Frequently Asked Questions
The following list of frequent asked questions has been developed to provide general information about the Gold Award, applying for an award, and the assessment process. Should you have other questions please contact the Gold team directly.
The Gold Award
1. What is the purpose of the Award?
2. Who can apply?
3. Is this just for the large, developing housing associations?
4. How does the competition work?
5. Are there any rules?
6. How can I contact the Gold Team?
7. What happens if we win?
Applying
8. How do we apply?
9. Can joint applications be submitted?
10. Can our housing association submit at individual application and a join one with another association
11. Can our organisation apply for more than one theme?
12. Our application doesn’t meet all the indicators listed under the criteria, should we still enter?
13. We have supporting documentary evidence, can we submit it?
14. What is the ‘Notification of Entry’ form?
Assessing applications
15. How are the applications judged?
16. What happens at the site visit?
17. What sorts of knowledge sharing activities would winners deliver?
18. If unsuccessful, will I find out why I didn’t win?
The Gold Award
1. What is the purpose of the Gold Award?
The purpose of the Gold Award is to improve the quality of housing provision for the millions of residents living in social housing in England. The Award has been established with four core objectives in mind:
- Identify and reward excellent practice and innovation in the social housing sector
- Actively share these better ways of operating with all housing providers
- Raise performance standards across the sector
- Encourage future innovation
The Gold Award aims to help providers of social housing to improve their performance through the sharing of best practice and innovation.
2. Who can apply?
Currently entry to the Gold Award competition is open to social landlords that are registered with the Housing Corporation and comply with the Corporation's regulatory requirements. However, all social housing providers will be able to participate in the learning activities offered by the Award holders.
3. Is this just for the large, developing housing associations?
The scheme is dependent on the participation of housing associations of every type and size that are delivering excellent and innovative services to residents throughout England. Applications from smaller and specialist housing associations are particularly encouraged.
4. How does the competition work?
- Each year housing associations will be invited to apply under the identified themes for that year
- A panel of judges supported by theme experts will identify a shortlist of finalists made up of the best applications
- Each finalist will host a site visit for the judges and experts who will assess the services and innovations put forward for an Award
- The judges will announce their final decision and the winners will be presented with an award. Knowledge sharing fund money of £50,000 will be paid to support each winner’s activities to share their best practice. Winners can display the Gold Award logo on their stationery and website
- A knowledge sharing programme of learning events will follow the presentation of Awards
5. Are there any rules?
Yes, applicants must ensure that:
- they address the key criteria for the theme within their application
- they agree to take an active role in sharing their best practice
- they agree to work alongside the Housing Corporation to deliver a coordinated programme of knowledge sharing
- they agree to use the prize money to fund knowledge sharing activities, with milestones of achievement agreed by the Housing Corporation
- they submit only one application per theme
- their entry is signed off by an authorised signatory
All these details can be found in the comprehensive Application Guidance published to accompany each round of the Award scheme.
6. How can I contact the Gold Team?
The Gold Team is here to support the whole of the Gold Award. If you have any questions, or need any kind of clarification, advice or support, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Email: gold@housingcorp.gsx.gov.uk
Telephone: 01223 272574
Address: Gold Team
The Housing Corporation
Westbrook Centre
Block 1, Suite 1
Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 1YG
7. What happens if we win?
An Award ceremony marks the first celebration of your achievement. Winning associations give a short presentation and receive a Gold Award trophy and certificate. Winners will be entitled to display a winners' logo on their stationery and web site. A knowledge sharing fund of £50,000 will be availalbe to each of the winners to fund a programme designed to allow other social housing providers to learn from the best practice of the winners.
Applying
8. How do we apply?
This web site has a section devoted to applying for a Gold Award. Click here for more information.
Associations must complete the Gold Award Application Form (no hard copy forms are produced). Every section of the form must be completed and each of the five key criteria must be addressed. Applications must be emailed to the Housing Corporation by the deadline.
9. Can joint applications be submitted?
The Housing Corporation recognises that housing providers are increasingly working together to tackle challenges or to achieve more in collaboration than they might in isolation. Accordingly, joint applications for consideration in the Gold Award are welcomed. Each entrant in a successful joint application will be entitled to display the Gold Award winners’ logo.
10. Can our housing association submit an individual application and a joint one with another association?
The Gold Award welcomes joint applications from associations working in partnership. Associations that apply for an award as part of a joint application will not be able to submit an additional application in their own right for that particular theme.
11. Can our organisation apply for more than one theme?
Yes, but in this case you must submit a separate Application Form for each theme.
12. Our application doesn’t meet all the indicators listed under the criteria, should we still enter?
While a submission should address all the key criteria it is unlikely that it will meet all the descriptive indicators for success listed under each criterion in the Application Guidance. These indicators are for illustrative purposes to show some of the characteristics of a successful and effective service. They are provided to help associations to think in broad terms what it is they do that contributes to the theme applied for.
The Housing Corporation encourages applications that put forward new ideas which show evidence of making a positive impact, but might not fully meet all relevant criteria. We are keen to consider and recognise the new and innovative as well as the tried and tested.
13. We have supporting documentary evidence, can we submit it?
No materials will be accepted other that the information you give on the Application Form. Please do not include any additional pages, brochures, reports or extra statements of any kind. The reason for this is to ensure a fair competition, where entries are judged on the basis of the content of application forms alone.
14. What is the ‘Notification of Entry’ form?
In order to help the Housing Corporation plan ahead for the process of assessing and short listing applications, a Notification of Entry (NoE) form should be completed and returned by email to the Housing Corporation by the deadline given in the latest Application Guidance. Your submission of an NoE does not constitute an obligation to apply in full by the deadline. Neither does omitting to send in an NoE prevent an association from making an entry by the closing date. The Housing Corporation will be able to send reminders nearer the closing date to those who have sent in the NoE form but have not yet sent their application.
Assessing applications
15. How are the applications judged?
Initially applications are assessed by the experts and the relevant internal champion who will use a template to apply an overall score to each submission. The scores will be collated to produce a matrix of scores which the experts will use to propose a long list of the best applications. The judges will select the final associations that will form the short list from this long list.
Short listed associations then host an assessment visit for a delegation of judges and experts from the Corporation.
The judges, experts and internal champions meet on to consider recommendations for winners. The judges will select a maximum of three gold winners for each theme. The panel will be under no obligation to appoint any winners if they are so inclined. The named contact from each winning association will be informed of their success as soon as possible after the decision is made.
16. What happens at the site visit?
You will be informed of the date you will be required to host an assessment visit. The dates of these visits are published in advance in the Application Guidance. Each short listed association hosts a visit to a site of their choice. This will be an opportunity for a delegation from the Gold Award to observe at first hand the best practice or innovation put forward. If you are short listed you will receive further guidance on what is expected and what the delegation will want to be shown.
17. What sort of knowledge sharing activities would winners deliver?
The winners will work closely with the Corporation and each other to deliver an active programme of knowledge-sharing for a nine-month period. Required contributions include:
- National Gold Award conference
- At least one Open day
- Peer mentoring / support of other Housing Associations
- Knowledge sharing brochure
- Participation at external conferences
- CD toolkit
At the same time, winners will develop alternative methods by which others may learn. These could include:
- Information leaflets / guidance booklets
- Web Sites
- Interactive CD-ROMs
- DVD Presentations
- Toolkits
- Joint seminars with other theme winners
- Workshops at industry conferences and events
- One-to-one advice and support sessions
18. If unsuccessful, will I find out why I didn’t win?
Feedback will be given any associations that are unsuccessful if they request it. The feedback will point to any particular strengths and weaknesses that the experts and champion found in the application.
