Upcoming webinar: EazyLearn - E-learning to improve tenancy sustainment
You're invited to our EazyLearn Webinar
10th December 2020 | 15:00 - 16:00
For Homes for Haringey, as for many other councils and housing providers, ensuring housing applicants have the tools and knowledge needed to sustain their tenancies involved various face-to-face workshops. Looking for a more cost-effective & time-saving solution, Homes for Haringey has partnered with us to deliver a socially distancing way of learning through our e-learning platform, EazyLearn.
Want to see first-hand this online training module trailblazed by Homes for Haringey? Then attend out upcoming EazyLearn webinar on the 10th December (Thursday), from 15:00 to 16:00. At his 1-hour event, you will find out how this tool can be easily configured, how you can monitor progress through a real-time dashboard & more!
“There are incredible benefits in using e-learning. For Housing Needs Officers, it means that they can ensure their customers are ‘tenancy ready’, which is a great selling point for prospective landlords. For our customers, they can feel empowered", says Beverley Faulker, Head of Housing Needs at Homes for Haringey.
This event has now ended.
Haringey case study - Improving tenants' knowledge through e-learning
Homes for Haringey approached us to build an online training module that would help the organisation to reduce time spent by housing officers on face-to-face meetings, while still empowering customers to make informed-based housing choices. Through our new EazyLearn platform, we helped Homes for Haringey achieve their goal to create an innovative e-learning platform that could be easily used by the end-customers.
Beverly Faulkner, Head of Housing Needs at Homes for Haringey told us the reasons behind their vision, experience with the project delivery, benefits of the platform and more! Read this short interview below:
Why did Haringey’s housing department need an E-Learning system?
We were previously offering face-to-face tenancy training workshops which were resource-heavy. They took time to organise, and many of our customers found it difficult to attend due to childcare or work commitments. The need to create a Personalised Housing Plan for each customer also meant that we had to review our capacity to offer face-to-face training to significantly more people, and we considered other ways to deliver this. The majority of our customers will need to consider moving to the private sector to resolve their housing need. We wanted to ensure that they were prepared for this. Therefore, we decided to create e-learning for customers that we could include as an action for them to complete in their Personalised Housing Plan.
What are the benefits of implementing the E-Learning system for the end-users and housing officers?
There are incredible benefits in using e-learning. For Housing Needs Officers, it means that they can ensure their customers are ‘tenancy ready’, which is a great selling point for prospective landlords. For our customers, they can feel assured that they know the pitfalls of the private sector and understand their rights when privately renting. Completing our e-learning course is sometimes the first time a customer has accessed online training. To facilitate that first certificate is a great way to empower them.
We have always been impressed with Home Connections ‘can do’ attitude, efficiency and value for money. They are also great partners to work with on innovative projects
What made you approach Home Connections for a solution?
We have worked with Home Connections on several projects over the years and have always been impressed with their ‘can do’ attitude, efficiency and value for money. Home Connections are also great partners to work with on innovative projects such as this where they were able to realise a vision that we had.
Which aspects of the system are the most helpful for housing officers and why?
The system is easy to use in terms of user experience and the back-office admin. It only takes a couple of minutes to set a new user up and get them enrolled on a course. The Housing Needs Officers have real-time access to a dashboard to monitor progress. They can track when the course gets completed and upload the certificate onto our document retention system. EazyLearn can be set-up to send automatic reminders to customers if they haven’t started or completed the course.
How did you find the process of system delivery?
System delivery was smooth and rapid. We worked closely with a developer from Home Connections who kept us informed at all the key points. We have good communications with our project manager. Overall, Home Connections performance was fab!
With 97% of our customers reporting that the first module will lead to them putting what they have learnt into practice, we feel confident that the investment in this piece of work is worthwhile.
What are your immediate plans for the EazyLearn system and the longer-term ambitions?
Our immediate plan is to roll out the second module, focused on tenancy sustainment. Longer-term, we want to explore using a range of modules for different scenarios, for example, a specific online course for customers moving to social housing. With 97% of our customers reporting that the first module will lead to them putting what they have learnt into practice, we feel confident that the investment in this piece of work is worthwhile.
Ninesh Muthiah, CEO of Home Connections said: “This universal and innovative e-learning solution can be used in such a wide range of scenarios, it might just be a way forward in this ‘new normal’ way of living and working. Many people are finding the lockdown has put extra pressure on tenancies, incomes and relationships. Our e-learning platform can offer free advice, support and a degree of reassurance. Most importantly, it is a resource-free way to share knowledge with a large numbers of applicants, helping obtain realistic expectations about their potential housing outcomes”
Read more about EazyLearn and book a FREE demo today!
