What we've been working on: Scrutiny Panel

Carbon reduction website review

The Scrutiny Panel carried out a review on the South Tyneside Council Housing Services Website content with the review scope being:

'How can Housing Services improve advice and information on the Housing Services website to help customers achieve carbon reductions and achieve affordable warmth with available technologies?'

The Scrutiny Panel felt that a review project could add value to the work done by us to minimise carbon / energy use by its customers.

The review was carried out between June 2021 and January 2022.

This review has been carried out using the range of methods such as:

  • desktop review
  • staff discussions
  • benchmarking
  • customer surveys

The Scrutiny Panel comprises 10 customers, most of whom were able to participate in the review process.

The Panel spent approximately 170 hours working on this review. 

In conclusion the Scrutiny Panel found that while the website contains a lot of information, more than the websites of a lot of other organisations that were benchmarked, it has identified several areas for improvement, including better website content, explanations of what low carbon technologies will be available and our plan for achieving net zero. Education and campaigns for tenants and staff and addressing customer concerns were also recommended.

In total the Scrutiny Panel made 20 recommendations which have been agreed for implementation.