STANDARDS AND ACCREDITATIONS

Assurance and improvement

Tpas offers a range of opportunities to provide independent assurance and support organisations to continuously improve how they ensure tenants influence, scrutinise, and hold them to account. Two key offers are the Tpas SMART Review and the Scrutiny Assured Quality Mark.

Tpas SMART Review

The Tpas SMART Review provides:

• A structured review designed to help organisations assess the maturity and effectiveness of their tenant engagement, influence and scrutiny arrangements
• Support to reflect on how your approach works in practice – identifying strengths and areas for improvement, understanding engagement maturity, and developing clear improvement priorities
• An approach that is not a compliance checklist, but is designed to encourage honest reflection and learning

The process starts with a short reflection on your organisation’s tenant engagement, scrutiny and influence approach – considering strengths, areas that are still developing, and your main priorities for improvement. The Tpas assessor then reviews your self-assessment and evidence, discusses findings with key stakeholders, assesses your organisation’s maturity across the themes, and produces a SMART report including strengths, improvement priorities and recommendations.

Scrutiny Assured Quality Mark (SAQM)

Put scrutiny to the test with the Scrutiny Assured Quality Mark (SAQM) to assess, strengthen and evidence the effectiveness of your scrutiny model, and gain assurance that your scrutiny practices meet the Tpas National Engagement Standards. Find out more about our full scrutiny offer on our Scrutiny page.

The SAQM is the only independent, evidence-based Quality Mark scheme that assesses your organisation’s scrutiny arrangements. It provides assurance, diagnoses strengths and areas for improvement, supports honest self-assessment, and shapes proportionate improvement plans.

The process begins with a short reflection on your scrutiny approach, with a deep dive into the Scrutiny theme of the Tpas National Tenant Engagement Standards – identifying strengths, areas that are still developing, and your main priorities for improvement. The Tpas assessor then reviews your self-assessment and evidence, discusses findings with key stakeholders, assesses your scrutiny maturity, and produces a report including strengths, improvement priorities and recommendations.

Achieving the SAQM provides a visible demonstration of independent, external validation of your scrutiny approach, plus opportunities to share your good practice. It evidences your commitment to outcome-focused scrutiny that meets the needs of your diverse residents, demonstrates impact, and focuses on continuous improvement.