Appointment details

Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) - 5x Non-Executive Board Members

Summary
About the appointment
Person specification
Application and selection process
Additional information for candidates
Attachments

Summary

Organisation: Regulator of Social Housing
Sponsor department: Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
Location: Various
Sectors: Property
Skills: Accountancy, Communication
Number of vacancies: 5
Time commitment: 24 day(s) per annum
Remuneration: £11000 per annum
Length of term: 3 years
Application deadline: 4pm on 12 December 2024

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Timeline for this appointment

Opening date

6 November 2024
Application deadline

4pm on 12 December 2024
Sifting date

17 January 2025
Interviews expected to end on

14 February 2025

Timeline dates are only an estimate and can change

About the appointment

Introduction from the Chair

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in these vacancies on the RSH Board.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is responsible for the regulation of around 1,400 social housing landlords (often known as housing associations) and 200 local authorities who provide affordable homes. Together those 1,600 organisations provide a home to over four million households in England. The importance of safe, secure, affordable housing has been underlined like never before in recent years, including by the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. There is also a clear need to provide more social housing to meet the needs of future tenants. Social housing landlords can only provide good quality, secure housing and services if they are well governed and financially viable, able to withstand a range of financial pressures in delivery of their strategic objectives.

The RSH has successfully delivered highly effective regulation of Registered Providers of social housing for many years. Our purpose is to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes that meet a wide range of needs.

Until 1 April 2024, our regulation largely focused on ensuring the housing associations we regulate are well governed and financially viable - to maintain lender confidence, protect social housing assets and the tenants who live in those homes. With the introduction of key changes made by the Social Housing Regulation Act, we now also undertake proactive regulation of our updated consumer standards for both Housing Associations and Local Authority social landlords. Our challenge now is to successfully deliver and embed integrated, holistic regulation, maintaining our strong track record of economic regulation (HAs), and driving all landlords to improve services and the quality of homes for tenants. That challenge makes the board of the RSH an exciting place to be in the coming years.

You will play a key role in supporting and holding the executive to account in ensuring the social housing sector remains viable and able to deliver good quality services to tenants, whilst making sure it can continue to actively develop new homes to address housing need across the country.

I would like to encourage you to consider applying to join the board of the Regulator at this exciting and challenging time. Our role is an important one and our board is essential in establishing and taking forward the strategic aims and objectives of the organisation, consistent with its fundamental objectives, bringing a range of financial, housing, regulation and consumer expertise and experience. The Board roles and skills we are currently seeking to recruit are set out in the accompanying job descriptions. We are a diverse board and hope to receive applications from a wide range of individuals.

Full details of the roles and responsibilities are set out in this document, and I very much hope you will decide to apply.

Appointment description

We hope to recruit up to five general housing non-executive members, and at least one non-executive member with specific finance expertise.

The role of the Board is to:

Support the Chair to provide strategic leadership consistent with the Regulator’s statutory objectives and functions;
In line with Managing Public Money and other guidance, support and challenge the Accounting Officer (AO), in particular by providing governance oversight;
Guide and support the senior Executive team in directing the business of the Regulator with a view to delivering the fundamental objectives of the Regulator over the short and long term;
Provide a strategic non-executive function (as distinct from an executive management function); and
Help ensure that the Regulator acts in a way that is efficient, effective and economic.

The Board takes decisions on matters such as:

Maintaining and developing the regulatory framework – to keep pace with changing sector risks and to ensure an approach that can withstand emerging challenges;
Regulatory standards, strategy on the use of registration powers for both non-profit and profit-making organisations;
Strategy on enforcement and intervention;
The use of financial and economic analysis, for example on the risk profile of the sector; and
Delegation of regulatory functions.

Organisation description

The Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is seeking to appoint Board Members of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The Board will help guide and oversee the delivery of the organisation’s updated fundamental objectives, as the Regulator embeds the changes which came into force on 1 April 2024, while meeting the economic objectives (governance and viability) for private social landlords (principally Housing Associations) at a time of on-going financial pressures. We are open to applicants with a wide range of skills and backgrounds.

This Government is committed to improving the quality of social housing and services to tenants whilst ensuring that the sector remains viable and well governed, able to invest in its existing stock and to deliver much needed new affordable homes. This will be an exciting and challenging time to join the organisation as it seeks to drive landlords to improve where that is needed to deliver the outcomes of the economic and consumer standards which apply.

The Regulator is one of MHCLG’s key arm’s length bodies, ensuring that providers are well-run, financially viable and able to deliver the homes that are needed, and that existing and new tenants have landlords that provide homes that are safe and deliver a good service.

