Resident involvement opportunities

West Kent's scrutiny panel is a small group of residents that take a look at particular areas in need of improvement.

The panel meets regularly to consider how we can deliver better service to our residents and discuss their findings. Their recommendations are then presented to the Board by members of the panel.

Find out more about our scrutiny panel

Our award‑winning Resident Communications Network is growing, and we’d love you to be part of it. This is your chance to shape how we communicate, influence real projects, and make sure residents’ voices are at the heart of everything we do.

You can get involved as much or as little as you like. Every project is optional, and you can pick the topics that interest you most, from digital design to local stories, from testing new services to helping us improve how we report back to residents.

What you can get involved in

• Neighbourhood News (digital and print): Help shape the future of our magazine; from what it looks like to the kind of stories it should tell.
• Website and portal testing: Try out new features before anyone else and tell us what works, what doesn’t, and what needs improving.
• Social media content creation: Share stories from your community, your hobbies, or your neighbourhood, with support from our comms team.
• Reports and resident insights: Help us make our complaints report and resident impact & influence report clearer, more engaging, and more useful for residents.

Why join?

• It’s flexible - take part only in the projects that interest you.
• It’s varied - from creative content to digital testing to shaping major communications.
• It’s meaningful - your feedback directly influences how we communicate with thousands of residents.
• It’s open to everyone - no experience needed.

Our team will support you to develop skills, access training and learn about West Kent's communications and marketing.

Join our existing group of resident inspectors, where you’ll carry out a monthly inspection of your estate and submit feedback using an online survey, letting us know what is good and what needs improving. We’ll then feed back your suggestions to the teams that deliver these services.

This is a remote opportunity and there are incentives available for our inspectors!

This involves reviewing current and proposed new policies. You’ll provide feedback and suggestions on how you think they could be more effective and easier to understand. If you register with us, we’ll let you know when a review or consultation is due to start, and you can choose if you want to be involved.

Some of the areas we’ve looked at this year are:

• Estate services
• Maintaining your home
• Aids and adaptations
• Tenancy fraud
• Pets
• Resident expenses.

To get involved right away you can view our current consultations.

This opportunity is mostly remote but you may be invited to meetings (in-person or online) when we co-create new policies. Last year, our influencers worked on 10 policies.

This involves attending meetings with our repairs team and contractors, to discuss best practices, offer feedback and suggestions. You will be the voice of residents.

We meet with our contractor representatives three times per year, each meeting lasts for two hours and is normally held in-person. 

Our neighbourhood housing officers (NHOs) and resident involvement team regularly visit neighbourhoods to ensure the area you live in is safe and being managed well.

We want to encourage residents to join the inspections to help us understand the issues that are important to you in the neighbourhood you live.

Find out more about the inspections

Recruitment for our 2026 Mystery Shopping will take place from May to July, with the programme starting in September.

We have an opportunity for residents with an interest in new developments and sustainability to be part of an advisory group that will help shape the design brief for new homes.

The group will meet with our Development team three times per year (typically online), to discuss proposals for any new projects. You will ideally have experience of living in a new-build property, and be happy to share these experiences to provide feedback and guidance.

We’re looking for a person who is passionate about West Kent communities, to join our panel who decide which organisations will receive funding from the West Kent Community Chest.

The West Kent Community Chest is one of the ways that we support our residents and local groups to build successful and resilient communities. We can provide financial assistance to help get project ideas off the ground and bring communities together.

Although no specific skills are required for the role, and full training will be given, we’re looking for people who are interested in the charity/voluntary sector an passionate about communities.

·    The role will involve attending four panel meetings per year which will be held between working hours (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) and generally last a couple of hours. 

The meetings are held on Teams – so you won’t need to travel.  You will just need a phone, tablet or computer and a good Wi-Fi connection. If you are unable to attend the meeting, we could accept your comments via email although we would expect you to attend at least two meetings per year.

As a panel member, you get a pack with the applications to be considered around 7-10 days before each meeting.  Depending on the number of applications, you should allow between 4 – 7 hours of reading per round of funding.  You can then consider each application and highlight any areas for discussion.

Your decision making should be impartial, and you will be expected to declare any interests at the start of the meetings. You’ll also need to sign our code of conduct and confidentiality agreement.

If you're interested in joining the panel, please complete this form or contact residentinvolvement@wkha.org.uk.