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Home> Our Work> Governance> Inclusive leadership toolkit> Inclusive leadership challenge

Inclusive leadership challenge

Leadership is crucial for driving diversity and inclusion within an organisation.

Chairs, boards, and chief executives – the leadership teams working within and alongside housing associations – have the potential to embed these values within an organisation’s culture and behaviour, in our drive towards an inclusive future for all.

We see firsthand the work that housing associations are already doing to improve inclusion, diversity and representation – our sector is driven by social purpose. But we know through our own research that there is more to be done to improve representation at board level.

That's why we are encouraging board members to sign up for our new inclusive leadership challenge.

This challenge builds on our previous 'chairs challenge', which was launched in 2023. In line with the insight and feedback from board members, our EDI networks, and with support from Altair, we have broadened the challenge to involve all board members and executives. By challenging a wider group, and specifying the actions that can be taken, we hope to consistently support leaders across the sector to overcome barriers to inclusivity.

By signing up to the inclusive leadership challenge, you are publicly stating that your board will create a plan to improve diversity and inclusion and champion equality.

You will also be acknowledging your commitment to taking action in line with these values, which can be supported by following our five key challenge asks.

So that you can demonstrate that you've signed up to the challenge, we will be updating this webpage with signatories.

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Our five key challenge asks

  1. Board development: Commit to ongoing learning and development for all board members on equality, diversity and inclusion.
  2. Accountability and transparency: Commit to at least two EDI reportable commitments from the board to improving diversity and inclusion, to be published on your website.
  3. Individual objectives: Include objectives on equality, diversity and inclusion for individual board members and executives.
  4. EDI data: Commit to collecting key diversity data, to inform your work on increasing inclusive leadership. 
  5. Inclusive recruitment: Ensure that your commitment to inclusivity begins at recruitment for board members, and consider how your inclusive recruitment process can be continuously improved.
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Our five key challenge asks

  1. Board development: Commit to ongoing learning and development for all board members on equality, diversity and inclusion.
  2. Accountability and transparency: Commit to at least two EDI reportable commitments from the board to improving diversity and inclusion, to be published on your website.
  3. Individual objectives: Include objectives on equality, diversity and inclusion for individual board members and executives.
  4. EDI data: Commit to collecting key diversity data, to inform your work on increasing inclusive leadership. 
  5. Inclusive recruitment: Ensure that your commitment to inclusivity begins at recruitment for board members, and consider how your inclusive recruitment process can be continuously improved.
Image 2`

Does the challenge have an end date?

The inclusive leadership challenge will not have an end date and is not audited by the NHF. Instead, it should be an ongoing commitment to improved diversity and inclusion that is self-monitored by board members and chief executives through annual reporting.

As part of this ongoing process, we advise using the findings of our most up to date data tool research to assess how representative your board members are of the communities within your your housing association's homes.

Once signed up to the challenge, we encourage board members and chairs to hold themselves to account by inviting annual appraisals where their progress towards inclusive, diverse leadership can be measured and discussed. We are also asking board members and chairs to share their feedback on how the challenge has gone so that we can share this learning and insight across the sector.

download Presentation guidance

Resources to facilitate board discussion and action

Resources available to support your work on our challenge asks:

  1. Inclusive leadership slides to present to board members. With Altair, we have produced slides to facilitate discussion on inclusivity at board level. You can download the slides here. We will soon be sharing a video walkthrough of this presentation, delivered by Jenny Brown, Director of Altair.
  2. Inclusive leadership survey for board members to complete, and to support conversation on inclusivity and belonging at leadership level. This anonymous survey is an opportunity to find out how board members themselves feel, and how the board is performing to addresss gaps in diversity and equality, as a starting point for wider work.
  3. Our EDI data tool results can help to inform your work to address underrepresentation at leadership level. Our latest results are here, and we will be releasing the results of our 2026 data collection in September 2026. 
  4. Inclusive recruitment guide 2026 to support you in your recruitment of board members and chairs, with diversity and inclusivty at the forefront of all decisions.
Image 1

Resources to facilitate board discussion and action

Resources available to support your work on our challenge asks:

  1. Inclusive leadership slides to present to board members. With Altair, we have produced slides to facilitate discussion on inclusivity at board level. You can download the slides here. We will soon be sharing a video walkthrough of this presentation, delivered by Jenny Brown, Director of Altair.
  2. Inclusive leadership survey for board members to complete, and to support conversation on inclusivity and belonging at leadership level. This anonymous survey is an opportunity to find out how board members themselves feel, and how the board is performing to addresss gaps in diversity and equality, as a starting point for wider work.
  3. Our EDI data tool results can help to inform your work to address underrepresentation at leadership level. Our latest results are here, and we will be releasing the results of our 2026 data collection in September 2026. 
  4. Inclusive recruitment guide 2026 to support you in your recruitment of board members and chairs, with diversity and inclusivty at the forefront of all decisions.
Image 1

Who to speak to

Cara Green