Best Practice Roundup – Click on the Hyperlinks for More Information

Reviewing a borough-wide customer involvement compact –Stockport_Homes conducted a wide scale consultation with their customers to develop a borough-wide empowerment offer. The aim was to boost tenant involvement in decision making and to improve tenant scrutiny.
Believe in customer excellence campaign - By championing customer service and variety of choice Parkway_Green_Housing_Trust has utilised innovative techniques to capture profiling data.
Embedding diversity initiative – Herefordshire_Housing have developed a system where trades operatives are trained to recognise and report concerns they may have about the vulnerability and disability of customers they meet when they are completing repairs.

Do the Right Things a New E&D Workshop - 11 January 2011

Equality and diversity plays an important role in local offers and is a key part of the regulatory tenant involvement and empowerment standard. This new workshop, delivered by HouseMark, looks at embracing equality and diversity in maintenance and repairs, giving practical advice and the opportunity to share best practice. Taking examples from the good practice guide ‘Embracing diversity’, the workshop enables delegates to share ideas amongst themselves that have been prompted from the guide and discuss further. Delegates are also able to explore the option of providing opportunities or a sensitive, responsive accessible service, without necessarily committing any additional funds or using dedicated resources. Find out more on the HouseMark website.

The New Equality Bill: What Will Be the Impact?

The new Equality Bill 2010 finished its journey through Parliament in April 2010, and it will come into force in October this year, drawing together all the existing Acts and Statutory Instruments. Equality and diversity is a key area for social housing providers, with some providing specialist services to minority or vulnerable groups. Examples are:
• women fleeing domestic violence
• older people
• BME tenants
HouseMark has gathered together some online resources concerned with the new Act. For example, the National Housing Federation's Equality and Diversity page provides some useful background information. The Federation has also published a briefing, focusing on the role of housing associations. Find the links on the HouseMark website.

Equality Watchdog Issues Cuts Threat

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has threatened to take action against the government over whether its spending cuts have an unfair impact on women and minority groups. The equalities watchdog said it may take ‘enforcement action’ if the Treasury fails to prove that it assessed the impact of spending cuts in the Budget and the forthcoming comprehensive spending review. The commission’s announcement follows a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which said the Budget was ‘regressive’ and would hit the poorest families hardest. Under the Equality Act 2010, the Treasury is obliged to assess the impact of its spending plans on certain groups before announcing them. Read more on Inside Housing.

Participation & Community on Bradford’s Traditionally White Estates

How residents on two traditionally white estates understand their communities and participate within them, with the emphasis on residents' own views.
The research focused on two estates which have become socially fragmented internally, and stigmatised by wider society. The study reveals:
*the active role many residents play in improving their estates, and the pressures they face as a result;
*the value of working with local residents to create solutions;
*tensions where people feel abandoned and seen as the 'lowest of the low';
*frustrations about public consultations; and
*urgent concerns about inadequate opportunities for young people.
Download a copy from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

Impact of Changes to Local Housing Allowance from 2011

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has carried out an Equality Impact Assessment on the effects of the recent changes to Local Housing Allowance. The Impacts of Housing Benefit proposals: Changes to the Local Housing Allowance to be introduced in 2011-12 is produced in three parts. The first shows the impact compared to now of the Local Housing Allowance measures that the previous administration had decided to implement:
* removing the £15 excess, and
* taking out the top one per cent of rents at a national level from the market evidence database.
The second shows the impact compared to now of the measures which are being introduced in 2011/12. And the third part considers the additional impact of the measures contained in the June Budget compared to those announced by the previous administration. Download a copy of the report from the DWP website.

Race Equality Foundation Housing Briefing Papers

Housing briefing papers are now available from the Race Equality Foundation's Better Housing website. Click on the logo below to go to the website
Briefing 15: Linking black and minority ethnic organisations with mainstream homeless service providers
Briefing 14: Harnessing the talents of marginalised communities
Briefing 13: Monitoring the ethnicity of housing service users: forty years of progress?
Briefing 12: Refugee community organisations: working in partnership to improve access to housing services
Briefing 11: Looking to the future: changing BME housing needs and aspirations
Briefing 10: Gypsies, Travellers and accommodation
Briefing 9: Black, minority ethnic and refugee women, domestic violence and access to housing
Briefing 8: Black and minority ethnic young people and housing
Briefing 7: Rural minority ethnic experiences: housing and health
Briefing 6: Meeting the sheltered & extra care housing needs of BME older people
Briefing 5: Black and minority ethnic user participation in housing
Briefing 4: Housing choice and racist hostility
Briefing 3: The housing needs of black and minority ethnic disabled children and their families
Briefing 2: Racist harassment and housing services
Briefing 1: Black and minority ethnic employment in social housing

