The Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme, funded through the Northern Housing Consortium Charitable Trust, awards bursaries of £500 to help tenants develop learning and skills to support future employment.

From April to June 2021, we had a total of 18 applications from 7 of our member organisations. We are delighted to award 12 bursaries to successful applicants. Below are a few examples of how the bursary will be used.

Francesa is a Habinteg tenant and has been a carer for her mother for several years. Despite this she  has still managed to gain a place at university to study Child Nursing. The bursary award will be used to help with her tuition fees, books, and course materials.

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Lewis is a tenant from Thirteen Group and will use the bursary to help him fund a career ambition of becoming a telecommunications engineer. The bursary grant will be used to pay for certain tickets and help him to achieve this ambition.

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Kate is a tenant from Thirteen Group and will use her bursary to help fund the rest of her studies in Midwifery. Kate has also become a chair for the midwifery society board, and she also volunteers for an organisation that helps with the bereavement of children.

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Paul is a tenant from Thirteen who is supporting his disabled wife and stepdaughter. He wanted to attend a course in barbering and cutthroat shaving while also having a part-time job. He would use the bursary to buy additional barbering tools. Paul is hoping that at the end of the course he will be self-employed. In his own words “Everyone will always need a haircut”.

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Sarah is a tenant from Gateshead Council who will use the bursary to help pay for a degree in Criminology & Psychology. She wants to use this degree to help people, pursuing a career as a support worker or police officer and in turn will help her support herself and her 2 small children.

Congratulations to this year’s successful applicants! Applications for 2021 are now closed, further details to follow in the coming months.

 

Homes for the North, with support from the Northern Housing Consortium, has this week launched new research on appraisal guidance.  This follows revisions made to the Government’s ‘Green Book’ in 2020 and examines how appraisal guidance can be ‘operationalised’ to reflect levelling up. The research finds that the review of the Green Book will come to nothing unless serious thought is given to how, in practical terms, the appraisal system moves beyond monetising benefits to individuals such as land-value uplift, and moves towards truly valuing wider public benefits.

The study was conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and included workshops with councils, housing associations and other partners with an interest in delivering more and better homes in the North. The report includes recommendations to government and to scheme promoters.

Commenting, NHC Executive Director Brian Robson, who sat on the steering group for the research, said:  “The NHC was pleased to support Homes for the North with this project. We hope the recommendations to scheme promoters, and the review of the existing evidence base, will prove of value to NHC local and combined authority members as they progress local schemes.”

The report can be downloaded here.

The mental health impact of all that we have experienced since early 2020, is huge – and will be long lasting.

“On a population-wide basis, the negative mental health effects of the pandemic are likely to last much longer that its physical health impacts. The effects of physical distancing, social isolation, and lockdown on individual mental well-being, as well as the loss of a loved one, increase the mental health challenges for the UK population”
(Mental Health Foundation, Jan 2021)

Various studies* carried out in the last 17 months have shown that the number of people experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions has increased significantly.

People employed in some specific sectors or professions have been identified as experiencing especially high levels of stress – including those working in the NHS and education; and those working in the sectors most significantly affected by lockdowns and restrictions.

We’ve all been affected to some degree. We have all had change forced upon us – lockdowns, restrictions, homeworking. Many of us have experienced health concerns and very sadly many of us have lost people we love. Those with existing physical or mental health conditions may not have been able to access the treatment or support they have needed.

That’s a lot of stress for a lot of people.

In general terms, the stressfulness of any difficult situation is related to how long it lasts. As the effects of the pandemic have dragged out, over many months, people have been exposed to chronic stressors throughout all of that time.

That wears people down.

“Pandemic fatigue is an expected and natural response to a prolonged public health crisis”.
(World Health Organisation, November 2020)

For many people the stress and fatigue will find its expression in burnout.

Burnout is a state of emotional and physical exhaustion.

In 2019, ‘burnout’ was recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an ‘occupational phenomenon’. However, as the lines between work and home have blurred so much for so many, throughout the pandemic- ‘burnout’ can, and is, and will affect us in and out of work.

