Training can be provided to whole co-ops, committees or individuals depending on your needs. CDS offers courses on how to run your co-op including good governance, roles of officers, lettings, maintenance, finance and much more.  To find out more about our training programme please contact Maria McCarron

Accreditation framework for housing co-ops

 Until recently housing co-operatives have been directly regulated by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA). The TSA are looking at ways organisations, including co-ops, can now move to co-regulation.

CDS Co-operatives has appointed a consultant, Wendy Newell, to assist client co-operatives obtain the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH) accreditation, which is a new initiative that has been introduced by the CCH and the TSA. The CCH will administer the process of accreditation on behalf of the TSA. Under the accreditation co-ops will need to show:

• proper consideration of the issues regarding service provision
• informed and democratic decision-making that delivers the best solutions for governing the co-ops and delivering services
• positive results from their decisions

Before applying for accreditation, a co-op will need to carry out a self assessment and develop an action plan to address gaps in performance in order to meet the standards of the accreditation process. Once the co-op has satisfied an independent assessor that it meets the accreditation standards and can maintain them, the TSA will only ask for an annual compliance statement.

Co-ops that are accredited under this scheme will have greater freedom to run their own affairs, with much less checking up by the TSA.

‘We get the general idea about accreditation but we don’t know what we don’t know. We need someone around to clarify things as we prepare at our own pace.’ – Eileen Bowley, Secretary, Edward Henry Housing Co-op

To find out more about how CDS can help you to achieve the accreditation status contact Wendy Newell.  Wendy will be concentrating on setting up the whole programme and aiming to go live from  April 2011.   She can work with your co-op’s Committee on identifying the gaps in the  self-assessment and helping the co-op to develop a SMART action plan to fill those gaps quickly and easily.