The Sector and the Regulator is currently operating within a challenging economic environment. These challenges and financial pressures are set to continue and ensuring the financial stability of the sector and overseeing the response of landlords to on-going financial pressures will continue to be crucial for the Regulator. As an economic regulator overseeing a sector with access to over £130bn of private finance the regulation and understanding of the sector is key in building market confidence and identifying financial issues before they arise.

The Regulator of Social Housing’s role is key in regulating a sector delivering services to the 4 million households who live in social housing. Social housing accounts for 17% of households in England and social landlords (mainly housing associations) are on average responsible for over 20% of all new housing delivery in England in any given year.

The role of the Board of the Regulator is a challenging and important one, to ensure the organisation continues to deliver in challenging times, whilst ensuring that it can respond and evolve in relation to future policy changes.

Regulation of appointment

This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website

Person specification

Essential criteria

General Housing Non-Executive Director:

Senior level executive experience of the range of operations of a social housing provider and an understanding of the social housing sector – including experience of driving positive outcomes for the organisation and for tenants, as well as an ability to articulate clearly the sector’s drivers and operating model;  
Experience of Director-level senior management and governance, including operating at a senior level in a large and/or complex organisation, with experience of working with or on a Board, and senior level experience of working with, or within, organisations that interface with government;
Ability to make decisions based on complex financial products and models; 
Experience of a sector which needs to balance its economic and commercial drivers, protection of regulated assets, improvement in customer service and quality of homes and delivery of new homes;  
An understanding of good corporate governance and the importance of constructive challenge and the ability to contribute to effective oversight of all aspects of the RSH’s role and remit;  
An understanding of the principles of risk-based, outcome-focused regulation and a clear commitment to the Regulator of Social Housing’s role in regulating registered providers of social housing to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs.     
An understanding of the social impact of social housing and the challenges of providing services across a wide range of geographies and diverse client groups

Finance Non-Executive Director:

Experience of Director-level senior management and working with or on a Board, including operating at a senior level in a large and/or complex organisation working with, or within, organisations that interface with government; 
Ability to make decisions based on complex financial products and models and a proven ability to identify and tackle financial and other risks, acting independently as appropriate;
Senior level knowledge and experience of the capital markets and structured products (including key market participants such as insurers, annuity funds etc.), bank finance and related products, and a demonstrable understanding of the risks involved.
Knowledge of the social housing sector and the potential impacts of economic and policy changes;
An understanding of good corporate governance and importance of constructive challenge, and the ability to contribute to effective oversight of all aspects of the RSH’s role and remit;  
Understanding of the principles of risk-based, outcome- focused regulation and a clear commitment to the Regulator of Social Housing’s role in regulating registered providers of social housing to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs.

Desirable criteria

General Housing Non-Executive Director:

Previous Non-Executive experience in a regulator or regulated body;
Experience of managing an organisation through change.

Finance Non-Executive Director:

Experience of other regulatory regimes;
The ability to advise and constructively challenge the executive on different funding models, corporate structures and sources of finance.
An understanding of the social impact of social housing and the challenges of providing services across a wide range of geographies and diverse client groups
Experience of being on the board of a registered provider

Application and selection process

How to apply

In order to apply you will need to create an account or sign in.

Once you are logged into your account, click on 'apply for this role' and follow the on-screen instructions. To apply, all candidates are required to provide:

a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
a supporting statement. Please specify in your statement for which role (Finance or Generalist) you would like to be considered.
equality information
information relating to any outside interests or reputational issues

We will ask you to check and confirm your personal details to ensure your application is accurate.

You will also have the opportunity to make a reasonable adjustment request or apply under the disability confident scheme before you submit your application.

The Advisory Assessment Panel reserves the right to only consider applications that contain all of the elements listed above, and that arrive before the published deadline for applications.

Overview of the application process

Public appointments are made on merit following a fair and open competition process which is conducted in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. We will deal with your application as quickly as possible and will keep you informed at key stages. We aim to conclude the appointment process within three months of the deadline for applications – this is in accordance with the Governance Code.

