What do you want to see in the new housing qualifications? Here’s my stab at what the syllabus should cover.
Years ago, I did a postgraduate course to qualify as a community worker. Yes, I know that’s not me in a million years. But it was either that or signing on for a GIRO at the social. So, off to college in Edinburgh I went.
And the course was amazing. There was no technical content whatsoever. We did say to the tutors, “surely if we are to work with folk in deprived areas, we need to know the ins and outs of benefits and maybe how to get a council house?”
Our tutors were having none of it. “You’re graduates, you can pick that up when you need to” was their indignant retort. Instead of rote learning they worked on us as people. If you think I’m bad now you should have seen me before. It was a year of intense group work – sometimes brutally honest – to make sure we saw the other side of the story and dealt with people properly.
There are all sorts of ways of doing it, but you can teach empathy. And this must be at the core of the qualification.
Peabody are under the cosh because no one had the humanity to ask, “is Sheila OK?” So, Sheila lay dead and undetected for years in her flat. No doubt the staff had all manner of qualifications.
My first job after college was at Camden Housing Aid. Now, that was technical! The private rented sector then (and maybe now) was a Rubik’s Cube of complexity. Our boss, Mildred Levison, wouldn’t let us near the public until she’d trained and tested us to within an inch of our lives. But she also drummed into us the need for empathy.
An angry woman stormed into the office like a tornado every day. In truth, she was very disruptive and monopolised the photocopier. That was a key piece of kit back in the day. Anyway, there was talk of banning the lady, so Mildred sent me to visit her and get to the bottom of things. The flat really was as damp as she said it was, so it was tough on her and the kids. She was also on the receiving end of totally unfair victimisation by the police. (Will the Met ever change?)
Sometimes people aren’t reasonable because no one is reasonable to them. Well done to Mildred for seeing the person not just the fury. If only the staff at Grenfell had put aside their antipathy for some of the tenants for a few minutes the world would be a better place.
What do we need to teach apart from empathy?
You need tip-top research skills. Laws will change. Technology will move on. New risks will come along. Look at all the fires caused by scooter and bike batteries today. That just didn’t happen a few years ago, did it? The birth rate is in free fall. How will that affect voids and lettings? A housing qualification today might well concentrate on rationing homes. By the end of your career, it could be a totally different story.
Housing professionals must be strong at handling data. I’m just agog at the analysis of rents and repairs people can now do on Microsoft Power BI. It’s streets ahead of anything I used to do. And that’s before we get to grips with the potential of AI. How do we split tasks between the computer and the human? Housing is a job for life as long as you never stop learning.
I’ve been in hundreds of landlords over the years. More often than not, it’s the accountants that call the shots. That’s just the way it is. If you don’t strain every sinew to get on top of finance, you might not carry enough respect to cut it. So, hard sums ought to be in the test. And you’ve got to be a clear writer. Poor English dents your credibility but vague instructions can cost lives.
At our first day in college the tutor pinned up a sign saying “Knowing what thou knowest not is in a sense omniscience”.
During the Grenfell Inquiry we heard from many people who didn’t know what they didn’t know, with fatal consequences. Housing qualifications need to be about showing relentless curiosity each and every day, not just hanging certificates on walls.
Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
