This paper sets out the work of Community Housing Cymru (CHC) to co-develop policy and campaigns with our members.
The purpose of CHC
CHC exists to support and promote the work of its members and to speak with one voice on behalf of the sector. Our mission is to influence, connect, support and inform so that you, our members, can continue to invest in communities and change lives. In order to do that effectively, we must put members at the heart of everything we do.
The CHC Board’s role in ensuring effective representation
Governance is about the processes and structures in place to ensure accountable, responsible and transparent business practice. It is the role of the CHC board to ensure that the business activity of CHC is accountable, responsible and transparent by overseeing the operational aspects of the business.
As a membership and representative organisation, an additional but important role of the board is its duty to ensure that the activity of CHC is in the best interest of its members and that the right infrastructure and processes are in place throughout the business to ensure appropriate representation and member engagement.
How we develop policy with our members at CHC
As a representative body, our work to develop policy and influence effectively must start with our members if it is to be credible, representative and impactful and secure the changes that are required for our members to flourish.
Broadly, policy making engagement falls into one of the following broad categories:
1. Proactive policy development by the sector to influence decision makers.
2. Reactive policy development, often in response to government initiatives. Often this takes place via consultation responses and representation on various government or stakeholder groups.
3. Development of public facing campaigns.
Starting with our members
Understanding our members’ businesses and the challenges and opportunities they face is central to successful policy development. We also understand that delivering for tenants is at the heart of our members’ businesses and that focus also needs to flow through into CHC policy work. As outlined in our member offer, CHC is committed to putting members at the heart of all that we do. To make this a success requires the active participation of members in CHC activities. We listen and engage with our members to develop policy in the followingways:
· Networks: Our networks support CHC to deliver against the priorities set by its members.
We use our networks to:
· Test and develop policy ideas.
· Identify future risks and opportunities.
· Respond to government and stakeholder policy ideas to shape and influence.
· Proactively identify issues from our members toshape CHC’s work.
· Forward looking policy development and thought leadership. This work will rely heavily on the expertise of the CEXs network.
· Contact Programme: Our contact programme means that each member has a named contact at CHC. One aim of the contact programme is to ensure that you feel involved and are able to influence the strategic direction and activities of CHC.
· Yammer: Our online yammer networks provide an opportunity for all members to engage with each other and with CHC to provide feedback on issues, learning and views on an ongoing basis. The network currently has almost 1000 members and is steadily growing.
· Policy roundtables: On key strategic issues for the sector we may run a series of policy roundtables to ensure that all members are able to input into and influence CHC policy positions face to face. Recent examples include our roundtables on supported housing and rent policy. Representatives from all members are invited to participate in our policy roundtables.
· Task and finish groups:These are often established in response to a time limited, time pressured and specific issue. Examples include reforming the regulatory framework and social value. Volunteers are sought from key networks to participate in our task and finish groups.
How can I get involved and what should I expect?
How do I know who is representing the sector on key groups?
Information on the sector representatives on welsh government , CHC or other groups is provided on our website alongside details of the lead CHC officer for this area of work. Regular updates will be provided on the work of various policy making groups via our yammer networks and weekly round ups.
How do CHC select who sits on different groups?
We are often asked to help others such as Welsh Government identify sector representatives for various policy making groups. We ask for volunteers from relevant networks or the chair/vice chair of the relevant network– the invite will go to all members of that network. In the event that we receive too many volunteers we consider the mix of associations on the group to ensure that there are representatives from a range of geographies, markets and types of provider and balance this against the specific policy needs of the group. In the event that there is widespread appetite for engagement on a specific issue we will consider running a series of policy roundtables or a webinar to ensure members have an opportunity to feed into the policy making process.
How does this work in practice?
Example 1: Future funding of supported housing
In June 2016, Community Housing Cymru worked in partnership with CymorthCymru to respond to the DWP consultation on the Future Funding of Supported Housing. We attended the DWP preliminary review meeting and recognised that this consultation and policy development could have a significant impact on the sustainability of supported housing in Wales. We therefore ensured that we engaged with our members extensively to produce a representative response. We also engaged early on with our colleagues in the National Housing Federation and Scottish Federation to identify their thoughts on a proposed model and subsequently undertook a sector-wide survey to seek responses from our members.
Once the survey results were collated, we invited representatives from the National Housing Federation and our National Supported Housing Network to form a Focus Group to discuss the findings and agree on a Welsh response. The agreed proposal was then finalised at a follow up meeting with Welsh Government, WLGA, Cymorth and the Chair of the National Supported Housing Network. Once finalised, we ensured that the wider sector had an opportunity to respond to the draft proposal by circulating it to all relevant Networks before finalising and submitting to DWP.
Example 2: Homes for Wales
The Homes for Wales campaign was set up with one objective: To ensure that housing was a key political issue in the National Assembly for Wales Elections in May 2016.
An initial CEO/Strategic PR network meeting was held to discuss the rationale behind the campaign and to shape the campaign narrative. This was followed by campaign development, messaging strategy and tactics developed by in conjunction with CHC’s PR Network. The theme of the 2015 Communications Conference was ‘Homes for Wales’ and ideas were further developed looking at digital, political influencing and event strategies from different sectors. A steering group was also set up to deliver the Homes for Wales rally. Hafod Housing, Tai Ceredigion and United Welsh sat on this steering group following a request for volunteers via the PR network.
As a result of this engagement, members had the opportunity to input into the campaign strategy and were kept fully informed. As a result, they engaged with prospective candidates locally, attended the rally and got involved in the campaign via social media.
Housing featured in all party manifestos, and all parties explicitly supported the campaign. 5 parties included an affordable housing target of 20,000. Post-election, Labour has confirmed the ambitious target of 20,000 new affordable homes.
Example 3: Rent setting
In January 2017 we held three roundtable discussions across Wales to provide an opportunity for members to shape our response to the Welsh Government’s Rent Policy review. We received significant interest from members and the overall attendance included 86% of our membership at the three events.
The discussions were used to identify how housing associations use the current Rent Policy and to look at any issues they are currently experiencing. We also explored what a successor rent policy could look like to provide housing associations with the certainty they need to operate in a challenging environment with an increased development target.
The feedback has been used to develop four options for a successor rent policy. These four options will be consulted with the sector in May 2017 to influence our final policy position to feed into the Welsh Government rent policy review over the summer.