Welcome to HACT

www.hact.org.uk

@HACThousing

A brief history of HACT…

1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s today

Growing, funding

“Cathy Come Home”

generation of

community-focused

HAs Co-founded

Shelter

Shelter

spun

off

Growing focus

on northern,

community

housing

Founded

Homeless

International

Barings funding

Supported

start-up of

c60 new

urban HAs Incubated

Care&Repair/

HIA sector

Growing focus

on migrant groups

Barings

Crash

Focus on community

engagement issues

Significant programmes

around asylum dispersal,

supporting people

Relaunch 2012

Weakening of links

to mainstream sector

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Current investor/partners

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Strong focus on community,

impact, social purpose

HACT doesn’t campaign or

represent

Historic role as a vehicle for sector

development collaboration,

innovation

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@HACThousing

1960

Being a housing association used to be easy…

1860 1910

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2010

It used to be easy…

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2010

But now…

X X X

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What are housing associations for?

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Everything is changing everywhere

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Even if the worst avoided in Europe…

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What we do know…

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Regeneration funding

• 2009/10 - £11.189 billion;

• 2010/11 - £7.926 billion;

• 2011/12 £3.872 billion

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Even if short term stimulus package in autumn, spending cuts likely to last years

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Local government finances facing permanent squeeze

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And the biggest impact is going to be in some of our most deprived communities

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And then you have welfare reform…

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So why worklessness?

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Moral and social mission

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Business opportunity

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Business fundamental going forward…

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Welfare reform upends business models and assumptions about revenue risks….

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Tacking worklessness is all about derisking your business…

• £40bn historic grant – tempting

to a cash strapped public sector

• Focus on short term v long term

sustainability

• Continued reductions and

uncertainty on welfare benefits

• Outsourcing the risks and costs

of social and economic decline

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Challenges?

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Sharing, learning, maximising impact

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Targeting, vfm, additionality…

88% of housing providers investing in employability and skills

42% have information on employment status of residents

28% linked their work to Work Programme or Jobcentre+

Source: HACT/CESI research April 2012

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Proving value…

“At least 30 differing

approaches to collecting & demonstrating

social value in housing sector”

Source: Snapshot survey conducted by HACT and the University of Birmingham in March 2012

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…and focusing on building long tem resilience, not just short term fixes

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HACT programme 2012-14

Contact: Matt Leach matt.leach@hact.org.uk

Register for a demo of Community Insight at www.communityinsight.org

Housing providers’ approaches to tackling worklessness

Assessing Value and Impact

Dave Simmonds, Inclusion

www.hact.org.uk

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Workless social housing residents

• There are 3.5 million workless social housing residents = 56% of working age residents

• 2.2 million or 35% of residents are claiming out of work benefits (other tenures = 8%)

• Between 2011-15 up to 1.6 million social housing residents could be referred to the Work Programme

• This is 27% of all residents and 45% of all referrals

• A further 600,000 are eligible to volunteer for the WP

• Workless social housing residents 4 times more likely to have long-term health conditions or disabilities and 6 times more likely to be lone parents

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Much being done • Widespread consensus that a housing providers’ role is not

just about bricks and mortar:

‘Our vision is to create prosperous communities, enhance life

chances and maximise people’s opportunities – we see employment and skills as critical elements of this.’

• 88% doing things to help residents into work:

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Childcare provision/support

Jobs targeted specifically at workless people

Enterprise support

Projects providing support to find employment

Apprenticeships

Other information, advice and guidance services

Work experience placements

Money advice

Referrals to other organisations

Training and skills development

Dedicated projects, programmes and interventions Work opportunities

Universal services

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Tighter funding

• 75% used a mix of internal and external funds

• Only 4% were entirely reliant on external funding

• Everyone reporting less funding

• Looking for lower cost projects and innovative ways of working

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Serving residents and communities

• Social housing residents particularly disadvantaged, but most providers do not limit employment and skills activities to their own

residents...

• ... but only 42% know the level of worklessness among tenants or residents

Residents only,

29%

Both residents and

the wider

community, 71%

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To target or not?

• Half do not prioritise

• Young people a clear priority

• Focus on most disadvantaged and those not served by mainstream

12%

17%

33%

46%

49%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

People with health problems ordisabilities

Parents or lone parents

Long-term unemployed people

Young people

Not prioritising any particular groups

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Lots of partnerships, but more engagement needed

• Very few housing providers approach worklessness in isolation – they build effective partnerships with other housing providers and with contractors in their supply chains...

• ... but more engagement with mainstream welfare to

work provision is needed: – Only 28% are engaging with/linking up to Work Programme – 35 housing orgs in WP supply chains = 2% of housing sector

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A wide-ranging approach to capturing value

• 63% of housing providers have mechanisms in place to review the impact and effectiveness of efforts to tackle worklessness...

• ...but a wide disparity in approach is preventing housing providers from comparing their work, benchmarking good practice and communicating their successes

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@HACThousing

Impact of Universal Credit

• Anticipating impact on residents and HAs • Improving support and advice for residents • New conditionality on UC • Financial products and services for residents • Delivering end-to-end support – claiming UC, managing

UC, finding a job, changing UC, moving off UC • Imperatives to join-up provision and avoid duplication

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Recommendations to housing providers

• Short term: work collectively to understand and benchmark worklessness among residents, in order to target opportunities and interventions and link up with mainstream provision

• Longer term: establish and articulate the sector’s role or roles in a resident’s journey from worklessness into employment

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Recommendations to prime welfare to work contractors

• Short term: ensure that subcontracting terms allow housing providers to focus on the areas in which they operate and the groups with which they work best

• Longer term: collaborate rather than compete in small areas with high concentrations of social housing and, where appropriate, contract housing providers to manage delivery in these areas

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Recommendations to government

• Short term: commit to making information on tenants’ receipt of Housing Benefit available to housing providers following the transition to Universal Credit DONE?

• Longer term: reward housing providers for reducing worklessness among residents on a payment by results basis

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In summary

• Target services and opportunities

• Engaging with mainstream provision

• Common approaches to assessing impact and effectiveness

• Meeting the challenges of welfare reform and Universal Credit