One of today's opening sessions was from our own Darren Burton, head of housing consultancy services, who spoke alongside founder of Addressing Domestic Abuse CIC (ADA), Dr. Kelly Henderson on the subject of domestic abuse and how to plan for upcoming regulatory requirements. The pair also recently produced an article for Housing Executive magazine on the matter, answering the key questions social housing landlords need to know about the legislation. You can read more on this below.
After what has been an informative and eye-opening week, president of CIH, Lara Oyedele, gave an inspiring keynote to close the event. Following the launch of her 'In My Shoes' campaign in September last year, which argues for increased diversity in the leadership of the housing sector, Lara was subjected to racist and sexist abuse. Addressing this in his opening speech on Tuesday, CIH chief executive, Gavin Smart made it very clear that "we stand four-square behind Lara as our president and what she said about our needs to improve as a sector, and her campaign to encourage greater diversity and professionalism."
In her speech, Lara asked delegates to "conduct yourself with compassion, kindness and respect. Be an ally. Use your power positively." She also urged them to adopt the 'mum standard' in everything they do and to question; if the recipient of this email or service was their mother, would they be happy for her to receive it? Arguably a strong barometer to test many things by.