46% of UK workers feel ‘more prone to extreme levels of stress’ compared with a year ago
(Mental Health UK March 2020)

Dr Mike Drayton, author of ‘Anti-Burnout’ describes burnout as “the biggest public health crisis of the 21^st Century”.

So, what are some of the typical signs of burnout?

• Feeling tired or drained most of the time
• Feeling helpless, trapped and/or defeated
• Feeling detached/alone in the world
• Having a cynical/negative outlook
• Self-doubt
• Procrastinating and taking longer to get things done
• Feeling overwhelmed

These are all signs to watch out for in yourself and in your colleagues.

Burnout can happen within the context of an organisational culture. Business leaders, urgently, must make it a top priority to develop an anti-burnout culture – a workplace that is psychologically safe, where people feel safe to ask for help, where they know they will be heard and supported.

Claire Russell, CEO, Mental Health in Business.

 

Services for NHC members:

NHC members can benefit from a 15% discount on all MHIB’s services and a

• FREE organisational mental wellbeing assessment.
• To find out more about our free organisational wellbeing assessments, click here.
• To see an overview of our services, discounted for NHC members, click here.
• Managing Stress and avoiding Burnout workshop

Workshop details:

We all experience stress to some degree – some might say that some stress is healthy or helpful, because it motivates us and keeps us moving.

However – there is considerable evidence that high levels of stress, persistently, can lead to mental ill-health and contribute to serious physical ill-health.

Since early 2020, we have collectively been living through an extraordinarily stressful time – most people have been coping with unforeseen change and challenges, uncertainty, anxiety and worry.

Many people have had their businesses hugely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, many have lost their jobs, been adapting to working at home, coping with isolation and home-schooling children who may themselves be struggling emotionally. Sadly, many people have been bereaved during the pandemic and, like many people with existing physical or mental health conditions – may not have been able to access the support needed.

Numerous studies* carried out between June 2020-June 2021 have identified the risk that many people may be heading for burnout.

“A recent study by Monster found that 69% of employees working from home are experiencing symptoms of burnout. It’s unsurprising when you consider how many of us are juggling busy work schedules, video calls, home-schooling and household chores everyday”
Mental Health Charity, Mind; March 2021

Join CEO of MHIB, TEDx speaker, mental health campaigner & Samaritans volunteer, Claire Russell, for this powerful workshop to help you manage stress, improve mental well-being and avoid burnout.

 

Outline

During this 2-hour workshop participants will learn about the effects of stress on mental, emotional and physical well-being; how to manage stress; the link between burnout and mental health and how to avoid burnout.

The session will involve interactive discussions and group exercises which are specially designed to ensure effective learning in a short timeframe within an online environment.

Session Objectives:

• Would you like to have more understanding about what causes stress and the effects of stress on mental, emotional and physical health?
• Are you worried about the effects of stress on your colleagues/team/organisational well-being?
• Do you worry that you – or your colleagues – are heading for burnout?
• Would you like to have more understanding about how to create an anti-burnout culture, so that you / your colleagues / your team can enjoy great well-being and thrive at work?

 

After attending this workshop, you will:

1. Understand the impact of stress

You will be able to spot the signs of stress in yourself and colleagues and know how to manage stress better, in order to enjoy better mental, physical and emotional well-being.

2. Recognise the signs of burnout

You will be able to identify if you, or your colleagues, are showing signs of burnout. You will understand the relationship between burnout and mental health and be able take steps to avoid burnout and promote good mental well-being for all.

3. Understand what an anti-burnout culture looks like

You will be equipped to burnout-proof yourself, your team and your organisation and be able to create a psychologically safe and healthy working environment in which every person is supported and enabled to experience good mental well-being and to truly thrive.
Workshop hosting details and cost

The workshop will be hosted on Zoom or Webex, to be agreed depending on your organisational requirements.

