The Competence and Conduct Standard is a sector-wide framework designed to drive workforce-wide professionalism in social housing, while ensuring senior leaders hold or are actively working towards a recognised housing qualification.
What the Competence and Conduct Standard requires:
Ensure Staff Competence: Build and sustain the right knowledge, skills and behaviours across your workforce.
Hold Contractors to Account: Apply the same standards of conduct and competence to those you commission.
Written Policies: Maintain a Learning and Development policy and a Code of Conduct that reflects your values.
Enable Tenant Influence: Give residents a genuine voice in shaping service quality and organisational culture.
Meet Qualification Requirements: Ensure senior staff hold the required professional qualifications or recognised equivalents.
The Standard is about more than qualifications
It is about competence, professionalism and accountability. Across your entire organisation, at every level.
Competence: Developed, monitored and evidenced-not assumed.
Professionalism: Embedded in culture, conduct and daily practice.
Accountability: Owned at the top, visible throughout the organisation.
Staff competence is a core requirement
Competence is more than a checklist. Staff must demonstrate the right knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours to deliver high-quality housing management services.Organisations must actively develop, monitor and evidence competence, not assume it. This means structured learning, regular review and clear accountability for performance.
Qualification Requirements
The Standard sets clear professional qualification thresholds for senior housing roles. Equivalent qualifications may be accepted where they demonstrate comparable rigour and relevance.
Level 4: Required for Senior Housing Managers. Demonstrating professional competence in housing management practice and service delivery.
Level 5: Required for Senior Housing Executives. Reflecting strategic leadership, governance and organisational accountability at executive level.
Who does this apply to?
These are the people in your organisation who need to be involved.
Those directly leading housing management services and responsible for day-to-day quality and outcomes.
Senior executives and board members who shape organisational culture, priorities and accountability.
Anyone whose role influences how services are delivered, how staff behave and how tenants are treated.
What the regulator will look for
What Social Housing providers are doing
Housing providers across the sector are taking structured action to meet the Standard. Here is where the focus lies.
Role Mapping: Identifying which roles fall within scope and what competence looks like for each.
Qualifications Review: Auditing current staff qualifications against the Level 4 and 5 requirements.
Skills Gap Analysis: Identifying where capability falls short and prioritising development activity.
Workforce Planning: Embedding competence requirements into long-term people and L&D strategies.
Where Skills4Housing can help
Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications: Recognised professional qualifications aligned to the Standard's requirements.
Apprenticeships
Work-based learning pathways that build competence while meeting qualification thresholds.
CPD programmes
Continuing Professional Development to keep staff current and evidenced.
Skills Gap Analysis
Structured assessment to identify and prioritise development needs across your workforce.
Workforce Development Planning
Strategic support to embed competence into your people and L&D frameworks.
