Chesterfield Active Tenants (ChAT): get involved
ChAT (Chesterfield Active Tenants) is a group of council housing tenants and leaseholders from across Chesterfield, that is involved in shaping our services.
There are many ways that you can get involved, such as:
- completing surveys and giving feedback
- taking part in meetings and focus groups (online or in person)
- carrying out inspections and mystery shopper exercises
You can choose what you would like to take part in, and how much or how little you want to do.
We will contact you when a suitable activity is about to begin to see if you are interested in being involved.
Give your views by completing short surveys that will help shape our services.
You can choose how to complete them:
- online - we will email you a link to our online survey
- by phone - we will call you and collect your answers over the phone
- by post - we will send you a paper survey to complete and post back to us
Surveys should only take around ten minutes to complete.
From time-to-time we may ask you for your opinion about a specific issue or housing service.
We will send the information directly to you so you can give your feedback from the comfort of your home.
Questionnaires should take less than an hour to complete.
You will be asked for your feedback on our services using online methods (such as through Zoom meetings or webinars).
Virtual meetings usually last between 30 minutes and an hour.
You will be asked to give your opinion on a specific topic or policy at a one-off meeting.
Focus groups are usually held in person, but we may offer online groups (such as via Zoom) in the future.
Focus groups usually last for around two hours.
A new performance group will work together to ensure that members are aware of how we are performing as a landlord.
The group will provide an opportunity for tenants and officers from the council’s housing service to get together to see how the service is performing, inform and influence decision making, promote best practice across our housing services and ensure that services continue to meet the standards expected by tenants.
A working group involves a short series of meetings with a start and an end (such as a task and finish group).
You will be asked to give your opinion on a specific topic or service, and make recommendations for improvements.
Meetings usually last from one to two hours, over a course of three months.
If you have an eye for detail you could help check our printed and online communications before they are published.
We may ask you to review a newsletter, leaflet, poster, or website information, to make sure it is easy to read and understand.
Reviews should take up to an hour to complete.
Our tenant inspectors carry out structured tasks, such as inspecting empty properties before they are let. We will give you a checklist of what to look out for and to record the results.
Mystery shoppers are given a scenario to contact us about, such as phoning to request a repair. Afterwards we ask you to complete a questionnaire to record how long it took us to answer the call, and how your call was dealt with.
Tenant inspection and mystery shopper results are used to recommend where improvements could be made – or to monitor how well we are doing.
No experience is necessary to become a tenant inspector / mystery shopper, as full training, guidance and support will be given.
Our tenant challenge panel meets every month to scrutinise our housing services and make recommendations for improvement.
Meetings are in person and last for a morning, or an afternoon.
Help us inspect and survey areas of Chesterfield for things such as litter, grass and hedge cutting and graffiti.
If you are a council tenant that’s passionate about the area where you live and have a little spare time on your hands to help, we’d love to hear from you.
Full training will be provided so you can find out more about what you’d be keeping an eye out for in your local area.
How to join Chesterfield Active Tenants (ChAT)
The easiest way to get involved in Chesterfield Active Tenants is to join ChAT online.
You just need to provide your contact details and let us know the type of activities you want to get involved with.
Protecting your privacy - find out how we keep your information safe.
If you are not able to register online please complete the registration form and monitoring form below and return them to us.
If you want to know more, please contact our tenant engagement team.
