Frontline organisations prepare for the end of the eviction ban
£3 billion Restart Scheme for employment awards first contracts
Breathing Space comes into effect on 4 May
Local authorities and SSAC calls to unlock the potential of Universal Credit data
Walsall Council shortlisted for British Data Awards for linking multi-agency data across adults, children's, fire, police and NHS
Welcome to our new client, Financial Wellness Group
People news: goodbye to Oscar, hello to Mary-Alice and Leanne
Future free webinars
ICYMI: April's blogs
Frontline organisations prepare for the end of the eviction ban
The planned end of the eviction ban on 31 May brings a renewed focus to the homelessness prevention and crisis work carried out by frontline organisations. Renters have been protected by a ban on evictions during the pandemic but this security is coming to an end, putting many at risk of homelessness.
Policy in Practice recently hosted a webinar exploring how the pandemic has affected people's income and what this means for their housing security. We were joined by guest speakers, Claire Tugwell from Royal Borough of Greenwich who talked about the homelessness prevention work that the council does, and Seb Barker from Beam who talked about their award-winning model that helps people who are homeless.
In a poll, attendees identified early intervention for private renters as the key focus for their activity once the eviction ban ends. Policy in Practice shared how local authorities can identify those who are struggling and presented brand new analysis revealing reveals
that nearly half the income of private renters on low incomes in London is spent on rent.
£3 billion Restart Scheme for employment awards first contracts
Policy in Practice would like to offer our congratulations to the successful tier one Restart Scheme bidders and offer our commiserations to those who missed out.
The Restart Scheme will focus targeted employment support to people on Universal Credit who have also been out of work for at least 12 months. We are looking forward to supporting the sector in the months ahead.
Many people who lost their jobs
because of Covid turned to the support of the welfare system for the first time. With more people chasing a third fewer jobs than before the pandemic, now is a critical time for job seekers and the organisations who support them.
All frontline organisations need the best tools to help advisors have motivational conversations with customers, show them how to navigate an overly complex benefit system and demonstrate how they will be better off in work. For Restart Scheme bidders this is a requirement.
Policy in Practice is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 5 May titled Back to work: Making the most of the Restart Scheme. We will be joined by Kirsty Hunn, FedCap, who will share their plans for getting people into work.
One in three households have lost income because of Covid-19, and over 7 million UK adults are behind on their household bills. This drop in the nation’s financial resilience means that more people are now facing problems with debt.
We know from our work on ReImagine Debt with the Cabinet Office that tackling debt early is better for higher recoveries, and better for people's mental health and wellbeing.
From 4 May 2021 councils and other creditors are required to introduce Breathing Space, a sixty day period to give people in problem debt time to get back on their feet. Policy in Practice is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 19 May to explore what Breathing Space means for councils and other creditors, how they can best support people to build their financial resilience, and what can be done to prevent the need for breathing space in the first place. We will be joined by guest speakers from The Financial Wellness Group.
Local authorities and SSAC calls to unlock the potential of Universal Credit data
Policy in Practice keenly supports the sharing of more Universal Credit data with local authorities to proactively identify and target support to vulnerable families.
We started work with a group of leading local authorities on a project under the Digital Economy Act. The focus of the project is on supporting families before they fall
into crisis
We are supporting seven local authorities in their bid to MHCLG’s Local Data Accelerator Fund for Children and Families. The funding is aimed at sharing and matching local data from different services to identify and target those families at risk, provide improved information for practitioners, and evaluate interventions to assess what is most effective
We believe that adding Universal Credit data to this local mix will greatly enhance the potential outcomes.
Walsall Council shortlisted for British Data Awards for linking multi-agency data across adults, children's, fire, police and NHS
We’re delighted to announce that Walsall Council has been named a Finalist in the Data for Good Initiative of the Year
category at the British Data Awards 2021.
The British Data Awards is an annual campaign that aims to uncover data success stories and was launched to help discover and celebrate the most passionate data-led organisations, no matter their size. Finalists have the potential to change the world, while others are having a much more local, but nonetheless important impact. And with 149 entries received, competition to be named a 2021 Finalist proved to be particularly tough.
Walsall Council has been shortlisted for their work on the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Tracker platform (MAST). MAST has been developed by us, at Policy in Practice, to tackle safeguarding and vulnerability issues around the country. MAST will give
multi-agency safeguarding (MASH) teams, social workers and frontline safeguarding teams information to improve communication, liaison and decision making.
MAST is one of three Social Care Digital Innovation Accelerator (SCDIA) 2020/21 projects. Run by CC2i and Policy in Practice for the LGA, it has match funding from NHS Digital. Data has been matched from Walsall Council: Adult Social Care, Children's Social Care, Public Health; Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust; West Midlands Police; West Midlands Fire and Rescue.
Welcome to our new client, Financial Wellness Group
We are proud to welcome Financial Wellness Group to our fold of Benefit and Budgeting Calculator clients. Financial Wellness Group’s mission is to improve the wellbeing of people with money worries, enabling them to ‘live more and stress less’. Over the past 28 years, Financial Wellness Group has helped over 1.5m people get their finances back on track. Alongside providing free debt advice and solutions, it supports customers with free access to budgeting support; income maximisation, counselling and online
doctor’s appointments; legal and consumer advice; shopping discounts; utilities switching and more.
In 2021 Financial Wellness Group was award Feefo’s ‘Platinum Trusted Service Provider’ status for the second year running. Welcome on board, thank you for choosing Policy in Practice.
People news: hello to Leanne and Mary-Alice, goodbye to Oscar
We are delighted to welcome two new joiners this month:
Leanne Doohan, Senior Marketing Executive
Mary-Alice Doyle, Senior Research Analyst
It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our Business and Administrative Executive, Oscar Jefferson. A huge thank you for all your hard work for the company and good luck in your next role, Oscar.
To match our continuing growth we are currently recruiting for a Technical Analyst and Business and Account Manager. Check out our latest vacancies and find out what it's like to work at Policy in Practice here.
Future webinars on the Restart Scheme and Breathing Space All our webinars are free and run from 10.30 to 11.45
One person’s journey through the welfare system Deven Ghelani looks at one person’s journey through the
welfare system and whether it has become easier for claimants to navigate. Read blog post
Identifying the predictors of homlessness using administrative data Five predictors of homelessness have been identified using administrative data held by councils. Read our new work on tackling homelessness. Read blog post
And finally ...
Here are a few of the Policy in Practice team members at our hokey-cokey leaving drinks for Oscar (some of us were in the office, some of us were out).
