We Asked, You Said, We Did

Following the Summer Tenant Conference 2019 where investment in Housing Services was discussed with attendees, we asked the wider tenant population for more detailed information on how you wanted us to invest in your housing services during 2020/21.

Tenants gave us some further detailed information on their preferences for investment.

The information you provided fed into the process that produced the three Rent Level Options and investment proposals for 2020/21 that tenants were given the opportunity to vote on in November and December 2019.

What tenants' priorities were for investing in Housing Services during 2020/21.

Areas of high priority for tenants were:

• Keeping my home well maintained and warm (such as energy efficiency, door entry systems)
• Improving the maintenance of my neighbourhood (such as fences/boundary walls/bin stores)
• Increasing the number of council homes for rent in the area
• Improving the services we provide to older tenants

We presented the findings to the Summer Tenant Conference in 2019 and asked tenants to drill down further to tell us what their highest priorities were for investment.

The questions we asked tenants at the Conference then went out for further consultation.

The findings were used to come up with the 2020/21 Rent Level Options and investment proposals that were presented to tenants to vote on in November and December 2019.

We asked  what you think about the four priorities identified to be included in the Draft Tayside Strategy for Parents 2019-23.

100% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that the priorities focus on the things that are important to them. You also told us what you thought was working well and identified areas you would like to see improvement. For example:

• Improved access to information to support parents throughout their parenting journey
• Improved schools communications to increase parental involvement, particularly focussing on parents of children aged 7 years and above.
• Creating a consistency of family learning programmes across Tayside.
• Promoting whole family approaches to assessments and service delivery.
• Developing training to increase engagement skills and awareness of a range of issues affecting parenting.

The information informed the development of the Tayside Strategy for Parents 2019-2024 and parents views have been captured  in a short animated video  to promote the strategy  to parents and service providers.

Work has started in relation to developing and delivering an action plan which will address the strategies improvement priorities. A further consultation with parents in Autumn 2019 will help to inform this further.

To help us make informed decisions, we asked for opinions on how we could make savings as budgets tighten.  

The public were asked to tell us:

• how they feel about different service areas.
• how they would make savings from the Council budget.
• if they would change Council Tax and by how much.
• their ideas on how the Council could generate additional income to offset the savings required.

1085 complete responses were received and considered. The results of the consultation are reported here.

The consultation feedback was taken into consideration in developing final recommendations which were put to full Council on 20th February 2019. Full Council agreed the Perth & Kinross Council budget for 2019/20.

We want BSL users to help us;

• by testing Contact Scotland
• with changes to our website
• with our BSL interpreting and translating guide for staff before any contracts are agreed with BSL Interpreters
• by telling us which of our staff should be trained first
• by telling us if the staff training is what you wish it to be
• by meeting with us at least twice a year to make sure our plan is progressing as you wish  and telling us if it isn’t!

From 11 June event:

• Our Plan needs to be written in Plain English
• More staff need to be trained in BSL
• More staff need awareness training in BSL and Deaf Culture
• We need to use BSL qualified interpreters and other support when required for meetings
• Communication for BSL parents and BSL children needs to be good so parents are more involved
• Access to jobs and further learning is important
• We need to improve access to health services
• BSL users would like to be more included at events and other activities in the local area
• Local political parties should be doing more for BSL users

By 28 June event:

• Met with different people who contacted us to submit their ideas
• Shared the feedback with Dundee and Angus Councils (and they did the same in their meetings)
• Our plan was rewritten in Plain English where possible
• Changed some of the actions in our draft plan to make sure what you have asked us to look at is included

The Gypsy/Traveller Community whether they agreed with the proposed themes

Gypsy/Traveller community members were consulted on the themes and revised actions during July and August with opportunities to comment also made available online.  

Three specific comments were received from community members relating to (i) the lack of a bus stop near the Gairney Bridge/Greenacres site in Kinross;  (ii) a request for the provision of more information about events and (iii) a request for information on the themes and actions to be provided in Plain English.

These issues will be responded to as the Action Plan is taken forward.

• Will the draft vision for parenting in Tayside and priorities for parenting help improve the experience of parents and outcomes for  families?
• Is the draft Tayside Strategy for Parents focused on the things that you think we can do together to make the biggest difference?

The strategy is focusing on things that are important to you as parents. The four priorities identified were the most important areas to concentrate on making improvements in. These are:

• Access to good quality information
• Communities are inclusive, understand children’s needs and support families to thrive
• Access to effective services that are delivered by a skilled and confident workforce that value the role of parents
• Policies that affect family life are supportive and deliver positive outcomes for families

The consultation informed the development of the Draft Tayside Strategy for Parents 2019-2023.

Please note that the strategy name was changed from the Tayside Parenting Strategy to the Tayside Strategy for Parents, reflecting parental ownership and partnership in it design and delivery.

We undertook further consultation  with parents to find out what was important to them and what improvements were needed in relation to the priority areas.