It's all going online! Five events in 10 days...
Matt Baird
The Social Housing Round Table | The ethical Social Housing Recruiter | Public Speaker and Event Chair | Chair of St Anne's Hostel | ?? [email protected] | 21,000+
Whilst the Autumn brought more in-person conferences than I can count, the winter has been the season of online events! I’ve chaired five in the last two weeks, each very different, and yet all have brought a beneficial insight into the world of Social Housing.
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Two of the sessions I chaired were for The Social Housing Round Table, which I’ll mention shortly, but firstly I wanted to highlight the full-day online programme put together by Westminster Insight . To ask an audience and speakers to commit to a whole day on Zoom is quite a challenge though it’s the one the team absolutely excelled in with discussions focused on “Effective Complaint Handling”.
I was asked to host the whole day, kicking off with opening remarks focused on the changing nature of complaints, the consumer standards, the changes the sector has made regarding who they are trying to recruit and the overall pressures and opportunities that complaints bring daily. This was followed by a brilliant first-panel session with myself, Polly Cox , David Dagger , Dave Crompton and Joanne Silner who gave us some time to deep dive into the culture of complaint handling. We discussed how we can cultivate platforms for proactive customer service and the 45 minutes we had could have run on for much longer. It was key that complaints must be embraced and treated as directions for improvement, but must also be acted on and any promises made kept.
We then welcomed Jo Leckie ?? (Assoc CIPD, Cert CIH) for a fantastic hour as she provided us with a workshop session discussing “learning from best practice”. Jo has worked with providers across the UK and Australia specifically on complaints and customer service, so to hear from her for an hour on changing focus, culture change, mindset shifts and the joy of complaints was an hour very well spent.
After a quick break, we then held two shorter sessions. Firstly, Dave Simmons from The Housing Mediators expertly advocated for more mediation and rightfully questioned why it isn’t more embraced. We had a brilliant chat discussing why it’s potentially avoided when it could be utilised though it appears more and more businesses are advocating for its introduction which is great to hear! We were then fortunate to hear from Richard Blakeway Housing Ombudsman who highlighted why changes in complaint handling had been made, what was now being scrutinised and the journey that needs to be taken by all providers.
Our first session after lunch welcomed Alex Clark , Christopher F. and Michelle Younger to discuss record-keeping and complaints cause analysis. With a focus on the sector to build more robust systems, this session really helped our audience understand what had worked well, where mistakes had been made, and the difference that can be achieved if resource is put toward system change. The general argument was that no matter the time and money spent, it will be worth it, but make sure you know the right system for you and your business.
And finally, we introduced Simon Bernstein , Natalie Rose and Michelle Younger (who pulled a double-shift!) to highlight evolving approaches to complaint handing. In a session focused on empathy and vulnerability, the day had gone full circle, with a focus on culture and understanding why we do what we do. It was a fantastic session to end on and one that could have again had much more time.
The team at Westminster Insights truly put on a fantastic day and despite chairing four sessions, I could have happily seen the sessions extended due to the debate and insight brought forward. I’d certainly recommend getting involved in their future sessions without question and Chloe Gilligan , James Hudson and Barney McDowall should all be very proud.
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The other events I’ve run have had less speakers and only lasted 60-90 minutes, but have still held huge impact.
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Firstly, on Friday 15th, The Supported Housing Networking Group, a brain-child of Eden Bailey, MBA CIHCM that’s now being supported by the Chartered Institute of Housing , reconvened. The network is one that I’ve been proud to Chair for the last two years, and after a brief intro by Eden and myself, we welcomed our guest speakers for the day.
We were very fortunate to have a plethora of speakers, kicking off with Andrew Redfern and Dave Newmarch from FRAMEWORK HOUSING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP to discuss how they’ve been delivering homes for those experiencing homelessness. Michael Wilson then joined us from Homes England to discuss the findings from their recent call for feedback on the delivery of specialist and supported homes before Stephanie Morphew CIHM of the CIH gave us some reflections from the budget. This was all followed by a more open discussion from all of those in attendance, and what became clear was that cross-sectional processes needed to be improve, egos needed to be left at the door and change can truly be made, but we’re all still in the troubled waters of murky legislation, poor communication and laborious policies. The recording for this session will go live soon but I do want to give a quick shout out to sarah davis for helping putting this all together and to Framework who truly highlighted what can be done if focus and resources are put towards change.
