If your organisation wants a tangible sign that your services meet or exceed good practice standards and that you are proud to offer a best-in-class service to your residents, then HQN Accredit: MIST is for you.

HQN Accredit: MIST has been designed to assess how well a landlord manages its rent related income streams, reflecting the broad range of activities that social landlords deliver beyond rent collection itself, such as  supporting new and existing customers to build and maintain successful tenancies, providing money advice and help with benefits, training and skills development and income maximisation work – to name but a few! It’s an opportunity to demonstrate the quality of your service, as well as gaining access to the most up-to-date best practice. It acts as an incentive and motivator for staff and reassurance for your residents (particularly those involved in the scrutiny process).

Applying an objective, rigorous and challenging scrutiny process, which focuses on the things that really matter, HQN Accredit: MIST has been designed to recognise and reward those organisations which maximise their own and their customers’ income. As an HQN Accredit: MIST holder, you will benefit from:

  • Recognition as a service provider that operates efficiently, effectively, economically and delivers excellent service to tenants and residents
  • Proof that you deliver value for money
  • An enhanced professional reputation for the organisation, managers and staff, nationally and locally
  • Peace of mind for your customers and partners that you are delivering against your local offers
  • Robust guidance and support from HQN’s income management specialists.

HQN’s specialist Rent Income Excellence Network has spent several years developing this accreditation, building on our extensive experience of helping social housing providers to design and deliver high quality services. Our knowledge and expert resources are recognised across the housing sector and we have worked with many of the country’s top performers to help develop the scheme.

Recent feedback:

Working with HQN to achieve MIST accreditation will help you in 5 ways.

  • Firstly, the self-assessment will encourage you to take a long, hard look at your service in a structured, objective way to provide a baseline and guide you to improvements you can put in place for yourselves.
  • Then, once you feel you meet the standard, the process of gathering and presenting the evidence to support your bid helps you to develop a compelling narrative about your organisation and the direction of travel for your service which is, in itself, a strategic statement of intent.
  • Achieving the accreditation provides your Board and senior management with independent assurance around the quality of your service, it’s policies, procedures and practices, as well as recognition for everyone involved.
  • You’re then also supported on your journey forward with recommendations for further improvements and a further health-check 18 months further on.
  • Finally, you join the support network of other accredited organisations. There’s significant value in being able to share ideas, seek alternative solutions and generally touch base with colleagues who are experiencing the same problems. Peer support is very important in this sector.

From self-assessment to preparing for re-accreditation, the HQN team support you at every step of the way. The process is simple, yet challenging, the requirements logical and well-lead out, yet exacting. We’ve found tremendous value in the experience and would definitely recommend it.

Justin Freeman, Director of Income Maximisation, ForHousing