SCORE workshop

20th, 22nd and 23rd May

• Welcome and introduction• Brief overview of:

– Where we are and how we got here– SCORE– LOGASnet

• Recent improvements• Demonstration/training on LOGASnet• Break (teas and coffees)• Future improvements• Q & A

Overview of session

• SCORE – a collection of information from Registered Social Landlords. It’s been running for years and has always been collected by the Scottish Government or its predecessors.

• LOGASnet – the online data entry system run by the Department for Communities and Local Government now used to collect the information.

Where we are and how we got here

• SCORE was previously administered by St. Andrews University on behalf of the Scottish Government

• Budgetary constraints meant we were unable to renew the contract after 2011/12

• Allowed us to bring helpdesk and analysis ‘in-house’ within the Scottish Government

• Should also allow us to produce analysis more relevant to what’s happening in the world at that time!

Where we are and how we got here (2)

Valuable resource used by:• RSLs to manage their service• Other users including academic researchers• Scottish Government for policy making

– We want to make more use of existing and future data.

• Local Authorities – there’s currently no equivalent source for them so they use SCORE.

SCORE

Uses of SCORE• Data on source of referral, ethnicity of household, statutory homelessness, reason for

letting, and average re-let time, is used to assist in formulating housing policy decisions.

• SCORE data has been used in research analyses looking at low demand, performance benchmarking, affordability and cross tenure rent comparisons.

• Affordability - information from SCORE on household income and housing costs is used in the assessment of housing affordability.

• Neighbourhood renewal - because SCORE is continuously updated it can be used to construct a sensitive indicator of conditions in neighbourhood renewal areas, and in high and low demand areas.

• Low demand - SCORE data can provide early warnings of the types and locations of properties that are in low demand.

• Welfare reform - Lots of potential for looking at the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’. E.g. will the number of households re-housed due to under-occupancy increase?

• Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG’s) online data collection and grants administration system.

• Inevitably some teething problems expected with a different method of data collection, however . . .

• We did not anticipate the extent of problems that would be encountered or that it would take so long to resolve them.

• We believe that the changes made for 2013/14 eliminate some of the most frustrating problems.

LOGASnet?

• My predecessor gathered your views through a customer satisfaction survey

• We’ve also taken on-board feedback from e-mails and phone calls and our own experiences.

• The main issues identified were:– Batches of 30 forms each month– The speed of the system when entering logs– Confusing ‘maintain field allocation’ process– Width of the form– Disappearing batches!– Reports– Who to contact for help

Problems and solutions

• The problem: Each user would get a new batch of 30 forms each month. This was confusing and 30 forms a month didn’t necessarily make sense.

• The reason: This is due to the way LOGASnet was originally setup to operate.

• The solution (for tenancies starting on or after 1st April 2013):

We’ve got rid of the batches of 30 forms. Instead you now have a single annual ‘batch’. You can add new forms (and certify them) as and when you need them.

Batches of 30 forms each month

• The problem: LOGASnet was slow to respond when information was being entered.

• The reason: In the monthly batches of 30 logs LOGASnet would perform validation checks on all 30 logs as information was entered.

• The solution (for tenancies starting on or after 1st April 2013):

We’ve got rid of the monthly batches so LOGASnet only checks the form you’re working on.

The speed of the system when entering logs

• The problem: Before you could enter data you needed to unlock the form but this was confusing and there was no obvious reason for it!

• The reason: Again this was due to the way LOGASnet was originally setup to operate.

• The solution (for tenancies starting on or after 1st April 2013):

You no longer have to do this, you can just go straight in and enter the lettings.

Confusing ‘maintain field allocation’ process

• The problem: The form was wider than the screen requiring you to do a lot of scrolling.

• The reason: All to do with the width of dropdown boxes.

• The partial solution (for tenancies starting on or after 1st

April 2013): We’ve redesigned the form a bit to make it narrower and so reduce the need to scroll horizontally. Next time we change the form we should be able to improve it further.

The width of the form

• The problem: Each batch of forms had a deadline date. If you hadn’t accessed the batch by this date it was no longer available to accept data. Also, if you certified a batch older batches that hadn’t been certified disappeared. This caused problems if you wanted to edit a form too.

• The reason: Again this was due to the way LOGASnet was originally setup to operate.

• The solution (for tenancies starting on or after 1st April 2013): There are no longer monthly batches. You’ll be able to access (and edit) any form you’ve entered throughout the whole year.

Disappearing batches

• The problem: You’ve not been able to get reports on the information you’ve entered directly from LOGASnet

• The reason: We’ve been working to re-create the calculations but it’s proved very tricky.

• The solution : We’re working to make these available as soon as possible. In the first instance you’ll only get information for your own RSL. Once we publish the statistics you’ll also get information for a comparator group of RSLs, the local authority in which you mainly operate and Scotland. You’ll have access to these reports for your own data throughout 2013/14.

Reports

• Please direct all queries regarding LOGASNET to the SCORE helpdesk (SCOREhelp@scotland.gsi.gov.uk)

• Routine queries (new user accounts and problems certifying data) can be dealt with by us and so can be responded to quickly.

• Non-routine queries (such as reporting slow system performance) will be escalated by us to LOGASNET IT specialists.

• Advise against directly contacting the helpdesk referred to on LOGASNET log in page.

• This cannot provide advice specific to SCORE – such queries will be sent on to SCORE helpdesk so will take longer to get a response from us.

• We are in regular contact with LOGASNET and report issues such as slow system performance as soon as we become aware of them ourselves.

If you need help . . .

Demonstration / training

• We’re going to make a change to the way you’re organised within your RSL on LOGASnet

• This will shorten your To Do lists into something much more manageable

• At present you’ll either enter logs under your own name or a name like ‘RSL name – User A’.

• We’re going to change this so that:– You’ll log in as normal but will enter logs under the name of your RSL, not your

own name or a ‘RSL name – User A’ type name.– You’ll only see your own logs on the To Do list

Future Improvements

Contact email:SCOREhelp@scotland.gsi.gov.uk