CHIC CHAT

New eSourcing portal

New CHIC eSourcing portal - Procurement and Tender Management

In collaboration with Panacea Software CHIC has launched its automated software to manage future procurement processes, the CHIC eSourcing portal.

The portal utilises Panacea’s award-winning e-Procurement modules providing a comprehensive procurement system for all our members contracts for goods or services (Frameworks, DPS, RFQ, PQQ, etc), from e-tender through to call off and award, real-time reporting and audit trail. An intuitive system, CHIC aims to cut costs, deliver improved services and comply with new UK procurement law.

The CHIC Procurement Team has commenced training on the portal, in order to standardise supplier questionnaires, to provide an efficient and simple process for the evaluation and qualification of suppliers.

The CHIC eSourcing portal provides an end-to-end paperless procurement system for any number or type of contracts, saving time for our members and suppliers with automated workflow, remote working and with 24-hour access for all users.

Going forward, CHIC anticipates the portal will also deliver other key benefits such as detailed contracts, performance management and an interface with finance systems to streamline invoicing, charging and supplier payments.

Simple to use, it makes users workflows more effective, efficient and flexible.

If you would like more information and a demonstration, the CHIC Procurement Team will be holding a workshop and one-to-one sessions at the CHIC Conference & Exhibition in Telford, on Wednesday 24^th May 2023. You can book your place now.

Governance

CHIC’s Board held its quarterly Board meeting on 28th September. CHIC’s Board comprises of mainly member representatives. Headlines from the meeting included:

• Reflections on the outcomes from an independent governance review
• Review the approval of CHIC’s Annual Accounts and Directors Report for 2021/22 (CHIC financial year in July and June)
• Approval of an updated Social Value Strategy – reflecting the launch of CHIP
• Review and approval of CHIC’s Annual Report (CLICK HERE)
• The decision to progress procurement of a new Newbuild Framework, including varied MMC options (a procurement brief will be held on 9th November – for more details contact sdavey@chicltd.co.uk
• A presentation to demonstrate CHIC’s new Data Warehouse to Board members
• A service review of CHIC’s growing Capital and Planned Services

The Board also reviewed prior year and current financial and operation performance, risk management, member services and updates to operational processes.

CHIC’s BOARD NEEDS A MEMBER SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE WITH FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE

CHIC’s Board comprises up to 11 directors, at least 8 of which are drawn from CHIC’s members. Whenever there is a vacancy the Board reviews its skills requirements against the overall range of knowledge and expertise needed to ensure effective governance of a large member owned asset management and procurement consortium.

CHIC’s Board meets four times a year, one awayday and the annual conference. The role is not remunerated.
If your organisation is a member of CHIC and has a finance professional who may be interested in this role, please contact Chief Executive, John Fisher (jfisher@chicltd.co.uk)

CHIC Team Updates

Strategic Awayday

Last month the CHIC Team held it’s annual awayday.

Each year the team meets to reflect on CHIC’s achievement, strategic targets and specific projects objectives.

The team has grown over the last year, with many new faces since the last awayday, so this was a great opportunity to refresh our aims and objectives to provide great member services.

We ended the day with a few screams at Alton Towers!

New starter

Hannah Gould joins the CHIC team this month as Marketing & Administration Coordinator, a key role responsible for supporting all of CHIC’s marketing activities and for providing administrative support services to the wider CHIC team. Hannah joins CHIC from her previous role at ARK Consultancy as a Personal Assistant.

CHIC’s managing agent ARK Consultancy has a vacancy available…

Administration and Marketing Assistant

SALARY: £25,000

This is an opportunity to join a thriving business which is driven by the desire to see organisations performing and operating at their best. ARK Consultancy is a leading multidisciplinary management and technical consultancy offering a consolidated service to housing associations, local authorities, Government bodies and the charitable sector.

Please send your CV and covering letter explaining why you are the right candidate for this role to recruitment@arkconsultancy.co.uk, clearly stating the role you are applying for in the subject of your email.

The closing date for applications is Friday 28^th October 2022. Interviews will be held week commencing 31^st October 2022.

Annual Report

John Fisher, CHIC’s Chief Executive introduces the 2021/22 Annual Report:

2021/22 was the first year of CHIC’s new five year business strategy and one that proved to be very busy in providing procurement support services to our members.

As we emerged from the challenges of the pandemic we saw members keen to re-establish their asset management and development projects and programmes, utilising the benefits of our frameworks and dynamic purchasing system. We procured 149 new contracts for 81 members and saw member spend through the contracts increase by 104% year on year, collectively exceeding £100m for the first time.

CHIC also developed a strong relationship with Welsh Government and our members in Wales. We procured a comprehensive new DPS to support grant funded optimised retrofit and building safety works across Wales.

To support this growth on all fronts, the team has grown during the year from 14 to now a full complement of 24. This has strengthened our member services team, our procurement capacity and our work with the supply chain. My thanks to all colleagues for their support and hard work.

Growth means efficiencies. We have improved our business infrastructure, reviewed and refined processes and expanded some services, but have reduced member transaction fees by 15% to an average of 2.5%.

CHIC has also sought to enhance our social value offer and at the end of the year we established a new charity, CHIP. We have appointed a new Manager for CHIP who will now be leading our social value programme delivery.

We have had a busy year promoting CHIC at each of two CHIC and CIH conferences, a range of round table and webinar events and expanding our communications infrastructure.

