Experienced Professional Route to Chartered Membership
Terms and conditions
CIH has been incorporated by Royal Charter since 1984 and our registered office is at Suites 5 & 6, First Floor Rowan House, Westwood Business Park, Coventry, CV4 8LE
These are the Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) between the user (“you”) and the Chartered Institute of Housing (“CIH”, “we”, “us”, “our”). Please read these terms and conditions carefully as the govern your use of the CIH website at www.cih.org and form part of any contract for the supply of services or products that you enter into with us.
- These terms and conditions should also be read in conjunction with the Terms for CIH Membership; CIH Housing Academy; CIH Events.
These Terms and Conditions govern your use of our Experienced Professional Route and Executive Route to chartered membership (“Service”). By accessing or using our Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use our Service
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at professionalstandards@cih.org
Eligibility
Experienced Professional Route (EPR) to chartered membership recognises professional capability and previous qualifications and is a commitment to maintaining up-to-date knowledge of housing issues. It is aimed at experienced housing professionals who want to demonstrate that they have the knowledge required to lead people and manage change.
To use the Service, you must meet the following criteria:
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Be a current resident of the UK and have UK housing sector experience
- Possess the necessary qualifications and professional experience as outlined in our eligibility criteria.
- Meet any specific requirements set forth by CIH membership. professional standards and other relevant departments
To apply for this route, you must also need to meet one of the three eligibility criteria below:
- You have worked in a housing organisation or the residential built environment for five years, two of which are at management level working as a senior manager or head-of-service, and you have a degree level qualification in a related field to a housing career or a minimum CIH Level 4 qualification.
- You have worked in a housing organisation or the residential built environment for three years and you are a fully qualified member (chartered member/fellow) of another relevant professional body related to housing
- You have more than five continuous years’ experience working as a senior manager or head of service in a housing organisation.
Service Description
The Experienced Professional Route chartered membership is designed to assist experienced professionals in obtaining chartered status. The specifics of the Service include but are not limited to:
- Guidance on meeting the chartering body’s criteria
- Support on application and documentation
- Professional development resources and mentoring
- You must register your interest to use the Service via CIH website or by emailing professionalstandards@cih.org
- You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password.
- You agree to provide accurate and complete information during the registration process.
- You agree to provide accurate and complete information during the registration process.
- You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.
- By completing the application form and making the payment for the programme, you agree to these terms and conditions.
- The Service is provided for a fee as detailed on our website.
- Payment must be received in full before the start date, or within 7 days of the receipt of the invoice.
- Payment must be received by the closing date of the programme
- The payment is non-transferable to any other CIH product and/or service.
- All fees are non-refundable except as required by law
- You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes.
- You must not use the Service in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the Service or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the Service.
- You must not use the Service to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish, or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, or other malicious computer software.
- All intellectual property rights in the Service and any content provided through the Service are owned by us or our licensors.
- You may not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, or exploit any part of the Service without our express written permission.
- By agreeing to these terms and conditions you consent to our processing of your personal data in in accordance with UKGDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018
- We will use your information to follow up on your application, and for relevant departments such as membership to process your chartered status, as well as panel members for your interview purposes. Your data won't be used for any other purposes without your explicit consent.
- Your data will be retained only as long as necessary for the original purpose and you have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal data. Please review our Privacy Policy for a detailed understanding of our data practices.
- We may terminate or suspend your access to the Service immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms.
- We may terminate or suspend your access to the Service immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms.
Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from:
- your use or inability to use the Service;
- any unauthorized access to or use of our servers and/or any personal information stored therein
- any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from the Service
- any errors or omissions in any content or for any loss or damage incurred as a result of your use of any content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available through the Service; and/or
- the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party.
Changes to Terms
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material, we will provide at least 30 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.
Moodle use and contact details
- It is your responsibility to register and provide an up-to-date email address on Moodle, the learning platform, as all communications with tutors, grade releases, important information is conveyed via Moodle.
- It is your responsibility to inform professional standards if and as soon as your contact details change to professionalstandards@cih.org for the team to update the communications contact details.
- You must log in to Moodle as soon as you are provided your login details and complete the induction, learning units and required tasks as essential part of the programme.
Chartered membership fee
Upon successful completion of the programme (by successfully passing both the assignment and the interview stages) chartered membership will be granted to the candidate, with a free membership for a year, but not before this.
Extensions, Non-Submissions, Interruptions, Withdrawals and Abandonments
The following options are available to support learners whilst studying towards the programme. Any of the below options will only be considered if there are mitigating circumstances to request for an extension or interruption:
- any serious circumstances beyond your control and may include:
- Ill health/Accident
- Death/illness of a close relative or friend
- A significant change in your job role: e.g.redundancy/significant role change.
To be fair and equitable to everyone, normal work-related issues, IT problems, holidays and social activities will not count as extenuating circumstances; learners are expected to plan their studies around these. Professional Standards may ask for additional information, such as a supporting letter from work or a copy of a medical certificate.
An extension for the assignment submission date is up to an additional 14 days that can be granted to a learner by their tutor where mitigating circumstances (defined above) have affected the learner’s ability to complete their work on time and they require additional time to complete their assignment. Professional Standards will only agree to one extension per submission for a learner.
