FAQs – Housing

The Digi-Board reviews the effectiveness of governance practices of housing associations. The governance review is equivalent to and is sometimes called a board evaluation or board effectiveness review.

It assesses all the factors that are critical to achieving good governance relevant to the National Housing Federation (NHF) Code of Governance.

The review is designed for the Board and other participants to reflect on how well they govern their organisation. It is designed to build engagement in the governance process, and helps participants learn about the drivers of good governance and board effectiveness as they complete our questionnaires. 

Simply put – it’s a convenient and easy way to deliver an independent self-assessment of how your organisation is governed, assessed against the critical factors that shape your governance. Your governance review is based on the the National Housing Federation (NHF) Code of Governance. 

A key feature in the design of our questionnaire was to make them easy to set-up, convenient to use and to save time and money when compared with a traditional interview-led governance review. Individual responses to the questionnaire are anonymised to ensure they remain confidential.

The participants responses are aggregated to compile a collective view of your organisation’s governance.

Digi-Board has created a new way for organisations to assess their governance using advanced data analytics to provide detailed analysis of your organisation’s governance. 

The demand for online services has increased in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on travel and other restrictions.. The DigiScore-Board online governance review permits a governance review to be completed without need for travel and participants can participate from anywhere they have access to the Internet. There is no need for lengthy face to face interviews.

You decide who is included and this often depends on the size and structure of your organisation and whether you have staff.

Typically participants will include the key individuals involved in governing your organisation to include: the chair, non-executive directors, trustees, directors, members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and sometimes external advisors.

The tool can also be used to assess governance across branches e.g. where an organisation has regional offices with differing governance arrangements.

This is at the sole discretion of your organisation. 

This is a rare occurrence and we monitor the responses to maximise participation. We send out reminders and provide a regular status updates to the nominated ‘administrator’.

Please note that the results and reports can only reflect the views of those who submitted completed questionnaires. We advise that the Chair deals with any reservations prior to committing to the review.

The review looks to provide assurance and to inform and protect the Board to achieve the standard of governance that is expected of it by the regulator. This relies on the commitment of all those responsible for governance. 

A unique link to access the review is sent via email to each participant, who then sets their own personal password. The review is easily completed by clicking on the multiple-choice responses to each question with the option to add additional comments.

The questionnaire can be completed in one go – or in multiple visits, which some participants prefer.

Typically 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the number of comments made. It does not have to be completed in a single sitting. A completion date is set at the start of review process, typically for 2 to 3 weeks elapsed time. 

The results are available online and compiled to include all quantitative and qualitative analysis and commentary. The primary purpose of the report is to inform the board’s discussions to enable continuous improvement in governance by answering: What do we need to do to improve our governance?

Individual responses to the questionnaire will not be seen by nor be identifiable to any other participant. This anonymity encourages participants to be authentic in their responses unaffected by any organisational politics or other influencing factors.

To safeguard confidentiality and anonymity we will only report comparisons where we have 3 or more respondents in a ‘reporting group’.

If you have lost the URL to access the Digi-Board questionnaire go to digiboard.ipitsi.com/Dashboard or visit thedigiboard.co.uk/login Input your user name and password to enter. There is an option to reset your password if you have forgotten it.

If you have forgotten your user name then please email support @ thedigiboard.co.uk identifying your organisation’s name & your first and last name.

Here are some tips on what actions to take in this event.

Most email programmes and services use filters to stop spam. There may be times when an email is incorrectly filtered and is sent directly to your Spam or Junk folder. To ensure you receive your personal invitation email to participate in the governance review, please add support@thedigiboard.co.uk to your safe senders list.

Alternatively, if you are using your work email address, you may need to ask your IT department to add the domain ‘thedigiboard.co.uk’ to the safe senders lists or “whitelists” that they maintain. If this is not possible, then you can substitute your work email with a personal email address.

For further instructions, select your email service:

Microsoft Outlook – 1. On the Tools menu, click Options. 2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail. 3. Click the Safe Senders or Safe Recipients tab. 4. Click Add. 5. Enter an e-mail address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address you want added, and then click OK.

Microsoft Outlook 2003 – If an inbound email has ended up in the Junk E-mail folder 1. Right-click on the message you wish to receive 2. Hold your mouse pointer over Junk Email and choose Add Sender to Safe Senders List or Add Sender’s Domain (@example) to Safe Senders List.

AOL – 1. Open the Junk Email folder 2. Click on the email you wish to receive and click the This Is Not Spam button.
Windows Live / Hotmail – 1. Open the Junk Email folder 2. Click on the email you wish to receive 3. Either click Not Junk on the top menu bar or Not Junk mail on the yellow warning bar

Gmail/GoogleMail – 1. Open the Spam folder (this is sometimes hidden behind the under the MORE link in the left-hand column) 2. Open the email you wish to receive and click the Not Spam button in the menu bar