Cost: Reduced from £1500 plus vat to £995 plus vat for up to 25 attendees (POA for larger groups) – with an extra 15% off for NHC members

Included:

• Powerful 2 hour workshop
• Written resources for all attendees

“Burnout is a state of vital exhaustion. It refers specifically to the phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life”.

World Health Organisation, 2018.

^{(* https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmhealth/22/2207.htm; https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/stress-and-burnout-warning-over-covid-19; https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/)}

 To find out how MHIB can help you, or your organisation, please contact the team on NHCMember@mhib.co.uk or call 01788 340180 – quote ‘NHC’.

Training and development opportunities for senior leaders  

Kate Maughan, Director of Member Engagement, NHC 

In 2020, the NHC ran its first Action Learning Set for members, facilitated by Action Learning Associates. While Action Learning is a great tool for any topic, we designed the sets around decarbonisation – the net zero agenda is a priority for our members, and when thinking about new skills, new technologies and a whole new direction, it can feel like a step into the unknown, so we felt this was a great first theme to tackle. 

What is Action Learning? 

Action Leaning is a process, rooted in listening and question making, that drives effective decision making and supports set members to take new action. It provides a safe place for learning, thinking, planning and decision making and in this case brought together five senior leaders from across the NHC membership. Each set is guided by a facilitator who keeps set members to the discipline of asking questions to probe and explore in depth, rather than moving into the familiar responses of discussion, advocacy or offering your own solutions or opinions. Set members learn from each other’s experience, offer each other honest feedback and build a network of trusted peers who together explore the big questions in the work. 

Sets are deliberately kept small to maximise the value members get from taking part, and meet four times over five to six months. 

Action Learning can form a fundamental part of your training and development programme for senior staff, and offers something much more tailored than many standard training and leadership programmes. 

What were the key issues raised on decarbonisation? 

At each set meeting every member shared a challenge they would like to work on (called a ‘bid’) and the set as a whole decided which two bids would take priority, based on how the individual communicated urgency, importance or how they were currently feeling about the issue. Some of the bids from our set included: 

• Business planning and budgeting around decarbonisation – what should be built in? 
• Developing a zero-carbon strategy and action plan 
• Where do I start? And how do I get buy-in across the organisation, so decarbonisation doesn’t feel like just one person’s job? 

• How do we begin to engage customers in this agenda and, ultimately, offer them a viable proposition? 

There was a lot of common ground here, with a number of set members looking to change their thinking and solve problems on the same or similar issues. 

Members explored these issues in depth throughout the process, and alongside the sharing of ideas, they also shared policies, strategies and other practical tools, while developing a new way of thinking about their challenges. 

How worthwhile was the process? 

We asked members to evaluate the Action Learning Set; all of them felt more confident about how they would approach their decarbonisation work going forward as a result of the process, and, crucially, felt that they had a better understanding of decarbonisation at the end of the four sessions. Members told us at the start that they wanted to: 

• Develop a network of senior leaders working in the same field; 
• Share information and learning with and from each other around decarbonisation; 
• Experience Action Learning and strengthen the transferable skills of listening, question-making and feedback. 

During evaluation, all members felt they had achieved their expectations in these areas, and despite joining the sets with these skills already in place, came away with much improved confidence about their ability to listen and ask questions. 

What were the top takeaways for set members? 

Here are some member quotes: 

• “New contacts, the Action Learning approach (love it!), giving myself the time to do the sessions.” 
• “New working relationships, fresh ideas, a refocussed approach.” 
• “Everyone is in the same position, there is support out there, be honest and open as you get more out of things.” 

A knowledgeable and sustainable network 

This set want to stay connected, and agreed to arrange a future meeting that they would self-facilitate. Members told us they highly valued the network they had created through Action Learning and found it a ‘safe place’ to bring up challenges and find reassurance. One member commented: 

“It’s been good to make time to do this; it feels like a luxury and I have thoroughly enjoyed every session.” 

What’s next, and how can you get involved? 

Following the success of the first set, here at the NHC we are very keen to continue to work with Action Learning Associates to build more Action Learning Sets to grow members’ confidence and networks – we’ll be launching new sets later this year, but would welcome your feedback on other themes you would find useful (some suggestions already have included the Social Housing White Paper, people management and development, and communicating with customers). 

