Single Homeless Project (SHP) is London’s leading homeless charity, supporting 10,000+ people a year to rebuild and transform their lives.
The charity began in 1975 when six homeless Londoners set out to challenge the system and make their vision of a safe place to live for everyone a reality. A lot has changed since then, but their spirit hasn’t. In a city where hundreds are forced into homelessness every day, their work has never been more needed or more challenging. And they’re not shying away. They’re rolling up our sleeves to make change.
The charity prevents homelessness, provides safe places to live and gives people the opportunity to rebuild their lives and transform their futures. And they never give up. Single Homeless Project operates across 50-60 sites in London, delivering 24/7 services. The organisation employs nearly 900 people, with permanent staff supported by locum and agency workers to provide round-the-clock cover.
The Challenge
Complex Rostering, Limited Control, High Costs Single Homeless Project operates in a demanding environment where staff quality, availability, and continuity of care are critical. Prior to implementing Imperago, the organisation faced several challenges:
Multiple HR and workforce systems with limited integration
Manual timesheet processing for variable staff
Reliance on an external managed service for locum and agency staff rostering
Limited control over the quality of staff chosen to fill shifts at critical times
Inadequate reliance on high-cost agency workers
The outsourced locum management service alone cost SHP between £216,000 and £270,000 per year, with little visibility or ability to measure staff quality.
A best-of-breed approach
Following a formal tender process, SHP reviewed several providers, including The Access Group.Ultimately, the organisation decided on a best-of-breed strategy, selecting HFX Imperago for workforce management and rostering, and a separate HR system to meet wider organisational needs
This approach ensured SHP selected the most effective solution for its highly complex rostering requirements rather than compromising on functionality.
Why HFX Imperago?
SHP chose HFX because Imperago:
Matched the capacity and capability of internal teams
Enabled SHP to bring locum shift management in-house
Provided a clear and compelling return on investment
Offered flexibility for 24/7, multi-site operations
The business case focused strongly on cost reduction, improved resourcing, and greater control over staff quality.
The HFX Solution For SHP Comprises:
Rostering, Locum Management & Shift Control
Imperago is now used across SHP to manage:
Permanent staff rotas
Locum and agency workers
Shift publishing and gap filling
Manager-led staff selection for shift planning
While the system supports all staff groups, the greatest value has come from transforming how SHP manages locum and agency staffing, previously handled by a third-party provider.
Tangible Savings & Benefits From HFX Imperago
Bringing Locum Management in-house
By replacing the outsourced managed service with Imperago, Single Homeless Project:
Eliminated annual third-party costs of £260k–£270k
Achieved net savings of £110k–£120k per year year on year
Crucially, these savings funded the creation of a new central internal team, responsible for managing locum and agency staffing across the organisation.
Reducing reliance on high-cost agency staff
Agency workers were often used when locums could not be sourced, despite the sourcing and placement fees being almost five times more expensive.
By centralising and controlling the process internally:
Single Homeless Project achieved additional savings of around £250k per year
Approximately £125k of this saving is directly attributable to Imperago and is a year on year saving
The remainder was enabled by organisational changes made possible by the implementation of the system
Imperago acted as the catalyst for this transformation.
Greater control, better quality & flexible shift filling- designed around managers
SHP particularly valued Imperago’s flexibility when filling shifts. Previously, managers shared spreadsheets and relied on an external agency to fill gaps in shifts, with limited ability to influence staff selection.
HFX Imperago gave control back to the managers to ensure quality of staffing is maintained to help the vulnerable:
Managers publish open shifts
Staff can express interest directly on which shifts they can fill
Some managers preferred full control, while others wanted speed. In response, HFX developed a simple toggle allowing shifts to be:
Filled by the first suitable responder, or
Managers can choose who fills each shift, maintaining quality and continuity.
This is critical in a sector where staff suitability and experience directly affect service users.
Measurable Results
Empowering Managers & Staff
Full control of rostering at critical times
Improved staff quality and consistency
Reduced manual processing
Transparent, integrated workforce management
Staff and Manager Buy-In
Workers can easily view and book available shifts
Managers can fill gaps faster while maintaining quality
Improved satisfaction across teams
Financial Impact:
annual savings
from locum management
annual savings
directly attributable to Imperago
total + savings
through reduced agency use
“A well-supported implementation”
The implementation was complex and and so took slightly longer than expected due to the breadth of functionality adopted. SHP highlighted the quality of support throughout the project:
“Mark, the implementation consultant, was extremely responsive and a very good sounding board. We had a lot of confidence and trust in him.”
“We were very well supported through the project challenges by HFX, both by the project team and by development.”
A Continued Partnership
SHP continues to work closely with HFX to further enhance Imperago, exploring new developments to refine processes and deliver even greater efficiency and control in the future.
Strategic Acquisition
Like Integra, HFX is part of the ADVT Group. Integra Workforce is the version of the group's HFX solution for Integra customers. For more information about Integra's sister company please visit the HFX website. There are more case studies for other sectors include Idverde a private sector customer that saved £2M+ as a result of HFX software.
HFX
