Britain has a long-standing history of providing refuge to genuine asylum seekers. More than 85% of asylum seekers in the UK are concentrated in London and South-East England; metropolitan boroughs bear a heavy burden in providing them with housing and community care.

Westminister City Council initiated an Asylum Seekers' Project to tackle these issues with the aid of database technology developed by OCC.

The database system is used to record details of properties available from contractors. Community Care professionals request accommodation for asylum seekers and the project's team members use the database to identify suitable housing for them.

The project database helps the team to:

• search for suitable accommodation
• manage contracts with contractors
• keep up-to-date information on space and upcoming availability
• produce reports for the Boroughs confirming offers of accommodation and bookings
• produce reports that analyse vacancies and other information in the database
• produce customised reports as requested.

The system operates on a local area network, using high specification work stations. Data flows between some 100 sites, each offering a range of accommodation types for 5000-8000 people.

OCC has also designed a software solution for Westminster City Council to track family placements and financial charging. We were delighted that Westminster received a top star rating in the Department of Health’s first social services star rating system indicating that the Council served both adults and children well with excellent future prospects.

Westminster City Council Resources and Placements System
OCC Local Government website