Making the most of the eyes and minds of Hackney’s frontline staff
By working with teams already supporting tenants living in the private rented sector, we hope to broaden and sharpen the help available to them

It feels like we’ve been through a journey already, and we’ve only just started. Back in October 2016 we started talking about our plans to bring public health thinking to the way the council supports residents living in the private rented sector (PRS), by trying to prevent housing conditions and health risks becoming crises. In fact we’d been already planning it for a year, and thinking about how best to tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges for some time before that.
The premise is simple. Every day staff from a wide variety of agencies visit tenants in their homes, and witness the conditions they are living in. Health visitors see families with newborn babies, local charities provide energy assessments for people suffering fuel poverty, the council’s community library service visits residents too frail to leave home. We want to network these and many other services together, turning this fantastic opportunity into a group of staff who know who to speak to when particular issues arise, and to recognise the ‘red flags’ that other teams look out for when they first enter someone’s home.
As part of this programme we’ve heard horror stories and seen examples of fantastic public service. Everyone we’ve spoken to has supported tenants with mental health needs not getting the support they need, and have stories of families living in tiny homes far too small for their needs. The problems go far beyond this borough, but that’s never an excuse not to do what we can to address them.
So we’re getting people together from across the public sector partnership and beyond, looking for ways to get help quicker and to ensure tenants know their rights. Obviously the aim of the programme is idealistic. Frontline staff are incredibly stretched, spending less time with residents on each visit and less still to follow up on referrals. IT systems don’t connect, there’s real and perceived barriers to sharing data, and fear overshadows everything that if feathers are ruffled a landlord will revenge evict the tenant.
Early in the development of the network, we were lucky enough to be accepted onto a programme run by the Design Council and the Local Government Association. This brought a raft of new ideas and principles about how to work with other services, to build a shared sense of purpose, and to properly understand the needs of our users.

The old way to build the network would have been a comprehensive project plan, in-depth research and preparation, then a major roll-out across the services. The new way is targeted user research, testing small aspects and learning from failure, then redesigning and retesting. More DIY, but ultimately less risky.
So far we’ve held a meeting with managers from across the services to help set the vision, and to build an understanding of what it is we’re trying to achieve strategically. We’ve also held an event with the staff who walk through front doors, taking their eyes and minds to people’s homes. They helped devise practical approaches to improving the way services work, like joint home visits and sharing skills across teams. We’ll be testing these in the next few months.
We’re really eager to hear from others who have tried this, or who think we’ve missed something, or want to tell us it won’t work. If you’d like to be kept informed of our progress please get in touch, and if you have ideas about how to overcome some of the challenges we’d love to hear from you.
