How did you get into risk management, and how long have you been doing it?
I’ve worked at Home Group for 17 years in a range of operational, managerial and corporate roles. The one thing that links them all is risk but I only started formally managing it in January 2024. I was actually at risk of redundancy when the role was advertised and it just felt like a really good fit for my experiences/ambitions.
What do you enjoy most about risk management?
I like the mixture of theory and practice that my role brings. We use a delegated model where risks are owned by the relevant senior management team. As such, I have the luxury of dedicated time to consider what’s being managed and how. I really enjoy adapting methodologies to fit the needs of my stakeholders.
What challenges do you face in your business and sector?
Home Group is quite a complex business. We cover multiple jurisdictions as a social landlord, providing a variety of tenancies to a range of customers. We also have a large supported housing offer which includes some specialist registered care services. We are property developers too, commissioning everything from outright sales schemes to regeneration projects. All of this great work comes with risk and the challenge for us is making sure we’re prioritising them correctly so that our Boards and Committees are appropriately informed. Our sector is becoming more regulated following several high-profile events over the last few years. Whilst this presents challenges from an operational and budgetary perspective, the additional clarity can actually support the risk management process.
Do you face any specific risk challenges within your organisation?
With 55,000 homes 3,000 colleagues and an annual turnover in excess of £400 million, scale is the main issue.
How are you addressing these challenges?
We’re embarking on a project to rebase our entire register in line with a mid-term review of our strategy which will ensure we’re focussing on the right things.
How long have you been using CORE?
I’m not sure actually, over a decade I think although there are items on there going back to 2008. We upgraded to v5 last year as part of our increased focus on risk management.
How does CORE support you in your role?
Having a dedicated system for all relevant colleagues to use increases consistency and visibility. It creates a central “hub” with all of our risk information available in one place. We can use it to support universal changes in methodology and terminology such as our scoring convention or appetite statements. It also provides a level of security by allowing us to control who can see what, in line with GDPR. It’s invaluable when collating data for Board or Committee reports and we have developed Power BI dashboards to enhance our risk culture using the suite of APIs available in version 5. Access to an archive of withdrawn items also helps us to learn lessons from the past and apply them to current situations. I also really appreciate the insightful webinars and training sessions facilitated by JCAD.
Would you be happy to talk to a potential user about your experiences with JCAD and its products?
Absolutely.
Would you be willing to share a brief quote about your thoughts on JCAD or the product?
I can’t imagine doing without JCAD CORE 5 – it brings so many efficiencies and opportunities.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Sandra McGinnis has been so helpful to me over the past 15 months and feels more like a trusted colleague than a consultant. From showing me the ropes initially to helping us understand the art of the possible more recently – we simply wouldn’t realise all the benefits of JCAD Core 5 without her support.
Oliver Vincent, Ben Grinter and Brad Soper have been incredibly helpful too – diligently investigating every technical query in a quick and friendly way.
Rini Nijhof was also very supportive throughout our upgrade to version 5, keeping the project on course and ensuring all of our needs were met.
