Challenge
Hackney Council faces similar challenges to many UK local authorities as they respond to the national housing crisis. Their Benefits and Housing Needs service is under pressure to prevent homelessness and deal with the growing demand for housing, now with added complications from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hackney’s ambition was to create a service which was understood, fair, accessible and beneficial to their residents, underpinned by flexible modern technology. By reducing friction between staff and legacy systems and better managing demand, officers would have space and capacity to go above statutory duty to prevent homelessness.
FutureGov led a multidisciplinary programme team, supplying design and delivery expertise working closely alongside frontline staff, Hackney IT and MadeTech. Over 12 months, the team delivered a suite of products that support changes in working practices centred around the needs of Hackney residents and staff.
Approach
Before exploring solutions, we worked closely with the service to run research activities to understand:
- the current experience of staff and residents, pain points and opportunities
- how the service and teams were organised
- existing and planned projects
- a detailed understanding of the technology landscape
With a more detailed understanding of their problems and opportunities, we created a simple vision of how the service could operate in future. Focusing on identifying opportunities where:
- residents are better prepared, active participants in their journey towards finding a settled home
- staff can tailor support to a residents situation, with an understanding of their assets and vulnerabilities
- support is more efficient and joined up for residents when accessing multiple services/teams within the council
With a more detailed understanding of their problems and opportunities, we created a simple vision of how the service could operate in future. Focusing on identifying opportunities where:
- residents are better prepared, active participants in their journey towards finding a settled home
- staff can tailor support to a residents situation, with an understanding of their assets and vulnerabilities
- support is more efficient and joined up for residents when accessing multiple services/teams within the council
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