Heres an idea

Two years ago we developed the idea of breakfast meetings to offer housing officers the opportunity to come up with ideas to improve their estates. We called them BIG breakfasts, after our estate rating system, where the standard of each one is rated bronze, silver or gold: BIG stands for “Bronze Into Gold”.

The scheme started in the North-west, where we identified most bronze estates. We sent 10 estate officers an invitation, describing what the workshops would be about. All the officers accepted the invitation.

Breakfasts take place in one of our offices on a fortnightly basis and never last longer than one hour. Officers can talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere.

Each meeting is about a specific topic, such as communicating with tenants, recruiting tenant representatives, and estate investment opportunities.

During the first meeting on communication, we presented the officers with a dozen examples of customer newsletters from high street companies and put a bin in the middle of the table. We told them to decide which ones they liked and bin the ones they didn’t. We wanted to give them the chance to express their views on what makes good communication so they could use those skills to reach their tenants.

This first meeting set the tone for the other sessions. It was such a success that people who didn’t manage bronze estates asked whether they could come along too, because they thought that the attendees got a lot out of it.

Officers are very keen on coming to these meetings because they can influence the rating of their estate and move from bronze to higher grades. In September the first audit report about the changes in performance will be released. It will be interesting to see how these meetings have made a difference on the ground.

The pilot scheme has been working well and, on 13 April, Jon Rouse from the Housing Corporation will attend one of our BIG breakfasts. From April the scheme rolls out in the other regions where it might be extended to other times of the day. Why not have a BIG lunch or a BIG afternoon tea?