what information does NOTIFY collect?

from housing departments

Every week, London borough housing departments upload to NOTIFY a range of details about all homeless households that are currently placed in temporary accommodation, as well as those that have recently left (either to be permanently housed or for some other reason, such as abandonment).

from social services departments

Where households with children move across borough boundaries, NOTIFY asks the social services department (SSD) in the borough in which the household was most recently accommodated to indicate whether there is or has been any social services involvement. The aim is to highlight children at risk or in need, either currently or in the past.

Each week SSDs receive an email alerting them to movements of homeless households out of accommodation in their borough. The appropriate registered user in the SSD then indicates for each member of each household whether or not there has been social services involvement and, where there has, the nature of that involvment. Where a household has been involved with social services, the system generates a flag that is added to its record on NOTIFY. This is visible to the relevant SSDs, local education authorities and primary care trusts.

The project team is working closely with other e-government projects currently in development, such as Child Protection Register Online, Information Sharing and Assessment (ISA) and other local, sub-regional and regional initiatives.