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So, on to this week, and Monday brought with it Dave Loudon of Digital Bark's second foray into the world of question time. I was once again honoured to be host, with our panel this time comprising of Sheila Starr , Lara Oyedele ??? ?? and Annemarie Roberts, CIHCM MBA . The debate this time around focused on “The basics v innovation”, with questions focused on whether innovation is too much to ask for in a time where simply firefighting is difficult enough. Can we afford to keep on waiting to get the basics right or do we need to take a leap of faith in innovating? What followed was an hour that flew by, with a debate asking whether the “basics” have changed over time, what innovation itself would mean and how innovation could support the basics. The recording will go live from Dave soon and I urge everyone to watch it back as the discussion highlighted where we might be going wrong and where our focus truly needs to be.
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As I mentioned at the start of this write-up, we’ve had two sessions of The Social Housing Round Table during this time too, both of which I’m incredibly grateful to say were sponsored by two excellent businesses. I’ve already done the write-up of the 12/11 session hosted by whg , and the 19/11 session was sponsored by Bridge Housing Solutions and co-hosted by the superb Jess Page . Our discussion was focused on the ethics of allocating social housing to create mixed communities, with a particular deep-dive into why, when we have thousands and thousands of people in temporary accommodation, some registered providers are allocating social housing properties on platforms like Rightmove and Zoopla. What followed was a debate into the ethics and practicalities of the letting process, why some properties are difficult to let, what the benefits and pitfalls are of mixed communities and why people are being missed when they’re sometimes most in need. A big thank you to Jess and the team at Bridge for bringing this to the table! You can watch the recording back here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ZerrnB-K0
November will end for me with three more live sessions next week, although one is a Christmas Party Quiz!
On Tuesday we welcome the CIH for their fourth and final sponsored session of 2024 where they will be discussing 16 days of activism against domestic abuse – a big thank you to Stephanie Morphew, Alison Inman OBE CIHCM , James Strang and Dr Kelly Henderson CIHCM for agreeing to speak with us on Tuesday.
On Thursday I’ll be running the quiz at the WISH Midlands Christmas event – it’s looking to be a cracking evening and there are still tickets available so grab yours here now!
And then on Friday I’m joining Aaron Dohnt , Deborah Williams , Fiona Fletcher Smith and Ewelian Ciachorowska to celebrate SVLG week and the Social Value awards – more on that to come but it’ll go out to everyone subscribed to The Social Housing Round Table on Monday.
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And so to end with a big thank you to @alertacal to everyone who has been able to join The Social Housing Round Table, Question Time and the Supported Housing Networking Group over the last 10 days:
Kennie Ayoshola
Julie McManus
Jo L.
Michael Walker
Megan Hinch CertCIH
Helen G.
Jack Johnstone
Sarah Clipstone
Wayne Millward ( roommatch ?? )
Mark Beadle
Karon Maxwell
James Henneghan
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I’ll hopefully see you all at another event soon but if you're after recordings or want to join any of the above groups, please just comment below!
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#socialhousing
#ukhousing
#thesocialhousingroundtable
My job title says “Head of ICT at Adra”, but I'm more than that. Utilising 20+ years experience in the private sector to bring technology benefits to the housing sector. Passionate about making a difference .
3 个月As always expertly facilitated Matt Baird, you have a gift of bringing out the best in others and making the topics so interesting and engaging. Well done.
CEO and founder of Big Picture Training | Top 20 CX influencer | Accredited customer service training | Learning design | Social housing/not for profit sector | Drinking tea and training folk Worldwide ??
3 个月What a busy 10 days Matt! Thank you for my mention in your article too. I thoroughly enjoyed facilitating the session at the Complaint Handling Conference. Always a pleasure to work with you.
Improving Organisational Cultures one Housing Association at a time. L&D IN HOUSING SUMMIT APRIL 2025
3 个月You have had an incredible year with SHRT events Matt Baird You should take credit for all you have done to bring the sector together and for all the CPD that Housing professionals have gained since you started the round tables. Here's hoping 2025 is a great success for you to.
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at True Compliance
3 个月Slowing down for Christmas then Matt Baird ????
Managing Director @ ctm | Microsoft 365 - Cybersecurity, IT Support, Deployment & Licencing
3 个月These are really good sessions! ??