Council to Face ALMO Employee Race Discrimination Case

Leeds Council must defend itself against an accusation of workplace racial discrimination brought by an employee of its arm’s-length management organisation, the Court of Appeal has found. A hearing last month marked the end of the line for the council’s long-running attempt to assert it should not have to answer the case because the ALMO is a separate entity. The Court of Appeal judgement means that the case can now proceed to a full hearing because the council has indicated that it will not pursue further appeals. The council’s previous appeals were rejected by an Employment Tribunal Hearing in 2008 and the Employment Appeal Tribunal last year. Read the full story on the Inside Housing website.

Race Equality Foundation Launches “Better Housing” Website

The Race Equality Foundation has set up the Better Housing website with the aim of “Using evidence to promote race equality in social housing”. The website provides access to the organisation’s evidence-based briefing papers, provides good practice examples and signposts other useful information. These briefing papers have been written by experts to help policymakers, practitioners and their managers to consider the implications of the latest evidence on the housing experiences of black and minority ethnic communities. The site also has a growing set of related quality-assessed resources, and a forum to allow discussion, debate, and the opportunity to network with others in the field. Forthcoming conferences and training courses to promote race equality in housing are also listed in the events section. Access the website by clicking on the logo below. Keep up to date with the latest news in the field by registering for the monthly newsletter by emailing katherine@racefound.org.uk

Lack of Recognition For Minority Resident Groups

Housing providers should work with marginalised groups to create better communities, according to a report, Harnessing the Talents of Marginalised Communities, which says there is a ‘lack of understanding’ of self-established refugee community organisations and they are often ‘operating below the radar’. The authors of the paper say these groups are often self-motivated and well organised. ‘Changes in housing policy, such as the reconfiguring of small and black and minority ethnic housing associations, makes recognition of and engagement with newly emerging groups all the more urgent. ‘Recent studies show that marginalisation is linked to structural barriers within society; for instance, institutionalised racism and a lack of political will.’ Find the report on the Race Equality Foundation website.

Tackling Race Inequality: Summary of Responses

The Government published the consultation document Tackling race inequalities: A discussion document in February 2009, to seek views on the Government’s future approach to tackling race inequalities. Eight Listening Events were also held, across the English Regions, to complement the written consultation. The Government has now issued a summary of the responses to the consultation document and Listening Events. The Government’s Tackling race inequality: A statement on race draws on this feedback. Find the document on the CLG website by clicking on the logo below.

Social Housing Equality Framework

The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) is developing a new equality framework for social housing organisations. Designed as a bespoke equality performance measurement and improvement tool, this new framework will enable ALMOs and housing associations to drive service improvements. A working group of housing officers has designed the draft but IDeA is now seeking views from the wider housing sector and partner organisations. The consultation for the Social Housing Equality Framework (SHEF) will finish on the 26 March 2010, and the aim is to launch the framework in May 2010. Find more details and a link to the consultation on the IDeA website.

Allocations Scheme Reduces Segregation

Choice-based lettings have helped reduce ethnic segregation, according to CLG research. In a statement on its strategy for tackling race inequalities, the department says the allocations system is creating more mixed communities. ‘Research on our choice-based lettings programme, giving people a greater say over their social housing, suggests that this is helping to reduce ethnic segregation,’ it states. Read more on the Inside Housing website.

The TSA’s Equality and Diversity Requirements

The new regulatory regime for all social landlords in England will come into force on 1 April this year. The regulator, the TSA, has set out a new ‘co-regulatory’ approach: it has promised a more mature relationship between landlords, tenants and regulator, offering more flexibility for landlords in return for robust self-assessment and accountability to tenants. Landlords willneed to ensure tenants’ priorities shape the services they offer and they will have to involve their tenants fully in monitoring what they do. There will be standards both nationally and locally to ensure landlords deliver. This HQN Briefing looks in more detail at the TSA's approach to equality and diversity as set out in the draft standards. You will need to be a member and logged in to the HQN site to access the document.