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

Dates: 14 & 15 May 2014

Feedback

• 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.
• 66% of delegates provided feedback.

Materials

• Steve Smedley’s presentation materials – A VFM toolkit and self-assessment template

Delegate comments

• Steve was excellent. Liked his style of delivery.
• Very helpful. Good content.
• Would have been better if I attended the morning session as there was cross-referencing to it.
• I needed to hang on… but all was revealed! Really enjoyed this session and really appreciate access to the template.
• Very helpful with a lot of information in a very short period of time.
• First session was vague and left me wondering if I would gain anything tangible. However, the second session was much better at giving me a context to think about writing the VFM statement.
• So useful I feel I really have a steer for our 2013/14 VFM self-assessment. Wish us luck!
• Excellent, very helpful, full of information.
• Comprehensive and well thought through.
• Lots of information delivered expertly.
• Great and insightful.
• Didn’t realise it was a whole day with more detail in the afternoon and getting some practice on completion of VFM. Would have stayed.
• Would have been useful to have had writing material for taking notes. Otherwise excellent.

We are currently working with Feedback Services on the design and delivery of a series of workshops for directors and managers at Severn Vale Housing. We will deliver the final workshop on 27 November.

The sessions provide staff with both support and challenge in reviewing current practice at Severn Vale and explore the why, who, what, when, how and how much (£) of customer data.

The workshops follow Acuity’s review of the organisation’s customer satisfaction surveys earlier this year.

We offer a number of workshops to help social housing providers with customer satisfaction measurement, including ‘how to run a satisfaction survey‘ and how to analyse and report on satisfaction data‘.

Tim chaired a workshop on 8 October 2013 to explore the findings from ongoing research into the assets and capacity of smaller housing associations.

The research is being carried out by Mark Lupton and Dermot McRoberts and is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Senior representatives from 12 smaller housing providers participated in the session along with representatives from JRF, NHF and Savills.

We will publish the findings from the research here when available.

The aim of this one-day finance and development workshop for Board members of Wiltshire Rural HA is to enhance understanding of finance in the social housing sector – how money is raised, spent, controlled and accounted for.

It includes a detailed examination of how development finance works, and the relationship between funding the development of new homes and the organisation’s longer-term financial health and capacity.

It will also include a forward look at how to respond to emerging trends, risks and opportunities.

More generally, the workshop provides insight into the role of the Board, and the contribution that individual Board members can make.

Facilitator: Graham Martin

If you are interested in us running this workshop for your Board members – please contact us.

This one-day workshop is designed to help smaller housing providers get the most from satisfaction measurement.

This workshop will enable participants to:

• Understand the value of satisfaction measurement from a smaller housing provider perspective
• Learn from the experience of peer organisations
• Work through how they can get the most from satisfaction measurement

This event is open to all staff and Board members from smaller housing providers.

Date and location

May / June 2014 in London

Cost

£125 plus VAT including lunch and refreshments

For further information or to book on this workshop – please contact us.

We’ve been commissioned to deliver a bespoke away-day for a smaller housing provider that will engage the whole team in developing its operational plan for the next year and on.

In our experience, the success of such events lies substantially in the design and discussion that takes place beforehand.

We start from a generic team development outline and work collaboratively with clients to ensure you get the most from the away-day.

For further information on our team development services – please contact us.

Twenty Board members and members of staff from eight housing providers came together for this popular training session on 3 October 2013.

Presentation slides from the day:
Intro to social housing slides 3 October 2013

To join our waiting list for the next session – please contact us.

Ideal for those new to social housing (Board Members and members of staff), this introductory session provides an overview and understanding of social housing. You’ll explore how social housing is managed, the environment in which housing providers operate, and the key challenges and new opportunities they face.

By the end of the course delegates will have gained an understanding of:

• The origins and role of social housing
• The purpose and aims of social landlords
• Legislative influences
• The people housed by social landlords
• Their operational activities e.g. finance, maintenance, development and housing management
• The relationship with other bodies such as local authorities, regulators, government departments, legal bodies, financial institutions etc.

Facilitator: Nitin Parmar

We will be launching our fourth annual report for smaller housing providers at the NHF Conference & Exhibition for Smaller HAs on 6 November.

Published jointly with HouseMark, the report compares the performance of smaller and larger housing providers and looks at changes in the performance of smaller providers 2013 to 2014.

A hard-copy of the report will be available at the conference on 5 November from our stand. The report will also be made available in electronic format.

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.

Our first performance event for smaller housing providers on 28 March 2012 was attended by staff from nearly 40 organisations.

Held at HouseMark’s offices in Coventry, the event focused on the value for money in the context of regulatory change and included sessions on:

• Value for Money: the challenge for smaller housing providers
• VFM Metrics: practicalities and possibilities
• People and Culture: embedding VFM
• A tenant perspective on performance
• Using complaints to inform performance
• Resident Scrutiny: have we found something of value?
• Where next with VFM, benchmarking and good practice?

Aim

The aim of these workshops is to provide participants with the tools, information and a forum to discuss issues and solutions to meet the regulatory requirement to produce a VFM self-assessment.

Programme

These are practical, interactive and self-paced workshops that will explore what self-assessment might look like and how to measure the ‘new’ VFM by reference to the regulatory requirements and their implications.

The workshops are structured around a self-assessment template that you will work through with one of the leading thinkers on VFM in social housing sector and in the company of peers. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role that your social purpose and values (as well as performance indicators) have to play in defining and self-assessing VFM.

To ensure you hit the ground running and make the most of the workshop, participants are asked to do some preparation:

• Take a look at the template and come armed with your thoughts – does it look right, is it doable, what are the issues?
• Bring with you your mission / vision / values statement and your performance indicators. Have a think about the value you produce and the extent to which it maps to your existing measurement system.

The workshop will conclude with a round-up and check-out – a review of potential tools, information and support.

Facilitator

• Steve Smedley

Dates

• Next workshop date:  please contact us.

Timings

• 9.30am for a 10.00am start
• 1.00pm close followed by lunch

Cost

• £125 per participant.

Further information

• If you are interested in attending one of these workshops please contact us.

 Slides

Click here to download the slides from this workshop (updated 30 Jan 2014).

Click here to give us feedback on this event.