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The lessons from the first year of AC inspectio October/November 2009

The lessons from the first year of AC inspection October/November 2009

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The lessons from the first year of AC inspection October/November 2009

l-gordon-mackenzie
should this read Benefit without the 's'

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Agenda

• CAA and the framework for inspection• Learning issues • Inspection for 2009/10 and 2010/11

– What we are planning to do

• Findings from our recession survey • Developments in the Commission’s approach

– Some thoughts around future changes and challenges

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CAA Framework for inspection

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CAA Framework for inspection

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Learning issues – 18 months on

• 18 inspections completed• 16 reports published• 8 ‘Promising prospects for improvement’

– Risk based approach tended to be based on 2007/08 PIs as starting point

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Learning issues (process)

• Most councils have adopted a positive approach • Self assessment

– Not a test– An opportunity to ‘tell the story’– Not prescriptive – and even less likely to be in future– But KLOE can be a useful framework– Think about what is right for your area– A useful learning exercise if done in the right way

• Action plans– one month following inspection

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……and councils response to our inspections• The inspection team gave council comprehensive and

regular feedback throughout onsite phase– 92% strongly agreed or tended to agree

• The recommendations made in report were accepted– 83% all or most

• The inspection report was outcome focussed– 75% strongly agreed or tended to agree (8% not)

• The inspection was useful to council– 50% strongly agreed or tended to agree (25% disagreed)

BUT• Information request

– 25% too much

• Recommendations in report were useful and practical– 50% tended to agree– 33% tended to disagree

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Learning issues (to improve the service to customers)• Speed v quality

• Access and customer care– Notifications– Telephone response, abandoned calls– On-line calculators

• Customer engagement, satisfaction and take-up

– Very limited ‘feel’ of customer satisfaction– Varied approach to take-up (not measured and managed)

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Older people and benefits – what are the issues?

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Learning issues (to improve the service to customers)• Overpayment recovery

– Prevention and education

• Equality and Diversity– Understanding communities and making service ‘fit’

• Value for money (VFM)– Performance management– And re-thinking process

• Fraud– Concerns about increases in recession, and some

councils shifting resources

Audit Commission Tomorrow's people

Impact of recession

• Jobseekers allowance up 91%• Redundancy up 94%• fuel debts up 39%• mortgage and secured loan arrears up 42%• rent arrears to private landlords up 25%• HB up 20% (HB claiming enquiries doubled)

15% increase in all problems dealt with by bureaux in Q2 2009/10 compared to same quarter in 2008/9:

Audit Commission Tomorrow's people

Main housing benefit enquiries 2008/9

• Eligibility/entitlement/calculations 106,555 • Claiming process 10,794• Form filling/checking 6,420• Appeals 8,233

• Overpayment recovery (HB &CTB) 18,358• Backdating 7,989• Discretionary housing payments 4,357• Non dependant deductions 3,122• LHA rent restrictions 3,050• LHA payment direct 2,589

Audit Commission Tomorrow's people

Looking behind the figures: bureaux bugbears

• Typical HB claim is complex: client has literacy problems, mental health problems, difficulty budgeting, multiple changes in circs, threatened with eviction. Are systems built with this profile in mind?

• communications • standard letters• adviser telephone access• with other agencies (DWP/housing)

• processing delays:• new claims• changes in circs/suspended claims

• gaps in claims/backdating restrictions• overpayment recovery • LHA direct payment - not pro-active in identifying vulnerable claimants

Audit Commission Tomorrow's people

Best practice from the CAB perspective• Personalisation – shape the service round the customer, not the system:

• tailored letters, • Identifying and tagging “vulnerable” claims • home visits/face to face• pro-active on seeking customer feedback

• Pro-active in maximising take up, minimising rent arrears • following up incomplete claims rather than just closing down, • fast track for urgent cases • Triggers to identify payment-to-landlord cases from outset of claim• Promoting DHP - information on all decision letters where 100% of rent not

covered • Recognising CABx as partners:

• Implicit consent• Regular liaison arrangements - involving bureaux in policy reviews • Joint work on information provision and take up

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And what have we learned?

• Integrating new staff– Fresh pair of eyes valuable– 8 ‘inspectors’ and 3 transferring from BFI– 3 Policy Team

• Feedback through our stakeholder group– How it felt for them……– First meeting took place in December 2007 and met each 6

months since then (minutes available on AC website);– Group ‘rolling’ membership

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The recession survey - what we did …..

