Now is the time to decide what professionalism means for housing in Wales

CIH Cymru has launched a comprehensive survey seeking the views of members, and the wider sector, on what it means to be a housing professional in Wales. Here, CIH Cymru director Matt Dicks outlines why now is the time to ask the question.

Last week, the new cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, Sian Gwenllian, outlined her priorities for government.

They included plans to legislate to incorporate the right to adequate housing into Welsh law, to set up an arms-length development entity to increase the pace and scale of social housing delivery, to make the planning system more agile, and to legislate to make rents more affordable, as well as an overarching promise to deliver 20,000 new low-carbon homes for social rent in this Senedd term.

What wasn’t included in the set of priorities, however, was a workforce strategy to deliver on that ambition, although it would seem implicit that investment in the housing workforce will be necessary to meet the government’s ambition. A workforce strategy was one of CIH Cymru’s top five asks in our pre-election manifesto “A Plan for Housing in Wales”. Our regular sector snapshots surveys in Wales have revealed a workforce that is at breaking point, and with the new homelessness legislation, building safety legislation and the new Welsh Housing Quality Standard addendum coming in line, the pressure is only set to increase.

But one of the key questions that arises for me is whether we, housing management professionals in Wales, are recognised as a profession, in the same way that other professions such as doctors, lawyers, teachers and even surveyors are recognised.

Those professions have a common qualification standard, a common commitment to continuous professional development, that is required to practice in their field. A common professional competency standard that allows those professions to speak with an authoritative collective voice, and to be heard by key decision makers.

Do the key decision makers look at housing management professionals in Wales, and think the same?

In October the new Conduct and Competency requirements will go live in England. It will mandate qualifications for managers working for social landlords as well as implementing a regulatory requirement for organisations to demonstrate the continuous professional development of all staff.

The legislation was, in part, a response to the twin tragedies of Grenfell and the death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale. A recognition that, in both tragic cases, professional standards were sadly lacking – or, perhaps more importantly, were indistinguishable in terms of a requirement to practice in a professional environment that was ultimately responsible for safeguarding people’s lives. Quite simply, there was no professional standard against which to measure the competency of staff operating in those organisations.

Professionalisation gives the sector something valuable: a shared understanding of what professionalism means. It creates standards to aspire to and standards to uphold. It builds confidence – among colleagues, stakeholders, tenants and, perhaps most importantly, government.

CIH Cymru’s survey poses the specific question as to whether you, our housing professionals, think it’s time to follow the path being trod in England and legislate to mandate qualifications and commit the sector to a shared conduct and competence requirement, or whether we can agree on a unique Welsh approach.

But we want to delve deeper into our collective understanding of what a professional housing management workforce looks like, and the contribution that professionalism makes to leadership and career development.

If you don’t think we should follow the English route – then genuinely what do you think the sector should commit to in this space? Because doing nothing is not an option. Do any of us want to be on watch if a tragedy similar to the likes of what happened in Rochdale or Grenfell happens here in Wales, and we’ve dismissed out of hand the concept of a shared vision of, and approach to, professional competence and conduct?

This is an important moment for the sector in Wales, so please do take time to fill in our survey – it’s your chance to shape our sector’s professional development. Now is not the time for silence – read more about the survey here, and fill it in below.