Housing online focus group - April 2025

On Friday 11 April 2025, we welcomed a group of 11 tenants to the Council chamber for a focus group surrounding the new housing online system, Unified. The aim of the session was to raise awareness of the system and gather feedback to be used when finalising and launching the platform.

Invitations had been sent to tenants who are members of our Estates and Communities Panel, Repairs and Investment Panel, and Landlord Panel, as well as to tenants registered on the Our North Tyneside Voice website.

Housing Online will make it simpler for tenants to:

  • Manage your tenancy from home
  • Get faster responses to your queries
  • Track the status of your requests
  • Stay informed with important updates


The home page

The tenants were shown a demonstration of what the system’s home page could look like and asked for their views. Feedback was that they liked the use of tiles on the dashboard, as they looked user-friendly. They discussed making these tiles identifiable by more than just icons and potentially using colours or numbers too.

Tenants felt that the current homepage has some duplication and that some tiles could potentially be merged to make it simpler. The tenants also suggested that wording on the tiles could be clearer. Finally, they suggested that an ‘emergency’ tile could be a good idea, as a clear place to report an emergency repair.

Regarding the order of the homepage, the tenants unanimously agreed that ‘contact us’ and ‘repairs’ were the most important tiles and should therefore be at the top. Of similar importance, and somewhere on the homepage, the tenants agreed would be their neighbourhood officer’s contact details.

Another idea suggested for the home page was, if possible, a banner with a message that would change – for example to display an important message or alert.


Links to other organisations

Tenants were asked which council services or external organisations they thought would be good to have links to from the home page. Their suggestions included:

  • Citizens Advice
  • Age UK
  • Samaritans
  • Debt charities
  • Bin collections and the Envirolink service
  • Police
  • Anti-social behaviour support
  • Domestic abuse support
  • Highways/ roads/ transport
  • Community hub programmes
  • The tenant area of the Our North Tyneside Voice website
  • Social care services for adults and children


The launch plan

The tenants were shown an outline of the launch plan and asked their thoughts. They immediately highlighted the importance of acting as though nobody has any prior knowledge throughout the launch process.

Furthermore, they talked about the need for the plan to take a multi-faceted approach, with a mixture of online and in-person methods. Whilst social media will be a big tool in the promotion of the site, tenants stated the importance of a physical and simple leaflet and/or poster with clear steps on how to get on to Unified to be distributed alongside. It was proposed that tenants could benefit from the opportunity to book one-to-one appointments for additional support in registering and using the site initially.

The tenants also suggested that they could be involved in the promotion themselves and could support in making, or appearing in, how-to videos for other tenants.


Promotion, key message and support

In terms of where would be good to promote Unified, the tenants suggested all correspondence from the Council, including on the letters sent regarding rent and Council Tax. They also suggested that the contact centre staff could include it in their script and potentially help to get people registered over the phone. Also, an email direct to tenants would likely be successful in informing them and raising awareness.

They highlighted the importance of working with community groups and centres that tenants may frequent to help promote, as well as in doctor and dentist waiting rooms, shopping centres, transport hubs, sheltered housing schemes and schools.

As for the key messages, tenants said that they should be reassuring, and framed around the fact that Unified will make things easier. It needs to be promoted as secure and protected, with simple and clear promotional materials.

To support those who lack confidence online, the tenants suggested drop-in sessions from IT staff as well as housing officers, potentially in collaboration with VODA’s digital champions. They also highlighted the need for this support to be flexible, and on evenings/ weekends to accommodate those who work. They suggested establishing a volunteer support network, where some tenants could volunteer to help their neighbours and friends access Unified.

Alongside this, the tenants reiterated the need for easy and clear written guidance too.


Feedback

Feedback was extremely positive from the Unified session, with tenants leaving having said they felt well informed and that it was extremely useful to attend. Comments included “Very useful to know what is coming online” and “Very good session”.

A communications plan is now in development and tenants will be kept up to date with progress.

