Engage to Change for Boards

Further to development programmes for managers and frontline staff, there is now a  programme for boards of homelessness charities. This will enable organisations to fully embrace the Places of Change approach at a governance level. It is designed to be easy to implement and all the materials needed are available free.

Download the Engage to Change for Boards resources here.

Following on from the development of the Leading Places of Change for managers and leaders of homeless services and Engage to Change for people working in homeless services, the Chartered Institute of Housing, Homeless Link and Broadway  have been supported by Communities and Local Government (CLG) to develop a Board development pack.

In order to identify if we have correctly established the development needs of Boards and to ensure that the materials are fit for purpose Homeless Link consulted with Trustees and CEOs/Senior Managers who work with Boards in November 2009. This was done via a web-based survey and a number of telephone interviews and resulted in a short report (available here).

There is plenty of guidance on good governance issued by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and plenty of guidance specific to Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s) – which also has value for those charities and organisations who are managing agents. These have been incorporated where appropriate. The primary focus of this programme is to ensure that trustees are aware of the wider issues in the homelessness sector affecting their clients, services and their organisation.

The programme is designed to be light on conventional trainer led intervention and form more of a development structure for Boards of Trustees (as strategic leads for homeless services) to consider their organisation in the wider context, highlight areas for development, areas of risk and to encourage development of strategy and action plans in response to the discussions (and where appropriate make decision).

The sessions (designed to take around 60-90 minutes) are as follows:

The sector and our organisation      
This looks at the development of the sector and how recent key political, economic changes have affected the organisation.

Our Service

This looks at what the service does and our ambitions for it (and the people who use it), including how users of the service are involved in its development.

Your role as a Board

This section can be delivered as one module focusing on both the functional and strategic roles of the Board or can be split into two sessions covering functional operations and influencing and partnerships. It includes a board self appraisal framework.

Risks – how do assess and manage them?

This session looks at the different types of risk to your organisation and how the organisation records, reports and manages risk?

Joint Working to Support Vulnerable Adults 

This session aims to highlight the pitfalls of a lack of service integration for vulnerable people and gives participants an understanding of the “every child matters” and every adult matters” agendas.

The journey of the service, the change plan

This involves discussion about how the organisation knows when it is successful and looks at delivery against the Places of change approach and the Rough Sleeping Strategy.

Delivery

The sessions are designed to be delivered either as stand alone sessions of around an hour, as part of a Board away day or in combination for longer sessions. The times are the minimum time needed and longer may be required depending on how the board functions; in addition prior reading may be required.

Regarding who facilitates the sessions, there are a range of options for organisations which include:

• The chair/board member
• A paid officer
• Homeless Link Regional Manager
• CLG Special Advisors and Regional Advisors
• A ‘critical friend’ from another organisation
• External consultant

 Each Board will need to consider the most appropriate person having read through this material as dependant on the needs and the focus there could be conflicts of interest from some of these suggestions.