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Unrelenting economic pressures and inevitable government changes to the focus of social housing work is creating new challenges for those working in the sector. With the spotlight firmly on the needs of tenants and a drive to promote active citizenship and social inclusion, the skills and talents organisations need to thrive in the housing world are changing rapidly.
Housing management has shifted away from an approach based on managing bricks and mortar and making sure that rents are paid on time. Now housing associations are about promoting sustainable communities and forming partnerships with other agencies to share resources and maximise investment into communities.
The new apprenticeships in housing are the most recent qualifications in the sector and have been developed to meet the new challenges faced by housing teams. On a par with A-Levels, they have been prepared by Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for housing, in conjunction with employers.
"The apprenticeships will help improve skills among staff in housing who have had to tackle significant shifts in their work because of the recession and new environmental considerations," says Richard Beamish, Chief Executive of Asset Skills.
"We are setting up a Virtual Academy for Housing to make sure housing associations can access the information and advice, training providers, qualifications and possible funding they need to implement apprenticeship programmes."
The term "virtual" relates to the fact there is no physical headquarters; the Academy will operate through a range of electronic methods offering practical assistance to housing employers in the area of staff training. By encouraging employer collaboration, it could help achieve economies of scale which will benefit a housing sector on squeezed budgets.
A shifting emphasis
The development of the new qualifications has highlighted just how much the work of the housing officer has changed - there really is no such thing as a typical housing officer any more.
There is now greater emphasis on developing communities and the supporting the individuals within them. In addition to managing the physical assets and estates, officers need to ensure that tenants live in a healthy and safe environment that supports community stability and well-being. The apprenticeship has three pathways, one of which is 'developing and involving individuals and communities'. This pathway reflects this aspect of housing management work.
At one of London's largest housing organisations Peabody, there has been a growing emphasis for some time on housing officers taking on a broader role.
"We know that housing is not just about collecting the rent. Much of our work is about talking to residents, opening up opportunities and finding ways of improving people's lives. Employment and training and healthy living are all part of the remit of our community service teams," says Chief Executive of Peabody, Steve Howlett.
"It's about being a 21st century organisation. The best housing organisations have been trying to work like this but now there's a new drive and an imperative."
Respecting and responding to the rights and diversity of tenants is high on the agenda and the new apprenticeships reflect this. The 'housing support services' pathway is flexible as housing associations work with a diverse range of people including some of the most vulnerable members of society such as those who have survived long term abuse, have chronic multiple addictions, or have physical health problems because of long term homelessness.
On the front line, housing officers need fantastic communication skills to be able to deal appropriately with a range of people who have diverse problems, different needs and aspirations and are from all manner of cultural backgrounds. This is especially important as there is no ready supply of housing or support for all those that need a permanent home.
"A tough economic climate often means that there is not always good news for tenants and our housing officers need strong communication skills to explain this," says Howlett, who is also a board member of Asset Skills. "Our staff need customer service skills as a first requirement - offering a warm welcome and a positive first response. But they also need technical skills and know-how to back this up."
Apprenticeships in practice
Responding to employers such as Peabody, the new apprenticeship frameworks include revamped vocational qualifications and new Chartered Institute of Housing professional qualifications. Mandatory vocational units cover communication, ethics and personal development as the foundation for more technical housing units.
Increasing numbers of employers have committed to targets for employing apprentices. At Peabody, apprentices will make up 5% of all new employees in the future. "Apprenticeships offer a really good balance between the practical and the theoretical side of housing. We can see people learning on the job by working alongside others with lots of experience - and having the opportunity of a structured training programme," says Steve Howlett.
As well as driving up skills in the existing workforce Peabody hopes that apprenticeships will attract people to housing as a career of choice. "We know that many people don't understand what opportunities there are in housing. Housing organisations are incredibly complicated, offering all sorts of services. The idea that you are working for an organisation with a social purpose can be inspirational. People who work here do make a real difference," says Howlett.
New roles in emerging areas of work offer opportunities to people who might not have considered working in housing before. Peabody has noticed a difference over the last year. "I have been really impressed with the numbers of people we have been recruiting with a range of fantastic skills and experience. Many people come into housing with a degree but we have a much broader range of recruits including people who have had other careers sometimes in the customer care field."
Housing and the recession - job roles with a social purpose
Eleanor Badham is one of many housing officers performing this new type of role. She joined the Wales & West Housing Association (WWHA) as an Affordable Housing Development Officer and because of demand for financial help for existing home owners, her job became focused solely on offering a new mortgage rescue service for the association.
The mortgage service, funded jointly by the Welsh Government and the WWHA is a way of preventing home owners losing their homes. The main aim of the mortgage rescue service is to get people off a downward spiral into homelessness or temporary accommodation by buying equity in the house or by selling and renting back the property. Eleanor's job is to assess applications and help clients understand the options and to access the best advice before deciding on what to do.
She takes enquiries, visits people to gather information and liaises with mortgage lenders and other stakeholders. With a degree in surveying and past experience of business development and planning applications at a housing developer, Eleanor has had to develop new skills quickly.
"I needed entirely new skills for this role. It's all about getting people to talk to me to understand how they have got into problems. I have had to learn as I go along but we work in partnership with debt and housing charities and that's helped me gain the technical skills I need to provide the best possible service. It's really hard work but it is rewarding," she says. Importantly new learning and skills development such as Eleanor Badham's can be accredited through vocational qualifications or an apprenticeship.
At New Charter Housing Trust in Ashton-Under-Lyne, there is also an increased focus on helping communities to manage their money more effectively.
The housing team required new skills in order to launch its financial advice services and support the move from a traditional approach of collecting arrears to a system of active advice and management.
An experienced welfare benefits adviser was employed and then the team got going with developing their skills in-house. Courses on finance and welfare benefits for its housing staff were run by local agencies building up networks of contacts as well as sharing experience and knowledge. New Charter now offers a spread of welfare benefits advice, debt counselling and support for tenants before they take on a home independently.
Julie Vickers, who oversees the revenue teams at New Charter, says that the approach is paying off. Rent is the housing association's biggest source of income and collection rates have been going up since it expanded its advice services. For staff, the job has got more interesting and the team has expanded.
"Our focus now is on help, engagement and keeping people in their home. It means that there is much more variety to working in housing. We have grown the team in the last 12 months, adding one person to the welfare benefits team and one person to the debt team. We are really busy and in the past eight months the debt team has handled customers with £1.5million of debt."
And looking to the future Vickers says, "The recession has acted as a catalyst as more and more tenants recognise that they need help. Our next phase will be looking at how we get people back into work. We recognise our broader welfare role in looking after our community".
The new apprenticeship in housing will help equip the workforce with the skills and training it needs to square up to these new challenges. For more information on new vocational qualifications in housing, or to get involved in the new Asset Skills Virtual Academy for Housing, contact Catharine Hinton, Housing Adviser at Asset Skills, at chinton@assetskills.org or call 07554 452 286. Alternatively, call the main Asset Skills number 0845 678 2 888 (local rate call).
