Board Member – Member Complaints

Beyond Housing is a forward-thinking housing provider with more than 15,500 homes across the North East and North Yorkshire. Established in 2018, the organisation provides homes across a range of tenures, alongside services and investment designed to help customers and communities succeed and thrive. With more than 800 colleagues and a strong financial and governance position, Beyond Housing is delivering an ambitious 2025–2030 corporate strategy focused on enhancing the customer experience, improving performance against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures and continuing to provide safe, high-quality homes and services.

Its work is underpinned by four values:
Considerate, Collaborative, Ambitious and Accountable.

Beyond Housing is seeking a new Board Member who will also take on the statutory role of Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC). As a member of the Board, you will contribute to the strategic leadership and effective governance of the organisation, providing constructive challenge, oversight and assurance while ensuring decisions remain firmly focused on the interests of customers and the long-term success of Beyond Housing.

As Member Responsible for Complaints, your role will centre on two key responsibilities; championing a positive complaint-handling culture and overseeing complaints performance to provide assurance to the Board. This is an oversight rather than an operational role. You will help ensure that complaints are treated as valuable insight, that learning is identified and acted upon, and that the Board has meaningful information on performance, customer feedback, emerging themes and improvement activity.

You will also support scrutiny of compliance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, including the annual self-assessment, and seek assurance that Ombudsman requests and orders are addressed appropriately.

A particularly important part of the role will be maintaining a genuine connection with customers. Beyond Housing is looking for someone who can listen well, understand different customer experiences and perspectives, and engage without approaching conversations solely through the lens of governance. The MRC currently participates in the Customer Forum, which is expected to transition into a formal governance committee, and has opportunities to meet customers independently of officers to ensure their experiences can be heard directly at Board level.

Board meetings are typically held quarterly, in person during the day, usually between 1pm and 4pm, with additional meetings where required. Meetings are held across Beyond Housing’s locations in Redcar and Scarborough, with remote attendance available where needed.

We are looking for an experienced non-executive or board-level leader who understands the distinction between operational delivery and effective governance and assurance. Previous experience as a Member Responsible for Complaints would be advantageous but is not essential. More important will be credible board or non-executive experience alongside a strong understanding of customer experience, complaints, consumer regulation, resident engagement, scrutiny, assurance or customer advocacy.

Beyond Housing is particularly interested in people who have operated in regulated customer environments and can bring a clear appreciation of the importance of complaints as a source of organisational learning.

You will bring the confidence to interpret performance information, ask thoughtful and evidence-led questions and challenge constructively while maintaining positive relationships with fellow Board members, executives, customers and other stakeholders. You will have a collaborative style, sound judgement and high personal integrity,…