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Consultancy: Planning for Competence & Conduct.
Meeting the Competence & Conduct Standard isn’t just about buying training – it’s about understanding your workforce, planning cohorts over several years and making sure the right people are qualified at the right level. Our consultancy services help housing providers turn a complex regulatory requirement into a clear, achievable plan.
We work with you to map your job roles against the requirements of the Competence & Conduct Standard and the Upkeep Training qualification framework.
Together, we identify which roles need Level 2, 3, 4 or 5, so you can prioritise training where it matters most.
Using your current staffing data, we help you audit existing qualifications, skills and experience.
This highlights where you are already strong, where there are gaps, and which individuals may be able to “top up” an existing qualification rather than start again.
We then help you build a realistic, phased development plan: who to train first, how many cohorts you’ll need over the next three years, and how to spread investment across financial years.
We’ll also help you factor in operational realities, so staff can study without compromising day-to-day service delivery.
As your teams progress through qualifications, we can provide ongoing review points, advice and additional support.
Our aim is to help you stay on track for the regulator’s deadlines – and to build a culture of professionalism and learning across your organisation.
Repairs costs are increasing
Your call centres and repairs teams are under ever growing pressure to resolve tenant enquiries quickly and effectively
You have the challenge of keeping repair bills within budget, ensuring workloads are manageable and maintaining a knowledgeable and motivated team
And all of this is against a back drop of constant change within the sector and significant cost of living pressures for your tenants
We understand just how important your teams are to you, and to your tenants. So we have developed designed RESET, our simple, specialist support service which provides targeted training and development interventions alongside process improvements to make your department run more smoothly, effectively and efficiently
Social landlords that have engaged with our RESET service have seen outcomes including:
reduced repairs bills
slowing of staff turnover in call centre/helpdesk teams
a reduction in the volume of ‘urgent’ repairs raised
a reduction in the number of calls coming into the helpdesk
teams of more knowledgeable, informed and resilient staff
We take a hands-on approach, observing your team/s in action to identify pressure points/bottle necks and review your KPIs and performance data, then we assess what we see against the expectations of the Housing Regulator, Housing Ombudsman, and good practice. We speak with team members who are tenant facing, as well as team leaders/managers.
Our recommendations are carefully targeted to address the challenges identified in Stage 1. Helping you reset and refocus your team to achieve the results you need.
An indicative list of recommendations is set out below:
Bitesize ‘intro to repairs’ style induction programmes
*Training for all staff to ensure a minimum level of repairs knowledge
Tailored training for smaller groups in similar roles focused on developing key knowledge, skills or behaviours required to carry out the role effectively and/or filling the gaps where employees have already completed part of a qualification
Suggested best practice processes/procedures and systems to remove bottlenecks
Development of new procedures/how-to-guide
*At Upkeep we deliver training via a range of formats including e-learning, live sessions through ZOOM or TEAMS and face to face; bitesize, half and full days. As we discuss your needs with you, we will recommend the most suitable format for you.
You can choose to end the process here; with a set of clearly priced recommendations to progress when time and budget is right. However, many clients prefer to maintain the momentum gathered through the first two stages and start to make changes quicky so that their teams can realise the benefits sooner rather than later; moving quickly on to Stage 3.
We will always suggest that all recommendations are acted upon, as they have been compiled to address your needs comprehensively. That said, we understand that budgetary, planning and time pressures do not always mean this is achievable.
We will work with you to prioritise interventions and put together a timetable that is realistic and achievable; giving your team time to gain new knowledge and skills, implement these in their day to day roles and reflect on their working practices.
We work together to deliver the actions within your timescales.
We know our interventions work and will help you demonstrate a return on investment and measurable impact against your targets. Our simple evaluation process will do just this.
