Excellence in learning and development

• Project name: Fit Like Resilience Programme
• Lead organisation: Osprey Housing

Statement of support

"Fit like?" is a Doric greeting, meaning "How are you?". It's a common way to say hello and check on someone's wellbeing in the North-east of Scotland. It is the title of Osprey Housing’s Resilience programme. 

Osprey Housing are committed to investing in their people and aspire to be a great place to work and, if you look after your staff, they look after your tenants. The fit like programme was designed and delivered by Osprey’s in-house team along with Seamus Corry, an external wellbeing consultant, to do exactly that. It consisted of ten sessions of three hours and was focused on equipping all our team members with the resilience skills needed to manage themselves in the ever-stressful environment in which they operate. The strategies they learnt were also transferable to help address tenant issues. 

Previously, all Osprey team members participated in an Insights Discovery programme based on Jung’s typology offering a framework for self-understanding and development. Everyone received a personal profile identifying key areas where they can develop. This profile was referred back to on many occasions during the very interactive sessions. The staff team were encouraged to contribute their own thoughts and feelings as well as ideas on how they could improve both individually and as a team. 

The programme was structured as follows:

Introduction to mental health

• What is good mental health: 
  
  • Common mental health conditions 
  • Spot the signs of developing mental health issues 
  • Manage mental health in the workplace whilst working remotely 
  • How to begin the conversation
• Dealing with difficult customers:
  
  • Understand and use a stress-based model of understanding aggression and challenging behaviours 
  • Use best practice techniques which will enable staff to reduce the triggers for aggression in their work environment
  • Use strategies which will assist staff in protecting themselves, safeguard their clients and customers without the need for physical intervention 
  • Understand the procedures around lone working and working with tenants who present with raised anger or aggression
• Keeping lone workers safe:
  
  • Identify who is defined as a lone worker 
  • Identify risks hazards and solutions associated with lone working 
  • Develop dynamic Risk assessments individually and organisationally to protect lone workers 
• Managing stress:
  
  • Recognise the difference between workplace and personal stress 
  • Identify the different employee/employer responsibilities in relation to stress management 
  • Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the management standards in relation to stress 
  • Use some of the more common stress audit tools 
  • Understand the various stress management interventions 
• Improving staff morale in the workplace:
  
  • What is morale and how it is defined within the workplace 
  • What does poor staff morale look like and the factors behind it 
  • Engage the team in identifying low morale and obtain buy in from them to address 
  • Develop a solution focused model to improve morale and monitor progress 
• Mid programme review:
  
  • Review and evaluate all the learning from previous sessions 
  • Agree further session content 
• Mindfulness:
  
  • What is mindfulness?
  • History and development
  • What does it mean to be mindful?
  • Mindful practice in the workplace
• Personal responsibility – developing and embedding a growth mindset:
  
  • Define what we mean by a growth mindset
  • Focus on the Discovery Insights model and how this can help us to increase our motivation 
  • What do we mean by responsibility
  • How do we encourage responsibility in the workplace
  • Take responsibility for our own growth journey
  • Review of goal setting task
• Communication and teamwork:
  
  • Assess what good communication looks like at Osprey in focus groups 
  • Ascertain when communication works well what does that look like and feel like 
  • Team challenge to build a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows
• Review:
  
  • What have we achieved?
  • What do we need to do?

Outcomes and achievements

Fit Like explores all aspects of wellbeing, giving insight and support for team members in their individual lives and also informing their professional practice. It also gives a specific link to improving the performance of the organisation. 

Average attendance for all 10 sessions was 77 per cent. Feedback from participants highlighted strong support for the programme in providing personal development, collaboration and supportive learning. Takeaways captured included:

• “Great interaction - met all of my needs.”
• “All aspects aligned with what we needed.”
• “I loved the tempo and the nature of the training.”
• “De-escalation techniques will be very useful.”
• “Refresher on how to cope in difficult situations and various illnesses that can affect tenants and their behaviour.”
• “Trainer came across as very friendly and approachable and delivered the course with an element of fun.”

During the period of the programme absence decreased from 3.76 per cent in 23/24 to 1.6 per cent in 24/25 and currently stands at 1.6 per cent. While this drop cannot be attributed entirely to the programme, it must have been a contributory factor.

The programme also inspired seven team members to become Mental Health First Aiders to support the rest of the Osprey team and our tenants.

Highest spaghetti and marshmallow tower achieved was over 1.3 metre tall!

• Project name: LEAD ON
• Lead organisation: East Ayrshire Council

Statement of support

It is widely acknowledged that many people unintentionally end up in a career in housing. East Ayrshire Council is committed to embedding CIH professional standards and following an interactive and inspirational development day with colleagues, LEAD ON was developed as an innovative leadership programme for colleagues within housing and housing asset services.

