From the Chief Executive

We need to step up on professionalisation

It’s time to get a lot more professional. That’s the message coming loud and clear from the Grenfell Inquiry, ITV News and far too many Ombudsman reports. So, what’s gone wrong and how do we fix it?

Firstly, we’ve got to see things from the customer’s point of view and act on it. Tenants aren’t asking for the moon. All they want is for us to be honest and provide reliable services.

We need staff who know what’s what and who can get things done. That means they directly answer questions from tenants and don’t let matters lie. It’s far too easy to get bogged down in sending ping-pong e-mails between departments and/or contractors. We want staff with the right attitude which means a relentless focus on bringing each and every job or enquiry to the best possible conclusion.

Staff can only do that if leaders shape up too. When staff complain about blockages like slow IT, pointless procedures, and duff contractors, leaders must sort these out.

One big lesson from the Grenfell Inquiry is that staff need the right sort of training. The lawyers went through each and every job to identify the skills and knowledge required. Then they asked staff witnesses what training they had received. All too often the answer was little or none. Crucially, the lawyers did not accept housing degrees at face value but drilled down to find out if the staff members had received training pertinent to their actual responsibilities.

But let’s not dismiss degrees. Graduate trainee schemes with the right content can be a good way of growing your own experts. The Grenfell Inquiry exposed the shortcomings of over relying on outside consultants of dubious quality. There is a big – and dangerous – gap in our defences here that the universities can help us to close.

The lawyers at the Grenfell Inquiry were firm on the need for accurate record keeping and precise e-mails too. Like it or not, they were unforgiving on poor written English. But these are the standards you need to meet if you want to call yourself a professional. Leaders should put in place programmes to make sure staff hit the mark. There is nowhere to hide as ‘Ofstedstyle’ inspectors are bound to probe here.

Before lockdown staff picked up a lot of good (and bad) practice on the job by working side by side with more experienced people. What impact will working from home more bring? I’m not sure. Trainee operatives will continue to do their jobs on site so nothing much should change there. Surely, estate managers are better out in the field than in the office anyway? Do the leaders need to go to the staff rather than the staff coming to the office? I talk to people I respect who make a good case for getting back to the office more and those that want to keep going with hybrid working.

Finally, you can’t be professional without money. Everyone I talk to tells me that workloads have increased dramatically since lockdown. If pay levels fall behind other less stressful jobs we will struggle to get the right calibre of people.

We know the disaster at Grenfell had its roots in ill-considered attempts to save money. Landlords have got to pin down what they need to spend to bring their homes up to a good standard.

Housing must professionalise and government needs to help us find the cash to create effective landlords with homes to be proud of. We know only too well the risks of bodging like amateurs.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve worked with our Housing’s Next Generation of young leaders and the Housing Diversity Network’s mentees. There are some fantastic people coming through. But we need more of them. That’s the prize within the grasp of the government’s professionalisation review.