The Executive Route to chartered membership is designed for senior housing practitioners, including chief executives, directors, and professional partners working at strategic levels within housing or the built environment at strategic levels in their organisations, leaders and influencers of policy and practice agendas locally, regionally and nationally..
This route supports your progression to CIH chartered member status (CIHCM) through a reflective and experiential programme, allowing you to demonstrate your impact on housing policy and practice.
Benefits of the Executive Route
- No course attendance required - the reflective assessment process is relevant to your role and organisation.
- Peer reviewed - present your achievements to a panel of housing professionals. Dates available throughout the year.
- Chartered membership (CIHCM) – upon successful completion
Eligibility criteria
To apply for this route you must be a current resident of the UK or Ireland and have UK or Ireland housing sector experience.
To be eligible for this route, you must:
- Be a current chief executive, director, or professional partner working in a housing organisation or the residential built environment in the UK or Ireland.
- Provide a detailed statement demonstrating your experience and practice at a strategic level, and your influence on policy and practice agendas locally, regionally and nationally against the criteria for chartered membership.
Please note: International candidates cannot apply via the UK and Ireland route.
Please ensure you meet the eligibility criteria before applying. Applications without statements will not be processed.
Presentation and interview
You’ll prepare and deliver a 30-minute presentation on how your professional experience and practice shows that they meet the requirements of chartered membership.
Following the presentation, there will be 30 minutes of discussion and questions with the peer review group. The review panel consists of experienced housing professionals and fellow candidates.
All interviews are conducted via Microsoft Teams on the first Friday of every month, provided there are a minimum of two candidates (maximum four). Please ensure you can accommodate this before applying.
Note: You must participate in the presentations of all other candidates during the session.
You are required to demonstrate and present a case on how your professional experience and practice shows that they meet the requirements of chartered membership, which are to:
- Maximise the positive impact of your work with individuals and communities
- Deliver services that are designed to maximise the positive impact on customers
- Work with partners to improve effectiveness
- Contribute to the profession, sharing experience and supporting innovation
- Communicate effectively – taking care to select the right style and method for the audience
- Apply the professional standards framework to the daily role, embracing a reflective practice to contribute to the professionalism of the organisation and the wider sector
- Have an ethical approach to your work - using the CIH ethical framework when faced with dilemmas
- Ensure that you have the right skills and knowledge for the job – scanning the horizon to predict future challenges and preparing effectively
- Embrace non-discriminatory practice and challenge behaviour which works against equality and diversity principles of good practice, reflecting on steps taken and improvements needed for equality, diversity and inclusion
- Support initiatives for delivering services which are socially responsible
- Promote and engage with policies and processes which conserve resources and support sustainable development.
It should also show how your professional experience and practice shows:
- your contribution to the housing profession
- the strategic direction of your organisation and how it meets government housing policy
- your experience in managing resources (people and/or teams)
- a reflection on your professional experience and the importance of professionalism and professional standards
- your practice of professional development and working to code of conduct, code of ethics and the CIH professional standards
- how you continue to influence policy and practice agendas locally, regionally and nationally.
Registration fee
A registration fee of £1500 for UK and Ireland based candidates applies (this fee applies from April 2025).
I genuinely recommend the executive route to others in a similar position. I am strong believer in reflective practice, and this gave me such a wonderful opportunity to do just that.
I also made new connections with the panel members, one who has since agreed to mentor me, and it was just such a privilege to hear one of my peers present her case and share in her journey through the executive route too – another wonderful connection made.
Having worked in Housing for 35 years, I wanted to support and be recognised by my professional body, the Chartered Institute of Housing. Having been a director and member of executive teams for over fifteen years it wasn’t before time really.
I have designed both cultural and ethical training for staff, but I had no recognised housing qualification and the process and evaluation felt very different. It was important to me to be recognised as a housing professional and the Executive route gave me this opportunity.
Preparing for the peer group assessment gave me time to reflect on my professional journey in housing and to take the time to review my achievements. We don’t do this regularly enough and the panel were keen to ask questions about my journey. I have to say I felt nervous, in the way you would if you were taking an exam or going for your driving test, or even a job interview. The questions were probing and well thought through.
There were detailed questions that explored my understanding of the CIH’s professional standards and tested my own ethical barometer.
I think it right and proper that directors and senior staff support the professionalisation of the housing industry. The best way to do this is to lead from the front and what better way than to be recognised as a Chartered Member of your own trade body.
The process itself was both demanding and rewarding, you get to meet fellow professionals going through the same experience and create connections as a consequence.
I have no hesitation in recommending the Executive Route to Chartered Membership to others who might be considering this opportunity.
The executive pathway to achieving chartered status was both challenging but a hugely worthwhile process.
The pathway enabled me to reflect on my own experiences and working practices, using the professional standards and ethics frameworks as a foundation to continuously ensure the highest of standards and professionalism are upheld. Those standards and frameworks will continue to shape the way I lead and influence colleagues in my own organisation.
The pathway has allowed me the opportunity to grow my network across CIH members and opened opportunities to share best practice and collaborate with colleagues and peers, both locally and nationally. The professionalisation of the housing sector is a key element of tackling the many challenges the housing sector currently faces, and will continue to face in the future.
The executive pathway to CIH status recognises the highest of standards within the sector and I’m extremely proud to have obtained chartered status.
I am delighted to have achieved CIH Chartered Membership status via the Executive Route.
For me this was a way to demonstrate my professionalism and commitment to the sector.
The process is certainly demanding , and the questions from the panel very challenging, but it was an opportunity to reflect on my career journey and inspiring to hear from fellow professionals in the peer presentations.
As well as my own reflective practice the process helped me to better understand the CIH Professional Standards and frameworks as effective tools for decision making and embedding in future practice.
