Technology that makes sense: How Horton Housing achieved integrated GRC with the CoreStream GRC platform

About Horton Housing 

Horton Housing is a not-for-profit housing association that provides housing, training, care and support services across Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and North Yorkshire. Horton Housing is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and providing services which are inclusive and accessible for everyone. 

Mission: help people to live the best life they can by providing high-quality housing, training, care and support.  

Established: 1995 

Industry: NFP / Charity / Housing 

Employees: 400+  

Properties: 800+ 

Challenge 

Before CoreStream GRC’s integrated GRC platform, processes managed across spreadsheets, emails and a mixed bag of tools that weren’t up to the job 

Horton Housing were managing some key processes across spreadsheets, emails, and a patchwork of tools that simply weren’t fit for purpose. This created a range of operational challenges, including: 

• Time-consuming manual administration of spreadsheets 
• Tasks and chases sitting in inboxes, especially problematic when employees were on leave or out sick 
• Limited reporting capabilities 
• Changing legislative requirements demanding more documentation and transparency 
• Non-tech-savvy employees struggling to navigate a fragmented tech stack 

When Darren Butler joined Horton Housing as Head of ICT five years ago, his role was to oversee all IT services across the organization. He describes the state of technology at the time: 

“As the organization had grown, technology had been left behind a little bit. So initially, we had to play catch-up quite a lot, to bring systems up to date and improve utilization of technology.”

Darren Butler, Head of ICT, Horton Housing

For some processes, colleagues were relying heavily on email reminders, spreadsheets, and occasional standalone tools such as other line of business applications. Processes were sometimes “shoehorned” into systems because they existed, even when those tools were not specifically designed to handle the workflows. This approached worked well when the organization was smaller, but it was not always scaling well as Horton Housing grew. 

This caused confusion among stakeholders, who had too many places to go to complete their work. Duplication of effort increased, and consistency declined. Managers also lacked a single, unified view of what was happening across the organization and its various departments relating to these processes. 

“It was quite an open door with our senior management team to get buy-in for a new system. They could see the pain points…

Spreadsheets worked while we were small, but as you grow and more people need to interact with the information, it’s not a way to manage it anymore. The burden of reporting has grown significantly, and if data is everywhere, reporting becomes a bigger piece of work.

Justifying the spend was mostly around the lost opportunity cost of continuing as we were along with the desire to have greater visibility and use of our own data.” 

The search

Finding a technology partner that aligned with how Horton Housing works 

The organization needed a single system that could formalize multiple case types, support different pathways, enable seamless task hand-offs between teams, and deliver strong reporting, governance, and visibility. 

Requirements: an easy-to-use system to formalize key processes 

The chosen platform needed to support a wide range of case types, including: 

• Safeguarding 
• Health and Safety Case Management
• Suggestions and compliments 
• Service requests 
• Complaints Management 
• Anti-social behavior 
• Data breaches and near misses 
• Significant Events (such as missing persons) 
• Registers, such as Gifts and Hospitality Management 

Beyond handling case diversity, the solution also needed to provide granular control over case visibility and allow multiple staff members to be assigned to individual cases, whether to manage the end-to-end workflow or to complete specific tasks such as investigations before handing the case over to another team. The solution also had to be scalable to be able to take on additional workflows in the future. 

Evaluating the technology to find the right fit

Horton Housing kicked off its Google search for process management software, only to discover a crowded market full of tools that all promised transformation but delivered very different realities. From an initial longlist of 15–20 providers, the team sat through demo after demo to find out who could genuinely support the complexity of their operation. 

Their criteria were clear: one-third affordability and value, two-thirds product quality and support. In other words, they weren’t necessarily looking for the cheapest option, they were looking for the platform that would actually work. 

“The capability that whatever the process was, we could find a home for it in CoreStream GRC, whereas some [other vendors] were really strong in certain areas and maybe weaker with other types of processes.

With CoreStream GRC, we felt like all the things, we were looking at, could be built into that solution.” 

It didn’t take long for a frontrunner to emerge. CoreStream GRC consistently outperformed the others, not just in functionality, but in how effortlessly it adapted to Horton Housing’s way of working. 

“CoreStream GRC was always a front runner. As we went through the demos and the proof of concept around the complaints process, it just confirmed that yes, this is going to be right for us. So it was quite an easy procurement process.” 

Implementation 

Co-building a system that actually fits the way Horton Housing works, not the other way around 

• 4 months implementation timeline 
• 10 use cases delivered, including fraud, conflicts of interest, internal controls, health and safety, and more 

Horton Housing didn’t just “receive” a system, they co-designed it. Working directly with CoreStream GRC’s Head of Client Solution Design, Lionel Matsuya (ex-PwC), and Delivery Lead Alex Greer, they transformed a long list of disconnected processes into one integrated, intuitive solution. This wasn’t a lift-and-shift. It was a genuine rethink. 

