Notes

Westward Housing Group: Find Out How We Are Governed and Who Makes Decisions

Effective governance is key to a successful organisation.

For Westward as a business, this means having:

• a streamlined board structure;
• board members with diverse skills and experience;
• leadership and direction to achieve our vision and values;
• the highest degree of integrity across the organisation;
• focussing on our priorities - see How well are we doing?;
• clear accountability and transparency - follow this link to find out about how we spend our money and what we are doing to drive performance and efficiency.

Proposal regarding Westward

The boards who manage Westward’s three housing associations (Tarka Housing, Westcountry Housing and Westward) all agree that we should now go ahead and bring these organisations and their boards together formally. This will allow us to work more efficiently and provide even better value for money.

Our service to customers will not change as a result of this and councillors will still be able to raise issues with us. We want to continue to create great homes and neighbourhoods where people want to live and work. The staff who deliver our services will continue to do so. Our customer Scrutiny Group will continue to check, monitor and challenge the board and staff.

Our governance structure is shown here: Westward governance structure chart and includes:

• a common purpose board which governs Westward and Westcountry - CPB membership biographies 2013;
• a separate board at Tarka - see biographies of Tarka membership 2013.
• Customers work in the Scrutiny Group to review our services in line with our commitment to co-regulation.

The Tarka Board is made up of:

• 4 residents;
• 4 independent members;
• 4 nominees of Torridge District Council

The common purpose board has two specialist sub-committees:

• an Audit and Risk Committee which operate on these terms of reference.pdf and
a Governance Committee following these terms of reference pdf
• The residents' Scrutiny Panel links into the governance structure via the Audit and Risk Committee.

The boards provide leadership, direction, support and challenge and our senior management team is responsible for delivering services.

Westward has adopted the National Housing Federation’s codes of governance and standards. We regularly assess compliance with these standards and report the outcomes in our Annual Financial Statements.

The government’s Homes and Communities Agency regulates social housing and we comply with their regulatory standards.