Digital Deputyships for Public Authorities

The Office of the Public Guardian is developing a number of services to enable Deputies to submit their annual reports online. One of these services is being developed specifically for Public Authorities.

We have been undertaking research work with a number of Public Authorities to understand what their needs and requirements from a service are. This has included 1-1 research sessions, work shadowing, and navigational and design testing.

One of the main outcomes of this research and design work is a prototype of a system for PA teams who do not have 3rd party software support. Screenshots and explanations of the proposed functionality are included in this briefing document.

We intend to have a first version of this service available for Public Authorities to trial and use in April.

We very much welcome any feedback and would be happy to run research sessions with you or any of your members. If you are interested in taking part, please contact:

David ThomasUser Researcherdavid.thomas@digital.justice.gov.uk

Functionality of dashboard

The dashboard screen gives the user information on:

1. current clients including name and court order number

2. filtering of reports based on status of reports

3. due dates of reports

4. ability to search by client name or court order number

5. highlights when a report is overdue to submission to the OPG

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The Service | Dashboard

Functionality of client profile

The client profile screen gives users information on:

1. The reporting period for the current report, date last saved and which user last worked on the report.

2. Visibility of progress and quick access to any section of the report the deputy is required to submit to the OPG.

3. Client management functionality which allows the deputyship team to store notes relating to clients, important contacts, and additional details of the client.

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The Service | Client profile (1)

Functionality of client profile’s additional management functionality

Functionality that users expressed a need for included:

1. Ability to keep case notes on what has been happening with the client over the course of the deputyship

2. Details of all contacts for a client and specifically a contact within the OPG that could be contacted for any queries.

The Service | Client profile (2)

User management

Initially, we will ‘pre-register’ the named deputy of the Public Authority. They will then be able to access the service and add users.

Every user will be able to make changes to the client profile items and work on the reports. There will be administrator access to the service to allow them to add/remove new users to the service.

Users will be prompted to enter in their contact information including email and phone.

The Service | User management

Ability to send additional documentation to the OPG securely using the service.

This is a user need that isn’t limited to just PA deputies. Lay deputies have also expressed that they would like to be able to send supporting documents with the report.

In some circumstances the OPG, often following the review of a report, asks deputies to send bank statements. The document upload functionality would be enabled for this as well.

This functionality has benefits both for the end user and for the OPG in terms of security and immediate access to documentation.

The Service | Document upload