Royal Borough of Greenwich frees up 40% of administrative time to better manage homelessness cases

The Royal Borough of Greenwich, serving over 270,000 residents in London, manages around 20,000 households. It is committed to improving social housing quality and availability, amplifying resident voices, and empowering tenants and leaseholders. Addressing the housing crisis is a top priority. Handling on average 250 applications each month, Greenwich collaborates with organisations to find innovative solutions to prevent homelessness, utilising technology to enhance homelessness and rough sleeping management, and temporary accommodation.

Tackling the homelessness challenge

In 2023, Greenwich launched a technology-driven Homelessness Reduction Project to enhance its homelessness service quality and HCLIC submissions, and to ensure they were using their funding efficiently, by seeking the best possible processes and systems to support them.

Greenwich evaluated a number of case management solutions on the market, as their current solution was no longer fit for purpose.

Our old system was very basic, clunky, and had no data or HCLIC validation, which made the whole submission process slow, challenging and time-consuming.

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Coordinator

Greenwich chose MRI Homelessness Reduction software to modernise and improve its homelessness management. This project aimed to ensure no one slips through the cracks, by enhancing process efficiency and quality, improving HCLIC submissions, and providing applicants with a digital self-service platform.

Key benefits

• Faster application processing: Once live, the new customer portal in MRI Homelessness Reduction will reduce the Application process time by 78% from 46 minutes to under 10 minutes per application via the online form.
• Streamlined case management: The software has significantly improved the management of homelessness cases, using a combination of MRI DEX* and Greenwich’s own Power BI tools to create dashboard insights, helping to prioritise cases and workloads effectively.
• Improved accuracy and efficiency: The crucial accuracy of HCLIC submissions has improved, reducing errors, and ensuring timely data submissions.

Staff have experienced a reduction in admin time of around 40% since implementation, resulting in a significant reduction in backlogged cases.

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Coordinator

Transforming daily operations

Key features within MRI’s Homelessness Reduction solution have transformed daily operations contributing to the overall reduction in administrative time.

• Transparent case oversight: Officers have fast access to information, including alerts for key case events.
• Efficient file management: The new system allows the team to quickly upload files, where previously a huge amount of time was going into seeking out and arranging information from the council’s old file system.
• Comprehensive dashboards: Officers can view all case statistics in one place, significantly speeding up HCLIC report production.

I think most people benefit from the new solution, but the biggest beneficiaries have been the day-to day staff, as the new system is much more logical, easier to use and makes a lot more sense – and officers don’t lose their cases in the system!

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Coordinator

Greenwich commented that MRI Homelessness Reduction is customisable and they have received great support from MRI. This support includes training sessions to utilise the software and best practices for HCLIC reporting to drive better intelligence from analysis.

One of the things that impressed me is the training provided by MRI means I have been able to create guides to continue best practice and optimal use of the solution.

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Coordinator

Comprehensive dashboards thanks to MRI DEX and Greenwich’s Power BI

In addition to MRI Homelessness Reduction, Greenwich invested in MRI DEX, an insights tool that collates data together for analysis. Thanks to Greenwich’s in-house capabilities, the team were able to further enhance these insights by creating their own dashboards using Power BI tools.

Greenwich can now interrogate data in greater detail in a fraction of the time. Dashboards include the ability to review performance by team or individual housing officers, at-a-glance open cases and progress reports, number of placements, and positive outcomes and preventions by week or month.

Positive impact on customer experience

MRI Homelessness Reduction has enhanced the resident experience with

• Self-service functionality: Applicants will soon be able to upload evidence and track applications in real-time, reducing manual input and improving workflow efficiency.
• Timely responses: Applicants receive updates promptly, improving overall service.
• Valuable data collection: MRI Homelessness Reduction gathers data on applicant needs and preferences, so Greenwich can continuously look to improve services.

Response times have improved significantly, with clients receiving updates on the progress of their applications in a timely manner.

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Coordinator

Significant outcomes helping the most vulnerable in society

The new system implementation has resulted in significant resource savings, including a 40% reduction in administrative time. This increase in efficiency has helped alleviate backlogs, expedite processes, reduce waiting times, and improve the overall customer experience.

Moreover, the system has improved support capabilities, allowing housing officers to dedicate more time to supporting people in the community.

Alexander Ferry, Housing Inclusion Project Manager, highlights the transformation:

The user experience for MRI Homelessness Reduction is like going from the first iPhone to an iPhone 14. The difference is remarkable.

Alexander also praised the numerous upgrades made by the software and the responsive support team that quickly handles and resolves queries.

I’ve been impressed by the amount of upgrades MRI have made, even since we’ve had the software, and I’ve been extremely impressed by the support team. Things come back quickly.