When I look back at the journey I have been on, there are a number of stand-out situations
or things that remind me why managing Risk, specifically in Social Housing, isn’t just about ticking a box or reaching a particular milestone. Some examples are silly and have no direct impact on people’s lives, but then, on the other hand, l’ve travelled through a number of situations that I wish more people could experience, just without the end consequence. I’ll give some examples and try and capture some of the feelings that I still feel today when I look back on the paperwork.
Before that, I want to express a view that seems more and more prevalent today, as it’s abundantly clear the sector needs to understand and harness data better. I don’t mean capturing the data, we do that already, I mean viewing it with tacit understanding and using it with purpose.
When it comes to Data and Compliance, it’s now, more than ever, nothing to do with your ability to interpret the rules, it’s more a test of:
How confidently can you prove what you know?
How clearly can you trace your decisions?
How quickly you embrace and respond to emerging risk?
How honestly do you engage with failure?
In the next few years, the organisations that succeed will not be those with the most templates or checklists. It will be those with the most transparent, connected, and responsive compliance data environments, the businesses that empower people to make informed decisions in real time, and the ones that don’t allow warning signs to get lost in inboxes, PDFs or Isolated Spreadsheets. Back to the bit you’re probably more interested in, I guess. In my time in housing, I have been involved in hundreds of disrepair and complaints, a lot of issues around accidents and a handful of investigations which involved fatalities.
Each of these were very unique in the end, but all seemed to showcase similarities with regard to the process and discussions that take place immediately after an event.
A few years back, I received a call from a friend/colleague who asked if I would ‘pop in to their office to discuss an issue they had. When I managed to get to their offices, I was introduced to a couple of Senior Managers and the CEO. I was handed a folder with a lot of paperwork in it and asked, “In your professional opinion, could we, or should we have prevented what happened?”
I spent a few days trawling through the documents, repair data and some other information, and it was very clear the organisation had ticked every single box they needed to. In the end, the issue was labelled as a fault on the usage of the installation as opposed to the lack of maintenance.
The standout here for me, which I have seen a number of times, is the reaction and the level of involvement from the Senior Leadership Teams. It takes such an event to remind people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring safety and compliance. I only wish in this particular case, the SLT had realised that the level of distrust in the operational team’s ability would eventually lead to issues down the line, as is normally the case.
I’ve been directly involved in 6 similar issues over the last 13 years, and it’s sad that the example I gave you above was the only one that didn’t put doubt in the processes, communication, documentation or the overall management of the property in question. Not all were the fault of the landlord, but all of them could have been avoided. My advice to anyone in Housing who manages people’s homes, remember that it’s their castle. If we embrace data as a frontline compliance enabler, not a retrospective report, we will create systems and processes that don’t just satisfy legislation, but genuinely protect people’s lives.