Once again the Acuity SPBM conference for 2018 will explore the horizon from a smaller housing association perspective so that you are in the best possible position to respond positively to the challenges.

Click here to download the presentations from all the plenary and breakout sessions >>

The programme

All the sessions will seek to make sense of the operating environment and its implications from a smaller housing association perspective:

• the latest on housing policy from the NHF and regulatory developments from the Regulator of Social Housing
• an exploration of the future of social housing and tenant participation post-Grenfell by CIH and TAROE (Tenants and Residents of England)
• Breakout sessions will be repeated so you have more choice over the content:
  • Getting it right: lessons in good (and bad) governance from the downgrades
  • Developing a bespoke, costed IT Strategy to meet your needs and resources
  • New supply: overcoming the obstacles
  • Telling a better story: communicating the value of smaller housing associations

Click here to download the full programme >>

There will be ample opportunity to network with colleagues over lunch and at the break.

In the interests of open exchange and transparency, the event will operate in accordance with the Chatham House rule.

Chair

Claire Warren, CEO, Pickering and Ferens Homes

Speakers

Click here to download the presentations from all the plenary and breakout sessions >>

• • John Bryant, NHF
  • Rob Dryburgh, Regulator of Social Housing
  • Melanie Rees, CIH
  • Darren Hartley, TAROE
  • Alun Hughes, Wirral Methodist HA
  • Anne McLoughlin, Innisfree
  • Colin Sales, 3C Consultants
  • Peter Moore, Cornwall Rural Housing Association
  • Martin Collett, English Rural Housing Association
  • Clare Norton, g320 & Peter Bedford Housing Association
  • Sam McGrady, DTP
  • Angela Gascoigne, SHAL Housing
  • Andrew Hillier, Hillier Consulting

Who should attend?

This event is targeted at those who lead smaller housing associations: Board and executive

Cost

With VFM in mind we’re keeping costs down compared to similar events whilst not compromising on quality:

• SPBM members £195 plus VAT
• Non-members £225 plus VAT
• Additional places from the same organisation £25 discount

Date & time: 9:30 – 16:00, Thursday 19 April

Venue: Westminster University, Marylebone Hall (Baker Street), London NW1 5LS

Click here to download the presentations from all the plenary and breakout sessions >>

The SPBM Annual Report for smaller housing associations will be published on our website and available in hard copy at the Smaller Housing Associations’ Conference and Exhibition 2017 in London on 2 November. We’ll be there too (Stand 9).

This year’s report has plenty of good news for smaller associations, including

• Smaller associations costs and performance compare favorably with the rest of the sector
• What we have learnt from the Sector Scorecard pilot
• The latest on salaries, terms & conditions
• Insights and good practice from leaders of smaller associations
• Smaller associations contribution to supply
• Going digital – how realistic is this for smaller associations?
• Are smaller organisations better at listening to residents?

Please contact us if you would like us to send you a copy of the report when it is published.

Links

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more bewildering along comes Brexit, Trump and the departure of the architects of recent housing policy. The Acuity SPBM conference for 2017 will explore the new horizon from a smaller housing association perspective so that you are in the best possible position to respond positively to the challenges.

The programme

All the sessions will seek to make sense of the operating environment and its implications from a smaller housing association perspective:

• the latest on housing policy from the NHF and regulation from HCA
• interactive sessions that explore how smaller housing associations are reflecting the changes in revised business strategies, with a panel of CEOs and strategy, governance and finance specialist DTP
• Breakout sessions exploring:
  • the implications of deregulation for board members, risk management and assurance
  • cracking digital service provision
• the latest on how smaller housing association can contribute to supply

There will be ample opportunity to network with colleagues.

In the interests of open exchange and transparency, the event will operate in accordance with the Chatham House rule.

