Who Actually Controls the Residents' Council — Residents or Management?

A home can be fully compliant with the guidelines — holding elections, keeping minutes, posting them on a noticeboard — while the council's actual influence over decisions is minimal in practice. The guidelines don't specify who sets the agenda for council meetings, whether management has a veto over anything the council decides, or what happens when the council and management disagree. This is exactly the kind of gap between paper compliance and lived reality that's worth investigating directly rather than assuming from the existence of the structure.

Ask current residents directly, away from staff: has the council ever raised something with management that actually changed as a result? Can you give me a specific example? Are the minutes actually shared with everyone, or summarised selectively? A council that residents describe as decorative is a different thing entirely from one they describe as having genuinely moved a decision — and only residents who've lived through both can tell you which one you're looking at.