Housing options workflow maintenance overview
Housing Options can be thought of as the housing advice service provided by a local authority to anyone who approaches them with a housing problem. The aim of the Civica Cx Housing Housing Options module is therefore to provide the end user with all the tools necessary to present an individual's options and choices in the widest sense, with a view to then formulating a targeted action plan. This approach focuses on the merits of early intervention and can be structured to explore all possible tenure options, including council properties, housing association dwellings and the private-rented sector. Providing sound housing advice should be seen as the first goal for any 'advice gateway' that is accessible to all local residents with a housing problem, or who feel they need to leave their current accommodation. The range of housing options covered by the gateway could include:
Each advice stream covered by a local authority's housing options service can be configured within a separate workflow definition, and linked to a customised question template - an enquiry form - the responses from which are used to trigger relevant advice statements. So, for example, an end user might create a specific housing option workflow for older residents who require a little extra help but do not wish to move away from their existing home. Therefore, the inherent advice statements for this workflow definition might include, say, having a community alarm fitted, the feasibility of property adaptations, or how to access home care services such as laundry, shopping, bathing, etc. Each advice statement might comprise a sequence of instructions, guidance notes, and perhaps links to other related sources of information that will be presented to customers when researching the housing options available to them to meet their needs. The allocation of tasks to a housing option workflow defines how the resulting case will be progressed. Any number of discrete tasks can be linked to a housing option workflow although an individual task can only appear once. Where multiple tasks are required, identical in nature, separate task definitions must be created for each instance. Tasks can either be added to the housing option workflow and then activated manually at the point of need, or included within the workflow path, with automatic activation triggered when a new case is first launched. Within each task, there are three key components of Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance tracking: amber warning period, follow-on escalation and target completion exceeded. Once an SLA indicator is reached, the system can be configured to dispatch an automatic alert to individual user accounts that are associated through the workflow definition, notifying them of the situation. User accounts can be linked directly to the SLA notification process or by association through their membership of an allocated role. At the point of raising a housing options case, its ownership is assigned automatically from the active workflow definition, whether that be to an individual user or a group of users via membership of an allocated role. Achieved through the configuration of an allocation rule, where ownership is assigned to a specific role, all members have the opportunity to pick up the case for onward progression.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of housing options workflow maintenance, including: