With the Sector Risk Profile 2025 highlighting fraud, cyber security and governance as key risks, organisations need staff at every level to know how fraud happens, where vulnerabilities may exist and when concerns should be escalated.

What will delegates learn?

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Understand the main types of fraud affecting social housing providers, including tenancy, procurement, supplier, mandate and finance function fraud
• Identify common warning signs, red flags and behaviours that may indicate fraudulent activity
• Recognise how cyber-enabled fraud, phishing, data breaches and digital scams can expose organisations to financial and reputational harm
• Understand the importance of effective reporting, escalation and evidence handling
• Assess how fraud risk links to governance, assurance, internal controls and organisational resilience
• Recognise the relevance of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, including the corporate offence of failure to prevent fraud for large organisations
• Consider what reasonable fraud prevention procedures may look like in practice.

This course will cover

• The current fraud risk landscape in social housing
• Key messages from the Sector Risk Profile 2025
• Internal and external fraud risks, including embezzlement, bribery, corruption, false invoicing and money laundering
• Procurement fraud, supplier fraud, mandate fraud and payment diversion
• Tenancy fraud and the impact on housing availability and residents in genuine need
• Cyber security threats, including phishing, impersonation, data breaches and digital scams
• The role of policies, procedures, controls and audit trails in preventing fraud
• How to spot suspicious activity and respond appropriately
• Reporting routes, whistleblowing, escalation and record keeping
• The ECCTA 2023 failure to prevent fraud offence and the importance of proportionate fraud prevention procedures
• Practical examples and scenarios relevant to housing providers.

Who should attend?

This course is suitable for anyone working in or with a social housing provider who may encounter fraud risks, including:

• Housing officers and neighbourhood teams
• Repairs, maintenance and asset management teams
• Finance, income and procurement staff
• Customer service and contact centre teams
• Governance, risk, compliance and assurance teams
• Managers, senior leaders and board members
• Anyone with responsibility for fraud awareness, internal controls or organisational resilience.

Ian Parker has worked in the public sector for more than 40 years. During his career he has worked in senior positions in local government and has been the Finance Director at four RPs. Ian has worked as a consultant for 14 years and he has the developed the following financial models for HQN:

• VfM Benchmarking
• Rent loss model
• Void appraisal model
• Stress test model
• Development appraisal models
• Rent validation.

Ian is HQN’s lead finance associate and in that role he provides advice to members of the Housing Finance Network and also ensures that they receive relevant news and technical updates.