‘Salix Homes are a not-for-profit charitable Social Housing Provider based in Salford, Greater Manchester. We put our customers at the heart of everything we do, from investing in our homes and communities, to how we go about providing our services. We have around 8,000 homes including 19 high-rise tower blocks, a wide range of medium and low-rise apartment blocks, traditional terraced streets, large housing estates and sheltered accommodation.’

Our journey so far – what we’ve learnt

‘As an Early Adopter working with the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities, we recognised the value in taking part in the BSF Champion assessment as it would review and assess the culture of our organisation which is integral to ensuring our buildings and our residents are safe and feel safe. We believed that we had a good understanding of our organisational culture and that having an external assessment could help us identify any areas we could use as a basis to develop an organisational behavioural /culture change programme to support our ongoing building safety journey.

The process has enabled us to raise the profile of building safety across the organisation. The BSF Champion assessment is very in depth which has meant that many colleagues have taken part in the process. This has naturally raised their awareness and emphasised the importance of building safety for the organisation.

The BSF Champion assessment has also helped to identify trends in opinion about the culture and leadership of our organisation. It has given us specific areas that we know we need to improve the awareness of with our colleagues. We are planning to use this intelligence to develop a bespoke culture change programme for Salix Homes staff and Board. The Champion process is not a one-off assessment and will be reviewed and repeated on a cyclical basis which ensures that any learning opportunities are embedded and the building safety culture continues to develop over time. ‘