Introducing The Excellence Toolkit for Housing
What is the Excellence Toolkit?
The Excellence Toolkit is based on the internationally renowned Excellence Model© and has been customised specifically for the social housing sector. The Excellence Toolkit is easy to use and provides you with a superb improvement agenda around all aspects of your business. It also gives you a score so you can chart your progress over time. Finally, you can gain external recognition to mark to progress you have made.
Outputs from the Excellence Toolkit
By the end of the programme, your team will have:
• identified areas for improvement
• prioritised and agreed key action areas
• created relevant and realistic action plans
• identified measurable outcomes
• agreed how progress will be monitored
• agreed a score
What's involved in using the Excellence Toolkit?
The programme involves 3 stages – Introduction, Consensus and Action Planning and your team will be supported through each stage by an expert Facilitator:
(1) Introduction – When you have recruited your team (a cross section works best), your Facilitator will guide you through a half day Introduction to explain how to complete the Excellence Toolkit booklet
(2) Consensus – the team comes together for a day long workshop where, supported by your Facilitator, people reach a consensus on what you do well, where you might be able to improve and a score
(3) Action Planning – This half day session helps you "make sense" of the findings from Consensus by grouping the detail into improvement themes and building realistic and achievable action plans.
NB: To make the service effective and value-adding, The Excellence Toolkit is designed to focus on practical and relevant work, not education or theory. Time is precious, and needs to be managed carefully.
When you have completed the programme and started to manage, in a systematic way, your proritised improvement projects, you can apply for the Commitment Marque of Excellence. Subject to a short visit by an independent validator, accreditation will give you a framed certificate and use of a logo to use on promotional literature and stationery.
What others have said about the Excellence Toolkit
"We found the Excellence Toolkit easy to use. Completing the booklet didn't take long and it was great that the language used ensured all parts of the Organisation could take part in the process. At the end of the programme we had a prioritised improvement plan which gave real momentum and focus to our continued journey towards excellence. We would recommend the Excellence Toolkit to any Housing Association". Lee Sugden, Executive Director of Resources, Wakefield and District Housing
How do I make a start?
The Excellence Toolkit is managed by North of England Excellence (NoEE) who have a network of trained Facilitators across the country. The Excellence Toolkit is recognised by the National Housing Federation. If you are interested and would like more details, such as timescales and costs, please get in touch with Dave Rusk, the North of England Excellence Director of Education and Training – contact details as below.
For more information please contact Dave Rusk, Director, Education and Training by phone on 01925 715245 (mobile 07710 238257) or by e-mail at daverusk@compuserve.com or info@northofenglandexcellence.co.uk
