Forward Look 2008-2011

Introduction

Unipol is a unique organisation and it is vital that it continues to develop its role as a mainstream student housing charity, promoting innovation, excellence, high standards and guiding best practice within student accommodation.

This Forward Look has been focussed following a significant consultative effort involving Unipol staff and trustees. The Forward Look is both an inspirational document, outlining what Unipol hopes to achieve over the next three years, and a working document, providing detailed information about how those wider aspirations can be achieved in practical terms. A timeline matrix at the end of the document gives the likely roll out of development.

Trustees have recognised, in a recent review of governance and their own contribution to the charity, that partnership working is essential to Unipol's success and that they have a vital ambassadorial role in promoting and maintaining and seeking out opportunities for the charity in the future. This ambassadorial role includes delivering support from Unipol's stakeholders as well seeking out new opportunities where Unipol can undertake good work and improve housing conditions and choices.

Trustees have also recognised the importance of Unipol's reputation, both national and local and of the importance of building the Unipol brand in the context of a housing service and training supplier but also recognising Unipol's position as a market leader and the importance of maintaining a moral high ground as it lobbies for change and improvements.

The "Virtuous Circle" Model of Unipol's Future Development

Unipol has, over the past three years, always looked to add value to each of its operations and, over the last six years, has been moving towards a model of a "virtuous circle". The key goal of this Forward Look is to drive forward the virtuous circle model of working.

Unipol has a number of staging posts within the virtuous circle model:

• it has expanded its housing advice and information role in Leeds, Nottingham and Bradford and has built up a critical mass of operation in those three areas that allows cross-feeding of ideas and resources whilst maintaining local diversity
• this information and advice, which includes information and research about the student accommodation markets and students' needs and desires, feeds directly into Unipol's innovative role as a direct housing provider. Unipol's diverse housing operations has allowed a strong portfolio to be developed in Leeds to meet the needs of first year and returning students and those with special housing needs, particularly those with families and disabilities. This portfolio must retain its high reputation, strong lettings and low void level in order to provide ongoing resources to feed the organisation financially and ensure standards are continuously improved
• this notion of continual improvement, coupled with a track record of achieving high value housing services leads directly into Unipol's commitment to expand accreditation as a successful and proven tool, both locally and nationally, and to engage with other housing suppliers and persuade them to meet agreed benchmark standards and raise their game, improving housing standards for students and young people generally, encouraging tenant empowerment and supplier transparency
• finally, Unipol's work with others feeds into its national training mission to provide relevant "hands on" information to those working in the sector and to spread best practice, in partnership with others, including government and other agencies, who share this mission. The information and innovation that comes from training then feeds back into Unipol's housing and advice role and the circle is complete.

Within the next three years, Unipol will seek to strengthen this "virtuous circle" approach as it refines and develops new services to meet serious challenges. The circle will seek to strengthen and reinforce Unipol's operations as they meet the competition they continue to face in a tough and high quality student accommodation market.

Continual Improvement and Innovation

This Forward Look must address issues which arise from the high levels of competition within the student housing market. In order to meet this Unipol must seek to maintain its existing services, portfolio and websites. It will only achieve this within a process of ongoing and continual improvement. This can be achieved by constantly reviewing and updating service outputs and by ensuring that property standards within the property portfolio are constantly updated and upgraded. There is no room for complacency and the effort involved in this continual improvement must not be under-estimated.

In other areas Unipol must seek to innovate, to bring new ideas to the table and to act on them. It is unlikely that Unipol will expand its housing portfolio beyond the 2,650 tenants it has at present, or that it needs or should do so.

Its main areas of innovation will switch from property development, which has seen the organisation grow over the last six years, to service outputs with better information for more students, their parents and to widen Unipol's own consumers. Unipol must reinvent and remarket its key attraction of being at the centre of the student lettings market where it operates and must seek to reinforce that position to ensure it can offer a comprehensive service and relevant to students.

In both of these areas, Unipol will need help from its many stakeholders: not only help, but support and both practical and financial assistance. There is every evidence that this support will be forthcoming and, as a relatively small organisation with an important mission, this assistance is essential.

Defining the Core Objectives

The key drivers to improving and expanding Unipol's service role are to:

• improve communications, both virtual and actual, between Unipol and students, ensuring that advice and information is heard loudly and clearly by students and that they act on that advice to their advantage and work with students at the centre of a peer to peer communications strategy
• expand and refine the Accommodation Bureaux services for students, ensuring that ideas and practices cross-feed between Leeds, Bradford and the Nottingham arenas
• extend Unipol's role in promoting and administering accreditation to a rigorous set of auditable standards and extend the use of accreditation as a central tool in improving standards for students, the community and good landlords in partnerships with housing providers, the communities within which they work and local authorities
• expand the charity's training, advice and lobbying and widen the service areas offered by the charity to stakeholders, friends and supporters, without diluting core values, as part of widening the charity's service areas and raising Unipol's national profile as the major student housing resource within England and Wales
• maintain the vital Leeds base as a housing provider by producing innovation, reflecting good practice, placing a priority on special needs housing and taking calculated risks investing in the Charity's future development as a housing owner and manager
• reflect the new values of sustainability in the charity's day to day and future operations
• strengthen the role of trustees within a wider skills base for the Board, improve human resources and the training of staff and increase the capacity of the charity's management so that all can respond and react to change and innovation.

To see a full copy of the Forward Look 2008-2011 Click Here