SHARE Awards 2026

In 2024, Yorkhill Housing launched its Estate Caretaking Service on an initial two‑year trial, responding to a growing and urgent need within the community.

Backcourt areas had become increasingly affected by rubbish build‑up, rising vermin activity, and a noticeable decline in environmental standards. Reduced local authority services meant Yorkhill Housing faced a losing battle to maintain safe, clean, and welcoming neighbourhoods without creating additional financial pressure for tenants.

The Estate Caretaking Service was introduced as a proactive, community‑centred solution, one that has already delivered measurable, transformative impact.

Scott Burke and the Welfare Rights Service at Yorkhill Housing Association have transformed lives by delivering a holistic, tenant-focused welfare rights program.

Operating every Wednesday, the service provides comprehensive benefit checks, financial capability assessments, and tailored support for applications to statutory benefits and charitable grants. This initiative exemplifies commitment to community service, ensuring tenants are empowered to achieve financial stability and maintain secure housing.

The impact of Scott’s work is both profound and quantifiable, especially given Scott only works in the Association one day a week. Over the past two financial years, the service has delivered exceptional results.

Client Financial Gains

• 2024/25: £325,577.11
• 2025/26: £302,387.87 (quarters 1-3)

For over twenty years, a listed property in Argyle Street lay empty, a large three‑apartment family home that had fallen into significant disrepair. With support from Glasgow City Council (GCC), we acquired the property via Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) in September 2025 and delivered a regulation‑compliant refurbishment that restored its character and created a safe, warm, modern home.

The project required navigating multiple layers of complexity: CPO legislation, listed building constraints, long‑term property deterioration, and significant void‑standard compliance. Our team led every stage with precision, from acquisition through stakeholder coordination, contractor oversight, specification development, and delivery.

The result is a property that honours its historic character while providing high‑quality, modern accommodation.

Our Tenancy Support Service has made an outstanding contribution to tenant wellbeing, community stability, and innovative service delivery. Our small but dedicated team provides intensive, person‑centred support that prevents crisis, sustains tenancies, and enhances quality of life for some of the most vulnerable individuals in our community.

Our service model is grounded in early intervention and consistent engagement. Each of our 447 tenants received a full annual check‑in during Quarter 1, allowing us to proactively identify emerging support needs. In addition to this universal service, we conducted multiple weekly or monthly visits to tenants with complex health, financial or social challenges. We opened support cases for every tenant on our housing management software, enabling systematic monitoring, shared visibility across teams, and improved continuity of care.

Our welfare rights advice has directly supported tenants to maximise incomes, stabilise budgets, and reduce arrears risk. We also provided:

• Foodbank referrals
• Occupational Therapy referrals
• Social Work referrals
• Reasonable adjustments to improve accessibility and daily living

These interventions have contributed to demonstrably higher engagement, improved health outcomes, safer homes, and greater tenancy sustainability.

Craig Harris joined Yorkhill Housing Association via the Glasgow Guarantee scheme on a 2-year contract following a successful spell in the hospitality sector. Craig shone through the interview process with his passion for the Social Housing sector evident throughout.      

From the word go, Craig has demonstrated maturity beyond his experience, consistently showing a strong work ethic, reliability and excellent customer service skills.       

He has embraced every challenge with a positive and proactive attitude, taking responsibility for their own development and quickly becoming a trusted member of the team. Craig’s ability to apply new knowledge in real working situations - combined with excellent problem‑solving skills - has allowed them to deliver high‑quality work and add real value to day‑to‑day operations.

Craig has received numerous compliments from tenants and owners, signposting stakeholders in the Associations reception area to the appropriate departments.  His willingness to assist tenants and owners, combined with a respectful and collaborative approach, has earned him the confidence of staff and committee alike.

Calum Davidson joined Yorkhill Housing from outside the social housing sector, joining the Association as a Governance Assistant. His transferable skills were a key reason for him being successful at interview, however since commencing employment just over 2 years ago he has gone from strength-to-strength, and his drive passion for the social housing sector is seeing excellent results.

Calum has demonstrated initiative by independently developing an innovative internal governance framework designed to upskill Management Committee members and strengthen assurance processes. This framework now provides a clear and structured evidence bank for the Annual Assurance Statement and for Health & Safety compliance. This supports the Association to demonstrate robust governance in a transparent and efficient way.

Beyond the expectations of an Assistant role, Calum has taken on responsibility for presenting governance and assurance reports directly to the Management Committee, confidently responding to complex questions and producing a comprehensive learning plan to support Committee development.

Calum led the Association’s Health & Safety Audit, creating action plans from the previous recommendations and ensuring these were implemented fully, with clear successful outcomes. This led to a fantastic audit report in early 2026, with commendation from the auditors on how thorough the evidence was presented.