“I was impressed with how much time and effort they put into understanding what we were trying to achieve with each process and how we work as an organization. There were a lot of meetings and discussions before anything was shown on a screen.” 

Rather than dictating requirements, Horton Housing wanted to tap into the team’s expertise, leaning on the people who’ve designed hundreds of GRC implementations and know what actually works in the real world. 

“We wanted Lionel’s ideas about how we could best achieve this. We did not want to prescribe everything. He did not disappoint. Lionel and Alex were really good at coming up with ways of doing things and grouping information in the right places.” 

The result: a system shaped by Horton Housing’s needs, informed by CoreStream GRC’s expertise, and built to work from day one. 

Flexible, custom design built on a no-code platform 

With CoreStream GRC’s intuitive build your own capabilities, Horton Housing was able to design exactly what each case type required, no compromises, no shoehorning. 

“The description of CoreStream GRC being like a box of Lego bricks is a good way of looking at it. Going through implementation, we could see how that was not just a sales pitch. They put the right blocks together in each area to make it work.” 

Using pre-built components, smart configuration, and hands-on support, Horton Housing built a system around their processes, not a system that forced their processes to bend around it. 

The solution: an integrated GRC platform

Delivering on CoreStream GRC’s brand promise: we do what we say, every time 

CoreStream GRC provided Horton Housing with a dedicated, unified platform to run a number of their workflows and processes, helping them manage risk and compliance without the noise, duplication, or admin drag. 

Intuitive software everyone can use  

Horton Housing’s number-one requirement was crystal clear: the system had to be simple. Clean UX. Straightforward navigation. Many frontline staff aren’t digital natives, and shouldn’t have to be. 

“Our staff are really good at working with people; they’ve got that kind of coaching/personable approach. However, they are not always comfortable with laptops, tablets or software. The system had to be easy to follow, and CoreStream GRC is exactly that.” 

This level of simplicity isn’t accidental, it’s essential. As Darren put it, technology in a housing association isn’t the hero of the story. People are. The platform’s job is to make their work easier, not harder. CoreStream GRC delivered exactly that: technology that feels like an enabler, not a barrier. 

Effective and efficient reporting 

For Horton Housing, reporting had become one of the heaviest operational burdens. Whether compiling annual complaints for the Ombudsman or maintaining internal oversight across safeguarding, incidents, or serious events, the old processes were isolated, and labor-intensive. 

“We can already see that from the dashboards and grids, we can export what we need with a few clicks rather than spending hours manipulating or combining disparate spreadsheets.” 

With CoreStream GRC, managers no longer spend hours cleaning spreadsheets or cross-checking submissions. Dashboards update in real time, providing instant visibility, and reports can be exported with just a few clicks. 

The result: reporting that’s fast, accurate, and effortless, finally enabling staff to focus on the work that really matters. 

Locking down security without slowing work 

Security and controlled access were a major driver for change. Sensitive information had been circulating in emails, risking accidental forwards or getting trapped in inboxes when staff were off sick. 

“We have tight control over who can see what data and who can edit what. Leads can reassign things quickly. It is far more practical than spreadsheets or email.” 

CoreStream GRC’s permissions model gives managers the power to instantly reassign cases without losing visibility. Every action is logged, and version control ensures nothing slips through the cracks. 

Auditing has also been transformed. Internal QA teams, and external bodies like Ofsted or local councils, can be granted temporary, read-only access to exactly what they need, in real time. No exports. No collating. No digging through inboxes or scattered spreadsheets. 

One source of truth, business benefits realized 

Time was one of Horton Housing’s biggest challenges. Individually, processes worked, but together they created what Darren called “death by a thousand cuts.” 

CoreStream GRC gives the organization a single place to run and review everything, from safeguarding cases to staff qualifications or gifts and hospitality entries. 

“If we can do it all in one place—here is our gifts and hospitality register, here is our staff qualifications register—that is what we are looking for. Build it once and use it across the organization.” 

Centralization solves the pain managers felt most: no more hunting for information, checking who updated what, or worrying that something fell through the cracks. It also enables faster responses to legislative changes, new reporting requirements, or new case types, all without scrambling to redesign spreadsheets. 

Thanks to CoreStream GRC, Horton Housing has been able to bring the processes that never had a natural home into one place, giving them a single, integrated hub for governance, risk and compliance. 

“Colleagues know for incidents, processes, and more, the place I need to go to is CoreStream GRC.” 

FAQs on Horton Housing’s integrated GRC platform