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How our Innovation and Future Thinking programme can turn new ideas into reality
Sally Thomas explains the benefits of the new innovation community, which forms the basis of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations’ (SFHA) programme aimed at transforming housing in Scotland
Many people face struggles just to get through each day and are unable to think about or plan for their future.
Housing associations work every day to change this, creating opportunities for tenants, families and communities to more fully reach their potential.
Times and conditions change so quickly that we are forced to think about the future; whether we do anything about it is another matter. It is often difficult to find the time and space for it and, in any event, none of us have the answers on our own. So we are doing something about this.
“Our shared starting point is a collective ambition to broaden and strengthen the sector’s contribution to social justice.”
Housing associations in Scotland, a broad and diverse range of organisations, have an incredible combined pool of energy, talent and passion.
SFHA aims to create the space for them to come together, along with academia and other partners, to share and develop new approaches to housing issues of strategic and national concern.
SFHA’s new Innovation and Future Thinking programme, supported by Wheatley Group, is bringing our members and other stakeholders together in a range of ways to collaboratively develop new ideas and solutions for the future as part of an ‘innovation community’.
The community is growing daily, with more than half of our members already signed up to take part.
Our shared starting point is a collective ambition to broaden and strengthen the sector’s contribution to social justice and inclusive growth.
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The programme aims to be:
- Inspirational – incorporating international and ‘out of sector’ inputs to promote radical thinking and fresh approaches
- Customer focused – using design-led approaches which put people at the centre
- Evidence-led – building ideas and solutions based on robust research and insight
- Sustainable – developing capacity for the housing sector to continue to innovate on an ongoing basis.
Our areas of focus for the year ahead are:
Home of the Future – the home of the future will be designed around the individual needs and desires of the people living there, and will reduce isolation and support connectivity. How can the housing and construction sectors, and others, come together to create a vision of future living?
Customer Service Transformation – digital technology will transform how housing associations work, making staff and services more agile, more responsive to needs and more efficient.
“By spring 2019 our housing innovation community in Scotland will have developed new approaches for housing associations and new solutions for future housing policy.”
Tenants will build their skills, bringing wide economic and social benefit. How will different types of customers and staff experience services in the digital future and what does this mean for housing associations now?
Tackling Poverty and Demonstrating Impact – many people on low incomes feel powerless, denied the same choices as others and often paying over the odds for goods and services. Housing associations enable people and their communities to be resilient. However, we can do even more to improve the lives of the people we are here for. Can we collectively develop practical approaches for housing associations to co-design local services and demonstrate impact on poverty and the economy, on an ongoing basis?
For each of these areas, a core team has been assembled to oversee the work and develop proposals and ideas. The teams are diverse groups, bringing a wide range of experience and perspectives from across and outside the housing sector, including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust, the new UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling, Architecture and Design Scotland and Construction Scotland Innovation Centre.
Innovation boot camps in August will bring the teams together to generate ideas and agree the plan for the year and how we will continue to work together.
And, of course, we are linking up with our colleagues at the National Housing Federation on its Creating our Future programme to share approaches and learning across the UK.
By spring 2019 our housing innovation community in Scotland will have developed new approaches for housing associations and original solutions for future housing policy.
This will include a range of innovation tools and approaches available to SFHA members to support ongoing development of new ideas and approaches across the sector.
Innovation is perhaps simultaneously the most important and most overused word in talking about the future.
This programme aims to make it more than a buzzword; we want to generate new ideas as well as turn them into reality, in order to provide the future homes, communities and opportunities the people of Scotland need and deserve.
Sally Thomas, chief executive, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
