Homelessness has been a challenge for local authorities for a long time, the ‘How can data stop homelessness before it starts’ report published by EY in conjunction with Maidstone Borough Council, analyses the roles that technology can play in helping to move from reacting to homelessness to actively preventing it. GB spoke to John Littlemore, head of housing & regulatory services at Maidstone Borough Council
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Maidstone Borough Council?
My name is John Littlemore and I am the head of housing & regulatory services at Maidstone Brough Council.
Why did Maidstone Borough Council decide to use a new approach to tackling homelessness?
Preventing homelessness is a key priority for the Council. We are well aware of the negative impacts that homelessness can have on people’s lives, their employment prospects, educational attainment and their health & well-being. As an early adopter of the Homelessness Reduction Act we were continuously searching for new and innovative ways to help our residents, in particular to avoid the trauma of becoming homeless. We became aware of the EY product, and the developing use of analytics within the public sector to enhance the experience of both officers and residents. We were especially struck by the opportunity to reach out to people at an earlier stage, before matters reach crisis point.
Can you tell us about the new approach and how it works?
We worked with EY to pioneer a new approach to tackling homelessness by designing and implementing ‘OneView’ – an innovative data and analytics tool that brings together data from different areas to identify those at risk of future homelessness and enables councils to understand their services in a holistic way – ultimately transforming the way that vulnerable groups are supported. The data extract is based on those characteristics that indicate the resident has a high probability of becoming homeless in the next 6 months. The OneView system also enables data held by separate authorities to be viewed by the staff providing the assistance. This empowers the staff member to look across a spectrum of presenting issues and think more broadly about solutions. For the resident, this reduces the need to repeatedly provide the same information to a range of agencies.
What positive results can you share with us?
During 2020 we received around 650 alerts from the system. We limited the number of interventions we could support to 250, which inadvertently created a control group of 400 who were not assisted. The outcomes for each group was marked. Only 2 per cent of those helped became homeless and went onto need temporary accommodation; compared with 40 per cent becoming homeless and 19 per cent of those needing temporary accommodation in the control group. OneView has been proven to deliver immediate benefits to residents with tangible examples of families who without the support they are now receiving, were on a trajectory to presenting as homeless in the near future and who otherwise may not have come to our attention until a point which was too late for a successful intervention. This enabled a better outcome for residents and a significant cost avoidance for the Council.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
Understandably colleagues were concerned with how data could be shared in a compliant and safe manner. GDPR is a consideration and the infrastructure put in place enables the controlled sharing of information that is compliant with legal gateways and is reinforced by data sharing agreements. Use of the system enabled us to continuously review the outcomes we were seeing and to nuance the data extracts until this was finessed to achieve the most effective results. It is interesting that we have never had a resident complain or question how we came by the data that prompted us to reach out to them. In fact the contrary, with residents grateful for the assistance that has been given.
How can other local authorities use this approach to tackle homelessness?
Maidstone Borough Council has proven the concept. We have embedded this approach across our housing team and I am convinced that the project is a major contributor to our continued high rate of success in preventing homelessness.
What advice would you give to other local authorities looking to try new ways to tackle homelessness?
Be bold, be prepared to explore different ways of preventing homelessness. Data analytics was well known within the private sector but not often applied in the public sector; any scepticism I may have had was soon dispelled when the resulting evidence was so positive. We acknowledge that schemes like this do not build new affordable homes and that remains our long-term goal, but if they provide a way to help our residents to maintain a stable home then the time and energy is well worth expending.
