Equality & Diversity in Housing Conference Fairness in service provision: the role of housing 13th July 2011, York Racecourse
First chance to hear from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on the new Housing Sector Guidance! The focus on diversity has never been greater. Housing providers need to address the different needs of their customers to ensure they can access services and have a say about how services are designed and delivered. This established annual Equality and Diversity Conference, in partnership with Housing Diversity Network, is aimed at practitioners to ensure their knowledge is up to date. This will enable you to take practical steps to ensure equality and diversity is fully integrated throughout service delivery. There are new legislative provisions introduced by the Equality Act 2010, including the Public Sector Equality Duty that came into force in April 2011. The abolition of the Audit Commission and the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) present new challenges and opportunities for the housing sector. Organisations will need to be more proactive in involving their residents and tenants in self-regulation. A formal scrutiny role in relation to diversity issues could help maximise performance improvement. New equalities guidance for the housing sector Following the Court of Appeal “Weaver Case” and in response to calls for Guidance from the housing sector on how best to deliver a housing service that complied with the requirements of the Human Rights Act, 1998, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) convened a Stakeholder Group comprising representatives from a range of housing organisations and Department of Communities and Local Government to shape the guidance to the housing sector being drawn up by the Commission. This Guidance is due to be launched shortly before this conference and we are delighted to welcome Peter Reading from the Commission to the conference to give an overview of recent key cases on housing and human rights, as well as introducing us to the Guidance. Benefits of attending: • Learn how the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Guidance and Codes of Practice can assist housing organisations to implement the Equality Act requirements. • Help prepare for the challenge of co-regulation and tenant scrutiny in equalities. • Hear about key legal issues. • Hear about how to use customer insight and intelligence to ensure fair access for your customers. • Find out about how to design practical toolkits to suit your organisation. • Hear from organisations delivering good practice and share practical experience of tackling issues relating to equality and diversity.
Who should attend?
This conference will benefit any organisation keen to fully embrace equality and diversity, and will be of particular interest to: Heads of Housing, Equality Officers and Managers, Housing Strategy and Policy Officers/Managers, Resident and Tenant Officers and Managers, Human Resource Professionals, Customer Service Managers, Equality and Diversity Policy Advisors, Supported Service Managers and Business Service Managers. Continuing Professional Development
Delegates will be able to record 4 Continuing Professional Development hours for attending this conference.
Programme 10.00
Registration and refreshments
10.30
Chair’s introduction, welcome and opening address Clifton Robinson, Chief Executive, Housing Diversity Network
10.45
EHRC Housing Sector Guidance Launch Peter Reading, Director of Legal Policy, Equality and Human Rights Commission The Equalities and Human Rights Commission Housing Sector Guidance was launched shortly before the conference and Peter will: • Give an overview of recent key legal cases on housing and human rights, and • Outline key aspects of the guidance. Question and answer session
11.30
Professional Practice Sessions 1. Equality Impact Assessments and Equality Analysis John Dembovskis, Housing Diversity Network Associate Mark Johns, Equality & Policy Manager, South Tyneside Homes This session will cover: • Equality impact assessments and equality analysis. • How to design practical toolkits to suit your organisation. 2. What has human rights got to do with my organisation? Adele Baumgardt, Housing Diversity Network Associate This session will: • Explore the key principles of the human rights act and its implications for housing organisations. • Help you identify how to take a human rights based approach to your work.
3. Equality in Procurement Nicola Hellewell, Procurement and Contracts Manager, Northern Housing Consortium Equality and diversity professionals have several opportunities to influence the procurement process. This session will cover: • Supporting the procurement tender process – contract specification and the selection process. • Where E&D provisions are not included in the specification or a refresher is required, what should be included in a Contractor Code of Conduct? • Contractor performance management – supporting procurement/contract management with performance issues: guidance, training, serious incidents. 4a. Making effective use of customer insight Anna Milner, Performance and Practice Manager, Northern Housing Consortium Yvonne Davies, Housing Diversity Network Associate Organisations can plan their services better and provide support where it is most needed once customer’s needs, expectations and aspirations are understood. The session will discuss: • How to maximise the use of customer profiling to develop insight and intelligence to ensure fair access for customers. • Delivering an improved service that meets the needs of all your customers.
12.30
Lunch
1.30
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) issues in Housing John Thornhill, CIH Senior Policy and Practice Officer John Thornhill is Senior Policy and Practice Officer for the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and author of several publications including the new CIH Practice Brief: Delivering services housing services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers. John will present the new practice brief that aims to help enable housing providers across the UK to recognise LGBT issues in relation to housing provision and to plan and provide appropriate services that match the differing needs and preferences of diverse customers.
2.10
Professional Practice Sessions: Repeat of 1 to 3, plus 4b. Equality in Resident Scrutiny Panels Anna Milner, Performance and Practice Manager, Northern Housing Consortium Yvonne Davies, Housing Diversity Network Associate Social landlords have always aimed to engage with their communities, including ‘difficult to reach’ and ‘vulnerable’ residents but now seek to go further and empower tenants to take an active role to monitor and audit services. This workshop session will help you to ensure that those who sit on your scrutiny panel are: • Representative of your customer base. • Skilled to understand and investigate the equality element of services give some pointers as you training requirements for the panel members.
3.10
Refreshments
3.30
Self Assessment - your progress and performance on diversity Yvonne Davies, Housing Diversity Network Associate In this session, Yvonne will cover: • Ensuring that your organisation is prepared to meet the requirements of the Public Sector Duty. • Understanding the process of service self assessment of your equality and diversity services. • Hints and tips to keep abreast of developments in service excellence and how to action plan for improvement.
4.10
Chair’s closing remarks
4.15
Close of conference
Equality & Diversity in Housing Conference Fairness in service provision: the role of housing 13th July 2011, York Racecourse Early booking discounted rates ( book by 22nd June)
Delegate fees: Northern Housing Consortium Member
£199
£179
Non Member
£249
£229 All delegates fees are shown excluding VAT
How to book By post to:
Northern Housing Consortium, Websters Ropery, Ropery Road, Deptford Terrace, Sunderland By fax on:
0191 566 1001 Online at: www.northern-consortium.org.uk Contact us For further information or if you have a query please contact a member of the events team: Telephone: 0191 566 1000 Email: events@northern-consortium.org.uk Book online Download a copy of the programme here