Helping you prepare for the Competence and Conduct Standard

The Competence and Conduct Standard is shaking up how our sector performs. The Regulator of Social Housing has been directed to ensure providers have the relevant knowledge, policies and practices in place to deliver the required level of service to tenants.

The standard is aimed at providers rather than individuals – they are the ones being regulated and the ones who will need to evaluate how well (or not) they meet the standard. One of the biggest elements of the standard is to ensure that senior managers, executives and service providers have the knowledge and skills to manage and make strategic decisions about housing management services that meet their tenants needs, and the government has put in pace mandatory qualifications requirements for this. 

On top of individuals’ qualification requirements, providers need to adopt a policy for CPD to enable individuals to have the time and space to keep up to date with sector innovation and change.

The standard also requires providers to embed a code of conduct and give tenants a voice in the decision-making process at organisations.

For the individuals in organisations who will (or may be) required to undertake qualifications we have broken down more on the requirements from the standard below to help guide you on what qualifications you may need to take, and what CIH can offer.

We would also advise reviewing the government’s policy, as our advice below is generic to the sector and the standard and may not reflect your specific experience.

Who needs to complete a qualification for the Competence and Conduct Standard?

For the mandated qualification element of the standard, it depends on the person’s job role rather than title, to whether they are required to hold a relevant qualification. The standard specifies senior executives, senior managers and service providers such as contractors and asset management services, as being in scope, providing they have a substantive role in managing the delivery of housing management services.

There are some roles not included in this, such as volunteers, care and support roles, back office, and construction.

What qualification do I need to do to meet the Competence and Conduct Standard?

The standard sets out three different subtypes of roles: 

• Subtype A are general housing management services such as customer service, ASB, lettings or tenant involvement
• Subtype B are technical housing management services such as asset management and repairs
• Subtype C are cross tenure roles such as people who may manage both leasehold and social housing tenant properties.

For subtypes B and C, the person can be qualified in a relevant technical or leasehold qualification that is broadly relevant to their role or can choose to follow the route of subtype A, which is a level 4 or 5 higher housing management qualification. 

CIH qualifications are designed to meet the content requirements outlined for subtype A so our qualifications are suitable for professionals in all three types of roles.

What is CIH’s qualification offer?

I’m a senior executive

As a senior executive you will need to have completed or be working towards a regulated level 5 or higher qualification that is relevant to your role. Here are the options CIH have available. If you need to take a full qualification, don’t forget to read on to find out if you might be able to recognise any previous learning to reduce your study time.

I’m a senior manager

As a senior manager who is in scope for the standard you need to complete or be working towards a regulated level 4 or higher qualification that is relevant to your role. Here are the options CIH have available. If you need to take a full qualification, don’t forget to read on to find out if you might be able to recognise any previous learning to reduce your study time.

I need to complete a full qualification, but I have lots of prior experience and learning, can any of this be used?

At CIH we offer recognition of prior learning, which helps ensure existing achievement is recognised, allowing learners to streamline learning and focus on new knowledge skills and assessment. It can be used to gain exemption from learning or assessment where there is evidence of previous achievement of similar learning and assessment at the required level. 

How it works:

• You discuss evidence of your prior learning with your chosen study centre on enrolment
• You will need to submit documented evidence to the centre for review
• Your study centre will map evidence to the learning outcomes of the relevant unit(s)
• Where evidence maps sufficiently learning or assessment may not be required for some units/ learning outcomes.

What should I be doing if I don’t have to complete a qualification?

Not everyone will need to complete a qualification. However, the standard is more than just about mandating qualifications and also gives the sector the opportunity to enhance its professionalism to provide a better service to its customers.

Everyone in the sector should be aspiring to be their best possible self when it comes to their role. Tenants deserve a better housing sector, safer and better-quality homes to build their lives in. CIH is home to the sector’s professional standards, seven key characteristics which aim to upskill individuals who work in housing in the core skills they need to be more professional within their role. You don’t have to be a CIH member to access the professional standards self-assessment tool (you’ll have one attempt at the self-assessment as a non-member), so everyone is encouraged to take the assessment and find out where you rate for all the characteristics.

The added benefit of being a CIH member is after taking the assessment you will be presented with a range of member-only resources to help you develop your skills, spend time on your CPD and be able to retake the assessment whenever you need to help you watch your development grow and improve over time.

For more information or detail on your exact requirements we recommend reading the full government policy to ensure you and your learning and development teams make the right decision for your level of qualification. You can also find out more on our Competence and Conduct Standard page.

Find out more detail about the standard