CHIC CHAT

Members Agreement

CHIC was established by seven housing associations in 2010. It was established as a membership organisation, with an ethos that would always welcome new members. It has now grown to over 200 members, consisting of housing associations, local authorities and others who are required to comply with Public Contract Regulations (PCR-2015).

CHIC is governed by a Board of Directors, which mainly comprises member representatives, with an independent chair who is appointed by the directors. All new CHIC members are required to sign a membership agreement.

Feedback from a range of new members has led the Board to commission a review of the membership agreement. It was designed for a much smaller membership organisation than CHIC is now and is seen as unnecessarily complex and bureaucratic for new members. Some issues still require consultation with the full membership, where in reality the Board is better placed to make such strategic decisions.

The review is recommending a simplification of the new Members Agreement and the process by which new members join – to become fully electronic. This will be considered by the Board by the end of March and will then, if agreed, require full consultation and agreement by current members.

We therefore expect to be communicating with all current members in April/May, with a view to implementing any changes agreed in May/June.

The objectives are to:

• Make the process of becoming a CHIC member as clear and streamlined as possible.

• Avoid unnecessary consultation and administration for all members, but

• Still retain the core membership ethos by CHIC.

The Board will remain responsible for the business strategy and performance monitoring and for any key decisions day to day. However, the need for all members to still be consulted on any fundamental issues will not change.

John Fisher, CHIC’s Chief Executive said “The Boards aim is to streamline the process by which compliant organisations become and remain members of CHIC, so they can get the benefits of collaborative procurement and associated commercial support in the most effective way.”

If any member wants to be represented on the CHIC Board they can provide a nomination at any time. Directors are appointed to ensure that the Board has an appropriate spread of skills and experience, to refer CHIC’s business strategy.

If you have any questions about these changes, please get in touch with jfisher@chicltd.co.uk.

CHIC Conference

Taking place on Thursday 16th June 2022...

CHIC’s popular free to attend conference and exhibition is open for registrations.

The conference offers a range of topical sessions with a variety of experienced speakers, centred around a vibrant exhibition. This is a great networking opportunity to see how you can improve your development and asset management programmes.

View the Full Programme

The topics have been broken up into easily digestible presentations, spread across eight different sessions. These are all also available to delegates following the event so you can share with any who cannot attend. You can also look forward to meeting with the supply chain face to face, ask them questions and see some great products on display.

The agenda has been shaped around upcoming challenges, both in the immediate future but also looking up to 30 years ahead. It is important to take a proactive approach to understanding what is coming, implementing any necessary changes now to save time, cost and effort later down the line.

The keynote session is based on the overarching theme “Planning Ahead for Housing”. With energy efficiency and sustainability standards coming into play over the next 30 years, we have invited three leading sector figures to discuss their unique perspectives on what CHIC’s members need to be doing right now to help shape the future of housing.

Alongside the variety of content delivered by sector experts at our conference, throughout the day there will be an exhibition comprising suppliers, contactors, merchants and consultants from CHIC’s supply chain, all accessible via our frameworks and DPS solutions.

BOOK YOUR FREE PLACE

CHIC Sponsored Walk

Weʼre raising £2,000 to support people into homes and employment.
This year, we thought we would get our feet dirty to raise money for these initiatives!

The CHIC team will be taking part in a sponsored walk completing a 15-mile countryside hike in Warwickshire on Saturday 12th March 2022 to raise £2,000. This will be split between St Basils and our very own CHIC Charity.

CHIC has a contractual commitment with our supply chain in supporting those distant from the workplace into apprenticeships and employment as part of our social value agenda, amongst other initiatives. We will be establishing our own charity, launching soon, which will support apprenticeships, training, employment and community initiatives for CHIC’s members and their communities. The £1,000 target will sponsor an individual currently distant from the workplace into a job.

St Basils works with young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, to enable them to find and keep a home, grow their confidence, develop their skills, increase opportunities and prevent homelessness. We will be supporting the You Can programme, whereby they are short of £5 per young person, per night for accommodation and support.

Please CLICK HERE to donate to this worthy cause. Any amount of money you can spare would be greatly appreciated.

CHIC Webinar

CHIC Conveyancing Search Market Webinar

Tuesday 15^th March 2022.

