Competence and conduct standard comes into force

The government’s competence and conduct standard for social housing professionals has come into effect.

Starting today (1 October), the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) will assess how well landlords meet two sets of new requirements, which now form part of the consumer standards.

Culture, behaviour and conduct requirements, which apply to all staff, will take immediate effect, while qualification requirements applying to senior housing managers and executives will be rolled out over three years.

These are applicable to registered providers and their service providers, including ALMOs and outsourced housing management.

The standard aims to “eradicate unprofessional attitudes and stigma” by introducing requirements around the systems social landlords must have in place to ensure their staff have the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to provide “high quality and respectful services to all tenants”.

This includes having a written policy covering staff development, performance management, learning and development and expectations and adopting a code of conduct that is subject to scrutiny by tenants.

By 1 October 2029, senior managers must have or be working towards a level 4 qualification, while this is level 5 or a foundation degree for senior executives. The deadline extends to 2030 for smaller providers with fewer than 1,000 homes.

The standard was created following a government-led review of the professional training and development standards of staff following evidence heard by the Grenfell Inquiry. This included claims that a lack of appropriate training contributed to the deaths of 72 people and that tenants’ complaints about living conditions were disregarded.

The professionalistion review (2022) concluded that measures should be introduced to drive organisational culture change within the social housing sector and recommended that qualification requirements should be focused on the senior staff who can share their knowledge throughout the organisation.

Following the review, the government made provision through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 for a new regulatory standard on staff competence and conduct.