What Are We Doing About Worklessness?

It’s encouraging to see that as the country warms up for the arrival of the Olympics that we are already hitting record-breaking form. It’s unfortunate in this context though as the record broken was the unemployment rate, which rose to 8.4% - the highest level for 16 years. This is a national issue but it’s something that we find in our own communities. Manchester as a whole had 4.4% unemployment but Old Trafford and Stretford were higher with 4.5%, Trafford was slightly lower with 3.1%. Despite the merest hints of growth among the number of job vacancies (no one mention green shoots of recovery,,,), this is a desperate picture.

Green shoots of recovery?

Worklessness is a key issue for us as an organisation and I feel it's something that the government could more directly connect with Housing Associations over - there's a real opportunity to use the position of our organisations to attack unemployment in direct and indirect ways.

We target worklessness not just because of the moral imperative to help, but also because it is key to our success as an organisation. We have a stated aim to be at the heart of our neighbourhoods. Worklessness destroys not just the lives of those directly affected, but the lives of those indirectly associated with unemployment. It has a tendency to make people dependent, when housing professionals and others in public service are seeking to encourage people who can, to take more personal responsibility. Equally, we have a duty to protect our income and tackling worklessness takes us another step towards knowing that tenants have the capacity to pay their rent.

So how do we help? We’ve split our work into five different categories, all of which we see as essential steps to combating worklessness.

• Capacity Building – this is the process of equipping people with the specific and general skills that they need to enter the workforce. One example of this is that we recently had 40 school leavers who did a six week confidence-building course preparing them for life outside of school. 
• Job Readiness – this is where we help to equip people with awareness of the different careers that are out there for them and connect different groups with available opportunities. The back to work schemes we run for those who have been out of work for nine months have been popular and successful. 
• Work Experience – we offer work experience at nearly every level of the Trust and have schemes such as Bright Futures which takes young people from five schools in the area and exposes them to work roles and responsibility within the Trust. 
• Jobs with our Partners – at every partnership level we have we look to create employment. For example, the building contractors we work with are expected to take on apprentices to provide ways into the construction industry. 
• Jobs with the Trust – we run schemes like Clean Start that offer employment opportunities to ex-offenders and we’re also starting our search for six apprentices to join THT in real posts which will give them a salary, exposure to work and ongoing training. 

This final scheme is especially pertinent. Although it would be wrong to characterise the unemployment issue the UK is facing as exclusively a young person’s problem, we have to accept that this is where the brunt of the burden is falling. Unemployment among 16-to-24-year-olds hit 22.2% nationally - representing 1.06 million young people who are without work. In our own borough the extra pressure on the young is reflected with an unemployment rate for 18-24 year olds of 8.6%. Nevermind the Nimbys, this is the era of the NEETS.

With the news this week of the departure of Emma Harrison from A4E this would be the ideal opportunity for the government to start exploring the ways that they could better capitalise on the work Housing Associations are already doing to address unemployment. Across the range of HAs - there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that we have considerable success. Such is the importance of the issue of unemployment that it will always require approaching from different angles. While organisations motivated by financial return can have their place, it seems sensible to consider further incentivising the role non-profit distributing bodies can play too. This has to start with recognising the work that HAs are already doing and then looking at how they can best be encouraged to improve and extend the schemes they have in place. Over to Whitehall...

What Do Housing Associations Actually Do? Here's 964339 Answers

You’d think that the clue to what Trafford Housing Trust actually does is in the name. You wouldn’t have to be a genius to see that we look after a lot of housing in Trafford. It’s funny then that I don’t really consider houses to be our primary function; really what we do is create communities.

Communities is something of a tired, and at times difficult word, especially when it emerges from the mouths of politicians. But consider what it means to you. Take a mental image of a community - it probably involves houses, but it’s also people. It’s the green and commercial spaces around the houses. It’s some form of friction between the people – social friction – both good and bad. It’s the services provided to the people who are in those houses. Your image possibly goes beyond just houses and encompasses other forms of accommodation – sheltered schemes, flats, people outside the houses looking in. All of these things go towards making up a community.

