The 21st century housing officer
Dysgu CIH continues to lead the way in developing bespoke training and qualification programmes for Welsh housing professionals.
Cards on the table – we believe that working in housing is a brilliant career choice; this is a constantly changing, innovative industry, full of emerging business twists and turns that keep things interesting for the professionals working in it.
The Chartered Institute of Housing is the independent voice for housing and the home of professional standards. Our goal is simple – we want to transform lives. We want everyone to have a decent, affordable home in a thriving, safe community.
We aim to help ensure that housing organisations can access excellent learning opportunities for their staff and managers, to develop diverse and expert talent. We believe that qualified and supported staff are key to delivering first-rate services to residents and communities.
Good housing organisations are serious about developing their staff, and as the professional body for housing, CIH is serious about helping our members and partners to achieve their full potential.
We are pleased to update WHQ readers on our three new courses.
Frontline futures: Leading change and making a difference
Our brand new pilot programme commences in May 2015. The Frontline Futures report, published by CIH in 2014, concluded that the 21st century housing officer role will be based on six principles;
- Differentiated, delivering officer time intelligently to the benefit of all residents
- Relational, doing things with the intention of empowering residents
- Interactive, working in partnership with other professionals to improve outcomes
- Varied and creative, with the opportunity to deliver outside of ‘normal activity’
- Engaged and impactful, implementing a positive impact on residents and the business
- Novel and anticipatory, undertaking activity to avoid negative consequences later on.
The research concluded that frontline workers will need investment and training to help them to deal with the challenges of their changing role, to develop networks, self-manage, build skills and respond to situations creatively. Similarly the report concluded that managers will need to develop and encourage autonomy and resilience in their staff.
CIH Cymru has been working in partnership with three experienced and highly qualified training consultants to develop a brand new accredited ‘Frontline Futures’ programme for Welsh practitioners, including learning motivational interviewing and coaching techniques, and we will be delivering the pilot programme over the spring.
Three teaching days, three one-to-one coaching sessions, two action learning sets and a pre- and post-course evaluation will be delivered to 12 trainees from six organisations. The trainees will complete the course during a 26-week period that will include evaluation and line-management involvement, 25 hours of continuing professional development and four accredited points towards a Level 3 qualification. This course will change the way you practice; prepare to be an active participant in an interactive programme.
Two of our expert trainers will be talking about the course during a session in the Can Do Corner at TAI 2015. Learning and development managers are invited to exclusively apply for one of 12 free TAI afternoon invitations to the exhibition hall – contact Sonia Dorothy and grab your free place now.
Level 3: Certificate in Housing Services
To be awarded the Level 3 Certificate in Housing Services qualification you need to attend and complete four teaching days comprising of one mandatory unit, Professional practice skills in housing, and then choose three more units delivered separately, with an assignment to be submitted after each one. There is no final exam.
Learners must complete one mandatory learning day but can then mix and match content to suit professional development needs and interests. However to help learners to decide which modules to choose we have two suggested pathways to guide decision making, featuring some new modules being delivered for the first time in Wales in 2015:
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Regeneration & inclusion officers
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Housing & neighbourhood officers
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Our first programme of the new qualification modules completes in May 2015, but we have a new Level 3 commencing in September in Cardiff. Booking is now open at www.cih.org/Qualifications
Can’t get to Cardiff? Then give us a ring about in-house options, delivered closer to home.
Level 3 Certificate in Housing Maintenance
You heard it here first-we are bringing the Level 3 in Housing Maintenance to Wales in 2015!
To be awarded this Level 3 qualification you need to attend and complete eight teaching days. Each unit will be delivered separately, with an assignment to be submitted after each one. There is no final exam.
You will complete the following modules;
- House construction: an introduction to common housing construction methods and housing maintenance problems.
- Housing maintenance systems: understanding systems developed to deliver short, medium and long term maintenance programmes. Learners will also be introduced to the client and contractor roles.
- Health and safety for housing management and maintenance: covering health and safety in both the workplace and within housing environments this module includes evaluation of risk, controls, identification, accidents and responsibilities. Legislative issues will also be examined.
- Managing empty properties: understand the reasons why minimising void periods for empty properties are important to landlords and understand the various approaches used to minimise them and how voids relate to allocations and housing quality standards. The module includes the legal implications relating to abandonment and the recovery of debts.
- Customer service standards for housing maintenance: introducing the learner to the importance of customer service standards in driving service improvements in repairs and maintenance, including an introduction to performance indicators.
- Delivering affordable housing services: an understanding of affordable housing organisations and the services they deliver, including key themes of partnership working, resident participation and regulation.
- Equality and diversity for housing: introducing learners to equality and diversity legislation in a housing context. The module also looks at diversity within communities and how organisations respond to diversity and promote equality to provide more effective services.
- Professional practice skills for housing: aiming to develop a learners understanding of what it means to be a housing professional, to understand and use reflective practice, and to develop a personal professional development plan.
The brand new course will be available Autumn 2015. Get in touch if you are interested in booking an in-house option or would like to join a multi-agency group in Cardiff.
As if that was not enough to peek your interest, all learners on the above courses will receive full CIH student membership for the duration of the course, including weekly Inside Housing, access to the member-only sections on our website and be entitled to access the student ‘free day at TAI’ offer, if the programme is running during the conference period.
We are now offering all modules on our Level 2 and 3 qualifications (subject to availability) as self-contained units, as either an accredited (£249) or non-accredited (£149) day courses. So if you want to experience one of our accredited modules without doing the homework, perhaps as a way of dipping your toe back into education, or want to top up the qualification section on your CV with a new subject area you can!
Please get in touch for details or just book on line, email sonia.dorothy@cih.org for more information on any of the above courses.
Rising Stars Cymru update
Our three rising stars, Jenny Lewington, Chris York and Alex Weaver completed their Twitter takeovers of the CIH account in February on their chosen subjects of older people’s housing, land value tax and the private rented sector, respectively. They also completed their on-site visits by the judges in March.
In April they will participate in their final challenges; TAI 2015 plenary sessions on day one and three, and writing a blog on a workshop within a few hours of seeing it on day two. The live final will see delegate votes counted and our three judges deliberate to decide the winner.
While you are waiting for the final, you can enjoy our Rising Stars Cymru pre-TAI blogs on the CIH website here: http://www.cih.org/blog