Good Governance is Everyone's Business

Good Governance is Everyone’s Business

by Harriet Rushton, Head of Assurance at ForHousing

I’m a governance and risk professional and when I start enthusing about these areas I usually get met with either (a) blank stares or (b) slight confusion. I don’t take it personally.  And sometimes, you see lightbulbs.

Each organisation has at least one person who bangs the drums of governance, risk, compliance, and assurance. They were, historically, left to get on with things and the organisation was safe in the knowledge that the box was ticked, and governance and risk was “covered”. This is no longer possible. Governance is for everyone.

A lot has happened in the last two years from a regulatory and governance perspective. The release of social housing white paper and tenant satisfaction metrics, the new NHF Code of Governance and Code of Conduct, Together with Tenants, a new Housing Ombudsman Code, ESG Standards, the Building Safety Act 2022, new regulatory powers for consumer regulation in the offing and, the professional skills drive. None of which should be reviewed in isolation as they form a holistic regulatory change – an unavoidable push towards embedding transparency, accountability, and effectively hearing our residents’ voice. 

Add on the increased focus on social housing landlord performance from the public, media, Government, and of course the Regulator and the overall picture becomes rather serious. 

There is a welcomed shift change in expectation, and landlords will find it increasingly hard to hide poor practices. This is a good thing. Governance and risk are at the centre of addressing the changes and helping protect residents and their landlords. They will also be involved in the culture evolution which is potentially one of the most exciting elements. Good governance and risk management belong to everyone, no longer to the lone individuals.

The housing sector is in flux, it knows that to meet the changes, and the needs of residents, it needs to evolve from the old ways and move fast and smart. The focus is, rightly, on developing and nurturing talent alongside a move away from the old ways to systems which are smarter and make colleagues lives easier. 

The housing sector embraces learning good practice from others; they have used corporate governance to strengthen their approaches to governance and risk and the upcoming regulatory changes cherry pick strong, transparent governance practices from Academy Trusts with their performance improvement plans, freedom of information and push on transparency within governance. 

Almost all housing providers have been through multiple cycles of restructure in the last few years to enable them to do more with less and this pressure will only continue. This is disheartening for all involved and has left some areas on skeleton staffing. The answer is enhancing the skills of the people and the CIH professional standards is aimed at this. It is also in looking outside of sector to learn from others and, where possible, bring them on board to help drive change. 

These approaches help develop internal talent and shift the internal culture perspective from “we’ve always done it like this” to “what can we do better”. The regulatory landscape encourages and supports the new question by providing a new framework to rebuild our organisations and better support our colleagues and residents.  

There are lots of changes coming and it will be a bumpy ride. The framing will be set by the governance and risk processes and the Board but it is for everyone to make it work. Quite frankly, it’s a brilliant time to be a governance and risk professional in housing!

Harriet Rushton

I have worked in and around governance for about ten years having fallen into it by luck when working at an international charity.  I have enjoyed working in multiple sectors but housing drew me back as the one I wanted to dedicate my career to because (and forgive the pun), its where I felt most at home and like I could do the most for the people I am working to support.  I am passionate about level playing fields, opportunity providing (and taking), transparency and accountability and will frequently get on soap boxes and dive into rabbit holes around these areas.  In my spare time, I enjoy walking, spending time with my loved ones, exercising (if the mood takes me), box-set binging, AEW and fussing neighbourhood kitties.