Why is this distinction between houses and communities important to me? Well, because I think it points towards a hugely misunderstood aspect of Housing Associations’ work. We’re moving into an era of housing where the simple provision of housing will be delivered by an array of sources. Any one can provide housing and the Government is committed to supporting those who do it at the lowest cost. If we don’t understand precisely what a Housing Association does then I think we run the risk of leaving a lot of the work of creating communities undone.

I mentioned as part of a recent post about the National Housing Federation "Neighbourhood Audit", that we are undertaking once more. The previous Neighbourhood Audit revealed that the work that Housing Associations undertake benefits one in every ten people in Britain, with over £430 million being invested into communities! This review was last undertaken in 2008 and so it will be interesting to see how this has changed since the last time.

We have recently completed our own audit and the figures make for shocking reading (shocking in a good way, I believe). Here are some of the headline figures:

• Total spend on Safety and Cohesion in our communities: £189,087
• Total spend on Education and Skills in our communities: £47,259
• Total spend on Employment and Enterprise in our communities: £294,149
• Total spend on Environment and Liveability in our communities: £287,495
• Total spend on Well Being in our communities: £58,377
• Total spend on poverty and inclusion in our communities: £37,857

The complete spend for a year’s worth of investment adds up to £964,339.59 per year. That’s an astronomical sum when you consider that it equates to nearly 3% of our annual revenue. I think it’s essential we blow our own trumpet particularly loudly on this point, because when you compare it to other companies’ spend on Corporate Social Responsibility and how loud they shout about their work in communities, what Housing Associations do is well out in front and yet you don't hear a peep about it. Perhaps unsurprisingly the documented CSR spend of other firms is hard to find, but one example for comparison would be Nike who allegedly spend $25 million on CSR and have revenue in the same year of $19 billion – equating to just 0.13% of revenue.

Housing Associations should emphasise just how much work they are doing with their communities because "its what we do". As an industry there’s absolutely no harm in explaining to people the full extent of the work that we do. Especially when you consider that several studies have shown how important social responsibility is to both employees and customers. For instance this American survey suggested that 34% of employees would take a pay cut to work with a socially-responsible firm. Not only that but 70% of consumers would pay a premium on products from a socially-responsible company.

Before anyone worries, we’re not going to be putting up rents or asking our staff to take a pay cut, because we invest heavily in our communities, but it’s strange to think that there is a whole side to the housing industry that doesn't get talked about enough. Hiding your light under a bushel is all very laudable but the housing sector has no such reason to adopt such modesty. When cuts assail us and competition is increasing it’s vital that all are aware of the full extent of our work, so that customers, employees, ministers and even ourselves can see that beyond the deceptive names, the housing sector is also about investing in communities.

I’d like to end the blog today with a challenge – how can we create an industry-by-industry index to show the total social value created (call it CSR if you like) and if we had one, is there another sector out there that would rank higher than Housing Associations?

Supporting Community Action In Trafford

It seems like everything has gone quiet on the Big Society of late. Granted the Government have had elections and the reformation of the voting system on their minds, but does that mean that nothing is happening to advance David Cameron’s plan that we should be doing more for our local communities?

THT haven't been resting on their laurels though – word is starting to filter out about the fact that something I've been working on for a while looks like it's coming to fruition. That is, that we may be able to lend our support and strengthen the brilliant work that Voluntary Community Action Trafford (VCAT) have been doing.

As an organisation VCAT has an umbrella role which is to give support to voluntary and community action organisations in the area. They give them advice about setting up, about constitutions and governance arrangements, fund-raising and that sort of thing. On top of that they have a range of projects they are funded for, so for example they have a mental health advocacy project, they run a 50+ project for older people in conjunction with the PCT and they run FASNET - a forum for groups working with children and young people. Across the country, infrastructure organisations like VCAT have run into tough times as a result of the economic situation – but this is precisely the time when we need them most.

