FOI request (FOIR-295605586)

Policy in Practice software

Requested Wed 13 January 2021
Responded Fri 29 January 2021

I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information about the use of risk based verification and about the use of housing analytics software.

Specifically, I am asking the following:

1. Does your council, now or has it in since January 2017, utilise Policy in Practice software? This includes, but is not limited to, their tools LIFT (low income family tracker), Benefit and Budgeting calculator, and CTRS (Council Tax Support Modelling).

2. If yes, please provide:

a) Details of which specific Policy in Practice tools are used by your Council.

b) Details of what decisions does it make or inform, and to what extent it informs decisions?

c) Details of which data sources (that is type, classification, and amount of data) are used to supply the software with information, and any relevant documents regarding such information.

d) Is any special category data used by the software?

e) Any materials regarding the Council's decision to utilise the software (such as evaluations, impact assessments), as well as contracts and related costs.

f) Any documents reflecting the targets for performance set for the software?

g) Any materials provided by the software provider, including but not limited to training materials, marketing material, sales documents, and additional information.

h) Any documents or information regarding the performance and/or application of the software, including but not limited to performance assessments and critical analyses (this may include monitoring reports, assessments of the public sector equality duty)?

Response

1. Yes

2a. We used the Council Tax Support Modelling Tool in 2018.

2b. The Modelling Tool was used to run our Council Tax Reduction data through different scenarios as part of our Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) review. We wanted to establish the impact and costs to proposed changes to our existing CTRS.

2c. We used our existing Northgate reports to identify relevant data. All data was anonymised. We had a Data Processing Agreement which specified data provided.

2d. No, information not held

2e. No, information not held

2f. No, information not held

2g. No, information not held

2h. No, information not held