Connections Forum 5th Nov: innovative technology for changing housing landscape
Leading digital transformation in housing
Digital transformation has been drastically accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis. But how can we truly embrace this digital shift? How can we harness the power of technology to deliver more intuitive and inclusive services? How can powerful insights be used to improve the relationships between tenants and home seekers?
Home Connections invites you to join this 2-hour FREE webinar and hear from key experts in the housing sector. Take this opportunity to learn more about new technologies and initiatives that can improve access to housing, ease your workload via remote tools and improve customer engagement.
Date & Time: 5th November 2020, 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual event
*Please note this event is for local authorities and housing providers based in Scotland ONLY*
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Nicola McQuiston, from Wheatley Group - Representing one of the largest housing associations in Scotland, Nicola will show Wheatley Group's interactive and dynamic housing platform. Wheatley provides homes and services to nearly 250,000 people in 17 areas across Scotland. Wheatley uses our feature-rich Choice-Based Lettings software, fully integrated with our powerful Housing Register solution.
Chris Walker, Voicespace - As Behavioural Insights Lead, Chris Walker has been working with social landlords across the UK to create and maintain sustainable tenancies using behavioural science, data insights and technology.
Kirsty Wells, HouseMark Scotland - Kirsty will explore HouseMark's latest Impact Monitoring Report to share insights on how the housing providers in Scotland are coping with Covid-19 challenges and how technology is strategically placed to overcome them.
Ninesh Muthiah, Home Connections - Ninesh will explore how the national mobility platform, Homefinder UK, can improve access to adapted properties for wheelchair users. This initiative aims to improve the lives of individuals and families living with disability across the UK while preventing homelessness.
See Wheatley Group's dynamic housing platform first hand!
Wheatley Group's MyHousing platform introduces sophisticated features such as customer single sign-on, Housing Options Personal Plans with 230 different possible outcomes, a budget calculator for applicants, single sign-on for housing officers, status workflow to monitor applicant's rent arrears, interactive help and much more! Attend our webinar for a first-hand look.
Looking for a powerful housing suite that will simplify the workload of your housing staff? Contact us to learn how Home Connections can help you transform your housing platform by implementing innovative solutions such as Virtual Tours, integration with Voice Assistant devices (Voice Assist) and an interactive e-learning platform, EazyLearn.
Is there hope 2 years after the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act?
The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) 2017 came into effect on 3rd April 2018. Its vision: to transform the way Local Housing Authority (LHA) services are provided to homeless people. It was considered by many to be the biggest change in homelessness legislation since 1977. It not only imposed a duty to prevent and relieve homelessness and other provisions, but also brought potential for cultural and systemic change.
Ian Swift at London Borough of Southwark remarked, “No longer are we asking people to jump through 5 hoops before we can help them... The local authority now has to look for a solution, rather than for a point at which to say no”.
Two years into the implementation of HRA and Crisis, a UK national charity for homeless people, released a report on 10th March 2020, reviewing the act’s effectiveness. They based their findings on 984 surveys and 89 in-depth interviews across 6 local authority areas. On the positive side, the report highlighted that the act expanded access to homelessness assistance and that improved user experience when first approaching Housing Options for assistance. However, the lack of affordable housing in both social and PRS means that local authorities are increasingly constrained in the realistic outcomes that they can achieve, reducing the effectiveness of the HRA.
The problems that councils have had in complying with HRA was explored in a highly insightful report by the Ombudsman. This research, conducted before COVID-19, was based on their first 50 detailed investigations into complaints about the operation of HRA.
The report highlights the areas that service-users have had negative experiences in, including delays in finding suitable accommodation and poor communication issues. It also mentioned poor practice by some councils, who have simply failed to follow set procedures, especially regarding Personal Housing Plans (PHPs).
In response, the Local Government Association (LGA) stressed how councils have been hampered by a lack of funding. A survey from 2019 found that more than two-thirds of councils in England believed they did not have sufficient funding to fulfil the legislation requirements.
The solutions
It is evident that HRA’s laudable aims to reduce homelessness will be undermined if councils are underfunded and overwhelmed by the extra workload from assessments, administration, reviews, appeals and reporting.
This is why, for over two years, Home Connections has been working tirelessly with local authorities around the UK to ensure our HRA software, hope, is as intelligent as possible. It replaces convoluted processes with a highly specialised, integrated system that is refreshingly intuitive.
Karen McGreal from Arun District Council said: “The implementation of hope was smooth and effective and brought the team some significant benefits, in particular the ease and speed at which PHP’s can be produced”.