The reason that I've invested time and energy in this personally is that I really think that this is a brilliant opportunity to help and support the work that goes on in the Borough. The political point-scoring surrounding the Big Society has threatened to obscure the fact that regardless of what it's called, or who is proposing it, volunteering is an essential part of our communities. Beyond that it's also about returning power to the local communities and giving them the resources to do something about the issues that concern them. We already do this to the tune of £700,000 per year – local budgets distributed by local people (if you'd like to get involved in the Community Panels just get in touch), to priorities identified by the local community. VCAT has a proud history of this too and I think that it should be able to go on giving that help to community groups.

The great news is that we've got a very exciting opportunity to make sure that the voluntary and community sector is developed in Trafford with a sound mix of public and private support. We have a six-figure charitable donation from Barclays which will be used to develop a resurgent VCAT and obviously THT will be using our existing back office set-up to support them too. And we will need a new Board with public, private and third sector representation to guide this new area of our work - if all goes to plan that’s quite a powerful team that hooks into all of the right places. It remains to be seen whether this makes sense from a business point of view, but when it comes to the wider issues regarding the work of VCAT, we know there are more things that have to be taken into consideration than finances alone. Watch this space…

Changes To The Board

For Trafford Housing Trust 2011 has been characterised by big news events so far. There’s been the launch of new developments, breaking into the top 25 companies to work for with The Sunday Times and as we come into April we have another significant change this time to the structure of our board. Without going into too much detail the board’s role at THT is to set the strategy for the business, and then it's the management team’s responsibility to deliver it. So the board have a key role in shaping the organisation. Consequently, how the board works and who is on it is a vital consideration.

To give you an idea of the scale of this news, this is a project that I’ve personally worked on for over twelve months now and it represents what I think is a significant step in the right direction. I’ve talked before about the values of openness and honesty that sit at the heart of THT and as you might expect the changes are something that we have consulted extensively with tenants about. Around 2/3rds of tenants were for the changes and 1/3rd were against.

So what are the changes that are happening and why do I think they’re important?

The changes:

1) The board is reducing in size from 15 to 10 members and the constitution of the board is changing too. Instead of the existing make-up of five tenants, five councillors and five independent members we are moving to four independents, three councillors and three tenants.

2) The board members will be paid. Currently only our chairman is paid, but under the new arrangement the board members will also be paid - around £5,000 per year.

The reasoning behind these changes:

As it stands the board has had a higher number of councillors because of the origins of THT and the transfer promises we’ve had the responsibility to fill. As this transfer has now been completed it stands to reason that the role of the council would be reduced on the board. By no means is this to say that we are pushing the council away though! The best indication I can give of this is that one of the new board members is the current leader of Trafford Council, Matt Colledge. I’m thrilled that Matt has joined the board as I think it ensures we can maintain our history of having an excellent working relationship with the council. We also have two new tenant board members joining us John Verbickas, from Sale and Robert King from Urmston.

Another reason behind the reduction in board numbers is that tenants are increasingly giving feedback and guidance to THT through the Tenants’ Quality and Insight Panel (or QIP as it’s known). Here there are up to ten tenant members and the mission of the QIP is to look at everything from a tenants’ point of view and make sure tenants’ feelings and issues are put to the fore. I think this has been hugely influential in strengthening the tenant voice in the organisation.

On the issue of payment, it’s largely about catching up with the rest of the world. Over a third of Housing Association organisations already pay their boards. To address one obvious concern - the level of remuneration is set by an external body, so there’s no danger that the board would choose their own pay scale! Frankly, I think one of the best arguments for paying the board members is that you need to have a professional relationship. They are paid for their time, their attendance at meetings, their ambassadorial role outside The Trust and their input. Paying people means that it’s more likely people can honour those responsibilities.

Overall I feel that the new structure of the board gives us a far more flexible and streamlined management position and the best chance of driving THT forward and getting the absolute maximum for our customers. I would like to thank those members of the board who have worked so hard and are now leaving us: Beverley Winn, Mike Cordingley, Bernard Sharp and Edward Kelson. I would also like to say a special thank-you to our vice-chair Kai Hughes, I hope to see all of them again soon and thank them for their work during an exciting time of development for the organisation.

