This project is a case study in data and behavioural innovation in the public sector, tackling one of today’s most important social issues.
In Newham, East London, the housing crisis is at its most acute. Newham has over 25,000 people on its waiting list and over 5,000 households in temporary accommodation.
The mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, backed by £107m of funding from the Mayor of London, committed the Council to develop over 1,000 social rented homes over a four year programme; the largest such programme in London.
This represented a huge scaling up of activity requiring technical and behavioural innovation at all levels. However, over thirty years of public policy change and cuts means Newham had neither the capacity nor skill to realise their ambition. On our arrival the council had appointed multiple independent ‘development managers’ yet they had disparate ways of working, the programme was at risk and the senior leadership were anxious.
Upon appointment, we at Inner Circle Consulting immersed ourselves into the client delivery unit to provide skilled delivery capacity and took an innovative approach to addressing their key structural issues of (a) programme control; (b) reporting; and (c) decision making. We developed a bespoke programme management solution within the Council’s own IT infrastructure. The system has unified the approach, focused the group on delivery tasks, boosted capability and helped ensure that the Council is on track to deliver its ambitious target of 1,000 new council homes over a four year period.
The change and prospect of ‘new IT’ was met with the usual resistance. However, using Power BI for programme integration and data visualisation was revolutionary for the Council, leading to high confidence in the programme from Council leaders and pressure to introduce the same quality of reporting on other Council programmes.
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