View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

PART TWO: LEADING TOMORROW
This has started with the CIH Level 3 Certificate in Housing which underpins the principles
of housing as a whole. It is enhanced by real-time information developed through the CIH
neighbourhood pilot project. Neighbourhood managers and officers are invited to take
the ‘temperature’ of estates and document the initiatives that make the neighbourhood a
good place to live. The information has also allowed them to consider initiatives that
could make neighbourhoods better, sharing best practice from one neighbourhood to
another. The new approach does not stop there – supporting teams have also been
recruited and trained; and systems have been established to ensure a holistic approach to
service provision with the aim of maximising positive outcomes. We have also taken on
housing apprentices. They compliment the new team structures and our new ways of
working. Apprenticeships also provide a meaningful programme of learning and an
excellent opportunity for those aspiring to be housing assistants of the future.
As a result of this pilot, we are already able to see and reap the benefits of the new
approach. The learning from the initial training and learning programme is being put
into practice and the team work that this project has engendered is making a real
difference in the way we manage and deliver our services. There is still much more to do
and there are certainly more opportunities for learning from other service providers, but
in the meantime our enhanced understanding of those key service providers and agencies
at neighbourhood level is allowing us to think and do things differently. We are now
proactively engaged with and working alongside those who are as passionate as us in
getting this right, driven by making real differences with real outcomes.
Developing creative partnerships to support wider skills development
and learning
Examples of the partnerships that we have formed as a result include:
• Working with organisations who share our commitment to the sustainability agenda,
such as the NHS. Their ‘Every Contact Counts’ programme is an initiative that sees all
front line officers gain an understanding of how they can make a difference to
people’s health, directly or indirectly by giving them the right knowledge, tools and
skills to ask and assist people in their future health and wellbeing. This partnership
working has created further aspirational opportunities for those looking for routes to
employment and training.
• Working with Job Centre Plus we offer work experience opportunities to tenants who
are long term unemployed. Emphasis is placed upon meaningful apprenticeship
programmes, positively targeted to those living in our estates or who have been
service users in the past. Working with local training providers these apprenticeships
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