The assessment process

Ministers are responsible and accountable to Parliament for the public appointments made within their department. As a result, they must be consulted at every stage of the appointments process.
An Advisory Assessment Panel (“Panel”) is appointed by Ministers to assist them in their decision making. The role of the Panel is to decide, objectively, which candidates meet the eligibility criteria for the role.
At the shortlisting meeting the Panel will assess applications against the eligibility criteria and decide which candidates have best met the criteria, who should be recommended for interview. Ministers will then be consulted on the Panel’s recommended shortlist. If you have applied under the Disability Confident Scheme and you meet all the essential criteria, then you will also be invited for an interview.
Once the shortlist has been agreed by Ministers, you will be advised (by e-mail) whether you have been shortlisted. Those shortlisted will be invited to an interview.
The Panel will meet again to interview candidates and determine who is appointable to the role. The Panel may invite you to make a brief presentation at the start of the interview and will go on to question you about your skills and experience, including asking specific questions to assess whether you meet the criteria set out for the post. The Panel will also explore with you any potential conflicts of interest or any other issues arising from your personal and professional history which may impact on an appointment decision.
Details of the panel’s assessment of interviewed candidates are provided to Ministers, including whether they have judged a candidate to be appointable to the role. It is then for Ministers to determine merit and decide who should be appointed. In some circumstances, Ministers may choose not to appoint any candidates and re-run the competition.
Ministers may choose to meet with candidates before deciding the outcome. Candidates should therefore be prepared for a short time gap between interview and a final appointment decision being made. Candidates who have been interviewed will be kept informed of progress.
Once the decision on the appointment has been made, interviewed candidates will be advised of the outcome of their application, including whom they may approach for feedback. Successful candidates will be issued with their Terms & Conditions and a letter of appointment should they agree to take up the position.

Further information about appointments, including tips on applying, can be found on our guidance pages on gov.uk.

Advisory Assessment Panel (AAP)

The panel will consist of:

Emma Payne, Director of Social Housing and MHCLG Panel Chair

Bernadette Conroy, Regulator of Social Housing Chair and ALB Representative

Craig Stephenson OBE, Independent Panel Member

Advisory Assessment Panels (AAP) are chosen by ministers to assist them in their decision-making. These include a departmental official and an independent member. For competitions recruiting non-executive members of a board (apart from the Chair), the panel will usually include a representative from the public body concerned.

AAPs perform a number of functions, including agreeing an assessment strategy with ministers, undertaking sifting, carrying out interviews in line with the advertised criteria and deciding objectively who meets the published selection criteria for the role before recommending to ministers which candidates they find appointable. It is then for the minister to decide who to appoint to the role.

Eligibility criteria

In general, you should have the right to work in the UK to be eligible to apply for a public appointment.

There are a small number of specialist roles that are not open to non-British citizens. Any nationality requirements will be specified in the vacancy details.

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards.

You cannot be considered for a public appointment if:

you are disqualified from acting as a company director (under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986);
have an unspent conviction on your criminal record;
your estate has been sequestrated in Scotland or you enter into a debt arrangement programme under Part 1 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) as the debtor or have, under Scots law, granted a trust deed for creditors.

When you apply, you should declare if:

you are, or have been, bankrupt or you have made an arrangement with a creditor at any point, including the dates of this.
you are subject to a current police investigation.

You must inform the sponsor department if, during the application process, your circumstances change in respect of any of the above points.

When you apply you should also declare any relevant interests, highlighting any that you think may call into question your ability to properly discharge the responsibilities of the role you are applying for. You should also declare any other matters which may mean you may not be able to meet the requirements of the Code of Conduct of Board Members (see Outside interests and reputational issues section below)

If you need further advice, please contact PublicAppointments@communities.gov.uk.

Security clearance

The successful candidate will be required to undertake Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks in line with the Civil Service guidelines. Additional Security Clearance may also be required for certain roles. However, where this applies, candidates will be notified during the appointment process. Further information on National Security Vetting can be found on the Gov.uk website here.

Additional information for candidates

Equality and diversity

We encourage applications from talented individuals from all backgrounds and across the whole of the United Kingdom. Boards of public bodies are most effective when they reflect the diversity of views of the society they serve and this is an important part of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

We collect data about applicants’ characteristics and backgrounds, including information about people’s educational and professional backgrounds, so that we can make sure we are attracting a broad range of people to these roles and that our selection processes are fair for everyone. Without this information, it makes it difficult to see if our outreach is working, if the application process is having an unfair impact on certain groups and whether changes are making a positive difference.

When you submit your application, your responses are collected by the Cabinet Office and the government department(s) managing your application. The data is used to produce management information about the diversity of applicants. You can select “prefer not to say” to any question you do not wish to answer. The information you provide will not be seen by the Advisory Assessment Panel who review applications against the advertised criteria and conduct interviews.