LEAD ON seeks to change this perception by making a job in social housing a career of choice and showcase the opportunities for professional achievements while serving our communities, and in line with the CIH professional standards, during programme development, all colleagues were asked about their values and behaviours and what would boost their professional and personal development.

Launched in 2024 and now planning the third cohort, LEAD ON seeks to provide colleagues who are keen to progress their careers with the opportunity to expand their practical knowledge of functions across each Housing team and learn from inspirational leaders and managers on the council’s strategic overview and its influence on the vision of the Housing Service. Senior leaders across the council attend ‘Let’s talk to…’ sessions to share their leadership journey, their challenges and what motivates them to be a public servant.

Participants range from clerical officers to managers, half of whom are ambitious younger team members, keen to enhance their leadership skills and establish new connections across the service. There are no barriers or glass ceilings to join, and creativity and energy and the courage to challenge is encouraged from everyone.

At the start of the programme, participants are invited to complete a DISC assessment followed by a personalised, individual feedback session. This helps participants explore their leadership style and identify development goals for the programme. A participant pack includes details of each session and a learning log for completion as the programme progresses. Each session includes time for reflection, with participants sharing their learning through the research they have undertaken alongside shadowing, coaching and mentoring opportunities. Participants can access all presentation materials, relevant publications and useful links on a dedicated online platform to enhance their learning.

Each bespoke LEAD ON session is designed to focus on exciting topics such as:

• Leadership in action and achieving goals
• The council’s Strategic framework, the Local Housing
• Strategy, Strategic Housing Investment Plan, and applying policies utilising a person-centred, trauma-informed approach
• Housing allocations, income maximisation, neighbourhood management, housing options and homelessness, anti-social behaviour, refugee resettlement and the private rented sector
• Repairs and maintenance, housing improvements, common repairs and factoring, tenant safety
• Regulation of social housing and landlord performance
• Health and safety and mental and physical wellbeing
• Tenant engagement and participation
• Financial management
• Applying HR policies with confidence and handling difficult conversations.

Successful completion of LEAD ON meets the essential criteria for our managerial recruitment and is recognised by the council’s Learning Academy.

LEAD ON incorporates personal development as a core outcome. While leadership development is a key theme across all sessions, participants are encouraged to apply their learning back in the workplace to improve operational knowledge in their team. Active group discussions in LEAD ON show that participants have enjoyed sharing their experiences with their colleagues, especially on areas of the service where they previously had little knowledge.

The delivery approach of LEAD ON seeks to create an informal environment and a safe space for participants to explore topics together. Facilitators are invited from across the council and participants work with an assigned buddy on the programme to boost cross-service connections and engagement. This provides participants with the valuable opportunity to interact with colleagues across the service to cultivate innovation and improvement.

In partnership with the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), East Ayrshire Council provides LEAD ON participants with access to CIH resourced, providing them with access to a range of materials and further learning to apply skills and behaviours as they progress through the programme. 

Investing in staff training and providing a platform for learning and networking has resulted in better outcomes across housing and an enhanced service for tenants and service users and the commitment to the continued roll-out of LEAD ON is an investment in our most valued resource – our dedicated colleagues and future leaders.

Outcomes and achievements

LEAD ON aims to enhance skills and knowledge to imbed service standards, professionalism and be positive role models for the younger workforce, welcoming colleagues with integrity and passion to inspire and implement change.

A ‘Let’s talk to…’ session with a housing graduate Intern who shared her journey from further education into social housing resulted in an insightful session on career pathways for participants and our graduate intern gaining the confidence to secure a permanent post.

Regular feedback from participants and session facilitators throughout LEAD ON has helped shape programme content and participants have shown strong support for the programme: 

• “Collaboration and teamwork are the key to the success of our work to help tenants.”
• “It’s interesting how my personality characteristics impact my daily working and decision-making.”
• “LEAD ON has given me a great opportunity to explore and increase my knowledge within the business as a whole and find where my interests lie in terms of potential career progression/promotion. The programme so far has exceeded my expectations in terms of learning but also seeing that we have a management team who are committed to develop this programme to allow staff who may not have thought that management was for them gives and acknowledges that they value the current workforce.”
• “I’ve been able to answer tenants’ queries a lot quicker, even if it’s not my department.” 
• “I am able to contribute more when questions have been asked as I now have knowledge to be brave enough to answer.”
• “I have applied my learning in the communication between departments to get faster, accurate results within my role. I can appreciate the different time scales and facilities that other departments have which leads myself to provide a better service to communities.”
• “I have been encouraging team working, health and safety and wellbeing. I have also used my learning to help others with questions and queries about other departments within the council. I feel I am able to understand more the working of other areas in the council. I also think more strategically about the planning and how things can be done more effectively and encourage teamwork within the area. I also now understand more what departments deal with things and how to work better together as a whole.”
• “I have been able to bring knowledge and understanding of wider council services and the wider impact on how my role and service feed into the bigger picture and the impact that the work that we do has on other services and to our tenants. This has also allowed me to review how we are working as a team and look to implement changes which benefit not only how we are working but also how we can improve communication between services and work closer together. It has also provided a bank of contacts who I can email if I have any questions.”

