Summary of Approach to the Tenant Satisfaction Measures

Wandle has just under 7500 homes across south London. Most of our homes are general needs rented homes, as well as other rented homes, with 775 shared ownership and 591 leasehold homes.

To meet the requirements of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), we have produced this summary of our approach to be clear on how we are gathering views from tenants.

What are TSMs?

The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) Standard requires all registered providers to conduct tenant perception surveys and report performance annually as specified by the RSH. TSMs are intended to make landlords’ performance more visible to tenants so that tenants can hold their landlord to account.

TSMs consist of 22 measures: 10 providing management information from data held by the landlord and 12 satisfaction measures gathered from tenant surveys. In addition to overall satisfaction with landlord services, the measures cover five key themes:

• Keeping properties in good repair
• Maintaining building safety
• Respectful and helpful engagement
• Responsible neighbourhood management
• Effective handling of complaints

A. Summary of sample

Wandle complete all of our surveys internally and we aim to complete as many of these surveys as we can over the phone. Three phone call attempts are made to each resident, if no answer is received then a SMS survey is sent to the resident. We conduct all of our sheltered housing surveys face to face.

As Wandle has less than 1000 low-cost home ownership (LCHO) homes, it is not compulsory to conduct this survey for LCHO tenants.

B. Timing of survey

Surveys are completed throughout each month, near or on the ‘anniversary’ of the tenants’ tenancy start date.

C. Collection method

Wandle conducted all surveys ourselves, by phone. If there was no response by the third call attempt then a SMS text was sent as a final opportunity to participate. All supported housing surveys were conducted face to face. This to ensure tenants have additional support, and to fully explain questions.

We took this approach because we know from our customers, that telephone surveys enable us to better understand customer views, to proactively address any issues and to ensure that the survey questions (scripted by the regulator) are fully understood.

We used a census approach to surveying, rather than a sampling approach. We chose the census approach as it is simple and is suited to smaller housing providers that might find it challenging to achieve a minimum sample size associated with standard levels of statistical accuracy.

This method provides opportunity to reach out to all residents and data collated is used to gain insight into how we are performing as well as used as a driver for service improvement.

D. Sample method

Wandle uses a secure survey platform called CX Feedback which is connected to our housing management platform in Microsoft Dynamics. Tenants who opted out or have completed a different survey in the last three months are excluded. The survey design meets the criteria as defined by the RSH (ANNEX 4: Tenant Survey Requirements).

Any additional questions Wandle asked were sequenced after the leading TSM question. During telephone interviews, a 'Don’t know/Refused' option was available for questions TP01, TP02, TP03, TP04, TP09, and TP10. This option was not read aloud but used when a tenant could not select a response but wished to continue. This approach prevented our interviewers from making assumptions and allowed tenants to continue providing feedback. When submitting data, any 'Don’t know/Refused' responses are excluded from the percentage calculations for these questions. Consequently, the TSM survey results might include tenants who did not answer TP01 but continued to provide feedback. This complies with the introductory text that confirms their data would be included in the submission to the Regulator.

E. Representation

Wandle aims to achieve higher than the recommended minimal standard recommended by the regulator of social housing (556 for dwellings/units 7500). We attempted to survey every low cost rental accommodation (LCRA) household, and achieved a sample of 918. The Wandle sample size based on the population has also been independently calculated based on unit numbers.

Using the calculator.net tool the recommended sample size with a 95% confidence level is 361. Wandle exceeded the minimum calculated recommended sample size as set out in the table below.