We need to talk about information management

There are various reasons why L&Q and others have struggled with these challenges. The ombudsman’s report rightly cites structural changes like mergers as a factor, especially when changes to systems aren’t sufficiently planned and executed.

Mergers can exacerbate data challenges if systems are bolted on rather than consciously integrated. But the roots of these issues are in data governance and culture, such as different departments and systems not being joined up, inconsistent standards for capturing and managing data, and a lack of ownership.

“Many service organisations make the mistake of failing to get the basics right before moving vast swathes of services online”

Your systems, processes and data-management practices enable you to provide a service. But if they aren’t designed to fit together as one ecosystem, it’s much harder to provide a reliable, repeatable and consistently good service.

The new social housing regulatory regime means housing associations must do more to demonstrate what they know, and use that knowledge to drive improvements.

Several years ago, we recognised that we hadn’t done enough to design how data and information flowed through our organisation to support the delivery of services. In 2021, we began delivering a new five-year strategy, developed in consultation with residents, which set out to tackle these challenges as a priority.

As a result, we’ve started a £45m transformation programme to redesign and simplify our ways of working, the technologies we use, and the data architecture which underpins all of this.

Data is an enabler. If we modernise and future-proof the way we use it, then we’ll have the accurate information about our residents and their homes which we need to provide better services.

The first phase of our programme involves working with our partners, NEC and Unit 4, to develop new housing management and finance management systems, respectively. We’ll start rolling these out next year, but have already started improving the quality of our data using a range of tools and techniques.

When we integrated Trafford Housing Trust, we decided not to merge our technology and systems immediately after bringing the two organisations together last April. We are one organisation, but rather than forcing two sets of technologies together, we’ll use our transformation programme to consciously design a new shared platform instead.

“Your systems, processes and data-management practices enable you to provide a service. But if they aren’t designed to fit together as one ecosystem, it’s much harder to provide a reliable, repeatable and consistently good service”

Our transformation programme is as much about people as technology. We are involving colleagues across L&Q in shaping our new approaches and systems, and the way we organise our people and our culture must constantly underpin and reinforce the importance of good data governance.

Many service organisations make the mistake of failing to get the basics right before moving vast swathes of services online. Data is usually at the heart of the problems which follow. We want to be confident that when we broaden out our digital self-service offer to those who want to engage that way, we can genuinely create a fantastic experience.

Without a consciously designed approach to data and information management, no matter how hard your teams work, it will be incredibly difficult for them to deliver for residents. We’ve recognised this at L&Q and are focusing our energies on fixing this for the future.