At Southdown, we know that the best way to deliver meaningful housing, learning disability and mental health support services is by listening to the people who use them.
Our Client and Tenant Involvement approach ensures client/tenant voice is central to how we work. This means, influencing the way services are designed, how decisions are made, and holding us accountable for our performance.
Whether you’re a tenant in our supported social housing, or a client accessing our learning disability or mental health services, your experience and insights matter.
To ensure we continue to provide excellent support it is important that we learn from the experiences of our clients. We are also keen to hear from anyone else who comes into contact with us, for example a relative or friend of a client and health and social care professionals we work with.
What involvement looks like
Involvement at Southdown goes beyond feedback. It’s about truly listening, partnership and shared decision-making. It is about working together. We do it by:
Client involvement: Contributing knowledge, feedback, and lived experience to improve support services
Tenant engagement: Working with tenants to co-produce effective housing services through communication, monitoring, and scrutiny.
Co-production: Designing, developing and reviewing services together, as equal partners (NHS England model of best practice).
Using these practices, we encourage our clients and tenants to:
Influence their own support
This is about having a voice in your day-to-day experience. It includes building positive relationships with staff, being involved in support planning, and sharing feedback about what is working well or could be improved.
Influence service delivery
This focuses on shaping how services are delivered. Clients and tenants can contribute to service design, help improve how services work, and share feedback to guide ongoing development.
Influence the organisation
This is about having an impact beyond individual services. Clients and tenants can influence Southdown as an organisation by contributing to training, taking part in client and tenant meetings, and being involved in recruitment processes.
You said, we did
Here are some recent examples of how clients and tenants have influenced our work
- You said: Tenant satisfaction questions weren’t always clear
We did: Reviewed and improved additional Tenant Satisfaction Measure questions with tenant input. - You said: Wellbeing spaces should reflect real experiences
We did: Used lived experience to inform the redesign of our wellbeing centres. - You said: Recruitment should include lived experience
We did: Involved clients and tenants in senior leadership recruitment, including COO and CFO roles. - You said: Training should reflect real stories
We did: Included client and tenant quotes, photos, and videos in Beacon training. - You said: Strategy should be shaped by people who use services
We did: Used client and tenant feedback to inform our business strategy. - You said: The complaints process was hard to use
We did: Redesigned complaints forms and templates with direct client and tenant involvement.
Get involved
Have an idea, suggestion or example you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you.
Email us at CT@Southdown.org
Putting people at the centre of ‘My Life’
Highlights from our recent client involvement exercise