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Yvonne Atkinson

Yvonne Atkinson is a solicitor with 18 years experience of working at board level in large public and private sector organisations. She was a board member of a Housing Association for six years and formerly held the position of Deputy Chief Executive in a local authority. She has also run a successful social business providing training.

Yvonne is a qualified organisation and executive coach and is passionate about governance. Yvonne has developed and written six Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) endorsed governance programmes for the Board Development Agency and has spearheaded their groundbreaking governance review toolkit. Yvonne has also led executive and organisational coaching diplomas with groups and individuals.

New era of transparency for Social Landlords

February 4th, 2010 by Yvonne Atkinson

The TSA’s new framework is an opportunity for housing organisations to put tenants at the heart of everything they do. I congratulate the TSA on it’s approach to governance. What is important to tenants has obviously been reflected in the new standards.
Co-regulation is a new form of governance. It recognises that all …

Are you on board with residents’ scrutiny yet?

January 19th, 2010 by Yvonne Atkinson

Are your residents’ scrutiny systems and practices in place yet? By now your organisation will no doubt be well on its was to agreeing your resident scrutiny processes.
The TSA’s  new Co-regulation requires organisations to have in place effective resident scrutiny. Many of you have something in place but do you have the skills in …

Our leaders want us to trust them, but do you?

January 6th, 2010 by Yvonne Atkinson

Trust is an important part of good leadership and governance.  Can you trust your leaders not to line their own pockets? But to really have the success of the organisation and it’s beneficiaries  such as tenants at the heart of every decision it makes?
The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) recently did …

What does the TSA’s co-regulation mean for you?

December 8th, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

If there is one criticism of the Tenant Sevices Authority’s (TSA) new framework document that I have; it is that it doesn’t define co-regulation simply enough.  The June discussion document was better. At our recent action learning events, we have been asked to define co-regulation. The credit card size summary seems  to provide the TSA’s …

New code proposed for boards not needed for the housing sector

December 1st, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

Changes to the code of governance for public listed companies are being proposed  by Sir Christopher Hoggs of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), today (1 Dec 2009) which could also apply to housing associations.
Under the TSA co regulation framework  published  in November  housing associations will be free to choose their own code …

Housing associations will now be asked to pick their own code

November 26th, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

All housing associations will now have the freedom to choose which code of governance to use to meet the regulatory standards.  So what will you choose?  Will you stick with what you know - the National Housing Federation Code? Will you choose the Good Governance Standard adopted by the Scottish Housing Regulator?  Will you adopt …

Was the TSA national conversation with tenants a waste of money?

October 22nd, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

“ After all it just told us what we already know tenants want,!â€� I was recently asked this question.  Yes,  it is true there were few surprises, The National Conversation told us that tenants want: a decent home in  a good community at an affordable rent, repairs done right first time …

Will TSA regulate ALMOs or councils?

October 14th, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

One of the biggest cliffhangers in the TSAs review of regulation is of course …. will the TSA decide to regulate Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) or the shareholding stock owning Local Authority (LA)?Professor Ian Cole, housing studies guru and advisor to the government, recommended it should be the local authority. But …

Birmingham tenants celebrate their success

March 23rd, 2009 by Yvonne Atkinson

I was so pleased to be able to be at an important award ceremony at the Birmingham City Council (BCC) House on 17 March.  Councillor Lines the Cabinet Member for housing in Birmingham City Council presented awards to over forty of Birmingham council tenants. This award is the first in the country …

TSA’s revised assessment process: Traffic lights to go

December 18th, 2008 by Yvonne Atkinson

The Tenants Services Authority (TSA) has announced the demise of the green light method of asessing how well housing association meet the regulatory code. The TSA has written to all associations  to inform them that Regulatory Judgements (RJs) will replace Housing Corporation Assessments.
Peter Marsh will be touring the country as part of …