A discovery into tangible ways of reducing recurrent instances of Housing benefits subsidy loss.
My client is a city council who sought to evaluate operational processes in search of possible ways of identifying and cutting down on the causes of housing benefits subsidy loss. Circumstances appeared to be intertwined and cut across several departments, manifesting in increased backlogs within housing options and consequently having a direct impact on the council's ability to fulfil its statutory obligation in a timely manner.
To conduct a discovery into the existing blockers to the City council’s goal of reducing housing benefits subsidy loss, improving homelessness prevention and optimising statutory responsibility compliance. To conduct root cause analysis at several fronts, reporting directly to the director of housing transformation whilst sitting within the Housing transformation steering committee. To conduct an in-depth analysis of the Council’s Locata system and to engage senior executives of the Housing Options department to identify potential areas of improvement. To produce a report of finding and present to the housing transformation steering committee.
I worked very closely with executives from the housing strategy to understand and map out all referral pathways (As is) and examine how well performing each pathway has been over the last 12 months. Further analysis into this revealed areas of improvement whilst insufficient in itself to be considered a root cause. I therefore proceeded to consider for example, the true cause of increased backlog in homelessness applications. I also evaluated multiple PRS routes, considering its pros and cons and ultimately, recommending replacing it with a single PRS entry point.
Analysed leave vs rent options and performance over the years, including the associated costs of executing each over a period of time. Organised surveys, collected and cleaned raw data to support future recommendations
I proposed a single PRS entry route and re-engineered the immediate architecture to support this new model. This new model was successfully trialled and approved for adoption. I equally produced an end of discovery report with some recommendations in it, specifically urging the council to spend now to save more in the future.
This new model if adopted will see to the council taking up more lease from private landlords at a relatively cheaper rate when compared to existing housing models. This model will help in fulfilling the council's statutory obligation and will save in excess of £3m over the next 5 years.
Report was submitted and that brought my job to a successful and pleasant end.