On Friday 11 April 2025, we welcomed a group of 11 tenants to the Council chamber for a focus group surrounding the new housing online system, Unified. The aim of the session was to raise awareness of the system and gather feedback to be used when finalising and launching the platform.

Invitations had been sent to tenants who are members of our Estates and Communities Panel, Repairs and Investment Panel, and Landlord Panel, as well as to tenants registered on the Our North Tyneside Voice website.

Housing Online will make it simpler for tenants to:

  • Manage your tenancy from home
  • Get faster responses to your queries
  • Track the status of your requests
  • Stay informed with important updates


The home page

The tenants were shown a demonstration of what the system’s home page could look like and asked for their views. Feedback was that they liked the use of tiles on the dashboard, as they looked user-friendly. They discussed making these tiles identifiable by more than just icons and potentially using colours or numbers too.

Tenants felt that the current homepage has some duplication and that some tiles could potentially be merged to make it simpler. The tenants also suggested that wording on the tiles could be clearer. Finally, they suggested that an ‘emergency’ tile could be a good idea, as a clear place to report an emergency repair.

Regarding the order of the homepage, the tenants unanimously agreed that ‘contact us’ and ‘repairs’ were the most important tiles and should therefore be at the top. Of similar importance, and somewhere on the homepage, the tenants agreed would be their neighbourhood officer’s contact details.

Another idea suggested for the home page was, if possible, a banner with a message that would change – for example to display an important message or alert.


Links to other organisations

Tenants were asked which council services or external organisations they thought would be good to have links to from the home page. Their suggestions included:

  • Citizens Advice
  • Age UK
  • Samaritans
  • Debt charities
  • Bin collections and the Envirolink service
  • Police
  • Anti-social behaviour support
  • Domestic abuse support
  • Highways/ roads/ transport
  • Community hub programmes
  • The tenant area of the Our North Tyneside Voice website
  • Social care services for adults and children


The launch plan

The tenants were shown an outline of the launch plan and asked their thoughts. They immediately highlighted the importance of acting as though nobody has any prior knowledge throughout the launch process.

Furthermore, they talked about the need for the plan to take a multi-faceted approach, with a mixture of online and in-person methods. Whilst social media will be a big tool in the promotion of the site, tenants stated the importance of a physical and simple leaflet and/or poster with clear steps on how to get on to Unified to be distributed alongside. It was proposed that tenants could benefit from the opportunity to book one-to-one appointments for additional support in registering and using the site initially.

The tenants also suggested that they could be involved in the promotion themselves and could support in making, or appearing in, how-to videos for other tenants.


Promotion, key message and support

In terms of where would be good to promote Unified, the tenants suggested all correspondence from the Council, including on the letters sent regarding rent and Council Tax. They also suggested that the contact centre staff could include it in their script and potentially help to get people registered over the phone. Also, an email direct to tenants would likely be successful in informing them and raising awareness.

They highlighted the importance of working with community groups and centres that tenants may frequent to help promote, as well as in doctor and dentist waiting rooms, shopping centres, transport hubs, sheltered housing schemes and schools.

As for the key messages, tenants said that they should be reassuring, and framed around the fact that Unified will make things easier. It needs to be promoted as secure and protected, with simple and clear promotional materials.

To support those who lack confidence online, the tenants suggested drop-in sessions from IT staff as well as housing officers, potentially in collaboration with VODA’s digital champions. They also highlighted the need for this support to be flexible, and on evenings/ weekends to accommodate those who work. They suggested establishing a volunteer support network, where some tenants could volunteer to help their neighbours and friends access Unified.

Alongside this, the tenants reiterated the need for easy and clear written guidance too.


Feedback

Feedback was extremely positive from the Unified session, with tenants leaving having said they felt well informed and that it was extremely useful to attend. Comments included “Very useful to know what is coming online” and “Very good session”.

A communications plan is now in development and tenants will be kept up to date with progress.