A housing association client asked YDC for assistance in meeting the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH’s) expectations as set out in its Value for Money Standard.
Taking the objectives from the organisation’s recently approved corporate plan as a starting point, we worked with members of our client’s senior management team to develop a Value for Money Strategy, which would facilitate meeting the RSH’s requirements including in relation to the delivery of new homes, consideration of alternative commercial, organisational and delivery structures, and the measurement and reporting of value for money performance. The strategy incorporated our client’s objectives in relation to value for money, as well as roles and responsibilities and embedding value for money within the organisation’s work.
In developing the Value for Money Strategy it came to light that the organisation did not have an approved Procurement Policy. Our client asked us to draft an appropriate policy which we then presented to the Board for approval.
We helped the organisation to identify suitable value for money metrics, as well as an appropriate peer group against which it could compare its performance. Finally we provided advice on how our client might present information relating to its performance on value for money in its financial statements, including explanatory narrative where the need for performance improvements had been identified.