By Richard Hawley, HQN Training Manager

As the housing sector gets ready for the new Competence and Conduct Standard, there’s understandably a lot of focus on qualifications. Who needs one? What level does it need to be? What counts? And how many people are actually going to need to go back into formal study?

All fair questions. But I think there’s a risk that organisations jump straight to the solution before properly understanding the issue. Instead of starting with “Which qualification do we need to put this person through?” a better starting point might be: “What qualification do they already hold, what does it cover, and where are the actual gaps?”

Not everyone needs to start again

The Competence and Conduct Standard is an important part of the wider move towards greater professionalism in social housing. It’s there to make sure that people delivering and managing services have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to do their jobs well. It’s also worth being clear about the difference between the wider standard and the statutory qualification requirements within it. The qualification requirements specifically apply to relevant senior housing managers and senior housing executives.

For those roles, there are clear expectations around holding, or working towards, an appropriate specified qualification. But that doesn’t mean everyone needs to start again from scratch. The government’s final position recognises that some people will already hold qualifications that are relevant, or partly relevant, to the role they are doing. Where a qualification is only partly relevant, additional top-up learning can be used to cover the areas that are missing. For me, that’s an important point.

Professionalisation shouldn’t become an exercise in sending experienced people through whole programmes of learning when they may already have most of the knowledge they need. The aim should be to address the gaps properly, not to duplicate learning for the sake of it.

Work out what’s missing first

From a learning and development point of view, this is where I think organisations need to be careful. Good practice has always been to understand what someone already knows and can demonstrate before deciding what additional learning they need. There’s little value in putting experienced people through learning they have effectively already covered. For housing providers, that means looking properly at the people and roles that are in scope.

What does the person actually do? What qualification do they already hold? What was covered within it? And how does that compare with the requirements for their role? If their existing qualification already covers a good proportion of what’s required, then the next job is to identify what’s missing. That could be customer service and tenant engagement. It might be equality, diversity and inclusion, housing law and regulation, professional practice or, at executive level, leadership and stakeholder management.

The government’s approach gives employers some flexibility here. Rather than prescribing one set of top-up courses, it expects organisations to identify learning of an appropriate volume, quality and level to address the outstanding criteria. For me, that’s good learning and development practice as much as it’s a compliance response. If the gap is specific, the learning should be specific too.

Top-up learning isn’t a replacement for a qualification

This is probably the most important point to be clear about. Top-up learning isn’t a route for someone without an appropriate underlying qualification to piece together a number of short courses instead. It applies where someone already holds a qualification that’s partly relevant. The organisation needs to look at what that qualification covers, identify what’s missing and then put suitable additional learning in place.

For some people, a full qualification will still be the right route. For others, the qualification they already hold may be enough. And for those who sit somewhere in the middle, targeted top-up learning may be the most proportionate option.

This should be about more than compliance

There’s also a wider opportunity here. Yes, organisations need to make sure they are ready for the standard. But a proper review of qualifications, skills and knowledge should tell you more than whether you are compliant. It might show common gaps across a team. It might highlight where managers need more support. It could help shape CPD, succession planning or future recruitment.

So, rather than only asking “Are we compliant?”, it’s worth asking: “Do our people have the knowledge and confidence they need to do their jobs well?” That’s a much more useful question.

Where HQN’s top-up modules fit

This is where our top-up modules at HQN come in. They aren’t designed as a shortcut around the qualification requirements, and they don’t replace an underlying regulated qualification where one is needed. They are there for organisations that have already reviewed an individual’s existing qualification, worked out what it covers and identified specific areas where more learning is required.

Our one-day modules cover areas including professional practice, equality, diversity and inclusion, customer service in housing, housing policy, law and regulation, leadership and management, and stakeholder engagement. The idea is straightforward: where the gap is relatively small, the learning response should be proportionate.

A more sensible way to approach it

The Competence and Conduct Standard will create work for housing providers. There are roles to map, qualifications to check and development plans to put in place. But it’s worth resisting the temptation to assume that everybody needs another full qualification.

Start by working out who’s in scope. Look at what qualifications they already have. Check what those qualifications cover. Then identify what’s missing and put the right learning in place. For some people, that will mean a full qualification. For others, it will not. And where someone already has a partly relevant qualification, focused top-up learning may be exactly what is needed.

After many years working in learning and development, I’ve seen the difference between training that genuinely addresses a need and training that simply ticks a box. The Competence and Conduct Standard gives housing providers an opportunity to get this right: understand what people already have, identify what’s genuinely missing and put proportionate learning in place. That feels like a much more sensible way to approach professionalisation.

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HQN’s Competence and Conduct role assessment tool

We can also help your organisation tackle these issues with our brand new Competence and Conduct role assessment tool, available through our HQN People and Culture Network – and you can read all about its features and book a demo here.