Two weeks ago we celebrated Scottish Housing Day and more specifically housing as a career.

I said in my blog on the day that we needed to “…make the case for housing to be recognised as the profession it is and we need to work collaboratively with government to ensure the structures are in place so we can help to develop the next generation of housing leaders.”

Now this was a big ask but we as a sector asked the government to recognise housing as a career, to recognise the need for more pathways to bring in new talent, and to work with us to improve practice in the sector. And on the day we had an answer. The housing minister, Paul McLennan MSP, when presented with this request responded that the Scottish Government was open to working with CIH and the rest of the sector to explore and potentially develop a workforce strategy for our profession. This could be transformational.

We all know that despite the lack of any national strategy on recruitment, retention or talent development, Scotland’s housing sector employs tens of thousands of practitioners, working in every community in the country.

Imagine the impact if we took the steps to bring in new talent in a strategic and thoughtful way. In a way that recognised the talent and skills gap and addressed them long in advance of a labour shortage arising.

So CIH wants to work with our members on what this could look like. We have started our thinking on some of the issues we need to consider but we need your input. If you want to get involved in how we bring forward a workforce plan for the sector please do fill in this survey, leave your details and later in the year we will hold a roundtable to discuss some initial thinking about how we systemise and professionalise pathway into the housing sector.