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Brian has been a board member at Westward Housing Group since September 2016 and the chair of the board since November 2016. He leaves us at the end of September. We interviewed him to find out more about his time with Westward. Thank you for all you’ve done at Westward Brian!

What attracted you to the role of chair at Westward?

Well, I had finished six years on the board of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust including four as Vice Chair about a year earlier. I was looking for something a bit different, but still focused on making a difference in society.

I'd had a bit of contact with social housing through United Response because we used housing association homes for people with learning disabilities. When this came up, I thought that's an interesting idea, this looks like a good organisation.

What had you done in your working life previously?

My professional background is NHS management. In my last job, I had been chief executive at the second largest health authority in the West Midlands for four years and before that the CEO of hospital trusts.

In 2001 I left NHS management and became self-employed for the subsequent 20 years. I spent 10 years as an NHS board member in two different organisations and 15 years as a charity trustee. So I had a lot of board and governance experience.

What were your aims and hopes when you started?

Obviously I wanted to get into the job, meet people, learn about Westward and develop a good relationship with the chief executive, Barbara. The board were just on the point of agreeing a new five year strategy so to start with it was about making sure that we were implementing that strategy and that we knew how well we were doing against it.

How did you find the new chair role?

You have to be careful that you're not treading on the operational areas, so you often don’t meet many staff. Also, you've actually got very few days in which to do the job so that’s another factor. Clearly you need to get to know the people that you're going to be working most closely with and start to get to know the patch, some of the properties, some of the tenants and get a sense of what they think about Westward.

I think it's important that the chair is around for two three year terms, you need six years because it takes the first two years to really get under the skin of the organisation. It will be different for your designate chair Robert, because he knows the organisation better already. He's worked with you before although it was a while ago.

What is your highlight from your time as Westward chair?

I have really enjoyed the getting out there, seeing the homes, meeting people. One of the most enjoyable bits has been going out to a new development site, whether it's right at the early stage of cutting the first turf or whether it's people actually moving into new properties. You get to meet the people who are moving in and hear what they think about the place. What could be better?

I think we've now got a very strong board and over the last two or three years it has been one of the best boards I've ever worked with, to be honest. Really smashing people who care about what they're doing and who have got a range of different expertise and experience and bring it to bear.

I’m proud of the fact that we've been through two in-depth assessments by the regulator and come out with top marks each time. A lot of that’s down to Barbara and the team obviously, but not entirely - I'm prepared to take my share of the credit for that!

Working with CEO Barbara has been a highlight. We don't always agree with each other but it's been a very healthy relationship, very constructive. It helped that we were both very clear about the difference between the role of the chief exec and the role of the chair. They say it's about the rules, processes and strategies, These things are important but you have to have the right people.

I think in the last couple of years we've got much better at engaging with our customers. We always gathered information about what they were thinking but we've got better about the way in which we approach that. And I think the customer scrutiny group is really working brilliantly.

Any key message for the new chair, Robert Stronge?

Amazingly, I once worked with Westward’s new Chair Designate, Robert Stronge; when I was vice chairman of United Response, a big learning disability charity, and we were merging with Robert Owen Communities in Totnes. We recruited an independent trustee for one year and that was Robert!

In housing we increasingly focus on developing communities. Westward is spread out over a very wide geography so it's hard, but I think we could further develop partnerships with other agencies, funders, all sorts of organisations.

Listening to partners from other sectors starts to open up people's minds to the idea that there are different ways of doing things which may be better. And I think partnerships would be good to work on. Also to build on our partnership with the customer scrutiny group – that sense of engagement with customers and their work; as well as with politicians, social care and funders. That could be a focus as the board start to develop the next five years’ strategy.

Any message for Westward people?

One of the things about Westward is that whatever challenges come up, Westward rises to meet them. The work we’ve done with customer engagement means that I think we're in quite a good place to respond very positively to the new consumer standards and regulation.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working for Westward. It's been the best board role I've had.

I'm going to miss it terribly. I think Westward is full of great people doing a great job and, you know, so many people who genuinely care about what they're doing. And I just love that and it's also got a culture of continually trying to do things better.

I think it's a real jewel in the crown because there's never any sense of complacency in the organisation. The culture is a very positive one generally, it’s how can we do this better? How can we do it more cost effectively and that pervades everything that goes on. That constant striving for better quality is a real plus for Westward. It's something to hang on to, so keep doing it guys. You're doing a great job.

I’d say the same to customers, that even if we don't get it right all the time, you should know that we're always trying to get it right. It’s the people who don't try, who cause the problem. I think Westward is always trying to get it right and get better; you know the customer will always tell us when we don't and that's fine because we will try harder next time.

What are you doing now/next?

Well, I am chairing the board of Hospiscare – a specialist charity providing end of life care for East Devon, Mid Devon and Exeter. It's a tough call because all charities are struggling for money now. It is a terrific organisation and people who do this work are doing something very special.

There are challenges coming up for social housing and it's going to get tougher. The consumer regulation is ramping up but it would also be nice to find a way of using my newfound social housing knowledge.