The North West Region's first Learning Exchange was held in January 2009 at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton.

The event attracted over 100 delegates which included:

• Strategic Housing Officers
• Customer Involvement Officers
• BATRA Representatives
• Members of the Regional Involvement Champions

Keynote Presentations were delivered by:

Reniera O'Donnell (IDeA Consultant)

Reniera introduced the network and presented a historical account of it's inception to date. She also outlined the IDeA's support of the project, future aspirations for the network and the benefits it would bring to all involved.

Dennis Artess (North West Regional Improvement and Efficency Partnership)

Dennis's presentation placed a strong emphasis on sector led improvements and efficencies achieved through sharing best working practices.

All North West Housing providers and Strategic Housing had been involed to take part in a survey prior to the event. There had been an overwhelming response and the results of the survey were reported back to participants through an adapted version of the classic 'Family Fortunes' television game show.

'Contestants' were chosen from the audience to which we recieved positive feedback. A number of attendees have since requested the software from Bolton at Home to use within their own organisations which resulted in us holding a coaching session on how to use and adapt the software to various scenarios which was well attended. Any organisation who wishes to make use of this software can e-mail citeam@boltonathome.org.uk

The afternoon session was dedicated to targeted learning sessions. Participants from Strategic housing attended a session led by Michelle Horrocks from Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council and Reniera O'Donnell from IDeA. They were able to share good practice and discussed the way forward for the Strategic Housing element of the Regional Network.

Customer Involvement Officers took part in two afternoon learning sessions.

The event coincided with the launch of the first round of the TSA local converations and Bolton at Home had been appointed  as one of the 'TSA Trailblazers' in the North West to cascade the required information to the regioal landlords. Given that the timing was very appropiate attendees were given the opportunity to obtain the information directly by Laurie McCormack appointed by the TSA to brief the trailblazers during one of the afternoon learning sessions.

The other afternoon learning session was on 'Impact Assessment' and was delivered by Val Alker from TPAS in response to demand identified through the survey.

The evaluation shows that both learning sessions were very well recieved and participants felt they had attended two valuable learning sessions.

For more detailed information and related articles please refer to related articles on this section of the site.