We are thrilled to announce that we are the first housing provider in East Anglia to receive reaccreditation from the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA).
The DAHA accreditation is the benchmark for how housing providers should respond to domestic abuse in the UK. The organisation’s mission is to improve the housing sector’s response to domestic abuse through the introduction and adoption of an established set of standards and an accreditation process. By becoming DAHA accredited, housing providers and services are ensuring they deliver safe and effective responses to domestic abuse.
CHS Group’s DAHA reaccreditation report highlighted many areas of achievement and said: ‘It is evident that a great deal of work and commitment has gone into adopting and embedding the standards across the relevant departments, and indeed, wider across the organisation and adhering to their own values of fairness, transparency and integrity.”
It continued: “We know the dedication, commitment, and hard work it takes to adopt and then embed standards of good practice and it is inspiring to see CHS have improved their service since the last accreditation and CHS are considered a beacon of good practice around domestic abuse in Cambridgeshire.”
New standards have recently been introduced by DAHA for reaccreditation. These include the need for housing providers to demonstrate an intersectional approach that recognises a person’s unique experience, as well as barriers related to their identity such as race, gender, age, sexuality, faith, disability and marital status.
Helen Tonks, Head of Housing and Customer Services, CHS Group, said: “Each and every one of us at CHS Group is thrilled to be reaccredited by DAHA. In order to achieve the reaccreditation, we renewed many of our policies and practice, especially around being inclusive, and built on the hugely successful work that allowed us to achieve DAHA accreditation in the first place back in 2019. The most important outcome is that our tenants, customers and staff will feel more confident in approaching us in the knowledge that we can support them to regain control of their lives. We work closely with other agencies to help survivors make the change they need, and only by working together can we all tackle the devastating impact of domestic abuse.
“The report highlights our holistic, proactive approach to domestic abuse and praises everyone who played a part in achieving this reaccreditation. To be recognised as a beacon of good practice in Cambridgeshire is a huge honour and we will continue to uphold this and to offer excellent support to those in need across our local communities.”
CHS Group is committed to its team’s continued professional development, and delivers a range of external and internal training, taking into account the diverse needs of those who they are supporting.
If you need help and support, you can find out more on our dedicated Domestic Abuse Is Not Ok page
