CHIC CHAT

CHIC Conference 2023

Join CHIC and our exhibitors on 24th May at the Telford International Conference Centre,

Please use the following link to book your free place

CONNECTING HOUSING STRATEGY TO OPERATIONAL REALITY

It is no secret that thinking strategically will deliver better value outcomes from your asset management and development programmes, but it is not always that simple.
The 2023 CHIC Conference will bridge the gap between strategic and operational delivery, to promote effective collaboration. This free event for delegates is targeted at both senior executives and board members, but also all all operational asset management, development and procurement teams. All workshops offer CPD certificates.

SEE THE FULL CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Our speakers include:
- Trevor Williams, Chief Economist, TW Consultancy- Jon Daley, Asset Sustainability & Data Manager, Magenta Living
- Jean Templeton, Chief Executive, St Basils
- Darren Staniforth, Head of Technical Solutions, CEF

Here are a few words from delegates at last years conference on why you should attend the CHIC Conference 2023

With thanks to our Headline Sponsor

With thanks to our Exhibitors

Round Up

2022 was a busy and successful year for CHIC both in terms of consortium growth and in supporting our members and partners. Here is a quick overview of some of the 2022 successes.

Expanding the CHIC Team
We welcomed six new CHIC team members in 2022, all of whom are now settled into their new positions and actively supporting our supply chain partners and members.

Changes to our BoardCHIC’s Board is made up primarily of members and we were delighted to welcome Charlotte Johnson from Platform Housing Group, bringing development expertise to the Board and Caroline Lawley, who has considerable finance experience.

New ServicesCHIC is continually evolving the suite of frameworks and DPS solutions to meet members requirements. Last year, we procured some new frameworks, including Adaptive Bathrooms, Roofing, Compliance Audit, Consultancy, Conveyancing and Digital Asset Delivery.

In 2023 these will be joined by new Development and Retrofit frameworks, as well as the progressive replacement of many of our existing frameworks as the original terms come to an end.

Optimised Retrofit and Building SafetyCHIC has developed a bespoke DPS procurement solution for Retrofit and Building Safety in Wales. Funded by Welsh Government, the main objective was to create a single compliant route that will be used to deliver retrofit and fire safety works and support local employment and growth.

CHIPCHIC took its commitment to generate a social value return from its procurement activities further, through the launch of a new charity, CHIP. 16 people were supported into work through local employment groups in 2022 and this will double in 2023.

EventsWe continued our successful series of events for members and supply chain partners in 2022, hosting 6 networking events, including our annual CHIC Conference & Exhibition.

The events included three Roundtable discussions which proved very popular- one on Disrepair and two early market engagement discussions for the forthcoming newbuild framework.

Membership GrowthCHIC reviewed and updated our Membership Rules in 2022, whilst welcoming 38 new members. Membership now includes over 200 organisations, for which we support our 600 live contracts.

So, 2022 was a busy year on many fronts, with lots of change and service development. This puts CHIC in a strong position to support our members during 2023 and beyond.

If you have any ideas on how CHIC can enhance it’s services, please get in touch at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk

CHIC Website

We are aware that CHIC has grown significantly over the past few years, both in terms of the size of our team and geographically, servicing many more homes and increasing our service offer (frameworks, contracts and DPS). We have also developed more systems, including the CHIC Order Management System and the CHIC eSourcing platform.

Therefore, we feel it timely to refresh our website so that the user journey is optimised. We want to ensure that our members can access the information they need online within a few clicks, so that we can get straight to discussing your procurement requirements.

We also hope that the new website provides more transparency for CHIC’s wide range of supply chain partners.

Over the next few months, the CHIC team will be working on giving the website a new look and feel, reviewing the content and to ensure that we are fully promoting all the services available to you. We hope to launch the new website in the spring.

Be sure to keep an eye out on our social media @chicltd for further updates.

Sentinel

Sentinel InstaCheck® is a water testing app and kit for boiler and air source heat pump systems. It provides immediate water quality results, any potential corrective actions and a tailored system care report. It provides the perfect solution to help meet the recent regulation changes requiring water quality and inhibitor testing. Suitable for use on both install and service, InstaCheck specifically tests for Turbidity, Water Quality (through pH and dissolved copper) and inhibitor levels. The inhibitor test is suitable to detect all major brands of inhibitors.

Why InstaCheck?

- Immediate results on-site allow any corrective action to be taken during the same visit. This reduces the expense of unnecessary return visits.
- InstaCheck is designed for water testing at both install and service, ensuring BS7593 guidelines can be adhered to in both instances.
- A stepped water quality testing process allows the engineer to correct water quality issues as they are identified, prior to adding the inhibitor. At install, this ensures inhibitor is not added to insufficiently clean water, which would then require a flush, refill and inhibitor re-dose, potentially wasting the first inhibitor dose.
- InstaCheck specifically measures the quantity of harmful circulating debris including iron corrosion and other particulates, pH level and dissolved copper, as well as the level of inhibitor.
- The InstaCheck app generates a PDF Water Quality test report, sent by email. It includes photographic evidence of the tests, overall summary result and detailed advice for ongoing system care.
- The app works without Internet connection, allowing engineers to use it even when offline.

If you would like to know more, please contact:

Cameron Brierley
Area Sales Manager
Midlands & South Wales
Sentinel Performance Solutions Ltd

M: 07703677479
E: cameron.brierley@sentinelprotects.com
W: www.sentinelprotects.com

News from the sector

Social Housing Bill

MP’s have urged the government to include the regulation of temporary accommodation by including them in the Social Housing Regulation Bill.

