Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Louise Brown on March 3, 2011 at 9:20

Permalink Reply by Louise Brown on March 3, 2011 at 13:06

** Apologies to everyone if you're having issues with the sound of this video, we are trying to sort it out from our end **

Permalink Reply by Louise Brown on March 3, 2011 at 13:11

Hello Rod, this is really interesting as the issue of appropriate skills on trustee boards is a real issue in England. What measurements have you put in place for measuring better governance? How will you know when it has improved? 

Permalink Reply by Rod Hunter on March 3, 2011 at 13:25

Hi Louise the ultimate measure of good governace in housing associations is tenant satisfaction. Are the users of the service getting a good service? In Scotland there is a Government agency which oversees housing associations and a good grading from them is also a reflection of good governance.

At SHARE we don't have any tools for measuring good governance apart from our own subjective observations, for example that is a good committee well informed and understanding their role. That is a poor committee who do no training, don't understand their role and rely on staff too much

 

Permalink Reply by Christiana Weidel on March 3, 2011 at 13:53

Just a small comment from Austria: here some of the housing associations work together with the University of economics, and in one of their EU-projects they developed together a guideline: how to measure the unmeasurerable aspects in social service providing organisations :-)

And also, the University developed an instrument the so called SROI, measuring the "social return of investment" which is also looking at governance of organisations in the light of the benefit for society. If you are interested in the contact at the NPO institute in Vienna: Olivia Rauscher, olivia.rauscher@wu.ac.at

This is Olivia:

Permalink Reply by Rod Hunter on March 3, 2011 at 14:10

Hi Christiana one of the housing associations here in Glasgow, West Whitlawburn Co-op did a SORI exercise, it showed that their caretaker service had saved 11 lives, for example stopping an assualt, preventing a suicide, reporting a fire...

http://www.wwhc.org.uk/

Permalink Reply by Catherine Hislop on March 3, 2011 at 13:12

This is an excellent course and will assit more people to get involved with looking after their own communities

Permalink Reply by Rod Hunter on March 3, 2011 at 13:27

Hi Catherine it has proved very popular, particularly with committee members who have little or no formal qualifications. Many of the candidates have been working class people living in areas with a number of challenges.

Permalink Reply by Catherine Hislop on March 3, 2011 at 14:39

So they have this qualification for their portfollio, which can assist with future employment

Permalink Reply by Catherine Hislop on March 3, 2011 at 14:46

Please look at my blog

 

http://catherinehislop.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/global-unity-harmon...

Permalink Reply by Sakthi Suriyaprakasam on March 3, 2011 at 13:20

Hi Rod, I think there's a real lack of sector specific training targeting trustees, so this is a really good provision. What do you think primarily motivates people to complete the course - is it career oriented? Also, who are the trustees who go on to do it (as opposed to those that don't access it)?

Permalink Reply by Rod Hunter on March 3, 2011 at 14:01

Hi Sakthi SHARE is well known for its training for the trustees of housing associations, sadly training is not complusory, that would be good news for SHARE! I think that the course is attractive to Trustees who have few formal qualifications and who have been on committees for many years. They may have been on all the standard training courses and GOSHA is relatively new so is attractive to them. The qualification shows that they have achieved a standard of governance. It is less attractive to white collar and professional groups (although one or two have done it!) because they think they know it all.

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