In this Policy in Practice webinar Deven Ghelani and Louise Murphy were joined by Mark Fowler, Community Solutions Director for London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to talk about designing effective data-led local authorities. Today's forward thinking local authorities are adopting a data led approach to deliver the highest quality, people-centred services for their residents. By applying smart analysis techniques to their data, councils are developing big ideas for change that are working in their areas. In the latest of our webinars showcasing how public sector administrative data is being used for good, join us to hear how our guest speakers are using data to transform their organisations intelligently. Listen back to hear how data analysis has: - Helped redesign corporate strategy - Enabled services to be redesigned around residents - Evidenced service need that's driven decision making To find out more visit www.policyinpractice.co.uk, email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk or call 0330 088 9242

1. Designing effective
data-led local
authorities
Wednesday 29 January
Policy in Practice
webinar

2. Housekeeping
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● Audio check
● Please ask questions
● Polls and a survey
● Aim to finish by 12:00

3. Today’s speakers
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Deven Ghelani
Director and founder
Policy in Practice
Mark Fowler
Director of Community
Solutions
London Borough of
Barking & Dagenham
Louise Murphy
Policy & Data Analyst
Policy in Practice

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

5. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
We help organisations in three ways
Policy Software Analytics
Use our policy expertise
to drive change
Grow the financial
resilience of the people
you help
Get the right support to
those who need help
most

6. 666
Over to Deven

7. Agenda
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● The background to working with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
● How Barking and Dagenham use data strategically and operationally to:
○ Re-organise services around residents
○ Identify and engage low income households proactively
○ Track the impact of policy and effectiveness of interventions
You will learn:
● The rationale for Community Solutions and the outcomes achieved to date
● Tools used to identify vulnerability, target support and track change
● The barriers to change faced by other councils and how to overcome them
● Questions and next steps

8. Background to working with Barking and
Dagenham
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● Policy in Practice has been working with Mark
Fowler since 2015
● Mark moved to the London Borough of Barking and
Dagenham in 2017; leading Community Solutions
● Identify vulnerability and target support to prevent
crisis before it happens
● Track the impact of policy and effectiveness of
interventions
● Cabinet Office sponsored Re-imagine Debt
programme
● Tracking the impact community solutions has on
outcomes; to a ‘Treasury / FD’ level of robustness
“Data is central to
building the case for
change. We need to
understand how well
we’re doing. Policy in
Practice are helping us
to track outcomes to
evidence the impact of
our new approach.”
Mark Fowler
Community Solutions Director
LB Barking and Dagenham

9. 999
Poll 1: Where are you on your data
transformation journey?

11. 111111
Over to Mark

12. A borough not standing still
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● 16 million people have less than £100 in savings
● 15% of the UK population have no savings at all
● 1 in 10 of us spend more than we earn
● In LBBD the problem is particularly serious
● Poverty is higher here than anywhere else in
London
● More than 1 in 10 people in the borough owe
money to the council
● Youngest population in London
● Dynamic and diverse population
“Too many of our
residents experience
high levels of debt. It
causes a massive
problem for them and
it's one of the root
causes of why they
end up in distress and
then need help more
widely.”
Chris Naylor
Chief Executive
LB Barking and Dagenham

13. Homes and Money Hub
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● Set up in April 2018
● Multi agency team of 20 officers from the council
and partners (JCP, CAB) situated within learning
centre in Barking
● Invite people in, all sit round the table, discuss
the person’s journey out of the situation
● That journey could take 12, 18, 24 months
● Intervene now to avoid crisis where no one wins
“Debt doesn't
discriminate. You may
go through life
thinking it's never
going to affect you
and then suddenly it
does. People who
come in here talk
about how a weight
has been lifted off
their shoulders.”
Gill Wilson
Service Manager
Homes and Money Hub

14. Data driven strategic reorganisation
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
● Rising demand for services driving up costs, coupled with falling budgets
● Internal restructure aligning teams to
○ look outwards and
○ focus resources around helping people to help themselves
● Community Solutions looks after 16 key service areas including:
○ Housing
○ Money
○ Debt
○ Children
○ Families
○ Health