CHIC recently launched its Conveyancing Search Market Framework, in partnership with leading search provider SearchFlow. A first in the sector, the framework offers members fixed price, discounted rates for all conveyancing due diligence and legal reports such as local authority, drainage and environmental searches, and aims to cut the cost of searches by around 37%.

This free webinar will provide everything you need to know about setting your organisation up to utilise the framework for the significant savings and efficiency benefits of CHIC members. Attendance is encouraged from legal firms, which can talk on the saving to their clients in the sector, as well as for representations of housing associations and local authorities.

You can register your place by CLICKING HERE or contacting Curtis Coulson at ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk who will also be able to answer any questions that you may have.

If you have any questions about the framework, please send an email to lhurd@chicltd.co.uk

News From The Sector

The government does not have “answers to the key questions of how it will fund the transition to net zero”, a cross-party group of MPs has said.

A report published by the Public Accounts Committee said there is a risk that “disconnected initiatives” from central government will not bring about the changes needed for the UK to meet its climate change targets.

The Governments Net Zero Strategy was published in October 2021, two years after the commitment to achieve net zero by 2050 in the UK was enshrined in law.

Welsh government confirms £1bn social housing spend over next three years

Detailed in its full Budget it will spend £310m in Social Housing Grant in 2022-23, up from £250m this year.

The Budget also confirmed plans to spend £330m on Social Housing Grant in 2023-24 and £325m in 2024-25. In addition to the Social Housing Grant, the Budget also confirmed £580m for the decarbonisation of social housing Wales up to 2024-25.

The spending was first announced in the draft Budget in December, but has now been confirmed after consultation.

Sadiq Khan has demanded improvements are made to London’s social housing stock after a new study revealed one in seven properties fail to meet basic living standards.

The mayor of London is calling for a “step-change” and has vowed to work with landlords to make sure complaints are listened to and acted on.

City Hall analysis found 115,000 homes – 15 per cent of social homes in the capital - do not meet the governments Decent Homes Standard, which states properties must be in good repair, warm and have reasonably modern facilities.

Optimised Retrofit

Enabling Wales to improve the safety and energy efficiency of residential buildings

CHIC has recently added to our suite of services, a new Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for of Domestic Energy Efficiency Retrofit Installation Services. CHIC has worked in partnership with its Welsh members to develop energy efficiency solutions. The result of that partnership is the Optimised Retrofit Project which will see homes across Wales made more energy-efficient. The process will deliver a solution that does not presently exist in the market and provides an effective route to market for pipeline projects from Housing Providers, with a robust supply chain to deliver net zero energy (NZE) solutions.

The process of retrofitting pathway homes will enable the trial and refinement of the digital and technological tools required to achieve the decarbonisation of homes across Wales, as well as help to build the skills and training needed to underpin this.

The Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) also allows for Bidders of Building Safety Upgrade Works and Services for residential buildings. This includes upgrades for building safety requirements in respect of fire and structural risk, which may become relevant in the overall inspection and evaluation of the property. A range of complementary measures can therefore be employed to increase both the efficiency and overall safety of buildings.

Optimised Retrofit Project (ORP)

A collaboration of 68 partners, including 26 social housing providers that have been awarded funding by Welsh Government and will initially see more than 1,700 homes across Wales become more energy efficient. This is achieved through a combination of building fabric improvements, low and zero-carbon technologies (such as solar panels, battery storage and heat pumps), and intelligent ongoing operational controls.

Welsh Building Safety Fund

In early 2021, the Minister for Climate Change announced the launch of the Welsh Building Safety Fund (WBSF), which is focused on the identification of, and addressing of fire safety issues in residential, or mixed-use residential buildings, over 11m, in Wales.

Welsh Government’s Building Safety team in using the CHIC DPS, are now in a position to request applications for specialist contractors to deliver a programme of works to achieve this. Part of the programme delivery requires the engagement of a range of agencies to provide specified works, goods, and services, across Wales.

If you would like to find out more, please contact lhurd@chicltd.co.uk

News From the Sector

This article provides some of the key headlines from the past month in the housing and construction sectors.

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove has warned developers that they must pay to fix the cladding crisis that they caused as he overhauls the Government’s approach to building safety. He has written to the industry giving them a deadline of early March to agree a fully funded plan of action, including remediating unsafe cladding on 11-18 meter buildings, currently estimated to be £4 billion.

