Earlier this year, Yorkshire Housing launched an “industry first” app specifically designed to help tackle hoarding. Here, colleagues from the landlord’s safeguarding and tech teams share insight into the app’s development and subsequent use
How much of an issue is hoarding?
Hoarding disorder is recognised by the NHS and can have a significant impact on the hoarder; their family, friends, and neighbours; housing colleagues; and housing providers.
According to the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), 2-5% of the population is estimated to be affected by hoarding – that’s around 1.2 million people in the UK. However, the true scale of the problem is unknown, and Hoarding UK believes that only 5% of people who hoard come to the attention of professionals.
At Yorkshire Housing, we’ve found it’s a growing problem, one that was made worse by the pandemic. Last year we dealt with 16 cases; this year we’ve already seen 21, and it’s only September.
We expect to see a further increase in hoarding problems as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, which is having a negative impact on people’s mental health, leading to new cases and the deterioration of the condition in people who previously had it under control.
The app was developed during a hackathon – how did that come about?
Our innovation team is always looking at how technology can improve services for our customers, with the team holding regular ‘hackathons’ to bring together innovation analysts, developers and other IT specialists to problem-solve and create cutting-edge solutions.
Where did the idea for the app come from?
Most hoarding referrals come in through our safeguarding team, but cases are also reported to our antisocial behaviour and coaching teams, making it difficult to get a comprehensive picture of the extent of the problem we’re dealing with.
Reporting hoarding is also traditionally an expensive paper-based exercise. It’s a lengthy process that involves taking notes while visiting a customer’s home. Notes are then manually updated into a case management system or attached as a file to an existing case, all of which takes time and prevents customers from accessing support and help quickly.
It’s this lack of coordination, efficiency, and speed that led us to develop the housing sector’s first hoarding app.
Technology can almost always make processes more efficient, improving products and services and delivering a better experience for our customers. Our goal was to use the systems and technologies we already have at Yorkshire Housing to digitalise the hoarding reporting process; speeding up access to support, reducing health and safety risks, and encouraging more colleagues to speak up and raise their concerns.
“We expect to see a further increase in hoarding problems as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, which is having a negative impact on people’s mental health”
It was during one of our hackathons that our team came up with the idea of using Power Apps to streamline how our colleagues carry out inspections and report concerns. The team decided to create two options for reporting hoarding: a ‘report a concern’ function and a ‘full assessment’ tool.
The ‘report a concern’ function is a stripped-back version of the full assessment that focuses on five key areas around safety – specifically, access to the customer’s home and access to facilities such as gas and electricity. This new process allows colleagues on time-sensitive visits, such as engineers and contractors, to report concerns about hoarding quickly and easily, something that wasn’t possible with the old system.
How has the app been performing so far?
The app, which is still being piloted, has streamlined the reporting process, which means we’re made aware of concerns and can provide support much earlier than we could previously.
For both the ‘report a concern’ and ‘full assessment’ tools, the app uses a score-based system for each question to grade the risk. The app then automatically sends a report to our customer-independence team where the reports are triaged. If concerns have been reported, we can quickly arrange a visit to the customer’s home to carry out a more in-depth assessment.
The app also allows colleagues to view previous inspection reports and use these to show how cases are being progressed. Spotting an escalating situation quickly means we can intervene and provide support much earlier.
How did you overcome the challenges you faced during the development of the app?
The challenges we faced were split into two categories: the ability of the app to do what we wanted it to do and the availability of people to plan and do the work.
One example was the request for the app to send the information gathered directly into our existing housing management system. This wasn’t possible, so we designed it to produce a report of the findings and email these to specific people in our customer independence team.
When we faced challenges with people’s availability, we adopted an ‘asynchronous’ approach. This is where we set up a Teams chat and communicated as and when we could to ensure everyone was kept in the loop and nothing fell through the cracks.
How do you plan to further develop the app?
We’ll periodically review the app and look at how it’s been performing; and we’ll ask our colleagues to give us their ideas and suggestions for how the app could evolve.
Once this feedback has been brought together, our customer independence team will decide if any of the suggestions will add value either to our customers or our colleagues.
We’ll also look to see if the solution has any scope to provide efficiencies or improved customer satisfaction in any other areas of the business.
Does the app represent a wider digital transformation for Yorkshire Housing?
Digital transformation is high on our agenda. We’re continually looking at ways in which we can use digital innovation to improve our services and make it easier for our customers to access the services and support they need, and for our colleagues to work more efficiently.
Among some of the innovations we’re currently looking at are things that will help us provide a more proactive service. For example, using sensors in our customers’ homes to identify and diagnose issues with things like boilers and damp/humidity, so we can act quickly to resolve problems that could have a potential impact on our customers’ health and the quality of our homes.
Image credit: shutter_o/Shutterstock
Read next: Northern Ireland Housing Executive staff walk out over pay
Are you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.