Empowering People Inspiring Communities (EPIC) – Review of self-assessment against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards

Empowering People Inspiring Communities (EPIC) is a community-based housing association providing over 1,400 homes across North Staffordshire.

Objective

To conduct a comprehensive external review of EPIC’s self-assessment against the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) Consumer Standards, providing independent verification that it supports the required assurance of delivering the standards’ outcomes.

The review considered the requirements of the RSH’s four Consumer Standards and supporting Code of Practice, the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) Technical and Survey Requirements, and the Housing Ombudsman Service’s Complaint Handling Code 2024.

What we did

We began with a desktop review of EPIC’s Consumer Standards self-assessment, which provided a detailed analysis against each standard. This involved cross-referencing the evidence cited with the actual documentation and examining supporting materials to ensure they adequately met the relevant requirements. We also reviewed each document in its entirety through the lens of the Consumer Standards.

This initial review allowed us to identify queries and areas for further exploration in interviews with key personnel to test and validate EPIC’s compliance.

We interviewed the EPIC colleagues who had completed the self-assessment and were responsible for delivering the Consumer Standards outcomes. These discussions helped us verify our findings and address any areas requiring further clarification.

We also used this opportunity to test how assurance was provided to the EPIC Board, which allowed us to consider Board’s oversight of compliance with the standards.

To complete the review, we considered the content of EPIC’s Consumer Standards Continuous Improvement Plan 2024/25 to ensure it fulfilled any commitments made to strengthen compliance with the standards and captured any required actions that either EPIC had identified in its self-assessment or DTP identified as part of the review.

What we achieved

We used our findings and analysis to produce a written advice note which identified good practice and made recommendations for strengthening and improving EPIC’s demonstration of compliance with the Consumer Standards. These built on the strong evidence base EPIC already had in place around demonstrating the outcomes of the Consumer Standards.