Acuity Click here to download the programme event booklet

Click here to buy tickets >>

Speakers (invited)

• John Bryant, Policy Lead, NHF Click here to download presentation
• Sam McGrady, Director, DTP Click here to download presetation
• Colin Sales, MD, 3C Consultants Click here to download presentation
• Alistair Smyth, Head of Policy, NHF  Click here to download presentation
• Keith Bovill, Head of Housing, Racing Homes
• Craig Glasper, CEO, King Street Housing
• Peter Moore, CEO, Cornwall Rural HA Click here to download presentation
• Nick Chambers, CEO, LACE Housing
• Steve Smedley, Associate, Acuity Click to download presentation

Who should attend?

This event is targeted at those who lead smaller housing associations: Board and executive

Cost

With VFM in mind we’re keeping costs down compared to similar events whilst not compromising on quality:

• SPBM members £170 plus VAT
• Non-members £210 plus VAT
• Additional places £25 discount

Date & time: 9:30 – 16:00, Wednesday 26 April

Venue: Judges Court, Browns, Covent Garden, London (Leicester Square tube)

Click here to buy tickets >>

Workshops in London and Manchester to explore VFM and support delivery on VFM self-assessment.

Dates:  Wednesday 4 May (Manchester) 2016
(Weds 27 April London NOW FULLY BOOKED)

The Value for Money (VFM) of housing associations is in the spotlight. The government is not convinced that the sector provides VFM and the HCA has made it clear that demonstrating VFM is now more important than ever, not simply to add value, but to mitigate the considerable challenges faced by the sector. Smaller or community-based associations also have to overcome the presumption that they are somehow less efficient.

The VFM self-assessment is the principle means by which any housing association demonstrates its VFM. Read by both government, special advisers and the HCA to make judgements about the sector and individual associations, the VFM self-assessment is something you need to get right.

Aim

To provide delegates with the tools and information to produce a robust VFM self-assessment:

• clarity on the regulatory requirement in light of lessons from three years of self-assessment
• understand how a changed political environment might influence the content and tone of the VFM self-assessment
• where might VFM be going?
• step through the process incorporating an Acuity template and data
• challenge personal thinking through debate
• opportunity to network with people in a similar position

Format

This is an informal half-day workshop with lunch. Registration and refreshments at 9:30 am for a 10 am start. Lunch at 1 pm.

Steve Smedley created our original VFM self-assessment template for smaller housing providers and has been running VFM workshops and projects with SPBM members since 2013. He has also written a number of publications for HouseMark, NHF and CIH on this subject over the past 10 years

Who should attend

Those responsible for completing the VFM self-assessment, especially those who have not done it before, want to improve it or need a refresher.

Feedback from previous VFM workshops

• Delegates gave an overall rating of more than 4.5 out of 5 for these workshops.
• On average they gave a rating of 4.5 out of 5 for both the content and delivery of the workshops.

Cost

• SPBM members £125 plus VAT (early bird purchase before 1 April)
• SPBM members £135 plus VAT (after 1 April)
• Non-members £175 plus VAT
• additional places £15 discount

We hope to see you at the NHF Conference & Exhibition for Smaller HAs on Thursday 5 November.

At our stand you’ll be able to pick a new copy of the SPBM 2015 Annual Report which includes performance data and information about what is going on in the sector.

We will also be launching our new Repairs Tracker, a tool for monitoring performance and resident satisfaction.

The conference is always a great chance to catch up with friends and colleagues and also to make connections between SPBM members from different parts of the country.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Tim is speaking at this year’s NHF Treasury Management Conference on 8 October.

He is co-presenting a session on ‘Latent sector capacity – small and large housing association partnerships’ with Waqar Ahmed, L&Q’s Group Director of Finance. The session is chaired by John Delahunty, CEO at Innisfree HA and Chair of g320.

The conference as a whole aims to stress test the viability of financing ‘An Ambition to deliver‘, which includes trebling the number of housing association homes to 120,000 per annum and quintupling the turnover to £70bn. Delegates will get to debate whether the existing housing association business model is fit for purpose and take away guidance on how to replicate or mould potential solutions to suit their own organisations.

For further information click here