Do we need a specialist version of the Pizazz Handbook for tenancy sustainment and housing management?
From autumn 2024, following Robin Johnson's return to active service after (successful!) medical treatment, Robin will be taking the lead on the Tenancy Sustainment and Housing Management Special Interest Group - for more details, see below.
So if you are interested in getting involved in this, please email at robin [at] pielink [dot] net. But please do check to ensure that your spam filters etc do let emails from us through.
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This is an invitation from Robin Johnson (the original author of the concept of a PIE, and the founder of the PIElink as a forum space). Robin writes:
'Folks, I've an idea I'd like to talk over in detail with perhaps just a few people, at this early stage. (And as some people invited here will not be fully familiar with some of the history, I’ve used hyperlinks to take you to places on the site or in the Library where you can explore more.)
‘This is a proposal for an on-going discussion, in effect a new PIElink Special Interest Group, to take forward our earlier discussions on PIEs and Housing First (HERE: also HERE, and HERE ) to extend these explorations of what works into support more generally, for a wider range of vulnerable tenants.
My question is: What does 'good' look like, in tenancy sustainment?
'But I am thinking that it's not just the staff of the tenancy support services – many of whom are members of the PIElink - that might need some more specialist focus, within the overall PIEs framework and in the PIElink community. It's also the housing management staff and their managers. They are technically the landlords, and in a very different role in the ecology of assistance.
'I've also been thinking (and even writing: HERE) for some while that it might be useful to revisit how the PIEs approach overall and, more specifically the 2.0 framework, might operate in services that provide support in people's own homes, seeing a home as a really quite different kind of environment to work with (HERE). A discussion on the common ground between us all, to see where housing management comes within the PIEs approach, would be helpful, I suspect.
I’d like to look again at the issues that arise, to see to what extent they might benefit from clarifying the application of this approach in people’s own homes; and at the advice and the examples I'd originally suggested in the Pizazz Handbook (HERE) and in the PIE Abacus (HERE).
'I haved reason to believe that there would be funding available for a programme of R&D (research and development) work on this, comparable to the bid that we at PIEPR (HERE) had put in earlier for some work on whole systems integration in Northern Ireland (and are now re-drafting for an all-UK initiative : HERE soon).
With the offer of pro bono assistance from a couple of people with particular expertise in such evaluations (and bidding for funds) it is something we have already started to writee up.
'But for now, I'm thinking to suggest some preliminary scoping discussions - with whoever may be interested - as a wider sounding board for a smaller'task group'. We can start with an open forum in the PIElink members forums programme. From there, let's see…..’
And a bit of history:
'I actually did quite a lot of work on this issue back in 2007 or so, when working initially with the Housing Corporation and NIMHE as an independent researcher, resulting in a report called 'At Home?" (HERE) that had many recommendations for improving support to housing management staff on managing the mental health issues of their tenants.
'This was in the year or so before I took on the national lead role with NSIP, that led eventually to the PIEs guidance papers (HERE and HERE). And the rest is history (HERE and HERE). The world has moved on a lot since then, with the development of PIEs, and the Pizazz (HERE) ; but many of the recommendations remain valid, at least as one contribution to a review of practice.
