duration

Location
Virtual

What does it take to get to C1? Hear from the RSH, HQN experts and practitioners who’ve navigated the improvement journey. Discover how to turn regulatory findings into sustainable change through credible recovery plans, strong governance, effective engagement and compelling evidence.

  • Read more

    “The lessons in this report reinforce that strong governance, a proactive approach to risk management, the effective use of data, and a clear focus on tenant outcomes are essential to delivering a great landlord service and delivering sustainable improvements.” RSH Regulatory Casework Review 2026.

    Building on the key lessons from the RSH Casework Review and HQN’s own consumer regulation work, this timely event cuts through the theory and gets to what really works.

    Expect honest insight, practical lessons and real examples of the journey to C1 – including what to prioritise, what to avoid and how to demonstrate that change is not just promised, but delivered, evidenced and sustained.

    We’ll explore the lessons highlighted by the RSH in their Casework Review, including:

    • Keeping tenants safe through strong data, effective systems and clear organisational accountability
    • Embedding a strong risk management culture, with effective board or senior councillor oversight
    • Turning data and insight into action by identifying emerging issues and targeting interventions strategically
    • Strengthening financial risk and performance oversight, underpinned by robust stress testing and reliable assets and liabilities data
    • Working effectively with RSH to protect tenants, including making early self-referrals and tackling the root causes of problems
    • Listening to tenants and using their views to shape services and inform strategic decision-making.

    This event will bring together three key perspectives that matter most on the road to C1: the Regulator, HQN experts working extensively with providers on service improvement and experienced practitioners leading change in their own organisations.

    This event will be chaired by Damian Roche, Director at HQN and we will hear from:

    • Karen Doran, Director of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing, who will explore what regulatory casework tells us about effective service improvement, including the assurance, evidence and sustained change RSH expects to see
    • Geoff Wharton, Housing Transformation Consultant, who will draw on his experience of turning around services and organisations following self-referrals, inspections and wider performance challenges, highlighting practical lessons about what works and what can get in the way
    • Shaheen Mahtabuddin, Housing Transformation Consultant who will focus on the improvement plan itself, looking at how to make it SMART, credible and capable of providing meaningful assurance about progress and direction of travel
    • Nadhia Khan, Executive Director and NED who will take the conversation beyond the action plan, exploring how organisations can join up insight, break down silos and translate improvement activity into visible changes for residents.

    Why you should attend

    Delegates will gain practical learning on how to:

    • Establish an honest and evidence-based starting position
    • Identify root causes and uncover wider organisational weaknesses
    • Prioritise the actions that matter most to tenants
    • Build a credible and properly resourced recovery plan
    • Avoid unrealistic promises and overloaded action trackers
    • Use RAG ratings effectively — without creating false assurance
    • Set meaningful milestones and outcome measures
    • Establish effective board, councillor and executive oversight
    • Manage regular meetings and constructive, ongoing engagement with the Regulator
    • Respond decisively when delivery falls behind schedule
    • Keep residents informed, involved and able to see the difference
    • Demonstrate substantial and sustained improvement, not simply completed actions.

    Who should attend?

    This event is aimed at senior leaders, board members and practitioners responsible for regulatory compliance, service improvement and delivering sustained improvements in landlord services and tenant outcomes.

    • Chief executives and executive directors
    • Directors and heads of housing and operations
    • Directors and heads of property, assets, repairs and compliance
    • Service improvement, transformation and programme leads
    • Governance, risk, assurance and regulatory compliance leads
    • Board members, chairs, councillors and senior elected members
    • Performance, data, insight and quality leads
    • Housing management and customer service leaders
    • Resident engagement, scrutiny and customer experience leads
    • Complaints and learning leads
    • Finance, business planning and internal audit leads
    • Colleagues responsible for regulatory inspection, recovery plans or engagement with the RSH.
  • Our speakers

    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.

