The reflective housing practitioner: the role of qualifications for building empathy and person-centered approaches in the housing sector

Tragic events in the UK have led to a call to increase the ‘professionalism’ of those managing and delivering housing-related services. As part of this process, there is a need to build and integrate empathy, solidarity and person-centred approaches into housing learning to support teaching and practice. However, compared to other professions such as education and health, the housing sector has no reflective practice foundation to support this. In response, this paper offers a bespoke model of reflection for the housing sector, which we argue is pivotal to driving forward sector-wide ambitions to raise professional standards through education and qualifications. The ‘pyramid of housing reflection’ model is informed by experiences of the UK higher education context and empirical evidence that takes practitioners and learners through the journey of contextualising their position (description), impact and positionality (feelings), person-centred practice (empathy and solidarity) alongside engaging with power and critical thinking (structural impacts) to become a reflective housing practitioner. The paper outlines the powerful nature of reflective practice to support personal and professional growth, development and to raise service standards for tenants and other service users in the UK housing sector.