Although the majority of tenants are behind the proposals I fully understand that some people have reservations. If that affects you then please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer any questions.

A Top 10 of 2010

It may seem a bit far into 2011 to get all misty-eyed about 2010, but in my defence this is my first blog post and as it's not quite the Chinese New Year yet as far as I'm concerned this is my first real chance to review what was a landmark year for us.

In fact, to save myself writing a short novel rather than a blog post I've had to fallback on that internet standard: the top 10 list. As a result I'm sure I'll miss several things, so feel free to get in touch and either leave a comment below or tweet me.

1 - Times Best 100 Companies

One of the first things that springs to mind was that in February we were named as one of the Times Best 100 Companies just beating Holiday Extras into 66^th spot but pipped for 65^th by Star Refrigeration. Some days I'm still not entirely sure what my job is but one thing I do know is that part of my role is to attract the most talented people available to the organisation and then leave them to get on with their job, I'm sure that the Times Best 100 will help us do that.

2 - Trafford Business of the Year

I'm still a little astounded that in September we were named the Trafford Business of the Year. It was a surreal feeling to have it presented to us in front of chairman of the 1922 Tory Backbenchers, with the leader of the council, councillors, private sector businesses all looking on: it was a good night. I really wasn't expecting a Third Sector social enterprise like ours to be recognised in this way - maybe at last there is recognition of the economic as well as the social outcomes we deliver.

3 - Breakfast

Nutritionists have been saying for generations that breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day, but these breakfasts involved no food - much to the chagrin of many of the attendees - and to complicate things further they occurred at different times of the day. There's so much to say about these meetings with staff members; they really helped me build up a picture of the health of the entire organisation and I'll blog more about these later. Suffice to say here they were a personal highlight of my year.

4 - Cuts in Public Expenditure

Before I give the impression that 2010 was a cakewalk, it's worth noting that it was a tumultuous year in the public services; with the low points undoubtedly being the cuts in public expenditure and the cuts in the capital programme for new housing. How these cuts will manifest themselves in social housing and in wider society is yet to be seen, but it's apparent that their impact will be felt across 2011 and well beyond.

5 - Lostock Housing Opens

Another professional and personal highlight was completing our first new build schemes at Lostock and there's a continuing sense of pride here in seeing how good they look 12 months after they were finished. From my point of view it's not about having 10,200 homes rather than 9,200 homes. What interests and excites me is the difference that you can make to people's lives. I'd love to be able to build 1000 per year: we're a way off that, but are committed to more new development in 2011.

6 & 7 - Rent Collection & Voids
Within Trafford Housing Trust special mention should also be made to rent collection and void performance [PDF]. As an organisation these have been two problem areas for us that have been turned around on a sustainable long-term basis and it's gratifying to see statistics that prove this. It's our people who've done that for us and here's hoping that 2011 will see more progress and success for them.

8 - Threat To Supporting People

The other low point as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review is one potentially perverse outcome from Local Authorities having freedom to spend its grants as it sees fit. There are significant cuts in the Supporting People programme - 11% nationally - but in some local authorities it's working out as anything up to 65% cuts in services and that exposes the most vulnerable to more vulnerability - something which social housing organisations must be aware of.

9 - Moving Offices

I'd be lying if I said it was all plain-sailing for us as an organisation either. The work and effort required to relocate an entire business to new offices at Sale Point may have been a huge success in that they have enabled us to have nearly all the organisation under one roof, enabled us to improve the business as a point of contact for customers and saved £126,000 every year for the next five years, but not having any IT or telephony for three days after we moved in was not an ideal way to begin a fresh start!


10 - The End Of The Beginning

Staff  celebrating 5 Years of THT

We began 5 years ago to deliver promises made to tenants about how their homes and the services they received would be improved. So my last point is that 2010 saw our internal auditors sign off that our transfer goals have been achieved. Their conclusion was that where possible all of our targets had been met. I'm thrilled that's the case and even though I think there's lots that we do very well, I know we're just scratching the surface of what we can, and want, to achieve.

The key for 2011 is how we move that on now and I'll tell you what we're looking to do in the next post.