Disability confident

We are a member of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. We use the Disability Confident scheme symbol, along with other like-minded employers, to show our commitment to good practice in employing people with a disability. The scheme helps recruit and retain disabled people. As part of implementing the scheme, we guarantee an interview for anyone with a disability whose application meets the essential criteria for the role, set out in the advert, and who has asked that their application is considered under the scheme. Indicating that you wish your application to be considered under the scheme will in no way prejudice your application. By ‘essential criteria', we mean that you must provide evidence which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria, as set out in the job-advert. When you apply you will have the opportunity to select if you would like your application considered under this scheme.

Reasonable adjustments

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to make sure applicants with disabilities, physical or mental health conditions, or other needs are not substantially disadvantaged when applying for public appointments. This can include changing the recruitment process to enable people who wish to apply to do so.

Some examples of common changes are:

ensuring that application forms are available in different or accessible formats;
making adaptations to interview locations;
allowing candidates to present their skills and experience in a different way;
giving additional detailed information on the selection / interview process in advance to allow candidates time to prepare themselves;
allowing support workers, for example sign language interpreters;
making provision for support animals to attend.

When you apply you will have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments to the application process.

Principles of public life

The Seven Principles of Public Life (also known as the Nolan Principles) apply to anyone who works as a public office-holder.

1. Selflessness

Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

2. Integrity

Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

3. Objectivity

Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

4. Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

5. Openness

Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

6. Honesty

Holders of public office should be truthful.

7. Leadership

Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Code of conduct for board members

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. In support of this, all non-executive board members of UK public bodies must abide by the principles set out in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. The Code sets out the standards expected from those who serve on the boards of UK public bodies and will form part of your terms and conditions of appointment.

Management of outside interests and consideration of reputational issues

Holders of public office are expected to adhere and uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. Before you apply you should consider carefully:

any outside interests that you may have, such as shares you may hold in a company providing services to government;
any possible reputational issues arising from your past actions or public statements that you have made;
and/or - any political roles you hold or political campaigns you have supported;

which may call into question your ability to do the role you are applying for.

You will need to answer relevant questions in relation to these points when making an application. Many conflicts of interest can be satisfactorily resolved and declaring a potential conflict does not prevent you from being interviewed. If you are shortlisted for an interview, the panel will discuss any potential conflicts with you during that interview, including any proposals you may have to mitigate them and record that in their advice to ministers. Alongside your own declaration, we will conduct appropriate checks, as part of which we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This may include searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information. The successful candidate(s) may be required to give up any conflicting interests and their other business and financial interests may be published in line with organisational policies.

Details of declared political activity will be published when the appointment is announced, as required by the Governance Code (political activity is not a bar to appointment, but must be declared).

Status of appointment

As this is an office holder appointment, you will not become a member of the Civil Service. You will not be subject to the provisions of employment law.

Appointment and tenure of office

Appointments are for the term set out in this advert, with the possibility of re-appointment for a further term, at the discretion of Ministers. Any re-appointment is subject to satisfactory annual appraisals of performance during the first term in the post. There is no automatic presumption of reappointment; each case should be considered on its own merits, taking into account a number of factors including, but not restricted to, the diversity of the current board and its balance of skills and experience. In most cases, the total time served in post will not exceed more than two terms or ten years in any one post.

Remuneration, allowances and abatement

Remuneration for this role is treated as employment income and will be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

You can claim reimbursement for reasonable travel and subsistence costs which are properly and necessarily incurred on official business, in line with the travel and subsistence policy and rates for the organisation to which you are applying. However these payments are taxable as earnings and will be subject to tax and national insurance, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

Pension and redundancy

This is an office holder appointment and does not attract any benefits under any Civil Service Pension Scheme. You will not be eligible for redundancy pay as you are not an employee. No other arrangements have been made for compensation upon the end of your term of appointment because an office holder who is appointed for a limited duration would have no expectation of serving beyond that period.

Application feedback

We will notify you of the status of your application. We regret that we are only able to offer detailed feedback to candidates who have been unsuccessful at the interview stage.

How to complain

We aim to process all applications as quickly as possible and to treat all applicants with courtesy.

Please contact the MHCLG public appointments team in the first instance if you would like to make a complaint regarding your application at PublicAppointments@communities.gov.uk. They will acknowledge your complaint upon receipt and respond within 15 working days.

How to complain to Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA)

If you are not content with the appointing department’s response you may wish to further complain to the Commissioner at publicappointments@csc.gov.uk.Further information on how the Commissioner handles complaints can be found on the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ website https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/regulating-appointments/investigating-complaints/

Data protection

The Cabinet Office will use your data in line with our privacy policy.

MHCLG's Privacy Notice is included in this advert.

Contact details

Please contact PublicAppointments@communities.gov.uk with any queries.

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