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Member offer

At CHC, we are driven by the issues that are important to Welsh housing associations. Our role is to support our members to sustain their communities while we continue to fight for the changes needed to make Wales a country where good housing is a basic right for all.

We work hard to secure a stable and sufficient funding and policy framework to support investment in new and existing homes and support services. We also represent our members, acting as an influential voice to secure change. And we act as a hub to bring them together to find collective solutions to the challenges we face.

The benefits of membership are plentiful and it is our aim to connect our members with the practice, content and expertise they need, to make and influence decisions that will continuously improve the housing association sector in Wales. We do this by providing members with opportunities throughout the year to learn, network and collaborate, through the schemes outlined below

Our offer will be continuously reviewed, to make sure that it meets and supports your needs.

To see a visual guide to how we deliver our member services, take a look here.

Member Communities

To provide members with more face-to-face meeting opportunities and space to look at the long-term, in 2023 we adapted our popular strategic delivery group model into member communities.

The member community model means that we can increase networking opportunities, give more dedicated space to seek peer support and share good practice, and focus fully on the future away from day-to-day demands.

These communities are dedicated to the following thematic work areas:

  • Care and support

  • Chief executives

  • Board chairs and vice chairs

  • Communications

  • Finance

  • Future homes

  • Governance and regulation

  • Housing management

  • HR

  • Safety

Each member community has an online discussion group hosted on WhatsApp, to help participants keep in touch with colleagues from across the sector and continue discussions, collaboration and support year round.

Visit this page to find out more about member communities.

Board member offer

We have created three new regional networks for housing association board members. These are spaces for board members to learn from each other and explore business critical topics in a way that complements the training, support and development offered by housing associations.

In addition, we are developing our updates and training, to give board members access to short courses that impart key information quickly and effectively, while respecting the fact that their time is precious. We also intend to record these sessions, so that those who cannot attend on the day can access them later.

Task and finish groups

These time-limited groups have a clearly defined challenge, which we have the collective capacity to develop a response or solution to. Each one also has a terms of reference, measurable outcomes, and access to a series of tools that will support in analysis of the problem and its impact, and identifying solutions.

Members also have clear information on how to get involved, each group’s priorities, and its progress, with updates shared via email and relevant areas of our website.

Find out about our current task and finish groups here.

Housing Hub

The Housing Hub is a new password-protected section on our website that will give you, our members, access to essential information when you need it. The sections under the hub will be themed to focus on individual issues – for example, decarbonisation, and rent. Each will be developed with the needs of different users in mind but will broadly include the latest updates on our work, task and finish group information, useful resources and more.

Visit this page to access the Housing Hub.

Additional support

Online

We continue to run a strong programme of online spotlight and webinar events, linking to key policy areas, important information and supporting the work of the member communities and task and finish groups. Don’t worry if you can’t make one of the sessions - the majority of our webinars and spotlights are recorded and available for members to watch.

We also deliver our member bulletin direct to your inbox, keeping you in touch with our work, the work of our partners and any interesting developments affecting the sector. Click here to subscribe.

Conferences

We are committed to running a challenging and engaging conference programme for you. With our Annual conference, One Big conference, Governance conference and Finance conference, you will have plenty of choices throughout the year to support all your learning and networking needs.

Visit our What’s On page to find out more.

Training

Our popular Introduction to Housing training continues to run throughout the year.

Keep an eye on our What’s On page to see what activities are coming that you can get involved in.

Other schemes

Impactful recruitment

Housing Jobs Wales is a collaboration between Charity Job Finder and Community Housing Cymru and is solely dedicated to advertising social housing jobs, showcasing the wide breadth of career opportunities in our sector.

The partnership benefits from a large social media audience, and wide digital reach to help you attract the best people to your organisation.

Join our Primary Fire Authority for housing scheme

Receive assured advice from a single Fire & Rescue Service regardless of the geographical area you work in through the sector’s Primary Fire Authority Scheme (PFAS). Coordinated by Community Housing Cymru, the pipeline of work will be agreed by the housing association members who join the scheme.

Find more about this scheme and its work here.

My Home contents insurance

Thistle Insurance’s ‘My Home’ scheme offers home contents insurance for tenants in an easy and affordable way. With no excess and flexible regular premium payments, the scheme is open to all tenants living in social housing. For more information click here.