Software package and information systems

Tender description

In order to help deliver the Council’s ambitions the Council needs to procure a housing management IT system which is able to both deliver the Council’s responsibilities as a landlord and help the Council to make the best use of its resources. Hull City Council owns and manages 24 433 units (at 1.4.2017) within the City of Hull. We are one of the largest remaining stock-retained local authority social landlords in the country. The Council’s main contractor for repairs and maintenance and a significant amount of Decent Homes works is Kingstown Works Limited (KWL), a company wholly owned by the Council. The scale and pace at which new housing is being developed as part of the City’s regeneration is incredibly positive and the momentum which this has created puts Hull in good stead for new opportunities as they become available. Hull’s status as City of Culture 2017 has brought with it a wave of positivity and provides a catalyst to achieve the City Plan ambitions and transform the city. The Council’s City Neighbourhoods and Housing Manager is responsible for all services to our tenants, including: — repair, maintenance and improvements – in partnership with our main contractor KWL and others, — rent and tenancy management(including tenancy fraud), — homelessness, — lettings, — tenant involvement, — responding to requests under the Right to Buy, — housing advice, — housing register, — customer Self Service, — work flow. The Council also recognises the need to modernise and future-proof the way in which we do business and we have embarked on a number of associated programmes such as Customer enablement to encourage citizens to interact with the council online, and worksmart which is about using technology and office design to ultimately reduce our building needs through better use of space, but it is also very much about promoting productivity, value for money and an excellent work-life balance for staff. Our key deliverables at this time are focussed around: — ensuring that access channels are open, easy to navigate and provide a seamless service to the customer, — joining up services and customer information to assist in what and how services are delivered, — ensuring systems are in place which facilitate efficiencies both in back office processes and the customer facing environment, — securing effective performance management information, — identifying opportunities which will assist in the delivery of effective services through both integration of existing systems and new developments. Our key challenges at this time include: — a reducing welfare bill resulting in a reduction in income for many Hull residents, and the risks for the Council: as a social landlord around collecting rents; the effect on the existing tenant base and the potential this has to disrupt settled communities, — a changing population and how services can be delivered in order to meet differing and often increasing levels of need, — the introduction of digital services and that transition to a more “self-help” focussed environment, — the transition of the Council as an organisation through an increased focus on integrated working across public sector bodies and the delivery of outcomes through externalised Council companies.