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

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.