“The Housing Options Team like the case notes and documents being captured in one place for ease of reference. The team dashboard is an efficient tool in providing the Team Leaders with an instant overview of the casework across the team. We know we are able to rely on the software to deliver the data for these returns and that offers a vastly improved efficiency for us”, she adds.
We are also extremely proud to be the only software provider that offers the integration between software and service: hope can be integrated to Homefinder UK, the only national mobility scheme to offer a dedicated and unique case management service that helps applicants throughout the bureaucratic social housing process to obtain a new home. Homefinder UK has helped nearly 700 households to find permanent social housing and was recently shortlisted for the UK Housing Awards 2020 in the “Innovation of the Year – Tenant services” category.
Contact us today for a FREE demo: office@home-connections.co.uk
BAME staff in leadership roles
According to the 2019 housing diversity survey, our sector is making progress to increase diversity, with more BAME representation than in previous years. However, there is a long way to go, especially if we consider the BAME underrepresentation on the local government sphere.
We are proud to be one of those organisations that invested in a more diverse workforce: over 50% of our current staff is from BAME background, with over 70% in senior level and leadership roles. Here are some of the benefits of promoting and recognising the talent of BAME staff: variety of different perspectives that lead to better decision making, faster problem-solving, higher employee engagement and reduced employee turnover, increased creativity and higher innovation.
How many of your staff are from BAME background? How does your organisation nurture and recognise their talents? Here is how you can identify and address the barriers to promote BAME employee career progression to the top.
Escaping economic abuse during COVID-19 lockdown – the story of an abused former NHS nurse
The current coronavirus lockdown in England has led to concerns that pressure cooker conditions in domestic households can lead to heightened abuse for victims of domestic abuse.
A social housing mobility scheme which has which has found new homes for over 50 domestic abuse survivors in the last year alone highlights this example from its growing caseload.
“Recently we were approached by a retired NHS nurse who had been suffering financial exploitation from her family. Circumstances had led her to sell her property to avoid repossession and thereafter under great duress her family had ‘borrowed’ money from her, leaving her with very little and no home to live in. Of course, the family members had no intention of paying back the so called ‘loan’ and avoided every attempt by her to recoup her own money. They avoided her at all cost”, explains Brenda Fraser, Homefinder UK’s service manager. This is one example of the many methods of financial abuse experienced by survivors and is well documented by agencies such as ‘Surviving Economic Abuse’.
“She stayed where she could, paid for hotels, B&B’s and slept in her car for 2 years” and by the time she approached Homefinder UK, she had sold her car to pay off other debts and was sleeping on a family member’s balcony. “In order to stay a little longer, she had to give them a precious piece of jewellery”, Brenda continues.
Despite the fact that all social housing lettings have been put on hold during the current COVID-19 pandemic, Homefinder UK reached out to their partner housing associations across the country and was able to secure a home in the England, not too far from her grandchildren. Sanctuary Housing Association identified a property and helped to urgently facilitate the move just 7 days after the initial call for help.
“I have been in the property for two days, but my life and my mental health has already dramatically improved. It seems that once Homefinder UK knows about your situation, they activate a plan and apply it vigorously to ensure they find you a home as soon as possible”, says the survivor, a former neonatal nurse with 30 years’ experience.
Unfortunately, the property was let out completely empty and the current lockdown restrictions mean that the local authority is unable to tap into the Emergency Support Scheme. However, the housing mobility scheme is now in the process of applying for funding to assist this retired nurse with general living expenses, food parcels, white goods and some basic furniture.
This case highlights the urgent need to unblock restrictions to new housing opportunities for highly vulnerable cases such as those experiencing homelessness or violence due to domestic abuse – whilst not compromising the COVID-19 physical contact and distance guidelines.
Ninesh Muthiah, CEO of Home Connections & Homefinder UK added: “We are committed to overcoming all hurdles and going the extra mile to continue to help all vulnerable applicants experiencing or at threat of domestic abuse or homelessness. We all need to comply with the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines, however there are still ways to work together with social landlords to identify homes for those in need. We feel that a level of emergency activity can still be achieved via the use of virtual tours, e-signups for tenancy agreements and so on to avoid physical contact and still help our clients.”
Find out more about Homefinder UK's Revive service here
Our Statement on COVID-19
In light of the uncertainty we all face in our daily lives with the outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Home Connections have taken several steps to ensure business continuity and preparedness for all scenarios.
