View slides from our talks on Thursday 7 October
Welfare, Benefits and Social Inclusion stream
A number of councils, led by Greenwich have been making a powerful case to DWP on their need for more Universal Credit to be shared with local authorities, and for being trusted to do more within the current datashare in the existing memorandum of understanding with DWP.
The councils have argued that legislation on homelessness reduction or FSMs provides a legal gateway for the UC datashare to be used for a wider set of purposes than CTR. Councils are better placed and well equipped to ensure proper governance over the data. They want data on all households in receipt of Universal Credit to be shared with local authorities.
With some success, councils have successfully applied to DWP.
This talk will cover
- How this argument led to DWP showing greater trust in local authorities, new use cases that have been approved, including identifying benefit capped households and DHP targeting, and the emergence of a new datashare with all households on UC, and a new consultation between DWP and local authorities.
- The important differences in the richness of information held in the datashare, and how it can be used to deliver more effective services over existing housing benefit and council tax data.
With Deven Ghelani, CEO and Sam Tims, Senior Policy Analyst, Policy in Practice
This past year has seen a huge increase in the demand for the Tackling Poverty programme in Tower Hamlets which has called for innovative approaches to tackling those in and at risk of poverty.
Their innovations, which have been shortlisted for an IRRV Innovation Award, have included the use of data analytics to target support to those most at risk of financial crisis as a result of COVID-19. The success of these innovations have been outstanding:
- Over a 12 month period a total of 102,359 free school meals were delivered
- Pandemic food provision, which reached 6,006 households (15, 477 people) through local food hubs
- The team distributed over 70,000 food vouchers for families with children at risk of food poverty
- Implemented a Crisis Grant Scheme for those most in need which reached 6,011 people
- Created a supply model for food banks which saw over 400 tonnes of food provided for distribution
- Distributed £3 million of support to households for food and essential household needs
The team has been instrumental in helping to build independence and ensure they have equal access to opportunities, working tirelessly to identify and target people for support before they fall into crisis.
With Ellie Kershaw, Tackling Poverty Programme Delivery Manager, LB of Tower Hamlets and Louise Murphy, Senior Policy Analyst, Policy in Practice.
The importance of immediate support to prevent a crisis from occurring can not be overlooked.
This talk will examine how Redbridge Council is leading the way by using their administrative data to identify vulnerability and target holistic, preventative support where it is most needed. By reaching residents early they are actively preventing financial crises.
The Welfare Benefit team, employment support team Work Redbridge, and the housing team have all been working together to offer inter-departmental, holistic support to their residents.
- So far, this year, the Welfare Benefit Team have maximised their resident’s income by £500,000
- Work Redbridge has supported over 800 residents, helping 260 people into work and a further 89 into training or education
- The Housing Team has worked with 2,487 households to prevent them from becoming homeless
This data-driven approach to financial resilience is a pioneering approach to combating poverty and has allowed Redbridge Council to pre-empt the repercussions the end of COVID-19 support will have on their residents, reaching them with vital support long before they hit a point of crisis.
With Dawn Cove, Head of Benefits, Redbridge LBC and Alex Clegg, Policy Analyst, Policy in Practice.
Congratulations to our prize winners who won £50 for their favourite charity
- Edward Jones, Taxation Manager, Gwynedd Council
- Steve Bird, Head of Welfare and Exchequer, Kirklees Council
Terms and conditions
There are two prizes of £50 donation to a registered charity of your choice.
The competition is open to people who visit us at stand 25 at IRRV 2021 and provide their email address.
Employees of Policy in Practice (PiP) may not enter.
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive emails from Policy in Practice containing news and events that we think may interest you. You will be given the opportunity to unsubscribe on every email that we send.
Only one entry allowed per person.
One winner will be chosen by a digital list randomizer (random.org or similar). This will be recorded and available to view on request.
The draw will take place on 11 October 2021.
The winner will be notified by email on or before 15 October 2021 and must reply naming their charity of choice within 14 days. If a winner does not respond to PiP within 14 days of being notified, their prize will be forfeited and PiP shall be entitled to select another winner in accordance with the process described above (and that winner will have to respond to notification of their win within 14 days or else they will also forfeit their prize).
The prize is non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and is not redeemable for cash or other prizes.
PiP shall use and take care of any personal information you supply to it as described in its privacy policy and in accordance with data protection legislation.
IRRV Performance Awards winners: Congratulations to our clients
Congratulations to all the very deserving winners at the IRRV awards evening. We are especially delighted to see such recognition for the work our clients do using our products. A special well done goes to:
🏆 Folkestone and Hythe District Council: Excellence in education and staff development
🏆 London Borough of Tower Hamlets: Excellence in innovation (service delivery)
🏆 CDER Group: Excellence in social inclusion
🏆 Walsall Council: Revenues team of the year
Listen to Dawn Cove, London Borough of Redbridge
We would like to extend a huge thank you to Dawn Cove, Head of Benefits, London Borough of Redbridge for taking the time to speak with us exclusively for IRRV 2021 about how they use our award-winning Benefit and Budgeting Calculator and LIFT platform to support their customers.
Listen back to our conversation with Dawn, opposite.
Hear how our clients use our tools to make a difference
LIFT
Platform
Administrative datasets can yield powerful insights that give a fuller picture, and help drive change. Over 100 local authorities already use LIFT to combine their datasets with our policy engine to make better decisions
CTR
Modelling
Ensuring you have the best Council Tax support scheme is difficult, especially when caseloads change dramatically. We help councils model different scheme options based on many complex and combined local factors
Benefit and Budgeting Calculator
Our calculator is outcome-focused and gives advisors information they can trust. They can easily explain complex benefit changes and give people the advice they need.
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Tracker
MAST is the first of its kind to link adult, children, fire, police and health datasets, meaning that social workers have more information to better support vulnerable people.
There are 51 households claiming Pension Credits which, for a couple, is worth £255 per week. This means £676,000 annually has been brought into our district which I think is an awesome result for what was, in realistic terms, a few afternoons by three benefit staff.
Jane Worrell, Folkestone and Hythe
The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator is easy to use, and the results are given in a clear format. The links that guide customers on how to claim are very useful. The grants and charities section is a brilliant addition too.
Beverley Hiden, Rooftop Housing Group