In this webinar Deven Ghelani, Policy in Practice, was joined by guest speaker Martin O'Neill, former Head of Benefits at Birmingham City Council. Together with Terrin Mathew, Policy in Practice's Technical Data Analyst, they discussed the role data visualisation can play in delivering anti-poverty strategies. Taking four key recommendations from Birmingham's Child Poverty Commission report, Martin explained how Policy in Practice's data dashboard could be used to turn the recommendations into deliverable actions. Policy in Practice is helping Croydon Council to target support and track the impact on residents, and to deliver a proactive, preventative approach to keeping people in their homes. Mark Fowler and the team were shortlisted for a LGC Award 2017 for Innovation for their People’s Gateway Enablement and Welfare Service, which features this work. View these slides to also learn: - How to use your data to target resources to individual households in need - How the data is visualised and interrogated to reveal hidden pockets of poverty - How the dashboard helps different council teams deliver complementary activity

1. Policy in Practice
Webinar:
Tracking the prospects of
low income households
Wednesday 5 April 2017

2. Housekeeping
• Audio check
• Please ask questions
• Polls and a survey
• Finish by 11:30

3. Speakers
Deven Ghelani
Director
Martin O’Neill
Policy Advisor
Terrin Mathew
Technical Analyst

4. Agenda
• An introduction to Policy in Practice
• Anti poverty strategies today – what’s missing
• Practical examples of how household level data can help
• Discussion: Turning analysis into action
• Questions and answers

5. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Policy
national impact
CONSULTANC
local impact
Software
Individual impact

6. We make the welfare system
simple to understand, so that
people can make the decisions
that are right for them

7. The need for anti-poverty strategies
Policy in Practice analysed the impact
of the two child limit to tax credits.
From April, a third child born to low
income families will miss out on up to
£2,780 of tax credit support a year.
This change will affect 8,000 children
born in April and one million children
by 2020.
See policyinpractice.co.uk/blog

9. 1.Snapshot
MS Excel Dataset
Report
Meetings
One off
2.Refresh
Snapshot plus:
Refreshed dataset
every 3 months
Key numbers
worksheet on each
refresh
Carried out over 12
months
3.Dashboard
Refresh plus:
Online, interactive,
cloud based
dashboard
Ability to export data
into MS Excel
Quarterly refreshed
data
Optional extras
Always on
Understanding your low income households

10. 101010
Poll 1: Do you have an anti-poverty
strategy?

11. Child Poverty Commission
• Established to identify child poverty levels in Birmingham
• National child poverty figures showed Birmingham has the second highest level in
the 12 core cities
• Levels running at 37% (average). So 100,000 children in the city are living in relative
poverty in households where the income is below 60% of the national median
• In 4 wards the levels of child poverty are running at almost 50%
• 3 of these wards are suffering from the effects of poverty – the deprivation maps for
the city do not change year on year

12. Birmingham’s Child Poverty Commission
24 recommendations
Based on 4 themes:
1. Raising aspirations
2. Mitigating the impacts and effects
of existing poverty
3. Share responsibility
4. Break the cycle of poverty in the
city

13. Recommendations included:
1. Mitigating the impacts and effects of existing poverty:
• By April 2017, Birmingham City Council should adopt a local ‘breathing space’ placing council tax
accounts on hold for 21 days when a family gets in touch with them so as to enable the family time to
seek independent debt advice.
• The Council should also adopt an explicit policy of not engaging bailiffs for families in receipt of Council
Tax Support.
2. Share responsibility
• By December 2016, Birmingham City Council should work with JobCentrePlus and employment support
providers to ensure that parents of two year olds taking up funded early education are specifically
targeted with employment and skills support that encourages starting work or training, and that wrap-
around childcare is sufficiently affordable and flexible to enable those parents to sustain and increase
their employment opportunities.
3. Break the cycle of poverty in the city
• By April 2019, Birmingham City Council should adopt a policy that no low income family with children
can be declared intentionally homeless.
• By June 2017, Birmingham City Council should have reviewed how improved data sharing processes
could be used to automatically enrol children for free school meals in order to increase take up

14. Limitations to the report
These reports sometimes miss:
• The hidden challenges
• Identifying pockets of poverty just outside of the binary numbers
• Going beyond the definition of relative poverty
How well do the recommendations:
• Prevent people from falling into poverty?
• Help lone parents who are working?
• Help people who are already in crisis?
• Ensure they have an impact?

15. 1515
Poverty strategies offer a static view of
poverty. ‘Poverty today’
But poverty is dynamic.
What would a deeper understanding of
poverty allow?

16. Prevent people falling into poverty
Creating preventative strategies to
• avoid ‘churn’
• help those ‘on the edge’, often
those in work
• We already use the ward level
data…
• … we don’t use household level
data

17. Help lone parents who are working
Targeting support to in-work lone
parent households
• A forgotten cohort, at risk from
multiple reforms.
• Lone parents, in work, in arrears,
affected by third child rule.
• Co-ordinated / targeted
interventions can help - (i.e. co-
ordinated support on council tax,
rent collections, benefits and DHPs
• Extra time (breathing space),
payment options and greater
awareness.

18. Help people already in crisis
What would you need to know about
the household to personalise the
intervention?
• Household make up
• Have they had a Benefit
Assessment / DHP
• Do they need employment /
childcare support
• Is their situation getting better or
worse?
Support can take a multi-agency
approach … beyond the remit of just
Revenues and Benefits?

19. Ensure your activity has an impact
Have your benefit cap interventions
worked, how much have they saved?
• ‘Sustainable tenancies’
• Preventing moves into emergency
accommodation means you can
avoid social and fiscal costs
• £6,000 for an eviction
• £16k - £40k child into care

20. 202020
Poll 2: How do you currently use your
data?

21. 212121
Discuss:
How can data help to turn
recommendations into action?

22. 222222
Discuss:
What happens to analysis once the
consultants leave the room?

23. 232323
“Working with Policy in Practice we’ve developed
information that supports, informs and helps us
monitor the effectiveness of our strategies.
“We’re deeply concerned about the money families
will be losing and, without a proactive, preventative
approach, we fear for the longer term impact on
residents.”
Mark Fowler, LB Croydon

24. How Croydon Council is doing it
Croydon have done multi-agency
better than most - Gateway service
• Within six weeks helped 68
households off the cap.
• Offered benefit and budget advice
to another 135 households all
losing less than £30 per week.
• Secured funding for an in-work
progression pilot.
• Split impacts in council homes
versus other social housing to
benchmark performance.

25. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Questions

26. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Thank you
Deven Ghelani
deven@policyinpractice.co.uk
07863 560 677
Martin O‘Neill
maponeill68@gmail.com
07973 366 795
hello@policyinpractice.co.uk
office 0330 088 9242