You’ve put in the hard work:

• Completed a service review or a self-assessment against the consumer standards or Housing Ombudsman recommendations
• Read Alistair Mcintosh’s five top tips – No more C4s?

But you’re worried about what to focus on first and whether your approach is best?  You are not alone. Getting an improvement plan right, putting it into practice and making best use of (often limited) resources to deliver the required outcomes are some of the biggest challenges you’ll face.

That’s why we’ve researched and produced a guide on best practice and put together this practical workshop.

We’ll cover the process from start to finish.

• SMART plans – what a good plan should look like
• Getting the priorities right – how to get those quick wins and focus on what will really make a difference
• How to raise awareness of what’s required, what good looks like and get everyone on board and motivated including colleagues (from all departments), members and residents
• Tracking the progress – what, where and how to monitor and report
• Showing the outcomes
• Getting the pace of change right – what is practical and realistic yet challenging?

Hear from the HQN team with a wealth of knowledge and experience across the sector.

Hear from organisations who have recently been on their own improvement journey with their tips and advice on what has worked and what to avoid.

Lots of practical advice and guidance for you to take away and put into action back at the workplace.

Plus – HQN has refreshed and updated its essential guide to performance improvement, How high the moon? Achieving stellar performance against the consumer standards. Copies will be available to all delegates attending this masterclass.

Essential for everyone involved in drawing up and implementing improvement plans whether its specific to a particular service area or in response to a regulatory or Ombudsman issue.

Essential for:

• CEOs, executives and operational directors
• Heads of service
• Consumer standard leads
• Business improvement, performance and quality teams
• Data teams
• Governance teams.

10:30am Welcome and introductions

• Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

10:40am The elements of an effective improvement plan 

• Damian Roche, Director, HQN

Damian Roche, Director at HQN will outline what’s needed in order to put together an effective improvement plan.  He will bring his experience and advice from HQN’s consultancy work across the country supporting a variety of different landlords on the improvement journey to help you understand what to focus on and how to get results.

11.10am Our improvement journey

• Hannah Bowman, Assistant Director, Housing Strategic Business Planning and Investment, Islington Council

Hannah will talk about the improvement journey that Islington Council have been on recently. Hannah will talk about how Islington Council got staff on board with the changes and actioned the challenging aspects of their plan.  She will also give an indication of whether tenant satisfaction is starting to improve and tips and advice for others starting on this journey.

11:40am Break

11:55am The improvement plan

• Jahedur Rahman, Director of Housing, London Borough of Haringey

After a critical Housing Ombudsman investigation and a self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing, Haringey Council knew it needed to improve and focus on the right issues to get back on track.  Jahedur Rahman will share the nuts and bolts of the two-year service improvement plan, highlighting the challenging issues and sharing his top tips for others at the start of the process.

12:25pm Lessons from consultancy work

• Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

12:55pm Closing remarks

• Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

1:00pm Close

Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

Lydia joined HQN in 2007 and is currently the Deputy CEO. Her background is in housing management – both general needs and supported. She has worked extensively as a consultant on a wide variety of performance improvement projects. In her current role, Lydia has responsibility for overseeing all of HQN’s work and for quality assurance in particular. She spends the majority of her time talking to HQN members to make sure that our service meets their needs, and on consultancy-related work.

Damian Roche, Director, HQN

Damian is one of HQN’s experts on the consumer standards. He has played a key role in our consultancy projects since the new regulatory framework began its journey into law and supported a wide range of organisations (local authorities, housing associations and ALMOs) with their self assessments and improvement plans. His particular areas of expertise are in customer engagement and wider stakeholder engagement as well as governance, complaints management.

Damian is a regular speaker at HQN events and recently devised and delivered a series of workshops to assist providers with their preparations for the new regulatory framework. He has developed toolkits for use in self-assessments, the latest covering the empty homes and lettings process and our condensed toolkit for the regulation of social housing.

As well as the learning and insight that Damian has gained through consultancy and project work Damian also has hands- on practical experience of delivering services. He has worked in the housing sector for more than 20 years’ much of which has been at a senior/executive level, including eight years as director of customer experience for Accent Housing.

Hannah Bowman, Assistant Director, Housing Strategic Business Planning and Investment, Islington Council

Hannah has worked for Islington in a range of roles over the last 22 years. In her current role she is responsible for a range or strategic and service support functions and is one of the lead officers developing Islington’s preparation plans for the new regulatory regimes from the Social Housing Regulator and Building Safety. Career highlights include the development to clienting arrangements for Islington’s ALMO and the smooth ending of one of the first Private Finance Initiatives contracts.

Jahedur Rahman, Director of Housing, London Borough of Haringey

As the Operational Director of Housing at Haringey Council, Jahedur oversees an extensive portfolio of council landlord functions, including building safety and compliance, housing regeneration, asset management, repairs service, housing management, estate services, ASB, homeownership, and sheltered accommodation. He manages a team and a Capital Planned Investment Budget of £800m delivering high-quality housing services to 20,000 tenants and leaseholders.

With over 21 years of experience in the housing sector, Jahedur has a proven track record of leading complex housing change programmes with a well-balanced view of strategy, people, process, and technology.

If you are unable to attend an event or public training course, please let us know in writing (email is fine) at least 48 hours before. Please email [email protected]

Otherwise, a cancellation fee of £60 plus VAT will be chargeable.

If you are using a package place to attend and do not inform us within the agreed time frame, then a place will be taken to cover your non-attendance.

Cancellations must be made in writing, and will be acknowledged by HQN Limited.