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Comment :
Glasgow Disability Benefits Centre:
improving the experience of customers
(July 2007)
Alex Hardie, Appeals Manager at the Glasgow Disability Benefits Centre talks about a successful initiative to improve the quality of DCS submissions.
On 4 June 2007, four representatives from the Council of Tribunals visited Glasgow Disability Benefits Centre (DBC) to look at the work being done to reduce the volume of cases being submitted to the Social Security and Child Support Appeals Tribunal (SSCSA). Kim Archer, the DCS Customer and External Relations Director also attended.
The Management Team in Glasgow DBC (like many of the other DBCs throughout the country) was concerned about the high volumes of cases being overturned at the Tribunal stage. At this time, one in four Appeal hearings were being adjourned (mainly for further evidence) and just under 50 per cent of decisions being changed. So the team decided to look at ways of improving the experience of their customers.
Led by Alex Hardie, the DBC's Appeals Team decided to track all incoming decisions from SSCSA and analyse the main areas of weakness.
It quickly became apparent that the main issue was that the Appeal Tribunals felt that many of the DCS submissions did not contain enough evidence to support the outcome decision.
The DCS Appeal writers in Glasgow decided to address this problem by ensuring that any future submissions were much more robust. This involved making much better use of the telephone and/or requesting the most appropriate form of medical evidence.
For Decision Makers at a local level this meant that, 'if a decision cannot be fully explained it might not be right'.
In Glasgow DBC, the Appeal Writers within the dispute process decided to provide the Decision Makers (DMs) with face-to-face feedback on any cases that had to be revised. This enabled the DMs to get a much better understanding of why their decisions were being changed locally.
The changes worked well. The unit soon noticed a 15 per cent reduction in cases being submitted to SSCSA for an Appeal hearing. Within a six-month period the volume of adjournments had reduced by 50 per cent. In the last quarter of the business year the Appeals Service actually had to reduce the number of sessions set aside for DCS hearings in Glasgow.
As well as providing feedback, Glasgow DBC also introduced a local 'Quality and Advice Team' to try and assist the Decision Makers in making a better quality of decision. The team were also responsible for carrying out all of the unit's checking. They increased the volumes of checking and focused on the known areas for improvement in decision making – for example mental health cases.
Checking was changed from Post Decision to Pre Decision with all checking results fed back face-to-face.
This good practice has since been rolled out across DCS, meaning all its customers can benefit from this improved approach.
The tracking exercise on cases coming back from the Tribunal Service was invaluable, as it meant local training and awareness sessions could be focused in the areas that were most needed. For example two staff from the local association for mental health delivered a session on the role of community psychiatric nurses.
At the end of the last business year the volumes of overturned Appeals had reduced to around 34 per cent - a huge improvement in performance. Waiting times for hearings in Glasgow had reduced to only eight weeks against a target of eleven weeks.
The staff in Glasgow DBC know that there is still much work to be done and this year all Appeal writers will be given time (as part of their personal development plan) to attend some hearings where they have prepared the Appeal submission. This will hopefully provide them with feedback on their own work and improve the quality of any future Appeal submissions.
But the changes they have introduced have already made significant improvements to the quality of service DCS supplies to its customers across the country.