Members only

With the new consumer standards and inspections now in full swing, this year’s HQN Annual Conference will explore the new landscape. We’ll provide the right mix of practical advice on the issues you are grappling with right now like preparing for professionalism, tackling the quality of your homes and being ready for inspection.

On the first virtual day, key sessions include:

• Adam Lent on “how to lead the public sector in the permacrisis”, taking his recent thoughts on radical leadership in the wider public sector to the social housing sector
• Aileen Evans, CEO of Grand Union Housing Group on Knowing Your Tenants, understanding vulnerability and using the data
• Sam Pratt from the Shared Health Foundation on how to improve services and the quality of homes in Temporary Accommodation
• Jill Haley, President of the Chartered Institute of Housing on improving professionalism in the sector and the conduct and competency standard
• Housing‘s Next Generation competition Grand Final – Task 1
• Housing after the election – what will a new government bring?

Practical sessions on:

• Professionalism in housing
• Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation
• Housing management
• Lessons learned from mock and pilot inspections
• Resident Engagement.

Essential for:

• Housing association chief executives
• LA senior executives
• ALMO chief executives
• Executive directors
• Senior housing leaders
• Housing Strategy leaders
• Policy managers and officers
• Board members
• Councillors
• Senior council staff.

Full details to be announced. For more information contact [email protected]

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Alistair McIntosh is one of the social housing sector’s most respected and best known personalities.

As founder and Chief Executive of HQN, he is regarded as one of the foremost advisers on governance and regulation, specialising in VfM and stress testing. His hands-on approach sees Alistair leading on all HQN’s in-depth assessment mock exercises and support work, designing and running the popular Iron Grip sessions and chairing/speaking at conferences and events.

Career highlights include setting up and running the National Federation of ALMOs, leading the popular consultation on the regulatory standards for housing, and developing an approach to VfM that won praise from the housing minister.

A regular contributor to the housing press, Alistair’s columns are known for their humorous, pointed and painfully accurate assessment of the state of social housing.

Aileen Evans, Group Chief Executive, Grand Union Housing Group

Aileen Evans is Chief Executive Officer of Grand Union Housing Group and at the end of June 2021 completed her term as the president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, the professional body for those working in housing.

A qualified coach and NLP master practitioner she has a strong interest in understanding healthy organisational cultures and the impact on performance.

An emerging mental health campaigner, she was, as part of her presidential campaign, working with the metal health charity MIND to provide a guide for housing organisations on creating mentally health organisations and had set a fundraising target of £50K to support MIND this year.

Sam Pratt, Shared Health Foundation

Sam Pratt is the Policy and Communications Lead for Shared Health Foundation. Shared Health is a clinically led, evidence based not-for-profit based in Oldham, Greater Manchester and whose aim is to reduce the impact of poverty on health. Sam has a passion for social justice and tackling health inequalities in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Jill Haley, President Elect, Chartered Institute of Housing

Jill is an accomplished chief executive and housing professional with extensive leadership skills, knowledge and experience. She is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and a Chartered Management Institute level 5 qualified coach and mentor.

Having spent the majority of her 42-year career in social housing, working with diverse and disadvantaged communities, her experience has included a path of continuous learning and personal development, across housing association, local authority, and the private sector. 

Throughout her career, Jill’s enthusiasm for excellence in leadership has inspired her to develop further and to develop others. Her work on leading and empowering staff and communities has attracted both regional and national recognition, including various personal and organisational awards. The story surrounding the success of her transformational leadership approach while chief executive in Byker, Newcastle, has been included as a chapter in a book titled ‘Hope Under Neoliberal Austerity’ published in April 2021.

Jill is Vice President of the CIH, the independent professional standards body of the housing sector and is ordained to become president in 2023. She is a non-executive director of a large mental health NHS foundation trust in the North of England, where she also chairs the People, Culture and Diversity Committee.

Adam Lent, Director of the New Local Government Network

Adam Lent is a Senior Consultant in the Leadership and Organisational Development Team at The King’s Fund. He has worked for the last twenty years on public sector innovation and public service reform with a particular focus on community-led approaches, new models of leadership and organisational culture change. Prior to joining The King’s Fund he was Chief Executive of New Local for over seven years – a think-tank and peer-learning network seeking to deliver a community power vision for public services, society and the wider economy. He has worked previously as Head of Economics at the Trades Union Congress and Director of the Action and Research Centre for the Royal Society for the Arts. He has researched and written extensively throughout his career and he holds a PhD from Sheffield University.

10.30 Welcome and introduction

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

10.40 Leadership Now: how to lead the social housing sector in the permacrisis

• • Adam Lent, Director of the New Local Government Network

11.10 Knowing Your Tenants, understanding vulnerability and using the data

• • Aileen Evans, Group Chief Executive, Grand Union Housing Group

11.40 Break

11.55 Tenant engagement: how to make tenant’s views count throughout your organisation

TBC

12.35 – Improving the quality of Temporary Accommodation

• • Sam Pratt, Shared Health Foundation, secretariat to the Households in Temporary Accommodation APPG

The session will cover the work and research of members of the APPG to present solutions to improve the health, lives and experiences of people living in temporary accommodation across England.

1.15 Lunch 

2.00  Professionalisation: how the new conduct and competency standard can drive improvement and motivation in social housing

• • Jill Haley, President Elect, Chartered Institute of Housing

Jill will update everyone on the professionalisation agenda, what she believes we will gain as a sector, her Be EPIC campaign for the CIH and what landlords should be doing to prepare whilst we wait for the final standards.

2.30 Housing‘s Next Generation competition Grand Final – Task 1

There will be a chance to vote for your favourite after task 1 with the final on Thursday.

3.10 Housing after the election

TBC

3.40 Closing remarks

• • Alistair McIntosh, HQN