Attendance allowance
The report for DWP's Attendance Allowance alpha assessment.
Service Standard assessment report
Attendance allowance
| From: | Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) |
| Assessment date: | 11/08/2021 |
| Stage: | Alpha |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | DWP |
Service description
Attendance Allowance (AA) is a benefit to help with extra costs if the claimant has a disability severe enough that they need help or supervision from someone else. The digital service will primarily be an online claim form to make the journey simpler.
Service users
- Those who need frequent help or constant supervision during the day or night/both or are terminally ill
- AA claimants have an average age of 86
- 40% require assistance from a family member or charity to help them complete the current paper form
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service did not meet point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team showed deep knowledge of their users and the issues that users face in getting Attendance Allowance. They were also very knowledgeable about the barriers to take-up of the benefit (including low awareness, the complexity of the form, anxiety about benefits, plus a tendency to minimise the burden of care needs)
- the team is working with policy and with DWP to approach the problem radically, stripping out complexity and aiming to simplify the existing form substantially and moving it online
- the team is doing research across user groups, both internal and external and are working with advice sector specialists such as Age UK
- the team is thinking about question areas and experimenting with how best to order these to get realistic, high-quality applications
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to focus on defining user needs in relation to the application process more specifically as their beta progresses, and to feed in the work that they have done on awareness as appropriate as they progress
- be clearer about the varying routes to completion in the future (online process, PDF, paper pack) and how these join up
- broaden input from subject matter experts/advice sector beyond Age UK, and in particular look for more input from dementia charities, if possible
- explore any issues with regards to identity and fraud. This did not seem to be a great concern for the team, but it was not clear how the service would prevent fraud. User research will also be needed to understand whether the shared components that the team spoke about are relevant for this user type on this journey, or whether they will lead to a level of complexity that will be a barrier, for example, account creation
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has improved the application form for users. The previous application pack contains over 30 pages, with users needing to repeat information, the new service has reduced the number of questions users need to answer and only requires users to provide information once
- the service is intuitive and is scoped according to how users think. This was evident from the work done to re-order and re-word the questions asked
- the service focuses on eliminating previous pain points. Users were previously overwhelmed by the application pack and professionals, such as charities, were often involved in simplifying the process for users. This service has addressed these pain points raised by users
- the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the private beta will plug into the existing operational processes, and these have been impacted to ensure the customer experience is consistent and cohesive. The team is focussing on their hypothesis around automating decision making and will feed that into work to redesign the agent interface
- the proposed beta will allow the team to understand the agent’s response to the revised form and will iterate the customer and agent journeys based on this
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- look at the process when users are asked to provide more information, minimising the amount of contact with users, and in keeping with the new service, based on their findings from private beta
- look further at the end-to-end application process, including understanding the benefit and the guidance, preparing to apply and gathering information, applying, waiting for an outcome
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service met point 3 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has considered this in so far as they are able for their private beta, and is cognisant of the work that they need to do
- the team is aware of the need to do work on the content needed for confirmation emails and acceptance letters, and that they have plugged their private beta into existing letters where possible until they’re aware of the changes their new application process will need
- user research has been conducted with a variety of charities, professional bodies, and individuals
- the team has prepared for the contact centre to provide telephone support
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- make adaptations to the paper service alongside the online service, ensuring users are asked the same questions regardless of which process they follow
- continue to work on increasing awareness and understanding of attendance allowance with users
- be able to articulate the work that will be done with operational staff to keep them aware of iterative changes for when they are helping customers
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the overall usage of GOV.UK Design System components is well used
- the components used are all standard on the Design System and have been implemented in the correct way
- common components are used from other DWP services, which is evidenced on the payment capture screens
- the team had explored the use of progress indicators, such as a task-list or question numbers
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- look at the presentation and layout of the start screen. The start button is not visible until the user scrolls the start page. A solution may be to put the benefit rates into a table
-
consider the bullet points on the start page. “Use this service” doesn’t add any information as it only repeats the title of the service. “You can get £89 per week if you are either terminally ill” doesn’t make sense, so it might be better to remove the bullet points to say something like: You can get £89 per week if you are having difficulty during both days and night, or you are terminally ill
- demonstrate how error validation works and what it looks like. At the time of presentation, the prototype didn’t have the error message content so it couldn’t be assessed
- consider the name of their service - good service names start with a verb
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team worked alongside policy and challenged the requirement of evidence
- the team has done research with users who have assisted digital needs
- the team has done a good amount of work in alpha and discovery to understand user needs and have improved the content design based on user research and insight
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure the service continues to eliminate previous pain points. The previous application pack has a 32% response rate, so this can be used as a potential benchmark for identifying the service success rate. Research also showed a high percentage of claim forms requested and not returned, and use of visiting officers. A demonstrable reduction in these would help to tell the story of the transformation
- look at capturing information about who is completing the application, and change whose contact details are being collected accordingly. The team mentioned during testing that whoever is completing the form would enter their own details, even when completing on behalf of somebody else. Explore how this could be explicitly asked and recorded
- as outlined in the User Needs section, these service targets users who have additional needs, almost by definition. Look at developing a more strategic analysis of the challenges and issues here, and how these might change over the medium term. Consider what inclusion means here, realistically speaking
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service met point 6 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- there is a clear commitment to this work, and the team is resourced accordingly
- there are strong ways of working within the team, and they have excellent links in place with policy and operational colleagues, including senior leadership
- the embedded expert in the team is best practice and the panel was glad to note this role has been in place throughout
- this work is viewed as a pathfinder in DWP and therefore there is strong engagement with other teams
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to document, record and save work. The team is currently 60% external contracted staff. Whilst this is acknowledged and work is being done to document and record work, it is vital that this continues so that decisions are understood, as well as all artefacts and research outputs being saved so that they can easily be found and digested
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service met point 7 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is working at a good level of maturity and has agile practices embedded
- there is a strong sharing and challenging ethos to ensure decisions are made collectively, and all findings and analysis is shared
- the team is able to reflect on their ways of working and iterate upon them to ensure they improve
- the team is able to clearly articulate their governance structure and approvals process and has a strong story on benefits realisation
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure that the senior level engagement (director level) continues throughout the development lifecycle
- ensure that the DPIA is accurately reflecting the information gathered, and explaining the potential complexities of not knowing whether the contact details are for the customer, their informal support, a third-party organisation or a legal appointee/PoA
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is cognisant of the need to keep iterating - they were able to show how thinking and design have developed to meet their hypotheses, and are aware that they are starting with a simple claim type
- the team has iterated the prototype seven times based on user needs and have plans to continue to do so going forward
- the team iterated design and content throughout the service, such as the use of the term ‘frequently’ and produced content that was understood by all users
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- better develop their roadmap - whilst the team was aware that more complex journeys would need to be developed, there was no indication of timescales for them
- avoid finding a solution before user needs have been identified. The green zone work sounded very interesting, but there was clearly a split in opinion in the team as to whether this would work for the customer base. This should be tested and the shared solution only implemented if it will work for the greater proportion of claimants
9. Create a secure service that protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service met point 9 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is planning for the internal security assurance for our proposed deployment during beta at the moment GDPR and DPIA report
- the team is using TLS 1.2 between the client browser and server, also between the Node layer and our API layer.
- the team is doing the field level database encryption for data at rest in PostgreSQL
- certificates are managed by Platform, https is terminated by NGINX prior to arriving at the Node layer
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to have:
- completed the Security Risk, threat and vulnerability assessments
- completed the DPIA with their data protection officer
- published the cookie and privacy policy
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has developed their performance/success framework for the customer online application thoroughly and has considered where information could be sourced
- they plan to use GA, FedEx, surveys and operational management information, as well as qualitative research with the initial private beta participants
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- work on success criteria and identify x in y improvements that they expect to see
- monitor decisions, views and experiences. The team raised that the change in the culture of the back office staff was one of their key challenges - hence the importance that that panel is placing on being able to monitor not only decisions (quality, time taken, number of secondary contacts) but also the views and experiences of the staff dealing with these claims
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service met point 11 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has used the right set of tools and technologies for frontend and backend
- the team is using Node Express & DWP Casa Framework (Node) for Frontend and PostgreSQL AWS RDS or database
- the team is using Jira and Miro for managing the scrum stories, epics, themes and project management
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure that they are using the right tools for service audit, monitoring and logging for their platform and service
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service met point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is using various open-source tools and technologies
- the team is planning to publish the code on Github
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is using common components and GOV.UK
- the team is using DWP Casa Framework (Node)
- the team is using the Application Reference Architecture (ARA) which aims to move away from a siloed approach to deliver common services and data across the Estate
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service met point 14 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team is planning for the CI/CD using Gitlab which can ensure new features can be released without downtime
- the team is planning for the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity with the business users
- the team is planning for research sessions to prove the online form so don’t yet have any significant requirements for the availability
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- firm up their thinking on the availability requirements for the online form and their business continuity arrangements for when it’s not available
- look into achieving Zero downtime
- complete the BC and DR plans, SLAs and workflows
Published 28 September 2021