Housing Learning and Development Policy

1. Purpose

The policy covers all staff involved in the delivery of landlord services. Brighton & Hove City Council is committed to ensuring that all Housing and landlord service staff are competent, confident and professional, and that tenants experience services which are respectful, informed and responsive.

This policy outlines how the Council supports colleagues to learn, develop and grow throughout their careers. Aligned to our Learning Organisation Framework, it promotes continuous professional development and provides opportunities for staff to build the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to deliver excellent services, meet regulatory expectations on Competence and Conduct, and respond to the needs and feedback of tenants.

2. Regulatory Context

The Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 requires registered providers to have a written policy explaining how they:

• Support staff learning and development
• Ensure skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours are maintained
• Address poor performance and unprofessional conduct

3. Our commitment as an employer

Brighton & Hove City Council will:

• Provide structured, role appropriate learning opportunities
• Fund and support formal qualifications where required
• Enable learning through experience, reflection and engagement with tenants
• Co-produce learning and development involving tenants and residents wherever possible and appropriate
• Maintain clear expectations of professional behaviour, supported by training and management oversight
• Use tenant feedback, complaints and service failure as formal learning triggers
• Foster a culture where reflection, feedback and learning from mistakes are encouraged and supported.

4. Core Learning Provided by the Council

Brighton & Hove City Council will ensure access to learning covering:

• Customer service and communication,  including core skills in effective communication, professional boundaries, de-escalation, and constructive approaches to challenging conversations, mediation and coaching.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion, including local demographics and protected characteristics
• Trauma‑informed practice, including responding to vulnerability and diverse needs
• Safeguarding, and supporting tenants with complex needs
• Technical housing knowledge appropriate to role (repairs, ASB, allocations, compliance, etc.) including Awaabs Law
• Relevant housing and public law, appropriate to the role, increasing confidence and accuracy of advice
• Council policy and procedure, including escalation routes. Understanding council services, one council approach including improved understanding of partner agencies, mixed tenure issues, and delivery timelines
• Learning from complaints, feedback, service failures and lived experience, using reflection, review and continuous improvement to strengthen professional practice, improve tenant outcomes and prevent recurring issue
• Staff psychological safety and wellbeing, including reflective practice

5. Learning Opportunities and Methods

The Council provides learning through multiple routes, including:

• Managers should allow time where practicable to provide colleagues with reasonable opportunities to engage in learning and development activities that support their role, professional growth and service delivery
• Induction and mandatory refresher training
• Funded access to formal qualifications, accredited programmes and external training where possible
• Shadowing, mentoring and coaching opportunities across teams and services
• Peer learning, including case reviews, learning from complaints and feedback, and learning events
• Time spent with tenants, including tenant groups, community based learning, panels and co‑produced training
• Learning delivered with residents, where appropriate

6. Qualifications and Professional Standards

Where required by regulation or role scope, the Council will support staff to:

• Hold or work towards approved housing or technical qualifications
• Develop professional capability at the appropriate level of responsibility
• Maintain continuous professional development
• Engage in external training where possible

7. Monitoring, Refresh and Assurance

The Council will ensure learning remains effective by:

• Monitoring training completion and competence through management oversight
• Refreshing learning in response to changing regulation, complaints and risk
• Using skills audits and performance frameworks to identify gaps
• Linking learning directly to service improvement plans

8. Professional Conduct and Accountability

Brighton & Hove City Council is clear that:

• Training supports professional behaviour
• Unprofessional or inappropriate behaviour will be addressed through management and HR processes
• Competence includes how staff treat tenants, not just what they know

9. Review and Continuous Improvement

This policy will be reviewed every 3 years with tenant and staff involvement, to ensure it continues to reflect:

• Regulatory requirements
• Tenant and staff expectations
• Service learning and organisational priorities