In 2024, DataLoch has played a key role in bringing complementary services together to greatly improve the support available for those at risk of experiencing homelessness.
Building relationships for frontline support
Beyond delivering data extracts for research and NHS service-improvement projects, we directly support the health and social care system. For example, we have developed a close relationship with the NHS Lothian Analytical Services’ (LAS) Public Health Team and enabled them to better support InReach workers at Cyrenians: a Scottish charity tackling the causes and consequences of homelessness.
Unique Property Reference Numbers
Just as the Community Health Index (CHI) number is an identifier for every person who engages health services in Scotland, so the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) allows every addressable location in the UK (including bus stops) to be reliably identified, no matter if the postal address changes over time or can be written in more than one way (e.g. flat 15, 3 Random Street or 3/15 Random Street). By using an address-matching algorithm developed by Huayu Zhang (a researcher formerly of the Advanced Care Research Centre) in combination with the UPRN database, we can now more swiftly determine accurate locations.
Explore how we use UPRNs to support research
Enabling the NHS to support Cyrenians more effectively
Patients at risk of experiencing homelessness can be identified by matching the addresses contained in patient records held by the NHS against an emergency accommodation dataset containing UPRNs.
Since 2019, this address-matching has been central to an NHS-supported project where the LAS Public Health Team supply Cyrenians InReach workers with a list of hospital patients (only visible to NHS and Cyrenians workers) containing three at-risk-of-homelessness flags. These capture whether the patient address contained within hospital records is given as No Fixed Abode (NFA); whether the patient is registered with the Access Place (a health centre which supports homeless and other vulnerable patients); and whether their patient address matches one in the emergency accommodation list.
Once identified, Cyrenians InReach workers – embedded within nursing teams in NHS Lothian hospitals – can directly offer the patient assistance with accessing housing and ongoing support upon discharge from hospital. As a result of improved completion of inpatient treatment courses, connecting patients with primary care providers (such as GPs), and arranging appropriate accommodation prior to hospital discharge, the actions of Cyrenians workers have resulted in a 68% reduction in re-admission to hospital for supported patients.
However, this project has been hampered by the difficulties in reliably identifying at-risk addresses. Until summer 2024, the LAS Public Health Team has relied on time-consuming, manual techniques to pair addresses, achieving a modest match rate. In contrast, Huayu’s algorithm now significantly improves the match rate and allows them to reliably update their data every month, whereas previously, they were only doing so on an annual basis. This ensures that the latest information about emergency-accommodation locations informs the prioritisation of Cyrenians’ interventions.
The future
Following our success in supporting the collaborative work of the LAS Public Health Team and Cyrenians InReach workers, DataLoch is keen to further support local government partners. We are currently exploring projects to help councils better understand which interventions reduce the risk of people becoming homeless. Following a similar approach, DataLoch has already matched patient addresses from hospital records against a care home location dataset to support NHS interventions for these vulnerable populations, such as understanding and reducing the risk of falls in their homes.
Until now, much of our address-matching effort around homelessness has supported frontline health and social care services. In future, we hope to define at-risk-of-homelessness cohorts for research purposes. This would enable vital exploration into how experiences of homelessness and economic deprivation impacts health outcomes. For example, it would be feasible to investigate how insecure living circumstances might impact a person's experience of cancer care. In turn, these could drive improvements in the provision of health care services for some of the most vulnerable people in the Lothian region.
Working in partnership
If you would like to explore how we could collaborate and improve frontline services further, please Connect with Us.