We end the year stronger financially, with a continued focus on offering guidance and support to our growing membership, as an ‘asset management consortium that does procurement’.

As ever, my sincere thanks to the Board for their wisdom, stewardship and constant support in ensuring that what we do reflects the priorities and needs of the membership

Click Here to read our annual report.

If you have any questions about this document, please get in touch with a member of the CHIC team at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk

CHIC Conference 2023

Connecting Housing Strategy to Operational Delivery

Effective strategic planning is important for every organisation, but this must connect effectively to operational teams. For asset management and development programmes to deliver best value, investment strategies must translate to efficient project delivery.

This where CHIC comes in…

We want our 2023 CHIC Annual Conference and Exhibition to be all encompassing, providing learning and networking opportunity for all housing and construction professionals.

The early operational users of CHIC’s services are now the directors and senior managers. Whilst we still want our conference to appeal to them, we also want todays project and procurement mangers and officers to get value from CHIC’s conference. Our supply chain needs to meet the buyers and decision makers of today and tomorrow.

The CHIC Conference will now be providing three streams of workshops, tailored to different requirements and discussing the latest challenges the sector is facing, around the big strategic issues facing the sector, technical and operational issues and procurement.

Led by industry experts, each workshop will aim to share insights, best practice and how as a sector we can bridge the gap to ensure effective collaboration. There will be a mix of panel discussions and presentations so you can absorb the information in the best way for you.

Workshops will be CPD accredited, to support stakeholder personal development. So, when you book your place, book the rest of your team in too!

Having outgrown our previous venue, we will be hosting our Annual Conference and Exhibition at the Telford Conference Centre on 24th May. This FREE event caters to housing, other public sector and construction professionals, with more than 500 delegates and over 50 Exhibitors expected in our new venue.

The conference will be followed by a fundraising dinner for CHIP and the presentation of annual achievement awards.

If you want to book an exhibition space, please contact ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk

To book a free delegate place, please CLICK HERE

CHIP Charity Objectives

On 13th September, CHIC hosted a roundtable event to mark the official launch of a new charity CHIP (Communities & Housing Investment in People).

Around 60 stakeholders were present, comprising CHIC’s members, contractors and suppliers, the CHIC team and Board and CHIP’s Trustees.

Discussions focussed on key areas that CHIP will now focus on in 2022/23:

• Securing contractual apprenticeships and training outcomes
• Supporting LEGs’ to get people into work
• CHIP’s Community Chest
• Annual Awards for Achievement
• Added social value

Feedback was supportive of the Social Value objectives that have been set by CHIC for CHIP to deliver. The details will now be developed with the support of and input from CHIC’s stakeholders.

The event was also an opportunity to introduce CHIC’s new Social Value Manager, Emma Macaulay, who will work closely with CHIP’s Trustees to deliver the agreed objectives.

MEET THE TRUSTEES

Stakeholder feedback will be used to develop CHIP’s operational infrastructure and to set targets.

If you didn’t attend and would like to know the outcomes from each discussion, or would like to contribute to CHIP’s charity objectives, please contact Emma at enquiries@chiccharity.org.uk

Retrofit Framework

CHIC is creating a 4-year Retrofit Framework that is designed to allow a quality, compliant route to market for nationwide and local specialist retrofit contractors. The retrofit services included in the tender will provide an effective, practical pathway to take a home to its lowest achievable carbon footprint. This is achieved through a combination of building fabric improvements, low and zero-carbon technologies and intelligent ongoing operational controls.

The CHIC retrofit framework will provide an efficient, value for money, compliant, procurement route for local authorities, social landlords and other public sector bodies for the consultancy and works (design, supply and installation) of Retrofit and associated works in all types of public sector refurbishment projects, offering a full turnkey solution.

The Framework will compliment CHIC’s existing UK Retrofit DPS solution and the dedicated Welsh ORP and Building Safety DPS by offering improved supply chain engagement and collaboration.

CHIC is seeking suitably qualified, accredited, and experienced organisation(s) to deliver specialist retrofit services including but not limited to consultancy, design, survey, technical support including supply and installation works, audit, reporting, measuring and other associated services.

Sector News

Mini-budget criticised for lack of support for affordable housing

Housing providers and industry bodies have criticised the government’s mini-budget for not doing enough to support the development of affordable homes. Read what some of the sectors most influential people have to say.

Social landlords can bid for £800m as second wave of decarbonisation fund opens

The government announced in October last year that it would be allocating a further £800m to the SHDF, just ahead of the release of the long-awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy.

Social landlords can now bid for a piece of the £800m pot, which is expected to enable energy-efficiency upgrades in 100,000 social homes.

According to the government, the upgrades will cut around £400 from tenants’ average energy bills “at current prices”.

New CIH president to focus on improving racial diversity across the sector

The new president of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has unveiled a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of racial diversity within the leadership of the housing sector.

Her presidential campaign, called In My Shoes, will run from this month to the end of her term as president in September 2023.

By drawing on Ms Oyedele’s experience as a Black woman in the housing sector, the campaign will challenge the lack of ethnic and racial diversity in landlords boardrooms and provide a catalyst for positive change.

Housing associations and home adaptations: finding ways to say yes – key messaging

A new report for Housing Associations aimed at improving adaptation services for disabled customers is now available – and it could help your organisation transform this service area.