Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Rejected
Publish comprehensive outcome indicators for health assessment programme, measuring claimant benefits and experience.
Recommendation
The Department’s approach to monitoring the Programme’s progress and performance has so far focused on process and not on the transformation of the service for benefit claimants. The Department has not yet completed the work needed to define how it will track progress with its test-and-learn activity. The Department published an evaluation strategy in May 2023 which sets out its nine key performance indicators for the Programme. These are focused on the process of running the service, such as the average cost of the service or the capacity and demand for health assessments, rather than tracking the experience of claimants. 6 Revising health assessments for disability benefits The Department has not set out what performance measures it will use to ensure that the Programme delivers the benefits promised for claimants, such as increased trust in services and decisions made. The Department does not yet have the data it needs to undertake testing and to judge if the new Health Assessment Service is successful, but intends that the outline business case for the Programme, expected in 2024, will set out how it will fill these data gaps. Recommendation 2: The Department should publish, as part of its new business case and through annual progress reports, outcome indictors that include the benefits of the Programme for claimants, which it, Parliament and the public can use to: • evaluate its testing of the new service, including establishing baseline performance against the 47 key performance indicators; • assess whether it is on track to achieve the benefits it intends for claimants; and • monitor claimants’ experience of the Health Assessment Service and Functional Assessment Service.
Government Response Summary
The government disagreed with the recommendation to publish outcome indicators in the new business case and annual reports, stating the program is too early-stage and they will refine their approach as it matures.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. The government agrees with the premise of transparency; the department will publish information once available and sufficiently robust. The Programme is in its early stages and is currently creating the right environment to transform services. As set out in the HTP Evaluation Strategy (May 2023), the department will refine its performance measurement approach as the Programme matures. This will include defining and tracking outcome indicators incorporating benefits to claimants. In line with Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) Code of Practice for Statistics, the department has started to publish management information (MI) and will continue to develop plans for publishing metrics. On 19 December 2023, the department published the first in a new series of HTP MI. Publication of this MI will continue quarterly in line with the PIP Official Statistics release schedule. As the Programme and underlying data systems mature, the department will evolve this publication to report against the nine key performance indicators (KPIs) and underlying performance metrics. The department will consider the value of publishing annual progress reports in addition to these quarterly statistics. As set out in the HTP Evaluation Strategy, the department is evaluating services as they develop and iterate. This includes conducting research with claimants to understand their experiences of new services. This approach ensures that scaling of these services occurs safely and that services can iterate accordingly. The department will explore publication of evaluation findings, in accordance with Government Social Research protocols, when appropriate to do so.