A report by the APPG (Accommodation All Party Parliamentary Group) think that there should be a regulatory system in place to improve the conditions for temporary accommodation rented out to councils. The use of temporary accommodation has increased significantly since 2010 with nearly 120,000 children in B&B’s hostels and shelters. They believe that including temporary accommodation in the new Social Housing Bill will be an “easy win” and could lay the foundation for basic accountability, from which it is possible to progress with the next step”.

To read more, please click here.

CITB Construction Demand

Figures issued by the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) suggest that 225,000 more workers will be needed to meet the demand of the construction industry by 2027.

Despite the current economic uncertainty, the construction sector is expected to remain an area where the demand for workers will continue to grow. The report from the CITB shows that 44,980 new workers will be needed each year to meet demand.

The Chief Executive of CITB Tim Balcon said: “The latest CSN report clearly shows that despite current economic uncertainty, recruiting and developing the workforce remains vital to ensure the industry can contribute to economic growth.

To read more, please click here.

Tackling Damp and Mould

The Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, has vowed to amend the Social Housing Regulation bill to respond to the recent issues of damp and mould in the social housing sector.

Michael Gove said he will publish a policy statement on “approaches to tackling serious hazards (including damp and mould) in the social rented sector”.

After the distressing news that has shocked the sector, the government has said that new guidance on the health impacts of damp and mould will be published in the summer. Gove, along with the Department of Health and Social Care will lead the review.

To read more, please click here.

Disrepair 2

CHIC's disrepair roundtable series on the damp and mould debate, taking place on the Thursday 9th February 2023 – Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham, B5 7QU.

In May 2022, CHIC hosted a leadership discussion on disrepair. We were keen to bring together representatives of our members with a range of contractors, consultants, manufacturers and other suppliers.

More recently, Damp and Mould problems have come to the forefront in the sector and sparked the Regulators interest in how landlords manage these issues.

We think it is therefore timely to run our second set of discussions in this series, to understand how CHIC's members have responded to the Regulators questionnaire and what new initiatives are emerging. CHIC is keen to understand how our asset management and procurement solutions can support members to improve homes for their customers. We want an honest debate about what the sector needs to do to tackle damp and mould and how CHIC and its supply chain partners can help.

With the objective of publishing an insight paper for our members and supply chain partners, this half day event brings together a range of housing and property maintenance professionals.

If you would like to be part of this workshop then please REGISTER YOUR FREE PLACE HERE

Please note that at this current time, attendance is only available for CHIC members i.e. housing providers. If you are a part of CHIC’s supply chain and want to get involved, please contact Curtis at ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk

CHIP

Five months prior to joining CHIC, I graduated with a BSc in Economics and Finance in London. Originally from Malaysia, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to apply for a Graduate Visa and gain some valuable work experience in the UK. After spending most of my life studying, gaining knowledge for a career, it was time to step into this new world! I was excited, yet nervous, to face new challenges. My circumstances of being on a Graduate Visa, with the uncertainty that came with it, were stressful as I did not have a clear and stable career path. Opportunities are also significantly harder to come by as a foreigner.

Out of sheer luck, I decided to move out of London and landed in Birmingham where I heard about CHIC, which was advertising for a Graduate Apprentice. I was successful in securing this placement. Since joining CHIC, I’ve been able to rotate my learning, in 6-month cycles, between several different teams. This has helped me to understand how each team contributes to the organisation, building my skill set immensely. Given my minimal experience, I’ve been extremely privileged to have worked alongside many talented experts within the sector. Over the course of the year, I have participated in a total of 7 training sessions that have benefited me and will support my career path moving forwards.

My apprenticeship has provided a platform to identify my learning needs and career development goals. I now have a comprehensive set of skills that I wish to improve upon, as well as new skills I’m still eager to learn. Completing this rotational programme will not only open many new doors for me, but will help me to gain clarity when it comes to securing a permanent job role, that is most suited for me, in the near future.

I am extremely thankful for the guidance and support provided by the CHIC team!

-Nik Adi

Members Story

Platform Housing Group, one of our founder members, had a major requirement to procure numerous repairs and capital investment programme contracts. These contracts were to run across their stock, which encompasses the whole of central England. To undertake this procurement, Platform required support from a trusted framework provider who could understand their sector and requirements. Following discussions with Stephen Sharman (Director of Member Services) Platform chose CHIC as their preferred procurement partner for this project due to our clear understanding of what was required and our available procurement routes.

CHIC then worked with Richard Orders (Senior Category Manager), to facilitate the onboarding of over 30 incumbent supply chain partners onto our All Under One Roof Dynamic Purchasing System. This allowed Platform the opportunity to give their current supply chain the chance to retender for works. Having onboarded the supply chain and worked with Platform to produce a series of tender documents covering 7 Lots across 3 geographic regions, CHIC managed the tender process once documents were published and approved by Platform. The tender process was then managed by CHIC, with a full report provided at conclusion detailing the results.

CHIC then attended a series of initial contract meetings across both the East and West Midlands with Platform and successful bidders prior to CHICs commercial team producing 28 contract packs, for works totalling in excess of £20m per annum. CHIC managed the signing process and now continue to provide contract management support when required by Platform as part of our Managed Service.

Richard Orders, Senior Category Manager at Platform Housing Group said “CHIC has been invaluable on this critical project. We needed a route to market that provided our longstanding marketplace an opportunity to still bid for works. The DPS was ideal for this and not too complicated to onboard onto for many of our small contractors. CHIC helped support at all points throughout the process and made life much easier, especially helping to ease the administration and technical burdens. Ultimately we have awarded and started trading with many local and regional contractors delivering vital works to our customers and within our communities.”