Post-occupancy evaluation: Clarion Housing’s 2050 Neighbourhood Standard

Client: Clarion Housing Group

Project type: Post occupancy evaluation

Number of sites: 3

Location: Moulsecoomb, Brighton & Hove (Sussex) Wisbech, Fenland (Cambridgeshire), Orpington, Bromley (Greater London)

What was the project?

In 2022 the Quality of Life Foundation supported Clarion Housing Group to conduct a pilot process to test the housing association’s new 2050 Neighbourhood Standard. This was a first-of-its-kind project: it used our Resident Review post-occupancy evaluation methodology to review existing estates and settled neighbourhoods..

Clarion’s Neighbourhood Standard Toolkit is powered by the Quality of Life Framework. It uses the Framework themes to guide and define Clarion’s 2050 principles, which will be used to measure how each neighbourhood achieves the standard.

The aim of this project was to test the Neighbourhood Standard at a local level in order to ensure it reflects what residents believe it means to live in a good neighbourhood. We also sought to understand any local issues in the neighbourhoods we worked in, as well as the causes of these. 

Finally, the project aimed to test the types of questions Clarion would need to ask residents to understand, measure and report on residents’ lived experience. As such, it equipped staff to conduct quality of life surveys and to interpret the findings.

What did we do?

We worked closely with Clarion’s teams – who work at all levels, spanning strategic, local and resident involvement teams – and their local community partners. We did this to better understand the context they work in, the challenges and opportunities they face, and how our research, outreach and engagement approach would have the most impact in their organisation and to access their residents.

During the project we:
  • Carried out desk research to get an overview of the sites and build a picture of the context
  • Tapped into local knowledge of the teams and built on the organisation’s insight reports to further pain that picture
  • Undertook site visits to assess each site to better understand the estates, local issues, and to meet site leads
  • Ran online workshops with staff to brainstorm, clarify the list of survey questions, and understand their expectations of what they wanted to find out
  • Created a long list of survey questions to benchmark and shape the survey approach, and to help staff to understand, measure and report on quality of life
  • Held meetings with local teams to tailor the outreach and engagement approach
  • Co-designed and ran a variety of community outreach methods
  • Co-designed and ran a variety of resident engagement activities 
  • Created an engagement toolkit to help shape and guide staff on what best practice looks like 
  • Produced a project report with feedback analysis received for each site, key findings from the surveys, and recommendations made in response to the feedback
  • Produced a project update flyer and video to share the key findings from the surveys with residents
  • Developed a monitoring document – to help Clarion assess quality of life over the longer term

Our engagement approach was highly successful, with a response rate of almost 40%.

What was the impact?

This pilot project will enable Clarion to continue the conversations with residents and community partners about health and wellbeing in these areas. It will shape their decision making and action plans for stock investment and community investment for quality of life in these locations and across other sites. It will also inform their social impact and ESG reporting for the business and to their investors.

The project provided value to different stakeholders: 

  • Residents and communities: The project provided another platform for residents to tell their landlord about lived experiences and the quality of their area ranging from a sense of community to anti-social behaviour.
  • Clarion’s service delivery teams: The project provided an avenue for staff working on the ground to highlight local issues, resources needed to improve neighbourhoods, and structures needed to support residents in the context of quality of life.
  • Clarion’s leadership and executive teams: The project provided an evidence base on what Clarion residents are saying about quality of life in their neighbourhoods and what ‘good looks like’ to inform Clarion’s investment in their housing and communities.

What did they say?

“We started working with Quality of Life Foundation in 2022 following a series of resident and staff workshops to help us understand what a ‘good’ neighbourhood looks like. The Foundation’s commitment to improving people’s quality of life caught our attention as it resonated with our own, and their framework included several themes residents and staff told us were important. Together we developed the Clarion Neighbourhood Standard (Powered by QoLf).

“Their expertise in research and engagement helped us test our framework and develop a suite of tools built upon what we already do well. It’s been a pleasure to work so closely with such passionate individuals and organisation.”