About Resident Voice IndexTM
The Resident Voice Index™ is a long-term project aiming to gather and present anonymised survey responses from people living in social housing in the UK.
We want to hear your voice. The surveys will tell us about your experiences, your home, your neighbourhood, how you feel about your housing provider and your vision for the future.
How will questions be asked?
Questions will be asked through a series of short questionnaires, polls and surveys around a range of topics dealing with different aspects of living in social housing in the UK.
How are the topics decided?
The range of topics will be co-created with residents about what is important to those living in social housing.
Topics will cover a range of areas including overall experiences, homes, neighbourhoods, housing providers and visions for the future.
Will my housing provider see my answers?
No. The Resident Voice Index™ project is completely independent, with no links to housing providers or formal resident structures. All answers will be anonymised meaning that any information given will not have any links back to the person who gave it and will be held safely and securely.
Why should I get involved?
The way that social housing works is changing. The recent publication by the government of the Charter for Social Housing Residents has made clear that residents need to be listened to and housing providers need to show that they will act upon their responses.
Your voice matters and giving a few minutes to share your opinion can provide a real insight into where efforts can be best placed to improve services and communities.
Why are you asking HomeSwapper users?
The first round of surveys for the Resident Voice Index™ project will go out to HomeSwapper users. The site is unique in social housing; at any one time there could be a ¼ million people actively using it that can add their opinions to these topics.
This means that the surveys are likely to receive a good volume of responses, which will have a bigger impact on making improvements happen.
Why are you doing this?
MRI Software are the people behind HomeSwapper. Because of this, we have the largest direct access to social housing residents independent of their housing provider.
We also build other software solutions for the social housing industry which offer a range of different touchpoints with residents. Analytics gathered from these solutions can support the building of a detailed picture that can help inform the way that social housing works in the future.
Will I be asked personal questions?
Depending on the topic of the survey, some of the questions might feel a bit personal. This is so we can understand all aspects of your experience and how that feeds into your living situation and relationship with your housing provider.
If you do not feel comfortable answering these types of questions though, then you can skip them.
Do I have to answer all the questions?
The more questions you answer, the better. It will mean that we can get as full a picture as possible of the experiences of social housing residents in the UK.
However, most questions will not be mandatory, so if you feel uncomfortable answering anything, you can just move onto the next question.
What will be done with the results of the surveys?
The anonymous results of the Resident Voice Index™ project will be published throughout the year and be freely available and accessible for both residents and housing providers. We want people working in social housing to use the results to build a detailed picture that can help inform the way that social housing works in the future.
How do I answer the surveys?
To answer the surveys, you will need access to a computer/tablet/smartphone and the internet. The link to the latest survey will be available on your HomeSwapper dashboard.
All you need to do is follow the link and start answering the questions.
Where will the surveys be available?
Information about the surveys will be available on the Latest Survey page of this website. When a survey is launched, you will be able to see the link for the survey on your HomeSwapper dashboard.
Can I offer suggestions for themes and topics?
If you have suggestions about themes or topics that you think we should be asking about, then we would love to hear from you!
Please get in touch to share your thoughts at info.ResidentVoice@mrisoftware.com
How do I get in touch if I have any questions?
If you have any questions about the Resident Voice Index™ project, please get in touch here: info.ResidentVoice@mrisoftware.com
Will there be paper surveys?
For now, all surveys will be run online. We will be looking at options for collecting answers through paper surveys as the project goes on.
How long will the surveys take to complete?
Each survey shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes to complete.
