Barnet Homes is committed to delivering services which meet the needs of our residents in the best way possible. To do this, we need to know more more about our residents by collecting diversity information about lead tenants and household members. This is especially important when residents have support or communication needs that we need to be considerate of. For example:

  • if we know that you have a mobility issue, we can inform our staff or contractors who visit your home to give you enough time to get to your front door
  • if you have a mental health issue such as severe anxiety and do not want to be contacted by telephone, we can put notes on our systems to ensure that we use another method to contact you.

Having good diversity information about residents also means that we can complete assessments about service access, outcomes and satisfaction to check that our services are accessible and good quality for all residents. Where we identify that there is an issue or barrier for some groups of residents, we can then take steps to understand and address these.

What data do we need to collect and why?

We are currently trying to increase the information that we hold about lead tenants for the areas outlined in the table below. The table also shares how we will use the data once we have it.

Data we need Who do we need this data for? How will this data be used?
Age Lead tenants and household members
  • We will take the age of the lead tenant and/or household members when considering whether to prioritise certain repair work.
  • As part of assessing whether a home is overcrowded.
  • Assessing whether tenants of different ages have fair access to, and equitable outcomes of, housing and landlord services.
Gender Lead tenants and household members (in particular, children)
  • As part of assessing whether a home is overcrowded.
  • Assessing whether tenants of different genders have fair access to, and equitable outcomes of, housing and landlord services.
Disability and long term health conditions Lead tenants and some details for other household members (in particular, children) We will take disabilities and long term health conditions into consideration when planning, prioritising and delivering services including repairs.

Assessing whether tenants with disabilities and long-term health conditions have fair access to, and equitable outcomes of, housing and landlord services
Support needs All residents in household To understand support needs so that they can be considered when providing communications and delivering services.
Preferred language Lead tenants To ensure that communications and services are accessible to residents with language barriers.
Ethnicity,

Religion or belief,

Sexual orientation

 Lead tenants Assessing whether tenants with different ethnicities, different religions or beliefs, and different sexual orientations have fair access to, and equitable outcomes of, housing and landlord services.
Contact details Lead tenants To communicate effectively with tenants.

How will my data be collected?

Barnet Homes staff that you speak with in your home, over the phone or by email, may ask you to provide this data to us. They will do this either by completing a data collection form with you or by giving you a paper or digital form for you to complete a data collection form yourself. You may also be sent a text from us with a link to complete the data collection form.

We also encourage you to contact us to provide any updates or changes to your circumstances or those of your household members, that you’d like us to be considerate of.

How will my diversity information be stored?

Any information we collect about you or your household members will be stored on our systems securely and used for the purpose of tailoring our services and communications to you.

What if I don’t want to provide diversity information?

The more information that we have from you, the more we will be able to make sure that our services are accessible and good quality for all residents. However, if you would prefer not to provide answers to all of the data questions that we ask you for, you can answer the question or questions with ‘prefer not to say’. We will then record this as your answer on our systems.

Who will my data be shared with?

We will only share your personal data with our partners or contractors where there is a legal reason to do so. For example, when they are appointed to deliver a service to you on behalf of Barnet Homes. Any data sharing that we do is carefully controlled to make sure we meet legal requirements to protect your privacy. All staff receive mandatory training on data protection and we also have a dedicated data protection team who work hard to ensure that your privacy is protected. To read more about how we use your personal data click here.