Introduction
LOTI, London Councils, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Bloomberg Associates (BA) are working together to design and deliver a data tool that supports the strategic aims of London’s Life off the Streets Programme (LOTS). The key aim is to help make rough sleeping rare, brief and non-recurrent in London.
Following an initial discovery phase, we have created a tool that ingests and presents data in a way that enables strategic decision makers working on tackling rough sleeping in London to have deeper insights into the pathways into rough sleeping and the effectiveness of various interventions. Our aim is that these insights will enable new services to be designed and deployed to prevent rough sleeping.
The data currently used by the tool is sourced from a number of systems operated by stakeholders in the rough sleeping ecosystem. This includes CHAIN, In-Form, and data held in borough Homelessness Case Level Collection (H-CLIC) returns.
An MVP solution was initially developed with a pilot group of four boroughs, Camden, Hillingdon, Lambeth and Westminster, and their hostel providers.
In February 2024 we completed ‘phase 2’ of the project. This focused on rolling out the Strategic Insights Tool to all London boroughs and a further selection of homelessness service providers.
We’re excited about the future of this tool and are now exploring how we can build on the dataset, add new functionality, and experiment with more advanced data science capabilities.
Key outcomes
- Measure success in making homelessness rare, brief, non-recurrent.
- Learn what strategies work and inform public policy, service delivery and commissioning.
- Improve understanding of the rough sleeping population, including the complexity of needs and how individuals move between different parts of the system.
- Ensure the proper understanding, full utilization and linking of solutions and resources.
- Ease and enhance the operation of services, reporting and performance management.
