Community Housing CymruReview of Governance

Paul Griffiths

Public Service Consultant

Context of Review

• A higher political priority for affordable housing

• The case for more focussed external regulation – the Essex Review

• The need for external confidence in self-regulation

Review Method

• Short and sharp - 2 months, 30 days

• A study of 3 Associations

• Interview of at least one member of most other boards

• Learning from this Conference

Board MembershipTenant Members

• Committed and well supported• Provide the essential ‘citizen focus’ –

housing associations can be the beacon of Welsh public services

• Need to be rooted in a well supported network of groups and panels

• Can be recruited where the roots are strong and well nourished – advantage of a community basis?

Board Membership‘Professional’ Members

• A reasonable balance of skills and expertise

• Widespread commitment and motivation

• Open recruitment is bearing fruit

• Open recruitment is consistent with pro-active marketing of opportunities

• The ‘tap on the shoulder’ and ratification by shareholders is not legitimate!?

Board Membership‘Partnership’ Members

• Appointments based on member’s position within local authority or health organisation

• Can provide valuable links and relationship building with partners

• Only succeeds on the basis of shared investment in partnership working

• Personalities matter

Do Boards Make a Difference?Strategic Direction

• A Clear Diversity of Strategy – community basis, market led, extra care/residential care, special needs, homelessness, working with private landlords, developing home ownership, community regeneration.

• Whose strategy? – evidence of Boards providing initiative and a brake

• Significance of Away- Days

Do Boards Make a Difference?Challenging Performance

• Regular performance reporting

• How well is information presented and used?

• Some evidence of performance monitoring changing practice

• ‘Support and Challenge’, ‘Critical Friend’

• Is there enough ‘grit in the system’?

Do Boards make a Difference?Financial Management

• Significance of specialist board members

• Significance of internal and external auditors to support boards

• The check of the lenders

• The importance of the non-specialist

• The biggest risk to reputations?

Do Boards Make a Difference?Setting the tone, values, culture

• Boards do not manage staff

• Boards appoint the chief executive

• Can boards develop some relationship with staff, sufficient to influence attitudes?

Do Boards Make a Difference?Developing Partnerships

• Responding to housing needs, meeting care needs, giving confidence and skills to communities – all require effective partnerships.

• Are the Board the outward face of the Association – making the external and political relationships?

• Is partnership what the chief executive does?

A New Model of Self Regulation?

• WAG sets out clear expectations of Boards on the self-assessment of performance and the evaluation of developments

• The Boards create procedures and implement them in meeting WAG expectations

A New Model of Self Regulation?

• The external regulator monitors the process of self regulation and the results

• External appraisal is ‘risk based’ – focussing on lapses in process and declared gaps in performance

• External appraisal has a focus on the ‘big picture’ – the synergies and viability of medium and long term development plans

Learning from each other

• Despite CHC Conferences, Boards are not good at learning from each other?

• “We get comparative information from our chief executive”

• “Competition gets in the way of shared learning”• “Shared learning takes too much time”• What potential for the Steve Cranston web-

based conversations? – could you provide another beacon for Welsh public services?

Giving the public confidence

• The public do not understand what RSL Boards are?

• Does this matter?

• It does, if you want to self regulate the use of public money in achieving public goals

• How can Boards have a more transparent public profile?