Learners must contact their tutor via Moodle at least 5 working days before the assignment submission deadline and provide details of mitigating circumstances along with third-party evidence if requested. If a request for an extension is received after the submission deadline a refer grade for non-submission will be applied and one attempt will be lost.
The tutor will respond to the extension request within 2 working days of the request being received, if a learner has not received a response they must contact professionalstandards@cih.org and the administrator will consider the request using the factors outlined above to decide whether the extension will be granted, record the outcome on Moodle and notify the tutor of their decision.
If the tutor agrees the extension, a new submission date will be set on Moodle, if a learner fails to submit their assignment by the agreed deadline a refer grade for non-submission will be applied and one attempt will be lost. Tutors will monitor submissions following extensions and mark the assignments within the usual timescales (14 days). Work submitted following an extension may be subject to internal verification later than the rest of the cohort – all results are subject to verification and additional work may be required.
A non-submission is where a learner has failed to meet an assignment submission deadline, whether this is:
- the official, published deadline for the assignment.
- the deadline for submitting a referred assignment (non-submission referrals) at the end of an agreed extension period
Learners have three opportunities to submit the assignment and each time a learner receives a refer (whether this is for academic reasons or due to non-submission) they lose one of these opportunities. If there is a non-submission, Professional Standards will record the non-submission on Moodle and the learner will be notified of the refer grade when the results are released and will be given a new date to submit their assignment, this will usually be 14 days after the results have been released (up to the three attempts).
Professional Standards will inform learners via Moodle each time they receive a referral for non-submission. The information will outline the next steps for the learners as well as informing them of alternative options available to them (for example an Interruption). All communications will make it clear how many opportunities a learner has left to submit a successful submission and what happens if the learner fails the unit by using up all the opportunities available to them.
If a learner receives a third referral (for academic reasons or non-submission) they will fail the programme and will need to register again in a future cohort with the payment of the full programme fee.
A learner may request an interruption to their studies where they feel they will be unable to complete their programme within the given timeframe. An interruption is a mechanism that puts everything on hold for up to 6 months and allows the learner to re-join when their circumstances improve. Learners are allowed to request one interruption per programme based on the mitigating circumstances mentioned above and the request must be received at least 5 working days before the assignment submission deadline.
Professional standards cannot guarantee that a learner will be allocated the same tutor when they return.
To be considered for an interruption, learners must submit the Change of Circumstance form, including third party supportive mitigating evidence to professionalstandards@cih.org. Professional standards will review the request and evidence provided and respond to the learner with the decision within 10 working days of the request being received. Professional standards will contact the learner before the interruption period expires to arrange a plan to return to study. If there is no contact from the learner, by midnight of the expiry date for the interruption the learner will be advised that they have been automatically withdrawn (abandoned due to no contact – see ‘Abandonment’) from the programme.
A withdrawal is where a learner does not want to continue with their studies and withdraws fully from their programme. Learners must submit a request to withdraw by completing the Change of Circumstance Form to be sent to professionalstandards@cih.org. NO refund will be provided if a learner withdraws at any point after two weeks from the programme start date (the start date is the advertised closing date for applications). Professional standards will process the request and inform the tutor and Internal Verifier that a learner has withdrawn from their studies.
Professional standards will make every attempt to contact a learner to inform them of re-submission dates or to advise them when they are due to return to their programme after an interruption. If a learner fails to respond to these requests to contact, Professional standards will send a communication with a final date for response and if no response is received, the assumption will be made that the programme has been abandoned by the learner. There will be no refund to the learner if they are withdrawn due to abandonment of the programme. It is the learner responsibility to reach out to professional standards if they have not received any information.
Programme content
Please note that the experienced professional route to chartered membership is not a regulated qualification, but a pathway for achieving CIH chartered status. If you are interested in undertaking a regulated qualification leading to chartered membership, you can complete the Level 5 Diploma in Housing qualification with one of the CIH approved training centres.
Policies and Procedures
There is no appeal against the decision of the panel unless there is evidence that the processes for the panel have not been followed correctly. If you feel that this is the case and you have been treated unreasonably in the arrangements for the panel and/or the information provided to you has been incorrect or misleading, you can write to CIH’s professional standards manager, within 10 days of receiving the panel decision, setting out your reasons for an appeal.
The CIH’s professional standards manager cannot alter the panel’s decision, but they can nullify it and arrange for a new panel to conduct the interview.
Complaints policy and procedure
If your complaint is regarding a CIH staff member or one of our products or services, you can either phone, complete an online form, send us an email or letter including your contact details, with a clear overview of the complaint and the outcome you are seeking. Full information can be found here.
Customer service statement
The Professional Standards team is committed to delivering a high standard of service to our customers.
At CIH, we always endeavour to treat all our customers fairly and deliver the best service we possibly can. We do understand however that sometimes, some people may not have the desired experience when working with us.
It is important to us that any feedback we receive is taken seriously as this helps us learn and make improvements to all of our services. We are committed to providing exceptional service, being accountable and transparent so we can build trust and respect with all of our members and customers.
Equality and diversity policy
