SBTO members share good practice at TPAS Conference

SBTO members Dominic Brookes (left) and Ralph Nichol.

Did you know – Tenants in Scotland are legally entitled to be consulted on the services they receive? And that they are the only Tenants in the world who have this right? At SBHA we offer a variety of ways to get involved. See our Tenant participation page for more details.

Last month, Dominic Brookes and Ralph Nichol of Scottish Borders Tenants Organisation, the Registered Tenants Organisation of SBHA, were invited to share their experience of Scrutiny at the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) Conference in St Andrews.

RTOs  are recognised by the Scottish Government as a consulting group for their landlord. SBTO has worked alongside SBHA since Stock Transfer in 2003, providing their feedback on proposed policy or service changes.

Since 2015, SBTO has also undertaken Scrutiny exercises, which take a particular aspect of the service offered to Tenants and scrutinise this against the standard that the Association says it provides. SBTO were invited to the TPAS Conference to talk about this as they are one of the few RTOs that carry out Scrutiny – most landlords carry out scrutiny through a short-lived panel that has been set up specifically for the purpose.

Tenant Participation Manager Alison Notman said: “The advantage of having an RTO carry out Scrutiny is that there is already a working relationship and in-depth understand of the association, as well as a confidence in making recommendations that comes from these.”