Matt Dicks outlines a new CIH project that aims to find out what it should mean to be a housing professional.
During my two-and-a-half years at CIH Cymru it has been, and remains, an honour and a pleasure to work with possibly the most professionally committed, values-driven and ethically-minded group of people that I have ever encountered in my career.
The commitment to excellence in terms of meeting the housing sector’s core purpose of providing an affordable and sustainable housing option for all is at times simply inspiring.
But when you’re asked by someone from outside the sector ‘what do you do for a living?’, do you say you’re a ‘housing professional’ – and if you do, is the response often ‘what’s that?’, ‘what does that involve?’.
When was the last time a pupil at school speaking to their careers adviser – who wants a career giving back, and helping communities and individuals – was asked whether they’d thought about a career as a housing professional?
There seems to be a disconnect between the professional standards that are central to our sector and the wider out-of-sector perception of the value that we know our profession delivers.
That in part is down to us not doing a particularly good job in promoting what we do but a big part of the problem is that we’ve taken our eye off the ball in terms of cementing, at the core of our sector, that sense of professionalism really means.
That is a common theme whether I’m talking to housing professionals in Wales, England, Scotland or Northern Ireland – a sense that our profession, our professional standard has been diluted over time.
So why has the CIH decided to address this now?
There are several reasons:
- Post Grenfell: there is focus on improving standard, skills, qualifications and regulation of people working across the life cycle of a building
- Welsh Government Building Regs/Hackitt review: focus on professional bodies to develop a cohesive framework of professional competencies
- Social housing green paper in Westminster recognises the need for ‘professionalism’ across the sector
- Counter populism agenda: which debunks the value of the expert and evidence bases.
As a result we are currently in the process of defining professionalism through external and internal groups looking at areas such as:
- Commitment to a certain way of life/ set of values
- Qualified to pursue a vocation or calling
- Possession and use of specialised knowledge
- High standards of conduct
- Continued study
- Public service
- Exercise of reasoned judgement and autonomous thought.
But professionalism if far more than a simple tick list – our core values system and ethics must be at the centre of defining our professional purpose– ultimately, it’s the reason why we do the job.
And you, frontline professionals, are far better at articulating what it means to be a professional than me. Here are a few comments we picked up from housing professionals at the recent Housing 2019 conference in Manchester:
- ‘I love what I do, I love doing valuable work, I love being valued for my work, I love being the difference’
- ‘It makes me proud to know I make an impact to others lives’
- ‘Our residents deserve the best!’
- ‘It’s how we raise the bar – the more professional we can be – the better the experience our residents have’
- ‘It shows a commitment to my craft – learn, share and improve- for myself, colleagues and residents’
- ‘I love being part of a fantastic team (CIH members) who motivate and inspire each other’.
This is what underpins what we do but how do we codify this passion, this desire to be the best at what we do – how do we put it onto paper to say this is what it means to be a housing professional in 21st century Wales and wider UK.
We aim to do that by:
- Making the case for organisations to encourage, support and recognise the value of maintaining professionalism among their own employees
- Encouraging people working in housing to recognise themselves as professionals and promote the value of professionalism across the housing sector
- Engaging with government to gain their support to promote CIH and the value of professionalism in the housing sector
- Embedding across CIH staff and volunteers the importance of professionalism and CIH’s role as the professional body.
Underpinning the whole project will be the development, with your help, of a new Professional Standards Framework (PSF) based on the twin thematic pathways of Expertise and Values and Behaviours which we feel define the base of what a good professional should look like.
This will be about housing organisations as much as it is about individuals – for example, if a vast majority of staff at an organisation meet the core competency set out in the PSF, should we recognise organisations for investing in that process?
We will soon be consulting with CIH Members and the wider sector on the draft PSF, but we firmly believe that this will re-energise our core purpose as a sector – to be the best professionals we can be so that we continue to deliver a sustainable and affordable housing option for all.
Matt Dicks is director of CIH Cymru