CHR manages a number of large datasets that enable monitoring of social housing and housing-related services in the UK. Currently these include:
CHR’s Supporting People Research Services project collects data about the needs and achievements of clients receiving housing-related support from service providers in England. This includes information about the service, as well as the client’s characteristics and support needs at arrival, and how many of these have been met at the time of leaving a service. The project comprises three datasets: 1) Client Records – at entry to a service the provider submits a form for each new client, 2) Outcomes for short-term services – at departure of each client the provider submits details of final outcomes, 3) Outcomes for long-term services – based on an annual support plan review, a provider completes a form for a sample of clients in that service.
Prior to 2011, data collection for Client Records and Outcomes was funded centrally by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The Supporting People programme was set-up in 2003 with the aim of helping to end the social exclusion of vulnerable people through the provision of vital housing-related support services. Following DCLG’s decision to cease the national monitoring, providers and commissioners of SP services asked CHR to provide a data and research solution for 2011/12 and we contract with two-thirds of the top-tier Administering Authorities in England. These authorities use the data in their commissioning processes to improve services for their clients and maximise value for money. We also contract with a number of provider organisations to deliver a similar data collection and reporting facility for all their services throughout England.
In 2011 Sitra (a membership organisation for housing, support and care providers) carried out a national consultation for DCLG about data collection for housing-related services. Recommendations for the consultation enabled the development of a Common Data Framework for housing-related support and Sitra will also develop a National Data Framework.
Endorsement from Sitra consultation: "The responses to the data consultation http://www.sitra.org/1568/ carried out by Sitra in 2011 recognised the key role of the Centre for Housing Research in the collection of client records and outcomes data for housing related support. Sitra believes that submitting and collecting this data through the Centre for Housing Research gives access to valuable data for local service development as well as for regional and national comparisons. We recommend that the Centre for Housing Research continues to be used for client records data and outcomes data collection in 2012/13."
We are continuing to collect Client Record & Outcomes information for 2012/13, incorporating the recommendations from the consultation.
More information, publications and online web reporting are available from the project website: https://supportingpeople.st-andrews.ac.uk/
SCORE is a Scottish Government project which monitors new tenancies granted by registered housing associations in Scotland. Monitoring is undertaken by online submission of a lettings log for each new tenancy, which is completed by the landlord together with the tenant. The lettings log records details about the tenancy, the tenant household and the property being let.
CHR prepares and analyses the collected data, providing reports for the Scottish Government and participating housing associations concerning different aspects of the lets being made including:
- the demographic characteristics of tenant households;
- the pathway by which a household has become a RSL tenant;
- the financial profile of tenant households;
- the type and condition of the property being let;
- the financial aspects of the let being made, including rent and affordability.