Due to popular demand the full recording of our event ‘Health and Safety compliance – the big six and beyond’, held on 20 March 2025, is now available to watch on-demand for a limited period.

Order your on-demand viewing today to:

• Watch a full video recording of the event, including all presentations, Q&A sessions and panel discussions via Zoom
• Receive copies of the slides used during speaker presentations
• Get access to on-the-day materials, including speaker biographies and the agenda.

As a landlord your number one priority is to keep tenants safe. There has never been more of a focus on health and safety compliance in social housing. This needs to extend further than just the big six of Legionella, fire, gas, electric, lifts and asbestos.

Some recent tragic cases have highlighted other potential health and safety risks. Just as the coroner’s report on the death of Awaab Ishak raised concerns about damp and mould; other coroners have raised concerns and recommendations about drowning dangers, window safety and the scandal of vulnerable residents living without heating.

This means the compliance landscape is increasingly complex to manage. Ensuring your governing bodies and the regulator have assurance on health and safety is not straightforward, especially when you add managing agents, a variety of stock types and locations as well as an increasingly diverse tenant profile to the mix.  It is essential to get your systems and data right and your people trained to ensure effective health and safety management.

Hear from compliance and legal experts at this special health and safety event as they cover the big six and also look at the wider picture, alerting you to dangers that often go unnoticed or unrecognised.

You’ll also hear from leading practitioners who are managing often complicated arrangements to ensure they are on top of all of their health and safety requirements.

What we cover:

• What the main health and safety areas are for social housing organisations (the big six)
• A summary of the other known building safety areas relevant to social housing
• How to monitor those safety areas and get assurance there is an adequate level of compliance and oversight
• What Coroner s28 reports are
• Which recent s28 reports have been relevant to social housing providers and their recommendations
• An update on health and safety legislation and recent case law relevant to social housing providers
• Top tips and recommendations from a fellow practitioner managing health and safety in a registered provider.

Essential for:

• Directors of Housing
• Directors of Health and Safety
• Directors of Building Safety
• Directors of Assets
• Health and safety leads
• Building safety leads
• Consumer standard leads
• Governance and compliance leads.

Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

Chloe has worked in the social housing sector for over 25 years since her first role in housing management with JSS Pinnacle as a trainee housing officer. She completed a Masters in Housing with Professional Qualification at the London School of Economics and then moved into housing policy, working on behalf of the London boroughs, initially for London Housing Unit and then London Councils. She joined the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) in 2007 working with members, government officials and wider housing stakeholders to develop NFA policy and support the ALMO movement. She brings her wide range of housing management and policy knowledge to HQN as Director, working across the business and bringing her skills and experience to the whole social housing sector.

Letrice Thomas, Head of Knowledge and Client Insight, Pennington Choices

Working within social housing before joining Pennington Choices, Letrice has successfully worked with over one hundred housing providers to help their Boards, Chief Executives and Leadership Teams meet their property compliance and building safety obligations.

Letrice’s strength is in helping providers to implement effective scrutiny, challenge, and assurance around their compliance activities, and is passionate about ensuring resident safety remains a top organisational priority.

Wayne Hughes, Associate, HQN

Wayne Hughes is an experienced consultant who has worked at a senior level within private and public sector housing related organisations for the past 40 years. He has authored several articles on asset management related activities and has sat on several advisory bodies for the social housing sector, including sitting on the panel which developed the widely used Disrepair Pre-action Protocol. He was also part of the team which established the English House Condition Survey (now called the English Housing Survey).

Sean McLaughlin, Board Chair, Innisfree and Barnsbury Housing Associations

Sean is Chair of Innisfree Housing Association and Barnsbury Housing Association. He is also vice-chair of a regional learning disability and autism charity, Centre 404, and an active member of a conservation group dedicated to preserving heathland in Suffolk.

He is a coach and mentor (mainly to principal social workers) and provides consultancy services and occasional interim cover in the housing sector. He was recently Chair of a Local Domestic Abuse Partnership Board.

Before retiring in 2022 he worked in housing and social care in London for 40 years, most recently as Corporate Director of Housing and Adult Social Services at Islington Council and Managing Director of Homes for Haringey.

Matthew Breakell, Partner, DAC Beachcroft

Matthew specialises in providing advice and assistance to organisations and individuals where there has been a workplace accident and the Police, Health Safety and Environment and other Regulators are investigating and/or prosecuting. He provides advice and representation at Inquests and delivers an extensive range of training sessions from Board Room to Boots on the Ground.

Matthew is also frequently called upon by Clients to advise in relation to more day to day regulatory enquiries including advice around enforcement action, roles in bids and tenders and other advisory issues such as policies and procedures.

He has over 10 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including construction, manufacturing, health and care, retail and property.

Matthew specialises in advising organisations about their potential criminal liability arising from serious workplace incidents, especially those relating to construction incidents, deaths and injuries in care/health, manufacturing/retail accidents and rail collisions. He regularly provides initial advice and support in the immediate aftermath of a major adverse incident, including incident investigation, legal representation at interviews under caution and advocacy work at Magistrates’ Court.

Sarah Stevenson-Jones, Director of Building Safety and Compliance, Stonewater

Sarah is a chartered surveyor with over 30 years experience of working in the property sector, for both private and public bodies. Since the early 2000s Sarah has specialised in fire and building safety and has supported the development and publication of numerous sector guides and standards. Sarah is currently the Director of Building Safety & Compliance for Stonewater Housing Group.

Welcome and introductions

• Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

The key issues for the sector to address

• Letrice Thomas, Head of Knowledge and Client Insight, Pennington Choices

It’s not just the big six – a building safety matrix

• Wayne Hughes, Associate, HQN

Break

Coroner’s s28 reports – what you need to know

• Sean McLaughlin, Board Chair, Innisfree and Barnsbury Housing Associations

Legal update

• Matthew Breakell, Partner, DAC Beachcroft

Keeping on top of health and safety compliance 

• Sarah Stevenson-Jones, Director of Building Safety and Compliance, Stonewater

Close