Surveyed all heads of benefit in June 2009 – 134 (41 %) responded

Asked about the impact of the recession on local benefit services

Asked about local responses

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Between April 2008 and April 2009, caseloads increased in all types of council and all regions

…but some services saw much greater change than others

l-gordon-mackenzie
delete 'much' and replace with 'a'

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Most services reported associated increases in people wanting debt counselling, money advice and applications for DHP…..

l-gordon-mackenzie
delete 'associated'
l-gordon-mackenzie
replace with
l-gordon-mackenzie
'needing' ?

So what have councils done to

respond?

Testing Times: Benefits services and the recession

l-gordon-mackenzie
make it snappier 'So what have councils done?'

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47% of councils increased funding for debt counselling or money advice services in 2009

Percentage of Councils who have put additional money into debt counselling or money advice services

…rising to 67% of those who reported additional demand

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70% of services are changing strategies or operational plans for 2009 to address increases in demand

How benefit services have changed their working practices

Changes in targeting potential customers

Testing Times: Benefits services and the recession

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46% of benefit services now explicitly targeting newly unemployed people …

• …identifying and visiting employers who may release staff before redundancy

• ....working together with others (internally and externally) including job centre staff to offer a range of support

• …district councils working together and with county councils to maximise publicity and simplify boundary issues

l-gordon-mackenzie
'are now targeting' ?
l-gordon-mackenzie
isn't this the same thing?

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Most services were targeting families who should benefit from November, when child benefit stops being counted as ‘income’

“Promoting via

schools and

children's services”

…how is your service promoting this change?

“Using existing

records like free

school meal

claimants”

“Revisiting failed claims”

l-gordon-mackenzie
'Most services target families who will benefit...'

Heads of service had a number of concerns

about the future…..but some are rising to the

challenge

Testing Times: Benefits services and the recession

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Increasing concerns about fraud….

The number of referrals have increased to a point where

the fraud team are becoming overwhelmed

28% of services were more concerned about fraud – but only 11% were increasing staff for this area, while 75% were reducing

….more details on fraud in a recent AC report

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…. concerns about capacity to deal with increases in demand

“We have put on hold some of the things we planned to do

this year”

“Finding it difficult to keep up with demand, staff

working all hours available”

“Resources are

severely stretched”“We are

reducing non

statutory services”

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…..but also a variety of approaches to increase capacity

• better use of telephones and technology

• more home working where this improved productivity

• revised working hours to maximise staffing levels at peak enquiry times

• redesigned workflows so that one member of staff could more often deal with a full claim in one session

• use of other council staff to support the service, for example reception and library staff

• more training and approaches that better use existing expertise

www.audit-commission.gov.uk/testingtimes

Testing Times: Benefits services and the recession

• Summary of our survey on the impact of the recession on benefit services

• Graphs for all survey answers – available by region and authority type

• Comparator tool – enter your caseload data to compare increases in demand

• Short report to follow

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Update on inspection

• Challenging – planning work in the absence of up to date performance information

– Data quality– Track record on PIs– LA error

• Obtaining information direct from councils– Where there are other signs of ‘risk’– Responses showing some gaps in information– Early days, but some concerns about how performance is being

measured and managed

How are you finding out about relative performance?

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Update on inspection

• Lots of activity in the second six months of 09/10– 22 further inspections ‘agreed’– Total (for the year) up to 35 by March 2010– Website will show those planned for the next quarter

• Similar level next year– Looking at issues in relation to subsidy and VFM– Reinspections– How we can stimulate improvement – a small number at higher

performers?– Short notice inspections?

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The future

• Minor changes to KLOE– More prominent on benefit take-up

• Continued focus on VFM– Good progress on LA error (halved between 06/07 – 08/09)

• Responding to issues from CAA– potential for cross-cutting, joined up work– how benefits is supporting wider outcomes– short notice inspections?

• More input from a ‘user’ perspective– Tenancy inspection advisors– Looking to pilot other ways: eg; through web and surveys

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CONTACT

Email

Tim Savill [email protected]

Phone

07876 144849

Website

Audit Commission benefits information:

http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/benefits/