offers the following services: HousingadviceNI a public-facing website, with clear branding to allow people to find it easily includes trial online chat sessions – Housing helpline for the public and practitioners. 85% of cases are one-off calls provided with 30 minutes of advice and self-help resources. Case-worker support 15% of cases require in-depth involvement, including – legal support. Separately funded project services. Examples include housing advice and support for peer advisors in prisons, and court-based advisors offering support to individuals due to be evicted due to debt. The website contains information on homelessness, housing options, renting privately and the particular housing issues that people from specific groups face. It has dedicated sections for young people, people leaving or entering prison, and for foreign nationals living in Northern Ireland. From our research into the service and discussion with staff at HousingadviceNI, learning points include: The value of being an independent service to government and/or the Housing Executive. Early intervention is critical in housing problems. solving people’s Branding for the website was vital to ensure people understood that it offered advice. Measuring effectiveness is a challenge, but current work to assess influence beyond merely recording the number of callers shows a huge improvement in peoples’ wellbeing and stress level from having reliable housing advice. Cost calculations We have conducted some high-level analysis based on broad cost calculations. Website costs The costs of developing and maintaining a website are not dependant on the number of users but on the level of functionality and complexity of the site. We have used costs based on the setup and running costs of a nationwide health advice service and a regional advice service (details of these are confidential due to commercial sensitivity). We also got quotations from two other web developers, using a basic specification, to check these costs.
offers the following services: HousingadviceNI a public-facing website, with clear branding to allow people to find it easily – includes trial online chat sessions Housing helpline for the public and practitioners. 85% of cases are one-off calls provided with 30 minutes of advice and self-help resources. Case-worker support – 15% of cases require in-depth involvement, including legal support. Separately funded project services. Examples include housing advice and support for peer advisors in prisons, and court-based advisors offering support to individuals due to be evicted due to debt. The website contains information on homelessness, housing options, renting privately and the particular housing issues that people from specific groups face. It has dedicated sections for young people, people leaving or entering prison, and for foreign nationals living in Northern Ireland. From our research into the service and discussion with staff at HousingadviceNI, learning points include: The value of being an independent service to government and/or the Housing Executive. Early intervention is critical in solving people’s housing problems. Branding for the website was vital to ensure people understood that it offered advice. Measuring effectiveness is a challenge, but current work to assess influence beyond merely recording the number of callers shows a huge improvement in peoples’ wellbeing and stress level from having reliable housing advice. Cost calculations We have conducted some high-level analysis based on broad cost calculations. Website costs The costs of developing and maintaining a website are not dependant on the number of users but on the level of functionality and complexity of the site. We have used costs based on the setup and running costs of a nationwide health advice service and a regional advice service (details of these are confidential due to commercial sensitivity). We also got quotations from two other web developers, using a basic specification, to check these costs.
180327-JRF-Housing-Advice-Service-Technical-Report.docx