HMCTS Reform Event: CrimeBristol Magistrates Court Susan Acland-Hood, Chief Executive, HMCTS 23 January 2018

The system we are reforming

Justice System designed around experts rather than citizens we serve.

Paper based systems & poor IT infrastructure, which drives over reliance on physical hearings to move cases forward. The result is to sink scarce resources into crumbling estates and manual processing instead of good services.

Arcane processes that are hard to administer & even harder to navigate. Court is used to solve issues better dealt with elsewhere.

Resource and time allocation does not reflect the work being done – simple things can take a lot of time.

We need to change more than just our IT…

• Poor IT, staffing demands and dispiriting buildings.

• A system that feels long, slow and complex.

• HMCTS as a whole doesn’t seem to be making it easy and

is not always trusted to deliver well.

• We’re reaching the limit of the change we can make by

asking good committed people to do more with less.

• We need to make HMCTS more, rather than less, than the

sum of its parts by making more fundamental change.

• We need to move away from the paper-go-round.

Reform visionOver £1bn is being invested in transforming the courts & tribunal service, making the justice system simpler to access, convenient to use and more efficient to run; using technology to bring the processes of justice into the 21st century.

Our guiding principles

A just system that is built inpartnership with and around the needs of those who use it

A system that is accessible

A system that is proportionate and segmented

A system that builds on our strong, independent and trusted justice heritage

A system that is transparent, accountable and continually reviewed

A system that is financially viable

A system that is future proofed, designed for 2050 not 2015

A system with our people and our users at its heart

Civil

Online Civil Money Claims – claimants:

“It was really good and easy to do,. If I had known how easy it would be I would have made the claim ages ago. I do believe the whole court process it antiquated and needs to be updated and all services should be like this.”

“Rather than waiting 4 weeks to get an acknowledgement that its been issued, I got it in seconds”

Defendants:

“Simple and direct. Excellent”“Very straight forward easy to follow”

Family

Online Probate:

“Really easy – one of the most user-friendly websites around.”

“I found the online option extremely useful and for someone like me in their later 60’s very easy to follow.”

Online Divorce:

“The service was a lot easier because I use a wheelchair and didn't have to go out; I also found it very easy as an autistic person to get support from the team.”

Family

Public Family Law:

“The system is really easy to use and I can see the benefits this new way of working will bring especially when all the additional features have been added.” (Swansea Family Court)

“The Shared Storage Solution was really quick and easy to use, definitely a step forward. Looking forward to the additional steps being included to be able to share with other parties and upload it on to the portal!” (Swansea Local Authority)

Tribunals

Social Security and Child Support:

“Courts, judges, decision all quite frightening. This calms you down.”

“It’s easier to track it this way rather than waiting on hold for half an hour waiting to get through to somebody.”

“It’s easy to keep track of what’s happening. It’s really good. It’s got everything I need. I wouldn’t even have to ask anyone because it’s all there”

Crime

Make A Plea:

“Perfect – if only all government and other services worked this!”“I find the ability to make a plea online particularly useful for me as I’m homebound. It was easy to navigate – thank you.”

Automated Track Case Management:

“Absolutely brilliant. It is so clear and easy to read and I love the screens. Built-in validation will be a huge time saver.” (Legal Adviser)

“I have worked with system developers before and it has never been as good as this – clear, intuitive, easy to read and quick to move around the screens.” (Magistrate)

Changing the way we are organised

Two new Court and Tribunal Service Centres in Stoke and Birmingham

New ways of working in Courts & Tribunals

Consultation on Estates

Improvements to Security

Scheduling and Listing

The Scheduling and Listing project is implementing a tool and new processes to be used by court listing officers to support their work.

The contract for the pilot product was awarded to Zipporah in August and product testing on the tool has been completed and is now ready for use at the pilot site in Hull.

The project has trained staff to administer the tool and training for the Judiciary is underway.

Professional DashboardProfessional User Interface

A single point of entry to digital services for legal professionals, meaning that from a single log-in:

• Legal firms will be able to register as an organisation and create and manage user accounts for their staff.

• Users will be able to create new cases, pay court fees, and share cases with other members of their organisation.

• Users will be able to search for cases that have been assigned to them, monitor progress and take necessary action.

• Currently being tested with a limited group of users; due to be publicly available in ‘Public Beta’ from mid-2019.

• With the MoJ, we are developing programme-wide evaluation of courts and tribunals reform

• New ‘data fellowships’ –partnerships with research and other funders, as well as MoJ – will bring more capacity and understanding into HMCTS

Evaluation, Insight & Data

We have already:

• Published our Reform Update (Autumn 2018) in September

• Held a second series of Legal Professional Roadshows, making use of new technology and channels:

• Held an Online webinar (end Sept) covering Video Remand Hearings with over 100 participants

• Held a Civil Reform webinar (early Oct) with over 200 participants

• Held a Public User Event on 6th Nov

• Co-hosted an International Conference on Online Courts on 3rd & 4th December

• More than 14,000 people subscribed to email alerts

• Undertaken more than 3,500 interviews with CFT users

Communication & Engagement

In the next 12 months, we will:

• Develop greater understanding of perceptions and needs

• Audit, assess and track our engagement activities

• Improve consistency in the frequency and level of engagement that we undertake

• Increase visibility of opportunities for our stakeholders to engage with us, as well as the visibility of engagement that has already been undertaken and its impact

• Extend the reach of our engagement to more people

gov.uk/government/publications/engaging-with-our-external-stakeholders-our-approach-and-plans

Ways to stay in touch and tell us what you think

• Website and blogs posting key information

• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmcts-reform-programme

• https://insidehmcts.blog.gov.uk/

• Newsletter and e-mail updates

• Professional Engagement Groups

• Year-round roadshows and quarterly webinars

• Email us at changesomethingthatmatters@justice.gov.uk

• Follow us on

Twitter - @HMCTSgovuk & @CEOofHMCTSLinkedIn - HMCTS LinkedInYouTube - HMCTS Youtube

Tonight's event

We have four of the crime projects here to show you:

• Video Remand Hearings

• Case Progression

• Accessing IDPC on the Common Platform

• Common Platform at Liverpool Crown Court