Sets can be run like this one, bringing together different people from across our Northern membership, or can be run in-house as part of your training and development programme for wider staff groups. 

If you’d like to get involved, please do get in touch with me at kate.maughan@northern-consortium.org.uk and look out for more details about our Action Learning offer later in 2021. 

Other ways we can support 

We’re doing a huge amount of influencing and engagement work for our members on the net-zero agenda; use the links below to find support and information. 

On-demand webinars from last year’s #Our North Net Zero event series 

Documents, publications and resources 

Our next series of online Net Zero events will be launched later this year, and bookings are now open (with no charge for NHC members) for our annual Northern Housing Summit, taking place on the mornings of the 2nd and 4th November – book your place here now!

Geraldine Howley, Chair of the CIH Governing Board,  GEM Programme Director

As a passionate believer in partnership working, I was privileged to be directly involved in the NHC Commission for Housing in the North. Looking back at the five years since the publication of the Commission’s report in 2016, it’s also important to bear in mind we have experienced Grenfell and Covid, plus defining social justice campaigns like Black Lives Matter, all of which have brought people and organisations together to make a difference to people’s lives. Of course, with a crystal ball, we might have said even more in 2016 about the growing importance of collaboration as the means of addressing health, economic, environmental, educational and other inequalities, plus of course, building safety. But thankfully, in this changing world we are demonstrating the critical importance of partnership working and we have some great examples of local authorities and housing associations working together in a variety of ways beyond simply providing housing.

The 2015 report of the Commission was fundamentally right in defining the Housing crisis in the North as being distinctly different to that facing the rest of the country. The Commission recognised that in the North there are areas where the issue isn’t simply about a shortage of supply or affordability, but also low value, obsolete properties and other issues such as fuel poverty and economic discontent.

Lord Best said the Commission was calling for primacy to be given to place, and the need to work together in new forms of collaboration to make this happen with flexibility, powers and resources. The catalyst for making this change has been local authority strategic leadership which has united housing providers and developers in a shared vision for meeting common place-based objectives. Strong civic leadership with a convincing local narrative has set the tone for enabling the sharing of best practice. Local, local, local is the focus for successful partnership working, and the sharing of skills and other resources to meet the housing opportunities in the North.

In Bradford, the Goitside regeneration is an exemplar of partnership working at a local level and clearly demonstrates how place-based regeneration does work. Chain Street is part of this regeneration and provides an excellent case study of how the collaboration of Bradford Council, Incommunities, Homes England and the private sector can achieve place-based transformation. The Bradford Health and Well-being Board provides another example of local authority leadership working innovatively to embrace the housing sector. Partners from housing have joined NHS, CCG, the third sector, police, fire and Bradford council in an inclusive approach to improve lives in the communities they serve.

In 2018 Calderdale Council and Together Housing Group entered into an investment partnership to deliver six hundred and fifty new homes by 2023 across Calderdale. The Council supports the partnership through the identification of land in its ownership which is transferred to Together Housing Group below market value to achieve ‘best value’ through the realisation of new, high quality, affordable homes. Beech Hill in the centre of Halifax is one of the challenging projects which will enable £15.5m investment to provide a mix of two, three and four bedroomed homes at affordable rents. This innovative project will incorporate cycle ways and public open space.

Partnership working is also realising huge benefits at a regional level, as well as locally. The West Yorkshire Housing Partnership provides an important vehicle for engaging housing associations in an improved relationship with the Combined Authority. The partnership provides a single voice for housing in the region and has engaged in the Brownfield Housing Fund Programme which will see three hundred affordable homes built at the South Bank in Leeds.

Creating a better world requires partnership working. The Commission for Housing in the North was right to highlight its criticality to addressing the unique challenges we face. It is so encouraging to see so many local, and regional, organisations providing the leadership to work effectively together. We will need partnership working for many decades to come; together we are stronger in improving people’s lives.