• Project name: Highland's Housing Talent Strategy
• Lead organisation: Highland Council

Statement of support

Highland Council’s housing service is proud to present a forward-thinking talent strategy that blends ambition, inclusivity, and workforce resilience.

This approach is closely aligned with Highland Council’s People Strategy, which champions workforce agility, leadership development, and a culture of continuous improvement across all services.

Based on ongoing and thorough analysis, Highland recognises some of the challenges it faces in terms of workforce planning and staff development:

• Recruitment continues to be a significant problem in some rural areas and specialist skilled roles
• This is further exacerbated by the age profile of our workforce and predicted high numbers retiring in the very near future 
• The Covid-19 pandemic saw a large turnover in officers with many new members of staff, many whose induction and training were conducted online.

Significant focus was given to supporting, developing and increasing the number of foundation, modern and graduate apprenticeship opportunities within the service. In addition, hard to fill posts were identified with strategies put in place to fill essential vacancies. Examples of this included internal staff development and promotion, new apprenticeship frameworks, focused radio and social media advertisement and the development of career pathways. This was particularly effective because a high number of hard to fill vacancies have now been filled. 

The Talent Strategy recognises the Highland Council’s need to plan, manage and improve people approaches, and supports the achievement of the People Strategy and implementation of the council’s Delivery Plan. To create a robust organisation, we must embrace diversity and foster an inclusive workplace that encourages ambition and supports change. The Talent Strategy will provide the foundation to build the ‘ambitious, sustainable and connected’ culture, placing people at the very heart of the organisation.

Leadership programme, a two-year programme for aspiring or newly appointed leaders/managers. The programme provides a blend of mentoring and further qualifications, including Postgraduate Diploma/Masters in Housing Studies and leadership/management courses. 

Corporate partnership with Chartered Institute of Housing. This partnership provides access to learning resources, memberships for students and staff, joint research and partnership working ventures. An exciting achievement during this period was the housing team being approved as a partner with the CIH professionalism commitment. 

People development was previously a challenge within the service due to the limited availability of internal resources. However, much improvement has been achieved corporately and within the service due to increased resource within the people development team including a recently appointed career coach, management development training at various levels and a variety of online training on Traineasy. Online access was increased for front-line and manual workers enabling them to use hotdesking facilities to access online training, payslips and other digital council resources. 

Furthermore, commitments were given to look at additional and specialist training for teams. For example, the housing options team undertook training on how to deal with traumatic events, vulnerable customers and additional support for neurodivergent clients. 

As part of the Talent Strategy the organisation intends to work towards Investors in People (IIP) Accreditation. The focus of IIP accreditation is to invest in people, wellbeing and apprentices which aligns with our workforce planning ambitions

Housing teams invested time and resources to focus on workforce planning activities to resolve challenges identified within the workforce plan. Four dedicated workshops took place with the management team to focus on: 

• Workforce planning analysis
• Recruitment and selection
• Succession planning
• People development. 

The team focused on refreshing job descriptions, reviewing structures to ensure maximum service delivery, identifying training and skills gaps and recruiting hard to fill vacancies. 

Outcomes and achievements

There are currently 57 officers actively working towards a CIH qualification. 32 officers have completed a qualification in the last year.

The impact of the Talent Strategy on service delivery has been:

• Three-year low in rent arrears
• Commencement of in-house housing support provision
• Reduction in households in temporary accommodation (at the lowest level since 2018).

The following testimonials demonstrate the impact of the training programme:

• “The course content itself has been incredibly relevant to my role. Having only been in the position for just over a year, the assignments have really tested and strengthened my understanding.” (Emma, housing management officer)
• “I feel the qualification is a valuable asset for everyone working within the housing sector, it has enhanced my knowledge of housing policy, practice, and ethics. Working towards this qualification makes me feel that the council is genuinely invested in my growth and future as an employee, enabling me to reach my full potential.” (Emily, housing management assistant).

The next stage of the Talent Strategy will focus on the housing investment team as they seek to take an asset management approach with a new structure and a proposed new Capital Plan.