Meeting the Competence and Conduct Standard

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We'd like to share with you how we've been working towards meeting the Competence and Conduct Standard, which launches in October 2026.

What is the Competence and Conduct Standard?

The Competence and Conduct Standard is a new government regulation which aims to:

  • make sure people who work in the social housing sector have the right skills, knowledge and behaviours
  • ensure customers are treated with respect and their voices and experiences are listened to and acted on, following the Grenfell tragedy.
The Standard is split into two areas:
  • Competence (Training) - senior housing managers and executives will be required to complete relevant qualifications by 2029 (where social housing landlords own more than 1000 homes).
  • Conduct (Behaviour) - social housing landlords will need to consider the conduct and behaviour of colleagues and Board members.

Read more about the government response.

Our approach to meeting the standard

At Leeds Federated, we've been working towards meeting this Standard since 2024. We've developed company-wide standards with competence levels to help colleagues understand the expected level of knowledge, skills and behaviours for their role. We also adopted the National Housing Federation Code of Conduct in 2023.

Read more about our culture and current company-wide standards and Colleague Circle

Our standards show how an individual's work contributes to team and organisational goals and outcomes for customers, supporting our purpose of helping people make a home.

We support the colleagues to develop by:

  • providing training to ensure they're competent to carry out their work

  • monitoring performance and behaviours, and how these support the Code of Conduct

Ahead of the launch of the new Competence and Conduct Standard we've asked customers to make sure we're considering the right behaviours for colleagues and to help us shape updates to our Colleague Circle.

We'd like to share with you how we've been working towards meeting the Competence and Conduct Standard, which launches in October 2026.

What is the Competence and Conduct Standard?

The Competence and Conduct Standard is a new government regulation which aims to:

  • make sure people who work in the social housing sector have the right skills, knowledge and behaviours
  • ensure customers are treated with respect and their voices and experiences are listened to and acted on, following the Grenfell tragedy.
The Standard is split into two areas:
  • Competence (Training) - senior housing managers and executives will be required to complete relevant qualifications by 2029 (where social housing landlords own more than 1000 homes).
  • Conduct (Behaviour) - social housing landlords will need to consider the conduct and behaviour of colleagues and Board members.

Read more about the government response.

Our approach to meeting the standard

At Leeds Federated, we've been working towards meeting this Standard since 2024. We've developed company-wide standards with competence levels to help colleagues understand the expected level of knowledge, skills and behaviours for their role. We also adopted the National Housing Federation Code of Conduct in 2023.

Read more about our culture and current company-wide standards and Colleague Circle

Our standards show how an individual's work contributes to team and organisational goals and outcomes for customers, supporting our purpose of helping people make a home.

We support the colleagues to develop by:

  • providing training to ensure they're competent to carry out their work

  • monitoring performance and behaviours, and how these support the Code of Conduct

Ahead of the launch of the new Competence and Conduct Standard we've asked customers to make sure we're considering the right behaviours for colleagues and to help us shape updates to our Colleague Circle.

  • Policy review by the Customer Voices Panel

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    In October, the new Professionalisation, Competence and Conduct Standard comes into force. The work we've shared on this page so far supports the Competence and Conduct aspect of the Standard which is about embedding the right culture, behaviours and continuous professional development across the organisation.

    The Professionalisation aspect of the Standard is about ensuring people in certain roles have specific skills and qualifications. We have 3 years to fully meet this aspect of the Standard.

    To prepare for the new Standard coming in, we've developed an overarching policy to make sure we have oversight of both aspects of the Standard in one place.

    Earlier this week, Megan Henderson, Head of Corporate Services, took the Policy to the Customer Voices Panel for review and feedback. You can read the presentation Megan gave to the Customer Voices Panel here.

    Following the presentation, Megan opened the session up for a Q&A. In summary, the Panel asked:

    Q. Have the cost implications associated with the Professionalisation aspect impacted services to customers?

    A. While the Professionalisation aspect of the Standard has increased costs, we've tried to use the budget we already have to deliver the study requirements. This means we've put some new training requests on hold if they aren't a requirement under the Professionalisation aspect.

    Q. Will everything be in place for the new Standard coming in?

    A. Yes. Over the 2 years, we've been working in the background to get everything ready.

    Q. What constitutes consultation with customers and what has happened so far?

    A. To help us develop our work around the new Standard, we've:

    • run a Time to Talk session about the Competence and Conduct apect of the Standard (Time to Talk was a monthly online session where a colleague led a presentation on a particular topic and customers could share real-time feedback)
    • taken relevant updates and documents to the Customer Voices Panel for review and comment
    • created this page on Your Voice to keep customers updated and invite feedback
    • asked for direct feedback from customers about our Colleague Circle and behaviours when they phoned our Contact Centre

    The Panel added that they were pleased to see what we'd put in place to support the Standard and how thoroughly we'd responded to it.