Our systems and suppliers are functioning without disruption and our top priority is to maintain services without interruptions. However, we will continue to monitor ongoing and new risks and mitigate as necessary. Please see below the steps we have taken so far:
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All of our staff are working remotely and compliant with social distancing protocols
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Our Helpdesk support continues to run as per usual & a risk mitigation plan with our development teams is in place to ensure business continuity of services
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Our Homefinder UK service continues to function in partnership with authorities across the country to rehouse homeless households across the country. The same applies to our Revive division, dedicated to offer relocation options for domestic abuse survivors
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Our systems offers a variety of online tools to ensure customers remain in contact with home seekers during the period when face-to-face meetings must be avoided. These include instant chat messaging through our Housing Register and HOPE systems and mobile apps.
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We are looking to offer virtual tours through our CBL system that can be used for viewings and are developing an option for virtual viewings and e-signatures for tenancy sign-ups.
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We have introduced recently introduced a Housing E-Learning platform. With this tool, we can deliver training courses for staff remotely or offer training in tenancy management or any other aspect for your housing customers. We can quickly create a dedicated training and advice package for any element of your business so that staff can self-serve and find the answers they need whenever they wish. Contact us on office@home-connections.co.uk for more information.
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We will be holding our Account meetings, User Groups and any external meeting via video conferencing tools.
As part of our contingency and risk mitigation plan, the effectiveness of each of the steps above will be reviewed on a regularly basis and according to official advice regarding COVID-19, which can be found here.
Women in tech: a much-needed business shift!
A research published in 2017 by PWC UK says 78% of UK students can’t name a famous female working in tech and just 23% of the people working in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across the UK are female.
At Home Connections, we are different. Nearly 50% of our staff cadre is female, from a variety of cultural backgrounds and age ranges. Would like to join our fantastic team? Contact us!
Meet the women working at Home Connections:
From top row to bottom:
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Marina, Products Owner
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Mimi, Marketing & Customer Care Manager
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Kam, Operations Director
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Brenda, Homefinder UK & Revive Manager
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Victoria Customer Relationship Manager (Homefinder UK)
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Livia, Marketing Officer
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Ngan, Finance Manager
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Victoria, PA to the CEO
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Alison, Project Manager
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Kayla, Project Officer
Homefinder UK shortlisted for UK Housing Awards
We are excited to announce that our national mobility scheme have been shortlisted for the UK Housing Award 2020 in the Innovation of the Year - Tenant Services category. Organised by the Chartered Institute of Housing and Inside Housing, the UK Housing Awards recognise and reward the very best in the UK housing sector and we're very proud to receive recognition.
2019 was a successful year for the scheme: Homefinder UK has partnered with 8 new local authorities, 2 new housing providers, rehoused nearly 200 homeless households and expanded its services to offer personalised case management to relocate domestic abuse survivors through the new Revive project, funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
A life-changer for homeless households, Homefinder UK also supported local authorities to fight homelessness while reducing the costs on temporary accommodation. With the approximately 200 moves achieved in 2019, Homefinder UK has helped LA's to save up an estimated of £1m that would have been spent in emergency accommodation. Homefinder UK is the only scheme of its type in the UK with a focus on moves into harder to let social housing and that offers a case management service to take the pressure of housing officers and frontline staff. To know more, contact landlords@homefinderuk.org.
The UK Housing Awards winners will be unveiled on Thursday 7th May 2020 at a cerimony held at the Grosvenor Hotel, London. To see the full lists of the finalists, click here.
Our FREE hope breakfast seminar is returning to London
Date & Time: 11th March 2020, 8:30 - 11:30am
Address: Home Connections Offices, United House, North Road, N7 9DP
Complimentary breakfast will be provided
Not satisfied with your current Homelessness Reduction Software and looking for a more powerful alternative? Over the past year, we have been working with our customers to ensure that hope is the strongest bespoke homelessness module on the market. Hope now offers stable and intuitive full case management support to help your housing officers asses and manage cases with ease.
If you are looking for a homelessness software that is stable, bespoke and perfected by housing professionals, then this breakfast demonstration is one you cannot miss!
- Full case management, from approach to main duty
- Online Personal Housing Plans, available 24/7
- The UK's only dedicated smartphone APP for HRA
- Auto H-CLIC compliance checks & DELTA submissions
- Flexible & bespoke configuration to support your service
- Real time 'chat' service between staff and homeless person
- Enhanced TA module
- User-friendly dashboard to manage workload and team
- GDPR compliant
- G-cloud approved
What you will learn from this seminar:
- The benefits of implementing our hope HRA software
- Online journey: guiding applicants through early prevention, advice and signposting
- What's new: Property Manager and PRS tracking functionality
- Why the leadership and management of change is essential when introducing new systems - guest speaker Teleios Consulting- The Change Specialists.