As new measures to control Coronavirus (COVID-19) are introduced, Policy in Practice was joined by RedQuadrant to discuss how data analytics can identify people who are most highly impacted by the virus, and the best way to engage with those of us who are most vulnerable. Review the slides to learn: - What policy measures have been put in place to protect people - Who is vulnerable: The three main groups - How you can best identify vulnerable people - How you can best engage with vulnerable people

1. Coronavirus (COVID-19):
Supporting vulnerable
people
Thursday 26 March
Policy in Practice
webinar

2. Housekeeping
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● Audio check
● Please ask questions
● Polls and a survey
● Aim to finish by 11:30
● Slides and recording will follow

3. Today’s speakers
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Deven Ghelani
Director and founder
Policy in Practice
Frank Curran
Head of Consulting
RedQuadrant
John Mortimer
Associate
RedQuadrant

4. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Give the best support
you can to help people
on their way

5. What you said you wanted to hear about:
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Today’s webinar:
● Local authority plans and best practice
● Who is vulnerable, and how you can support people
● Impacts on support, collections and housing teams
Webinar: 8 April 2020 on how people can access their benefits:
● Summary of the major welfare changes made to date
● How people can access their benefits
● Latest information and tools to share with residents

6. 666
Over to Deven

7. Agenda
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● What policy measures have been put in place to protect people
● What other organisations are doing to respond
● Who is vulnerable: The three main groups
● How you can best identify vulnerable people
● How you can best engage with vulnerable people
● Questions and answers

8. The impact of measures put in place
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● The basic allowance in Universal Credit and Tax Credits will increase by
£20/week
● The Local Housing Allowance (the LHA), will increase to align with the 30th
percentile of local rents
● Universal Credit awards will be based on actual income rather than a notional
income (the Minimum Income Floor)
As a result of these measures:
● Households in receipt of Universal Credit whose bills are higher than their
monthly income will fall from 16% of households to 10%.
● The average increase in Universal Credit awards as a result of changes
coming into effect from April 2020 will be £98/month, an increase of 7.3%.

9. Recap on measures put in place
www.policyinpractice.co.uk/coronavirus
Now with daily updated Q&A

10. 101010
Poll 1: What is your immediate
concern?

11. 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%
Too much demand for our services
Not reaching the most vulnerable people
People exploiting the help we can give
Being too slow to get support to people fast enough
Don’t know
What is your number one concern right now?

12. How councils are responding
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Sanjay Mackintosh
Haringey Council
“Who is socially isolated,
without access to internet?”
Rachel Acosta
Sutton Council
“We want to know who our
vulnerable residents are”
Nick Khan
East Suffolk
“Get people doing shopping
and dropping it round”

13. Venn Diagram: Shielded, Known Vulnerable, and Economically impacted and / or
isolated

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Who is vulnerable, and how can you
identify them?

15. Who are your vulnerable groups?
www.policyinpractice.co.uk

16. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Identify Engage Track
People who need your
support the most
Your residents with
targeted support
The impact of policy
and effectiveness of
interventions

17. www.policyinpractice.co.uk

18. www.policyinpractice.co.uk

19. www.policyinpractice.co.uk

20. www.policyinpractice.co.uk

21. 212121
Over to Frank Curran and John
Mortimer, RedQuadrant

22. Supporting the most vulnerable
22
Coronavirus and vulnerable people
How to use the Policy in Practice tool
Outline ideas
Frank Curran
John Mortimer
RedQuadrant

23. Supporting the most vulnerable
23
Possible ways in which it can be used
Councils and other organisations are already experiencing considerable
demand from vulnerable people. This tool enables identification of people
potentially most at risk, thus creating opportunities for prevention and early
intervention through:
• Targeted communications to those at risk as a whole
Letting people know you are there to help, and how to contact you
• Targeted communications to individuals
Proactively contacting individuals most at risk to act for their welfare
• Targeted communications to localities
Work with social landlords, charities, and other associations to alert them
to potential hardship
Needs to be done alongside other channels (e.g. advertising, direct contact)
All of this communication will generate demand for services!
Tool will show the most vulnerable households in local authority area
.