15. 151515
Over to Louise
Using LIFT to track the customer
journey for the Cabinet Office

16. The ReImagine Debt Project
followed 39 households.
Keeping in touch with them and
tracking their arrears and other
outcomes proved labour
intensive. This approach was
unlikely to scale.
The LIFT platform was
introduced to ReImagine Debt in
2017. Both Newcastle and
Barking and Dagenham councils
were using it to pool debt data,
identify and engage vulnerable
households, and track outcomes
for individuals and cohorts.
They used LIFT to understand
the effectiveness of their debt
advice interventions.
Reimagine Debt reduced arrears
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Newcastle and Barking and Dagenham use LIFT to track the
outcomes of low income residents following an intervention

17. The project shows what we can learn from tracking households over two years
● Huge credit goes to the teams at Newcastle and Barking and Dagenham,
along with the Cabinet Office. They stuck with the project through its various
iterations, investing in both the support and evaluation throughout that time.
LIFT was able to successfully find 90% of households through benefits
administration data, and to track 70% of them for a full year.
● 16 households saw their arrears fall; 7 saw their arrears rise;
● There was a positive impact on a wider range of other outcomes including
employment and benefit take-up;
● The project achieved better outcomes when compared to a control group.
● The sample size was not large enough to show with certainty that the
intervention drove the improved outcomes.
The next step is to scale this out to Community Solutions
Findings and next steps
www.policyinpractice.co.uk

18. 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

19. 191919
Poll 2: What's stopping you
implementing prevention activity?

21. What’s happening now in Community Solutions?
• 15 residents have been
approached, 11 by phone, 4 by
text.
• 5 have met with a Hub worker.
• 2 are meeting with the worker
next week.
Of these
• 3 have had an SDP award of
£65.85 per week plus backdates
totalling £20,018.
• 1 has had ESA uprated from
£73.10 per week to £102.15 plus
backdate of £2,000
• 1 has had a PIP award of £87.65
mobility and £61.20 disability
(SDP not eligible, but Carers
Allowance to be checked)
Mr S met with a Hub worker to discuss his entitlement
to SDP. The Hub worker undertook a full income and
expenditure assessment with him in addition to a
benefit entitlement calculation. Mr S has been
awarded SDP of £65.85 per week and had £2,018
backdated.
Mr S also received support to access
• a Blue Badge
• a different energy provider
• a foodbank voucher
• the Community Food Club
His Council Tax arrears have been cleared and his rent
arrears that were £2,920 is now down to £1,899.98
with a payment plan in place of £60 every fortnight
which he is keeping up-to-date with.
Mr S and his sister were very grateful, he said had we
not intervened with the SDP they would never have
known about it. Mr S had been struggling and could not
afford food and went hungry at times.

22. Low Income Financial Tracker (LIFT)
Through the use of LIFT ComSol and Elevate have been able to target low income
households who have been identified as eligible for welfare benefits, but are not
claiming.
Pension Credit
Online Pension Credit calculations undertaken for 361
customers who were of Pension Credit age but hadn’t
claimed. Bespoke letters were sent to each customer
telling them what they could receive if they claimed
Pension Credit as an additional income.
72 invitations were sent prior to the introduction of the
mixed age couple legislation change.
The combined effect is that 42 households are now
claiming pension credit of these 7 of these
households were mixed-age couples that have
claimed before the deadline.
● £925 on average per
month in extra income has
been received by each of
the 42 households who
have claimed Pension
Credit
● £11,100 on average per
annum per household
● Combined total average
for 42 households per
annum is £466,200.

23. 232323
Questions and answers

24. ● BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Fix’ looking at Debt and
Poverty in Barking and Dagenham
● Share the LIFT dashboard demonstration -
tracking the effectiveness of an intervention
● Download LIFT flyer
● Follow up email with webinar recording and
slides, with links
Short survey to follow:
● We value your feedback
● Ask further questions
● Find out more about LIFT
● Sign up for our next webinar
Hear more
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25. 252525
Thank you
Mark Fowler
Community Solutions Director
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Deven Ghelani
deven@policyinpractice.co.uk
Louise Murphy
louise@policyinpractice.co.uk
hello@policyinpractice.co.uk
0330 088 9242