Recommendation 3

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.