 

Of the 22 TSMs, 10 will be measured directly by landlords and 12 will be measured by landlords through tenant perception surveys. 

Overall, the TSMs are designed to improve the quality of social housing and give tenants a greater voice in holding landlords accountable for their performance. 

 

Thank you.