Systematic and innovative working practice

In order to excel, agencies need to get the basics right. The old adage is true: you can’t learn to run without learning to walk first. Policies and procedures that are embedded into an organisation, which have been developed with thought and care and with the involvement of all stakeholders, are essential to enable organisations to think clearly about where they want to go next. These include: recruitment and retention policies focused on getting the right people in the right place at the right time; equality and diversity strategies which strengthen organisational development; health and safety policies which ensure the workplace is a safe place to be; complaints procedures which result in real change where necessary and enable complainants to be heard; quality tools which enable constant improvement and administration procedures which are consistent, straightforward and understood by all. Working practice should be structured and the responsibilities of all should be clearly understood. Once these are in place, they need to be communicated to staff and clients in plain English (embedded in a strong induction process) and be readily available. They should also be reviewed at regular intervals.

Learning to run – becoming innovative in the way you work – follows on from this strong base. Organisations with the most innovative and effective services are those that listen to staff, clients, and are responsive to their other stakeholders including funders and commissioners. The best organisations allow room to innovate without fear of failure. Lots of good ideas don’t work first time around – if the organisation allows people to try, and try again, they might work the second or third, with reflection and learning. Research in the corporate sector has also shown that organisations that are ‘lean’ and invest effectively in innovation are the most likely to succeed – rather than organisations which throw money out in the hope of bringing in new ideas. However, innovation should not be at the expense of core business, which creates the financial surplus to try out new models of working. The key is providing the right organisational culture towards learning and new ideas: good news for small organisations!

What does success look like?

Broadway in London are nationally recognised as developing and delivering highly innovative and successful projects, and have won a number of awards for their work with homeless people. This is based on a firm foundation of excellent systematic working practices. For example, Broadway have adapted the ‘competency’ model of recruitment for homeless agencies and have very clear and specific policies and procedures for this process. They now offer this service to smaller agencies through the ‘Beyond a Helpline’ project, which offers central services support.

Broadway’s working practice is structured with regular meetings at a team, department and divisional level, with an annual staff conference and ‘mini’ conference. Ideas for new services are welcomed at all of these forums, and passed to the service development group, which consists of middle managers from across the organisation. This group then considers the idea, researches the need and the scope of the potential project and prepares a paper for the senior management team with recommendations. Continuous, constructive feedback helps to support this cycle, and as a result, Broadway are able to offer a range of innovative services which have staff buy in from across the organisation.

What factors inhibit agencies from developing systematic and innovative working practices?

• Lack of knowledge about what policies and procedures are required
• Lack of understanding of the benefits of good policies and procedures – for example, an effective complaints procedure can assist in service development and analysis
• Lack of time to devote to development of good organisational practice
• Lack of buy in from staff on organisational policies and procedures
• Fear of failure in developing new projects
• Lack of funding to innovate
• Lack of continuous improvement practices such as quality tools and benchmarking
• Failure to reflect on learning from current service delivery

What can agencies do?

• Develop a sound base of policies and procedures which are embedded in staff at the induction period
• Develop a culture of challenge within the organisation where staff have real opportunities to reflect on current working practice and make changes
• Develop a learning culture where problems with service delivery are met with change rather than blame
• Regularly review policies and procedures with service users and staff
• Ensure that development of policies and procedures is within the responsibility of a senior manager within the organisation
• Develop ways of finding out ideas from frontline staff and service users about new ways of delivering services, and try pilots
• Work out what kind of quality tools would be most useful for their organisation and implement it with a cross-organisational team
• Develop reflective working practice
• Create “protected time” to review and establish working practices, share good practice and new ideas

What Homeless Link can offer now:

• ‘Develop your service’ section of the website on quality tools
• Day centres handbook
• Good practice companion: Emergency Accommodation for Homeless People
• Resettlement Handbook
• PQASSO Quality Toolkit for homelessness agencies

Potential future Homeless Link projects:

• Templates of policies and procedures which can be adapted to suit organisational culture
• Good Practice online – free online access to existing toolkits and companions
• Benchmarking clubs
• A ‘How to’ best practice guide for recruitment and retention
• The service passport project in partnership with RIS
• Flowchart to help agencies decide on the most appropriate quality tool
• Flowchart to help agencies identify the most effective soft outcomes monitoring tool (including market research on available models)
• Working with the DCLG to develop a common set of guidelines for soft outcomes monitoring for homelessness agencies
• Training on how to conduct service evaluations
• Independent service evaluation consultancy
• Guidance on effective working processes
• Guidance on effective reward and recognition strategies
• Sharing of Homeless Link policies, including our competency framework for recruitment, online for members

What partner organisations offer:

• ‘Beyond a helpline’ project – Broadway offer personnel and central services support to small agencies in partnership with the London Housing Foundation
• The London Housing Foundation website offers a wealth of information on outcomes and how to measure them using the ‘Triangle’ model
• Housing Corporation Gold Award winners (including Focus Futures, St. Basils and Prime Focus) will be disseminating their award-winning practice
• BME Spark, a regular e-bulletin from Lemos and Crane, offers best practice on race equality issues for housing providers
• Supportactionnet from Lemos and Crane is an online resource with sample support plans and other best practice tools

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