Read More

The 300,000 homes-a-year target is at risk until labour shortages, policy confusion and the lack of skilled planning staff are addressed, a House of Lords committee warned UK government. “Too many people currently live in expensive, unsuitable and poor-quality homes, and housing supply needs to be increased now to tackle the housing crisis.”

Read More

The Regulator of Social Housing has published its 2021 Global Accounts, a financial overview of the social housing sector for the year ending 31 March 2021. The report shows that the sector demonstrated a resilient financial performance in the face of testing economic and operating circumstances.

Mental Health First Aid Training

CHIC’s managing agent ARK Consultancy is continuing with their popular Ark Academy training sessions, at a discounted rate for CHIC members in 2022.

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is for anyone who would like to support colleagues facing mental health issues and improve understanding and attitudes towards mental health in the workplace. The course is a blend of 4 live online training sessions (which range from 1 – 2.5 hours) and self-learning activities, spread across 2 weeks. With the applied discount, this will be at the reduced price of £196 + VAT.

DETAILS:

Session 1 – 26th January 2022 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am
Session 2 – 28th January 2022 at 9:00 am -11.30 am
Session 3 – 2nd February 2022 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am
Session 4 – 4th February 2022 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am.

WHY ATTEND?

This course is designed to teach how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental health conditions and provide help on a first aid basis. It also provides people with the tools to support their own mental health and that of their colleagues.

YOU WILL LEARN

an in-depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of a range of mental health issues
confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress using the mental health first aid action plan
enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
knowledge to help someone recover by guiding them to further support, including self-help resources, internal support such as EAP, or external sources such as their GP.

On completion you will be a certified Mental Health First Aider.

If you would like to book your place or find out more, please send an email to Joanne Turley jturley@arkconsultancy.co.uk

Or you can book directly on the ARK Academy website using reference ‘CHIC’ to apply the discount at https://www.arkconsultancy.co.uk/seminar/training-session-mental-health-first-aid-15-hours-open-course-starts-26th-january-2022/

Recruitment at CHIC

We are pleased to announce that CHIC has two exciting new job opportunities to join our growing procurement team.

Procurement Officer

This is a key role within the CHIC Business Support Team, supporting the delivery of our procurement activities.

The post-holder will support the Head of Procurement & Commercial to plan, manage, administer and deliver the compliant procurement of new framework agreements, long term contracts and a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), with support from CHIC team colleagues and member representatives.

The post-holder will provide support to CHIC’s Head of Procurement & Commercial to:

Administer all procurement activity through the Delta E-Portal, including management of all day-to-day framework and DPS mini-competition activities
Maintain all call-off contract and DPS records and updates as required
Provide general administrative support and document management for all of CHIC’s procurement activities.

Procurement Manager - Wales

The post-holder will support the Head of Procurement to:

Plan all procurement activity as required by our members in Wales
Produce compliant tender packs that meet the specific requirements of our members
Manage the resulting tender processes
Ensure compliant administration of all procurement activity
Produce call-off contracts upon final award of a tender

The post-holder will manage all DPS mini-competition activities in Wales and maintain all DPS records and updates as required.

The post-holder will report on the procurement activity delivered in Wales, keeping accurate records for reporting:

Scope of services being procured
Value of contracts being raised
Accurate records on the supply chain being awarded works, including direct impact on the Welsh economy
Geographical location of works that are being delivered
Feedback from members on supply chain performance

Ideally, CHIC would like to appoint a Welsh speaking procurement professional to this role.

If you would like to apply or find out more, please send an email to enquiries@chicltd.co.uk

The closing date for both applications in Monday 7^th February.

CHIC Exhibition

Exhibiting at the CHIC conference is a great way to represent your products and services. It also gives you a wonderful opportunity to speak to our members directly and establish relationships. You can see just how popular our event is because as of today, we only have 3 exhibition spaces available!

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to showcase your organisation. Book your exhibition space

Advertising in the programme

Not everyone will get a chance to come to the conference to exhibit so this year we have created a new opportunity for you to raise awareness of your products and services in our programme. The adverts will each appear next to a workshop/seminar write up, allowing you to align your products and services to the various topics under discussion on the day.

To explore options, please contact Curtis Coulson

e: ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk

t: 0121 759 9990

CHIC CHAT

Members Agreement

CHIC Conference

CHIC Sponsored Walk

CHIC Webinar

News From The Sector

Optimised Retrofit

News From the Sector

Mental Health First Aid Training

Recruitment at CHIC

CHIC Exhibition

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