Providers face two-year deadline to meet professionalisation rules

The government proposed that providers have an up-to-date written policy setting out their approach to managing and developing “the skills, knowledge, experience and conduct” of their relevant staff. They should also adopt or develop an appropriate code of conduct for those staff and ensure this is embedded within their organisation, DLUHC proposed.

 

After government has directed the RSH, the regulator will also consult on the standard it proposes to set before it comes into force. DLUHC said its intention is for the standard to come into force in April 2025.

 

Mr Gove said: “The proposals set out in this consultation should equip all social housing staff with the skills, knowledge and experience needed to provide tenants with a high-quality, respectful service – helping to ensure that tragedies like the Grenfell fire and the death of Awaab Ishak never happen again.”

 

Baroness Scott, minister for social housing, said: “Time and again we have seen tenants ignored, dismissed or not taken seriously. Our new Competence and Conduct Standard sends a clear message to social landlords to treat tenants with the dignity and respect they deserve. 

 

“Our landmark Social Housing Act is introducing life-changing reforms – giving tenants a louder voice to challenge their landlord, and this will allow us to go further, making sure staff are properly trained and qualified to deliver homes that are safe, warm and decent.”

 

Transition period

 

Registered providers and services providers will have a transition period to ensure their senior housing managers and executives have, or are working towards, a relevant qualification.

 

The government proposed that this should be 24 months, beginning with the day that the Competence and Conduct Standard comes into force.

 

However, it said that at least half of those individuals in scope who are in post at the beginning of the transition period must be deemed as working towards, or have completed, a relevant qualification, within the first 12 months of the transition period.

 

“Completing qualifications at the levels set by the policy statement requires a significant time commitment and high level of engagement from learners, so an adequate transition period is essential to ensure that staff well-being can be maintained, drop out or failure rates kept low, and landlords can manage potential impacts on services to tenants,” DLUHC said in the consultation.

 

It added: “Whilst we recognise this is an ambitious time frame, we believe that this strikes the right balance between moving rapidly to professionalise the sector and improve the quality of services to tenants, whilst ensuring that providers can maintain their standards of service to tenants whilst staff undertake qualifications.

 

“This proposal sets clear expectations around the timeframes within which staff must obtain or be working towards qualifications whilst allowing landlords to spread the costs and time commitments from staff over multiple years which would reduce the risks of negative impacts on or disruption to service delivery. It also gives qualifications providers time to increase their capacity to meet increased demand.”

DLUHC also proposed for providers with fewer than 50 social homes to have twice the amount of time to ensure their relevant staff begin working towards qualifications.

 

“The rationale behind this proposal is that stakeholders have highlighted that very small registered providers and services providers will struggle to support their in-scope managers to work towards qualifications during the transition period,” the consultation said.

 

“We have heard that releasing relevant staff to undertake qualifications would have a particularly disruptive effect on service delivery to tenants of the smallest providers and costs would have a bigger impact on small organisations.

 

“A longer adjusted transition period would mean very small registered providers or services providers would have more time to plan for these requirements coming into force and they could split the costs and loss of hours over a longer period.

 

“It is important that we are being proportionate in ensuring that the policy has its intended impact in terms of driving up standards in the sector but that it also does not negatively impact on organisations’ ability to deliver good-quality housing management services.”

 

Criteria for qualifications

 

In terms of criteria for the qualifications, DLUHC said that qualifications should be of the required level or higher.

 

It proposed that the level of a relevant qualification must be a Level 4 qualification for senior housing managers and a foundation degree or Level 5 qualification for senior housing executives.

 

However, higher-level qualifications that meet the criteria for qualification type and content will also meet the requirement and if the relevant staff member already holds this, they will be deemed to already hold a relevant qualification and will not need to gain additional qualifications.

 

Government also set out proposals relating to enrolment and completion of qualifications, as well as flexibilities to accommodate exceptional circumstances.

 

For example, people are still classed as working towards a qualification when enrolled onto a course but away for extended periods of leave, or where a lower-level qualification is a pre-requisite to a qualification at the required level.

 

Staff with partially compliant qualifications

 

Government said that there will be “transitional arrangements” for those with partially compliant qualifications.

 

During the transition period, those who hold a qualification that partially covers the course content criteria must complete additional accredited training or accredited professional development modules to cover the remaining criteria.

 

Then after the transition period, qualifications will only be deemed to be a relevant qualification if they meet all of the course content requirements.

 

The consultation said: “The rationale for this proposal is that we recognise it would be disproportionate to expect staff who already hold relevant technical qualifications such as RICS qualifications to undertake an additional qualification.

 

“Therefore, we are proposing this transitional arrangement, which will apply during the transition period, and will give the relevant qualifications providers time to update their course content to fully meet the qualification requirement content criteria should they wish to.

 

“At the same time, it is important that all relevant managers and relevant SP [service provider] managers strengthen their skills, knowledge and behaviours in relation to tenant engagement and customer service as soon as possible.”