duration

Location
Virtual

STAIRs are coming in from October 2026. Housing associations must be prepared. Get all the essential information about the forthcoming requirements: what STAIRs will cover, how it fits into the wider regulatory framework and what you need to be doing now to be ready.

  • Read more

    The government intends to publish the final policy statement and direction to the Regulator of Social Housing for the new Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) this autumn. These new requirements will be for private registered providers of social housing as the Freedom of Information requirements already cover councils and ALMOs, and will be extended to cover TMOs.

    Matthew Pennycook stated recently that ‘From October 2026, providers will be required to proactively publish information about the management of their homes. From April 2027, they will be expected to provide tenants with access to information on request.’

    This practical workshop will provide delegates with all the essential information about STAIRs, from what the new requirements cover to how they fit into the wider regulatory framework.

    The STAIRs were consulted on last summer and were designed to give all social housing tenants the opportunity to find out key information from their landlord about the management of their homes.

    The proposals were essentially housing associations’ version of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and will only affect private registered providers. Stock holding local authorities and ALMOs will continue to be subject to FOI requests as public authorities.

    Housing associations, however, must understand the details of the requirements and prepare for them to come into effect. This workshop will provide practical advice on the best ways to give tenants easy access to accurate information and underline the importance of good minute-taking and record-keeping.

    The workshop will cover:

    • What the STAIRs entail and what the likely impact is going to be
    • What you should expect once tenants get the right to access information
    • How Scottish housing associations handled being brought under FOI requests and what you can learn from the process
    • What you can start to do now to be more transparent and be ready for October 2026.

    Why attend?

    • Understand the new Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) and how these will be implemented
    • Receive practical advice on preparing to meet the requirements
    • Keep up to date on current good practice and what you can do in advance to make this easier for you and your tenants
    • Connect with data and governance colleagues from across the sector.

    Essential for:

    Housing association staff only, particularly:

    • Data governance managers and teams
    • Communications managers and officers
    • Board members
    • Governance managers
    • Information management teams
    • Operations managers
    • Customer services managers.
  • Our speakers
    Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN
    Roger Jarman is a long-standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services, leads training programmes and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s toolkit on the new regulatory framework for social housing.

    Apart from his consultancy work, Roger runs a small housing charity in West London. In September 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Independent Housing Board for the London Borough of Ealing. He has held non-executive positions in three housing providers.

    He has worked in senior positions in both housing associations and local authorities. From 1991 to 1999, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and from 1999 to 2011, he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission, overseeing the 1,400 housing inspections undertaken by the commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.
    Paul Mutch, Deputy Head of Policy and Information, Scottish Information Commissioner
    Paul has worked in a wide-ranging policy, information and communications role with the Scottish Information Commissioner since 2003, helping to promote and enforce Scotland’s FOI laws. His work focusses on raising public awareness and understanding of FOI rights and supporting FOI best practice within public bodies.

    Recent work has included supporting Scotland’s housing associations as they prepare for FOI, supporting improvements in Scottish Government FOI performance, preparing the Commissioner’s responses to proposals to extend or improve FOI law, and developing and producing the Commissioner’s new ‘Open Update’ FOI newsletter.
    Louise Ivens, Data Governance & Protection Officer, Sutton Housing Partnership
    Louise Ivens has been the Data Governance & Protection Officer for Sutton Housing Partnership for just over 8 years, Louise started out in the Governance team as a Resident Scrutiny officer and from there took on the responsibility of responding to FOIs & SARs. Discovering she had a keen interest in improving the robustness and timeliness of these requests, she took on the responsibility of GDPR implementation within the ALMO and undertook her GDPR practitioner certification.

     

  • Programme

    10:30am Welcome and introductions

    • Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

    10:40am STAIRs – the requirements

    • Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

    Roger Jarman will take the audience through the government proposals on STAIRS step by step, highlighting potentially challenging areas, how best to prepare and take questions from the audience on the next steps.

    11:10am Learning from Scotland

    • Paul Mutch, Deputy Head of Policy and Information, Scottish Information Commissioner

    Paul Mutch will outline how FOI requests work for housing associations in Scotland and what English associations can learn from that experience.  He will summarise the issues they have had and their experience of the requirements so far.

    11:45am Break

    11:55am Preparing to be transparent – FOI experience

    • Louise Ivens, Data Governance & Protection Officer, Sutton Housing Partnership

    As a practitioner dealing with FOI requests in the ALMO sector Louise Ivens will outline their approach to dealing with FOI requests, the policy and procedures.  She will share advice on how to get colleagues on board and look at what challenges and issues come up that Housing Associations preparing for the new requirements need to be aware of.

    12:25pm Closing remarks

    • Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

    12:30pm Close

  • Cancellations and substitutions

    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.

  • Price and booking

    Bookings are closed for this event.

    If you experience any issues when submitting your booking, please email [email protected] with the name and date of the session along with the delegate name(s), email address(es) and job title(s) and we'll process the booking for you.

Dates



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