If you don’t have compassion, respect for others, and a drive to improve people’s lives to start with, then frankly housing isn’t for you.
The Government’s announcement that mandatory qualifications for social housing managers will be brought in as part of the Social Housing Regulation Bill is a welcome development and a direction in which we’ve been moving for some time.
We share the conviction that there should be clear professional standards for social housing, alongside excellent, empathetic customer service. But introducing this new qualification won’t be straightforward. Fundamentally, we need to go much further to improve the condition and management of Britain’s social homes.
We’ve always been committed to developing our colleagues, so when the professionalism agenda began to be explored in Government, we decided not to wait. We wanted to have the strongest foundations in place ahead of legislation coming into effect.
Like many others, L&Q recently reformed its housing management structures to provide a more traditional, ‘patch-based’ service. Our Neighbourhood Housing Leads are responsible for areas of around 550 homes each, and we want them to be equipped to provide a service they can be proud of.
Our starting point was that you can’t learn everything in a classroom. If you don’t have compassion, respect for others, and a drive to improve people’s lives to start with then frankly housing isn’t for you. When recruiting our Neighbourhood Housing Leads, we focus on attitudes and behaviours – we want passionate problem solvers who will be at the heart of their communities. If you’ve got that, we’ll make sure you have the skills and qualifications for one of the most rewarding careers going.
Within our newly formed housing management service, we’ve introduced a robust onboarding programme for all new starters, alongside a calendar of annual training for colleagues. We have a range of specialists in place who are also trained in areas ranging from dealing with antisocial behaviour, hate crime, domestic violence, safeguarding, tenancy fraud, and a host of other vital issues – from damp and mould and mental health awareness to helping residents change their tenancies and more.
This runs alongside our management and senior leadership development programmes, our coaching and mentoring services, and our Emotive CX training, which helps frontline colleagues handle complaints efficiently and communicate with empathy.
We’re proud to have a huge proportion of our frontline colleagues already signed up for The Institute of Residential Property Management’s (IRPM) Level 2 training. We’re also looking to start rolling out 18 to 24-month Level 4 Senior Housing and Property Management apprenticeships for our housing managers over the next few months and are looking at the range of CIH qualifications available. Many of our ASB Case Workers are enrolled to start a BTEC Level 3 qualification in community safety, crime and nuisance management, further bolstering our commitment to professionalism.
The sheer range of issues above speaks to one challenge. How do you go about designing a qualification which covers everything involved in housing? No day is the same, and for larger organisations such as L&Q, managers may find themselves working across different tenures and a varied stock portfolio. Any new qualification launched will need to give staff a really broad-based education.
The second challenge is the time it might take to introduce these changes. We’re talking about enrolling staff on two-year qualifications on top of their busy day jobs. They will need support.
The final challenge is more fundamental. Introducing new training requirements is a step in the right direction, but it’s just one piece of a bigger puzzle. We’ve let residents down through poor service, but there have also been times when our systems and processes just haven’t been robust enough. We’ve learned painful, but important lessons along the way.
And much of the UK’s social housing stock is simply old and in need of investment – which is why we’ve embarked on the sector's largest investment programme to improve the quality, safety and environmental performance of our homes.
Going further, the Social Housing Regulation Bill raises fundamental questions about the relationship which should exist between landlords and tenants. Residents shouldn’t just receive excellent service. They should also be involved in meaningful decisions about the way their homes and communities are managed. Since forming our Resident Services Board three years ago (whose Chair also sits as a Senior Independent Director on our Group Board), we’ve started a journey of involving residents in decisions on everything from recruiting senior staff to selecting contractors. We’ve been challenged to do better, learn from service failures and change our culture. We are embracing the opportunities to work alongside residents and within communities.
Mandatory qualifications are important, but let’s not pretend they will solve everything. Everything our residents are telling us is – don’t wait for legislation to come into effect. It’s beyond time to invest in skills, homes and services, whilst strengthening our governance structures to amplify the voices of residents. Start now.