With 17.1% (4.2 million) of the population living in the social rented sector¹, it’s crucial that housing providers understand how to provide the right care for their tenants.

However, cultural change is required to make this a reality which in turn, needs early engagement. Investing in a range of mentoring initiatives can support housing providers in educating the next generation of housing professionals and delivering root and branch change to transform care delivery.

Gavin Bashar, UK Managing Director at Tunstall Healthcare, shares his insight on why mentoring the next generation of housing professionals in service delivery will help to reshape the sector and care available to vulnerable tenants.

Considering different initiatives

January marked National Mentoring Month which aims to awaken passions and support the next generation of our population to achieve their dreams and full potential. By harnessing our collective voice and investing in mentoring solutions, housing providers can change both the lives of future professionals and tenants.

Mentoring initiatives can help participants to develop their communication, impact and influencing skills to build productive and professional relationships that are essential to a career in housing, health and social care.

There are a variety of different mentoring schemes available that can support the housing sector in encouraging professionals to consider new opportunities, greater collaboration, and different ways of providing care, such as through technology. This will also see future professionals feel empowered, encouraged and understood, and amplify change.

Apprenticeship schemes, for example, can present a fantastic opportunity to provide specialist training whilst investing in the next generation of the workforce. Apprenticeships provide young professionals, or career changers, with the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the day-to-day life of working with a housing provider and the tenants who use these services at the beginning of their career.

At Tunstall we are committed to investing in future talent and have developed an apprenticeship program which has recently seen five apprentices complete their training and become full time employees. We offer specialist training in the maintenance and repair of technology enabled care services (TECS) to ensure our future field service engineers can meet the strict criteria that is required. We’ve also offer apprenticeships in  other areas of the business, such as IT, HR and finance.

Mentoring to invest in technology

Not only is it important to consider different mentoring initiatives to maximise development opportunities, but housing providers might want to look at how mentoring will impact care delivery in the future.

By mentoring  and incentivising the next generation of housing professionals, we’ll be closer to creating a world where it is standard practice to use technology to provide reassurance, support wellbeing and manage long-term health conditions; delivering efficient and personalised care. This in turn will contribute to creating a workforce that is aware of the features and benefits of digital solutions, has a working knowledge of products, is confident in assessing, referring and prescribing TECS, and understands the positive impact of technology on working practices and the tenant journey.

Whether it’s the use of virtual care platforms, remote monitoring solutions, communication tools, digital apps or sophisticated data platforms, services are entering a new phase of digital maturity, and it’s important that the potential of these technologies are fully understood.