BI System – Social Landlord Portal User Group Meeting - Minutes - 21 November 2023

BI System – Social Landlord Portal User Group Meeting Minutes - 21 November 2023

Present:

1. Welcome, apologies and introductions

CH welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the BI Social Landlord Portal User Group.  The Group noted apologies from Castlerock Edinvar and Manor Estates Housing Associations.  Those in attendance introduced themselves.  The group noted that at times other colleagues will attend, for example, to bring expertise in the financial returns.

CH welcomed the selection of users experience represented and thanked all for agreeing to participate.  CH set out the background and purpose of the group, explaining how it will bring more structure around continuous improvement based on user feedback and aligns with Digital Scotland Service Standards, to continue to provide a secure service and meet user needs and keep them informed with what’s happening with the service.

CH explained how SHR has had input from user groups in the past, for example when the new forms technology was introduced three years ago. This group will again allow us to gain valuable user feedback to improve the Portal.

2. Terms of Reference

CH presented the proposed terms of reference to the group.  It noted that no one had raised any issues in advance of the meeting.  CH outlined the detail of the terms of reference. 

The Group agreed to adopt the terms of reference.

Action: CH to make the Group’s terms of reference available on SHR’s website.

3. SHR activity

CH outlined recent work that SHR had been doing around the Social Landlord Portal including:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) – this has now been enabled for all portal users. All users are now required to enter a one-time passcode (OTP) each time they log in, the OTP will be sent to the email address associated to their portal account. This further strengthens the cyber resilience of the portal and will help social landlords meet requirements of Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.
• Correspondence field for Contact Forms – in addition to the correspondence email address, we have added a field for landlords to add a hyperlink to a Contact Form page for those that use these with their customers. We have work scheduled to get this published to landlord entries on our website.
• AFS audited accounts open data – for those who work with our published data, we will be publishing the AFS open data to a 3* standard on our blob storage that will provide a static url for five years of data.
• Forms 2024 collection
• No substantial changes planned for 2024 forms.
  • annual round of minor updates to improve validation.
  • after completion of 2023 returns there was an update applied to the system to provide performance improvements.
  • charter pdf output – improved layout to accommodate longer comments provided in the return.
• Main form change will be on AFS 2024 due to be collected in Aug next year – this will collect information on the activities of subsidiaries.

The Group considered the updates and discussed:

• MFA, noting one user had not had the MFA prompt at a recent log in;
• improvements to validations errors in the ARC, noting some minor corrections that had been picked up;
• reporting validation errors, noting these should still be routed via SHR portfolio leads and the BI team will pick up on any technical issues;
• if there are any plans to include the stock returns with the ARC so that one single pdf is available;
• accuracy of community alarm data noting, that there could be under and over counting issues when stock is counted for another category such as sheltered accommodation or if alarms are provided by social work and the landlord is not aware that they are in homes;
• alignment with the stock returns to Scottish Government, noting that there may now be differences with it and the ARC; and
• National landlords who are completing returns for multiple local authorities areas and if there is any opportunity to streamline submissions and pdfs.

Actions - CH to:

• explore MFA issue experienced by one user at log-in;
• while noting accessibility standards, consider availability of pdfs for the stock return;
• consider community alarm counting further with SHR colleagues and review stock return; check alignment of SHR and Scottish Government returns on stock quality; and
• explore potential to streamline submissions for nationwide landlords covering multiple local authority areas.

4. AOB & Current usability matters

No further matters of concern were raised for discussion at the meeting. 

CH welcomed feedback from TH that as a long term system user, she found it easy to navigate and use.

5. DONM & Minutes

CH reported that all will be invited to meet again in February, June and October 2024.  The Group noted that additional meetings could be called if there was a business/user need.  The Group also noted that the minutes will be published on SHR’s website