    Karen Doran, Director of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing
    Karen is part of the executive team at the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and as Director of Regulatory Engagement leads on our regulation of private registered providers. Previous roles at the regulator include investigation and enforcement casework and overseeing our consumer regulation work.
    Karen started her career in frontline homelessness and housing management and has worked in housing for over 30 years in a wide variety of different roles in a local authority and housing association context as well as senior policy roles in central and regional government. Prior to joining RSH in 2013 she worked in consultancy and from 2008 to 2011 chaired and advised the panel of social housing lenders.
    Karen has also had previous experience as part of a regulatory board and as an independent audit and risk committee member.

    Geoff Wharton, Housing Transformation Consultant
    Geoff has been in housing for 38 years. He specialises in transformation, change and rapid service improvement across the whole spectrum of housing services and providers. Offering both proactive and responsive services, he has significant experience working with a range of regulators to deliver services that meet the needs of residents, the landlord and the required standards.

    Shaheen Mahtabuddin, Housing Transformation Consultant
    Shaheen specialises in housing transformation, service improvement and regulatory readiness. She has over 20 years’ experience in the social housing sector, having held senior leadership roles across local authorities and housing associations, as well as governance roles on boards and committees.
    Her work focuses on translating regulatory and strategic requirements into practical, deliverable service improvements that improve outcomes for residents.
    Shaheen has led large-scale transformation programmes, including service redesign, insourcing and performance improvement initiatives, with a strong focus on embedding consumer standards, strengthening governance and using resident insight to drive decision-making.

    Nadhia Khan, Executive Director and NED
    Nadhia has over 37 years’ experience of working in social housing, having started her career as a trainee housing assistant after leaving school. She worked her way up through housing management services and spent some time working in transformation services before moving to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH). During her career, she has managed customer-facing services, including neighbourhoods, repairs and assets. She was the only person in the organisation to attend the full inquest into the tragic death of toddler Awaab Ishak following prolonged exposure to damp and mould and has a deep understanding of the circumstances surrounding the case. She uses this insight to share learning with the social housing sector and help prevent such a tragedy from occurring again.
    She was part of the team that led RBH back to regulatory compliance in 2025, focusing on placing customers at the heart of service delivery and ensuring they live in quality homes that are warm and safe.
    She recently left RBH to work as an independent consultant.
    She also has over 30 years’ experience of serving as a board and committee member for various housing organisations at local, regional and national level.
    She became a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing in 1993, gained an MBA in Public Policy from the University of Birmingham in 2003 and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership for Housing at Lancaster University in 2009.
  • Programme

    9:30am Welcome and introductions

    Damian Roche, Director, HQN

    9:40am From regulatory findings to sustained improvement: What RSH expects

    Karen Doran, Director of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing
    • Learn from recurring issues identified through RSH casework
    • Understand what credible improvement, oversight and assurance look like
    • Demonstrate sustained improvement in services and tenant outcomes.

    10:10am Turning services around: What makes improvement stick

    Geoff Wharton, Housing Transformation Consultant
    • Diagnose the real problems before rushing to solutions
    • Respond effectively to self-referral, inspection and regulatory intervention
    • Draw practical lessons from turnarounds, including what to prioritise and avoid.

    10:45am Break

    11:00am Building an improvement plan that stands up to scrutiny

    Shaheen Mahtabuddin, Housing Transformation Consultant
    • Make actions SMART, focused and rooted in genuine service risks
    • Build in clear ownership, evidence, milestones and assurance
    • Demonstrate progress, direction of travel and sustained improvement.

    11:30am Beyond the action plan: Rebuilding services around residents

    Nadhia Khan, Executive Director and NED
    • Rebuild resident trust through listening, communication and visible results
    • Join up customer and property insight to identify risk sooner
    • Break down silos so improvement sticks across frontline services.

    12:00pm Discussion, Q&A and wrap-up

    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

    If you would like to send multiple members of your team to any of our events, please get in touch with [email protected] to find out about available deals for purchases of multiple places.

    Tickets

    Ticket Type Price Spaces
    Early bird Member ticket
    Available until 5:00pm on 11 October 2026    		 £160.00 N/A
    Early bird Non-member ticket
    Available until 5:00pm on 11 October 2026    		 £210.00 N/A
    Member ticket £200.00
    Non-member ticket £250.00

    Registration Information

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Dates



11 November 2026
9:30am - 12:30pm
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