24. Supporting the most vulnerable
24
How should Councils respond to demand?
Conversations with individuals need to be focused on these three dimensions
• Understanding immediate needs
e.g. do they have adequate food and medical supplies, do they have an
income source, are they safe?
• Understanding context, network and risks
how has Covid-19 caused/exacerbated this need, what support networks
do they have, what is their housing situation, what is their income source?
• Is there any evidence of future needs?
e.g. homelessness, domestic violence
Processes and systems need to support these three dimensions

25. Supporting the most vulnerable
25
How should we organise response to demand?
Two starting points
• Objective is to link those who have with those who need
• Problem requires adaptive approach through service design:
try things, see how they work, and adapt on the basis of learning
Components of response:
• Repurposed staff (often front-line staff)
• Basic process / flow-chart
• Clear feedback and learning loops to deal with emerging needs and
process gaps
• Clear mechanisms for referring more complex cases
• Simple accountability/reporting/safeguarding arrangements
Learning and simple self-organisation must be built in

26. Supporting the most vulnerable
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What is needed to make this work
Immediate/short-term:
• Community resource mapping to identify food banks, volunteers etc
• Up-to-date publicly available information on community resources
• Simple training (webinars and e-learning) for staff to help them to engage with
people in an effective way.
• Co-ordination of the attached support: referral channels and ongoing contact
Other issues/ideas:
• Volunteering schemes to help distribute support packages
• Policies around housing support and eviction protection with local
housing/councils – and engagement with energy providers to retain services
• Ask local charities and self-organising groups to share creative ideas to help
reduce social isolation e.g. helping to install apps such as whatsapp, skype etc, for
less tech savvy people, set up online book clubs
• Adopt for cheap accessible technology solutions
Ask for forgiveness, not for permission

27. Supporting the most vulnerable
27
And finally
...if you need help setting up your response we are happy to talk further if
useful:
Frank Curran: frank.curran@redquadrant.com 07515 875381
Deven Ghelani: deven@policyinpractice.co.uk 07863 560677
Sign up for our newsletter at www.redquadrant.com/newsletter
Please connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/frank-curran-28a88a
I tweet at www.twitter.com/frankcurran
We are also setting up learning together groups as places for people across
public services to share urgent learning on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
Whatsapp: https://bit.ly/3al6Ed7
Groups.io - email and online repository: https://bit.ly/3dE4M1k

28. 282828
Poll 2: What's stopping you getting
support to vulnerable people?

29. 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00%
Culture, eg silo working, ownership, collaboration
Resources, e.g. people, time, money
Lack of insights
Too many people need your support
Home working, co-ordination, restrictions on travel
What's stopping you getting support to vulnerable people?

30. 303030
Over to Deven
How do you successfully triage
increased demand for information?
Tools available now that can help

31. Self-serve Benefits and Budgeting
Calculator to triage customer support
www.policyinpractice.co.uk

32. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Use a benefits calculator with eligibility
built in

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Questions and answers

34. ● For up to date information on the welfare support available see
www.policyinpractice.co.uk/your-income-and-coronavirus-covid-19/
● Our basic Benefits Calculator is listed on Gov.uk and is free. Whilst it doesn't
have the built-in features to help all frontline advisors give the best support
they can, it is as accurate and simple to use. Access the free Benefits
Calculator
● Self-serve calculator to triage customer support
● Follow up email with webinar recording and slides, with links
● Short survey to follow
● Next webinar: Your income and Coronavirus (COVID-19), Wednesday 8 April
at 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Tools that can help
www.policyinpractice.co.uk

35. 353535
Thank you
Deven Ghelani
Policy in Practice
hello@policyinpractice.co.uk
0330 088 9242
Frank Curran, John Mortimer
RedQuadrant
frank.curran@redquadrant.com 07515 875381
john.mortimer@redquadrant.com 07772 285982