On Wednesday 22 March our resident scrutiny panel met for their first quarterly meeting of 2023.
The scrutiny panel works collaboratively with West Kent, meeting once a quarter to scrutinise our performance information, ask questions, and make suggestions for service improvements.
As well as receiving the latest set of performance reports, the panel also had a presentation on the impact of West Kent’s community work, so they could better understand the type of support teams can offer and the difference it makes. The panel were impressed by the offer and the fact that West Kent can support residents with advice on energy and benefits during the current cost of living crisis.
They also had a presentation from West Kent’s Community Safety Manager as this will be the topic of their next ‘deep-dive’ reviews. The panels reviews involve taking a really close look at a particular service or area of the organisation and then compiling a set of recommendations on how it could improve. They are currently coming to the end of a review all about how West Kent hears the voice of residents- how we listen to feedback and how we act on it.
As well as reviewing data for their reviews, the panel also reach out to talk to other residents. For their voice of the resident review, they’ve sent out a survey and held both online and in-person focus groups to hear from residents.
Their current review has been quite far reaching, and the panel have been very busy. After their latest meeting, one of the panels newer members, Cathy, commented
“Such a busy meeting but we managed to gather a lot of information to help with the current review. It is so exciting to be involved with the scrutiny panel. You can't fix things from the outside!"
If you’d like to know more about what the scrutiny panel does and the different ways you can share your views and help us improve, visit the resident involvement pages on the West Kent website.