Organisation name: Community Housing Cymru
Submitted: 08/04/2009 by sioned-hughes@chcymru.org.uk
- Organisation core business: Membership body for Registered Social Landlords in Wales
- What will the project do?: The project aims to provide a basis for building the capacity of public service sectors to delivering higher quality services through regeneration by integrating key delivery skills for cross professional regeneration practitioners (i.e. those employed by the social housing sector, local authorities, other third sector organisations) in Wales. Established in November 2003, the Regeneration Skills Collective Wales (RSCW), which is a network of six professional institutions representing over 10,000 civil engineers, housing professionals, landscape architects, surveyors, town planners and architects in Wales has the aim of improving the performance in the delivery of integrated, sustainable regeneration throughout Wales. It has always been one of the Collective's priorities that a Centre for Regeneration Excellence be established to meet the specific needs of Wales. In March 2008, RSCW was invited to provide the Technical Secretariat to the Task & Finish Group (TFG) established by the Assembly's Deputy Minister for Regeneration, to assess the potential for a Centre for Regeneration Excellence in Wales. The TFG includes leading practitioners from within Wales from a range of professional and practitioner backgrounds. The Group have met on a monthly basis since April 2008, and have sought to base both a concept of a Centre and a Business Model that are appropriate to the needs and circumstances of Wales. The focus of the deliberations of the TFG has been on collaboration and partnership; and also on ensuring that the facilities and services that might be established are available Wales wide in both urban and rural areas. With financial support of Construction Skills Wales and the Construction Industries Council, RSCW commissioned Miller Research (UK) Ltd. to undertake an assessment of the current and anticipated professional and cross professional skills capacities required to deliver high quality, integrated and sustainable regeneration throughout Wales. Whilst the Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities (2004) had provided an evidence base for such activities in England, no such information had been prepared for Wales. The publication of the report, 'Professional & Cross-professional Sustainable Regeneration Skills in Wales', earlier this year has helped RSCW and its partners to give a greater focus on a demand led provision of skills development and training. The report concluded that an emerging issue for the regeneration sector in Wales was key skills development in the areas of project management at both a strategic and implementation level and communication when working with teams and partnerships. The 2008 report, Housing Associations of Wales: Measuring the Impact, prepared by the Welsh Economy Research Unit (WERU) at Cardiff Business School examines the contribution made by housing associations to regeneration. It identifies that the total estimated spend on activities which were linked with the regeneration process in 2007/08 was £210.8m. Regeneration is a key priority for Wales - as is evident with the Assembly's integrated approach in its development of Strategic Regeneration areas. As cited in the WERU report the social housing sector spend money in areas which are initially unable to attract private sector investment, but through their pump-priming process, they substantially improve the prospects of an area to attract that investment at later stages in the regeneration process - thus are catalysts in the regeneration process. To effectively undertake this in Wales, an integrated approach to addressing the skills set to do this effectively is required, being led by the social housing sector in collaboration with key partners is a natural platform for this proposal. Key Actions Key project interventions will include: A masterclass programme to include policy experts and real life case studies in the key areas highlighted below; Bespoke cross sectoral training courses focussing on specific regeneration issues such as: Programme and project development management skills Collaboration skills Procurement Skills Work-shadowing opportunities e.g. this will personnel in the social housing sector to gain experience of practice outside of their own organisation. The knowledge gained from a work shadowing placement can then be applied to organisational or career development issues. This provides an opportunity for personnel to gain a fresh perspective on specific regeneration issues such as collaboration, whilst developing and strengthening links with external partners; Mentoring initiatives e.g. key personnel in be allocated a mentor from another housing association or an external organisation; Cross-sector networks - establishment of networks to look at key skills sets e.g. procurement which informs strategy, policy, seeks to increase capacity and skills, and captures and builds on best practice.
- Regional area(s) to be covered by the project: All-Convergence
- Who will be the end beneficiaries?: Public sector employees, service users and citizens.
- Who will be involved in delivering the project?: PSMW, WLGA, DCELLS, CREW, CIoH
- What might be the outputs (activity measures) of the project?: Total participants -350; Female participants - 140; Employers Assisted - 30; Dissemination initiatives - 3
- What might be the results of the project?: Collaborative agreements between public service bodies - 1; participants completing courses - employed - 100; secondment placements - 5
- What would the project's impact be?: Improvement public sector service delivery; Increased collaboration across the public sector under the umbrella of Regeneration.
- What is the project estimated cost?: £1,000,000