Positive Action for Disability

Breaking the Glass Ceiling for Disabled Housing Practitioners

Join these key players who are offering housing traineeships to disabled people:

• Affinity Sutton
• The Community Housing Group
• Gloucester City Homes
• Habinteg Housing
• Knowsley Housing Trust
• New Charter Housing Trust
• Raven Housing Trust
• Redbridge Homes
• Redland Housing Association
• Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
• Somer Community Housing Trust
• Sanctuary Housing
• Valleys to Coast Housing

Positive Action for Disability in the News

Housing magazine feature - PAfD trainees
Equality and Human Rights Commission Disability Committee – Priorities for 2009/2010
Feature: Jayne Wallace – PafD Trainee
Feature: Guardian Feature – Disability

Here’s what New Charter Housing Trust say about their experience of PAfD so far...

"New Charter has offered a great career opportunity to a disabled person as a direct result of working with the Chartered Institute of Housing on their Positive Action for Disability programme. It has turned out to be a very successful partnership, and I can see us continuing this in years to come. It has met all of my expectations and improved the diversity of our Organisation."

Gary Sharp, Head of Human Resources, New Charter Housing Trust Group

 

"I think it’s a really positive move on the part of the CIH and New Charter Housing as disabled people are under-represented in the workplace. On a personal note I found the interviewing an extremely enjoyable experience and I met some great people along the way".

David Burdis, Financial Inclusion Manager, New Charter Housing Trust Group.

Why has CIH developed Positive Action for Disability?

As a progressive professional body CIH is committed to playing a leadership role in creating a more diverse housing workforce, which is why it is establishing a scheme to promote professional traineeships for disabled people in England and Wales.

CIH's mix of financial strength, national presence, housing expertise and well regarded project management and development skills make it the ideal organisation to drive forward employment opportunities for disabled people.

Disabled people are over-represented in social housing as a proportion of the population and under-represented as the employees of housing organisations. The majority of disabled people report that they want to work but they are often distant from the labour market. There is a well established business case for diverse employment practices as organisations that have a more representative workforce should achieve better customer focus.

CIH's Vision

We want to support positive change in housing by creating the frontline housing practitioners of today and the leaders of tomorrow. We believe that there is no substantive reason to prevent disabled people succeeding in a wider range of housing roles.

What the scheme will do

We plan to offer two-year traineeships which will combine work placement with a course of academic study at either, Foundation Degree, Level 4 Certificate or Post Graduate Degree (leading to Practitioner or Corporate Membership of CIH).

What CIH will do

Positive action training schemes are not only focused on employment and training but also on addressing inequalities in the labour market. CIH's commitment will direct support towards both trainees and employers to address workplace barriers.

In order to achieve this we will provide a high quality recruitment and selection service to ensure that the right trainee is in the right placement.

• an assessment of the your culture and environment to facilitate recruitment,
• an assessment of the prospective trainees' readiness to successfully engage in the programme,
• an assessment of aids and adaptations that the trainee may require,
• signposting of grants and (non financial) assistance to the trainee, and to you, to access aids and adaptations.

We will support the trainee throughout their training by providing:

• an external mentor for each trainee who will meet with the trainee no less than six times a year,
• a budget for trainees to access personal development skills training where they identify a need that is not being met elsewhere in the package,
• E-forum and group action learning for trainees.

We will work with our housing organisation partners by providing:

• One day training/specialist consultancy support per annum, to help you to address work place inequalities.
• An E-forum and group action learning for the 'internal' mentor that you provide for the trainee.

Since the project went live in January 2009, over 90 disabled people have expressed an interest in joining the programme.

How much will the CIH service cost?

In 2009 we will make all of the services above available to our housing partners for £4,000 per annum excluding VAT, and hold our prices at this level for both years of the traineeship.

We will do everything we possibly can to support you and the trainee. If, for reason, the traineeship does not work out in the first three months of receiving your payment we will refund it in full.

What will your organisation need to do?

In addition to paying our fee you will enter into a two year commitment set out in standard contracts to place a trainee. This will require you to:

• Pay a training salary to the trainee (including Tax and NI). Training salaries are often in the region of £10,000 to £12,000 per annum (excluding Tax and NI),
• Support the trainee by paying the fees (generally in the region of £1,500 per annum) and offering day release for a two year programme of study,
• Appoint an internal mentor to support the trainee.

When will the scheme begin?

We are seeking progressive housing organisations to take part now in order to begin recruiting trainees in the spring 2010, in time for the autumn 2010 academic intake.

What if your organisation needs more time to prepare?

CIH has contributed a great deal of resources to developing and rolling out this scheme you could help us by agreeing to become a patron of the scheme.

Next steps

To express an interest in placing a trainee, becoming a patron or just to informally discuss Positive Action for Disability, please contact
Graham Findlay, Positive Action for Disability manager.
E mail graham.findlay@cih.org
Tel: 07508 042112