Board and Executive
How we are governed
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.
The board provides leadership, direction, support and challenge. Our executive team is responsible for delivering services.
Westward 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 Regulator of Social Housing (ROSH) regulates social housing and we comply with their regulatory standards, you can read our ROSH regulatory judgment here.
Our governance structure includes a board of non-executive and executive bo ard members. Learn more about our board members and audit committee members here.
- Audit and Assurance Committee which operates on these terms of reference
- Remuneration and Membership Committee which operates on these terms of reference
You can view our organisation's governance and committee structure chart here.
Customers sit on our Scrutiny Group to review our services in line with our commitment to co-regulation.
Meet Westward's Executive Team
Paul Bryan - Deputy Chief Executive, Barbara Shaw - Chief Executive and Executive Director - Jan Montague are the Executive Team at Westward.
Barbara Shaw, Chief Executive
Barbara (front left) has worked in housing for 20 years and has overall responsibility for all operational matters at Westward and reports directly to the Westward Board. Prior to joining Westward, Barbara was managing director of Guinness Hermitage. She brings experience from support and communications specialisms as well as from roles at Sovereign Housing, the commercial, public and charitable sectors.
Barbara is passionate about delivering great services to customers and making housing associations more commercial whilst not losing sight of their social purpose. She is deputy chair of Homes for the South West and sits on South West Water's Watershare Panel, has an MA in business management and has participated in the NHF’s leadership programme.
Paul Bryan, Deputy Chief Executive
Paul (back left) has worked as an executive director for 15 years for both large and medium sized HAs. He was the MD for the award winning property maintenance company Spectrum Property Care from 2007-2017 which he grew from £15m to £40m turnover, whilst driving a ten-fold increase in the bottom-line. SPC established a great brand by delivering excellence for in-house services and winning work in the open market. Spectrum’s brand is renowned for giving: a great customer experience, value for money, leading-edge digital services and winning over 20 construction and safety awards.
Paul’s background is in finance where he has held a number of financial director roles. Paul has led on the creation of commercial subsidiaries, the arrangement of loan facilities and the implementation of new systems.
He has been with Westward since July 2017 and in that time he has refinanced the Group and become our Deputy CEO in April 2018 through taking on wider responsibilities which include property services, safety and procurement. Paul is also proud to be a qualified coach and tries not to miss his mid-week guitar nights.
Jan Montague, Executive Director
Jan (back right) has worked for local authorities, charities, education and not-for-profit organisations. She is a highly qualified (FCIPD / ILM) senior HR executive with experience across multiple organisational development projects. Managing a range of specialisms across business services and regional boundaries, she is a strong strategist working to optimise business performance. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Highly experienced in change and transition, she develops the strategic nature of the HR business partner model to achieve the most productive outcome and optimise business performance. A specialist in coaching and business strategy.
Pay and rewards
Pay and reward benefits at Westward are set at a level to attract and retain the talent required to lead the organisation and make sure it can deliver its strategic objectives. In doing this Westward takes into account comparable evidence and benchmarking data from a range of sources both within and outside the sector which is provided by external consultants.
Our aim is not to pay the highest salaries in the market but instead to offer a competitive package of salary plus other pay and non-pay benefits. Read more on the Benefits page.
Gender Pay Gap Report 2021
As an employer of more than 250 people, we publish an annual Gender Pay Gap Report showing the difference in average female earnings compared to average male earnings.
Our mean gender pay gap in 2021 was 6.4%. Please click on the graphic to read the full report.
|
Staff salary range |
Headcount |
|---|---|
|
£0-£9,999 |
16 |
|
£10,000- £19,999 |
12 |
|
£20,000 - £29,999 |
174 |
|
£30,000 - £39,999 |
95 |
|
£40,000 - £49,999 |
24 |
|
£50,000 - £74,999 |
7 |
|
£75,000 - £99,999 |
4 |
|
£100,000 - £160,000 |
3 |
|
Non-Executive Director |
Fees per annum |
|---|---|
|
Brian Aird (Westward Board Chair) |
£13,000 |
|
Frances West (Senior Independent Director and Chair of Remuneration and Membership Committee) |
£7,088 |
|
Will Patterson (Audit and Assurance Committee Chair) |
£7,088 |
|
Steve Lyons |
£5,200 |
|
Iain Vosper |
£5,200 |
|
Sue Edmonds |
£5,200 |
|
David Bird |
£5,200 |
|
Jane Nelson |
£5,200 |
|
Dylan Chipp |
£5,200 |
|
Heikki Doyle (Audit Committee member) |
£3,432 |
Notes
Excludes out of pocket of expenses paid as per expenses policy