Brief Interventions for Social Housing Tenants
Based on our successful RSPH-accredited Making Every Contact Count (MECC) programme, this course equips housing staff with the skills to turn everyday interactions with tenants into opportunities to support their health and wellbeing.
What will participants learn?
This training equips housing staff with the skills to:
- Recognise opportunities for brief interventions in routine interactions
- Have supportive conversations with tenants about sensitive topics
- Use the Ask, Assist, Act framework to structure brief interventions
- Respond with confidence and empathy to personal issues
- Signpost tenants effectively towards relevant local and national services
- Understand professional boundaries and know when to refer or escalate
Who is it for?
Every interaction housing teams have with a tenant is an opportunity to make a difference. This training is ideal for housing officers, tenancy support workers, neighbourhood coordinators, customer service teams, repairs operatives, sheltered housing staff, community caretakers, and anyone else in the housing sector who has regular contact with tenants.
What does the course include?
- The principles and importance of brief interventions
- The Ask, Assist, Act framework for structuring brief interventions
- Skills including active listening, open questions, and reflective listening
- Recognising verbal and non-verbal cues that a tenant may need support
- Navigating sensitive topics with confidence and without judgement
- Effective signposting strategies and local service awareness
- Practical scenarios based on real housing situations, including rent arrears, home visits, repairs, welfare checks, and complaints
- A reference sheet to support participants as they put their skills into practice
Our Brief Interventions for Housing Tenants course can focus on general health and wellbeing or be tailored to address priority issues that are relevant to participants' roles including:
- Mental health and emotional wellbeing
- Cost of living and financial hardship
- Social isolation and loneliness
- Substance misuse, including drugs and alcohol
- Domestic abuse
- Bereavement and loss
- Hoarding and self-neglect
- Digital exclusion
This is recommended as a half-day course. All of our courses can be delivered in person or online. Depending on requirements, we can also offer more in-depth training packages with multi-day, follow-up, and train-the-trainer options.
Why choose our training?
To maximise training value and effectiveness, we offer:
- Content tailored to participant needs through pre-engagement with client teams
- Evidence-based approaches like Making Every Contact Count (MECC) and Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Interactive learning, including simulations and real-world skills practice
- Follow-up support to help staff implement their new skills
- Continuous refinement of our courses through evaluation and participant feedback
We work with complex individuals with chaotic lives. I think this type of training to help lead conversations is a positive way to make change happen. It allows us to become more emotionally aware and learn the art of communication.
Training participant
Sovereign Network Group (SNG)