    In October, the new Professionalisation, Competence and Conduct Standard comes into force. The work we've shared on this page so far supports the Competence and Conduct aspect of the Standard which is about embedding the right culture, behaviours and continuous professional development across the organisation.

    The Professionalisation aspect of the Standard is about ensuring people in certain roles have specific skills and qualifications. We have 3 years to fully meet this aspect of the Standard.

    To prepare for the new Standard coming in, we've developed an overarching policy to make sure we have oversight of both aspects of the Standard in one place.

    Earlier this week, Megan Henderson, Head of Corporate Services, took the Policy to the Customer Voices Panel for review and feedback. You can read the presentation Megan gave to the Customer Voices Panel here.

    Following the presentation, Megan opened the session up for a Q&A. In summary, the Panel asked:

    Q. Have the cost implications associated with the Professionalisation aspect impacted services to customers?

    A. While the Professionalisation aspect of the Standard has increased costs, we've tried to use the budget we already have to deliver the study requirements. This means we've put some new training requests on hold if they aren't a requirement under the Professionalisation aspect.

    Q. Will everything be in place for the new Standard coming in?

    A. Yes. Over the 2 years, we've been working in the background to get everything ready.

    Q. What constitutes consultation with customers and what has happened so far?

    A. To help us develop our work around the new Standard, we've:

    • run a Time to Talk session about the Competence and Conduct apect of the Standard (Time to Talk was a monthly online session where a colleague led a presentation on a particular topic and customers could share real-time feedback)
    • taken relevant updates and documents to the Customer Voices Panel for review and comment
    • created this page on Your Voice to keep customers updated and invite feedback
    • asked for direct feedback from customers about our Colleague Circle and behaviours when they phoned our Contact Centre

    The Panel added that they were pleased to see what we'd put in place to support the Standard and how thoroughly we'd responded to it.

  • Feedback from the customer survey

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    We've now completed our customer survey - thank you to everyone who took part!

    During the survey, we explained that we were reviewing our organisational values and behaviours to ensure they reflect what's important to you. We asked what words describe how you want to be treated when you get in touch with us.

    69 customers shared their feedback which we've summarised in the following wordcloud:

    From the survey, fairness, respect and kindness were the words most commonly suggested by customers.

    What will happen next?

    • We're going to take the words fairness, respect and kindness forward to shape a new version of our current Colleague Circle, which we use to inform and track the culture of the organisation. We'll share the new version of our Colleague Circle on this page when we launch it in October.
    • We'll also be focusing on the words fairness, respect and kindness at our learning conference for colleagues later this year.

    We've now completed our customer survey - thank you to everyone who took part!

    During the survey, we explained that we were reviewing our organisational values and behaviours to ensure they reflect what's important to you. We asked what words describe how you want to be treated when you get in touch with us.

    69 customers shared their feedback which we've summarised in the following wordcloud:

    From the survey, fairness, respect and kindness were the words most commonly suggested by customers.

    What will happen next?

    • We're going to take the words fairness, respect and kindness forward to shape a new version of our current Colleague Circle, which we use to inform and track the culture of the organisation. We'll share the new version of our Colleague Circle on this page when we launch it in October.
    • We'll also be focusing on the words fairness, respect and kindness at our learning conference for colleagues later this year.

  • Hearing from customers at Time to Talk and the Customer Voices Panel

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    At our April Time to Talk session, we discussed the Competence and Conduct Standard with customers to hear their views. You can view the presentation slides from the Time to Talk session here to find out more about our behaviours and areas of conduct.

    We also asked for feedback from our Customer Voices Panel about our Learning and Development Policy.

    We’re committed to meeting the requirements of the new standard, and really value your thoughts on our progress so far. We've launched a survey to collect more feedback.

    We'll share the results of the survey and how they'll impact our work soon.

    At our April Time to Talk session, we discussed the Competence and Conduct Standard with customers to hear their views. You can view the presentation slides from the Time to Talk session here to find out more about our behaviours and areas of conduct.

    We also asked for feedback from our Customer Voices Panel about our Learning and Development Policy.

    We’re committed to meeting the requirements of the new standard, and really value your thoughts on our progress so far. We've launched a survey to collect more feedback.

    We'll share the results of the survey and how they'll impact our work soon.

Page last updated: 24 Sep 2026, 10:53 AM