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Policy in Practice

Council Tax Reduction (CTR) Scheme Modelling

This service models an agreed number of Council Tax Reduction schemes side by side based on specific priorities. Full analysis of your current and future schemes are considered in addition to advice on how you can best meet your goals and priorities, to help shortlist your most suitable CTRS options.

Features

  • Detailed analysis of CTR scheme options based on local objectives
  • Identification of financial costs / savings and administration cost implications
  • In-depth analysis on the impact of schemes on vulnerable groups
  • Identification of the impact of schemes on arrears and enforcement
  • Identification of the future costs of CTR scheme options
  • Assess and apply reductions for people on Universal Credit
  • Assess impact of UC migration on your CTR scheme costs
  • Support for consultation and presentation for internal review
  • Scheme write up (at an additional charge)
  • Full and supplementary datatables report showing results, recommendations and methodology

Benefits

  • Understand your Council Tax Reduction Scheme options
  • Helps to meet the needs of the councils
  • Whilst considering the impacts on both residents and processes
  • Create the most efficient and sustainable scheme options
  • Make best decisions for residents
  • Make best decisions for risk reduction
  • Make best decisions for cost reduction
  • Lower your costs of administration
  • Comparison and recommendation on different scheme options

Pricing

£5,000 to £75,000 a licence a year

  • Free trial available

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

1 0 8 2 9 2 3 7 9 7 6 1 9 8 1

Contact

Policy in Practice Deven Ghelani
Telephone: 0330 088 9242
Email: hello@policyinpractice.co.uk

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
N/a
System requirements
  • Browser
  • Internet access

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Response times are typically within the hour
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web chat accessibility testing
Testing has been done by the web chat software provider. Any further conversations on accessibility would be welcomed by Policy in Practice
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
Service includes a half day of on-site/online training.
Additional time can be purchased.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Onsite training, online training, or user documentation
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Users are sent their data as part of the service. Their data is deleted when the contract ends as described in the data sharing agreement.
End-of-contract process
The service is delivered and there are no additional costs.

The buyer need only provide 45 days written notice if provided as an ongoing service.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Responsive design
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Description of service interface
Web-based user interface, SSO, API access, and webhooks
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Accessibility testing
We run automated light house testing and had an independent accessibility assessor review all sites.
API
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
The logo, colours, labels and ordering of questions on the form.

We can customise the data fields returned in the webhook.

Scaling

Independence of resources
We use AWS lambda, cloudfront and ELBs to ensure maximum uptime with near limitless scalability.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Management information and usage reports available within the product.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
None

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
United Kingdom
User control over data storage and processing locations
No
Datacentre security standards
Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Sent securely via file sharing site as an excel file. A pdf can be downloaded of an individual case.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
JSON
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
JSON

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Specified in Clause 8 of our terms and conditions
Approach to resilience
Available on request.
Outage reporting
Email alerts

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Role Based Access Control
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
Access to supplier activity audit information
You control when users can access audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
How long system logs are stored for
At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
QMS
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
28/07/2021
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/a
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Document and available upon request as PDF / word document.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Processes are regularly updated by our CTO and Director of Operations, with external support/input on a regular basis.

We operate industry-standard continuous integration and deployment approaches aligned to the Accelerate/State of DevOps research and recommendations. We use infrastructure as code managed in source control.

At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for change management processes.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Processes are regularly updated by our CTO and head of operations, with external support / input on a regular basis.

We make use of github dependabot alerts. Regular automated deployments ensures updates and security patches are incorporated as a matter of course. We actively develop our software and ensure that vulnerabilities are patched via the dependency management system.

At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for security patching.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Processes are updated by our CTO and Head of operations with external input on a regular (at least annual) basis.

At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for protective monitoring processes and use AWS GuardDuty to monitor for suspicious behaviour. We additionally employ a SaaS monitoring solution at the application level.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Processes are updated by our CTO and Head of operations with external input on a regular (at least annual) basis.

At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for incident management processes.

We have a documented internal management and incident response process.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

We aim to achieve carbon neutrality by greening business processes and offsetting more carbon emissions than we emit.

As a small company our tCO2e is relatively low already but we still aim to be a carbon-neutral company by 2025

Covid-19 recovery

CTRS schemes provides help to low-income families and can support people and communities to manage and recover from the impacts of COVID-19, including those worst affected or who are/were shielding.

Using our CTRS services can introduce new ways of working that can improve the way local authorities deliver services.

CTRS schemes can increase the financial strength of vulnerable people that may have been impacted by COVID-19. This in turn can improve the mental health of these people and reduce the demand on health and care services.

Tackling economic inequality

Our CTRS services is an innovative, scalable and future-proofed new method to modernise delivery and increase productivity and quality of services.

Wellbeing

The implementation of improved CTRS schemes can improve the financial strength of vulnerable residents. Improving the financial strength of residents can often have a positive impact on mental and physical health.

Pricing

Price
£5,000 to £75,000 a licence a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
We are able to offer up to one week's access to a trial account, which also includes some user training to ensure organisations get the most out of the trial period. Customisations and self-serves would not be included in this trial.

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.