Access Checklist
Background to the checklist
1. The Modernising
Government White Paper of March 1999
outlined a number of steps to improve access to
public services – to ensure that people who
may need services:
 | know what services are available,
|
| know how to apply for them,
|
| can easily do so,
|
| preferably by a method that suits them best,
|
| at a time that suits them best,
|
| with help if they need it, and
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| with minimal delay.
|
2. The White Paper prompted several strands of work
in this field. For example, Service Action Teams
(comprised of officials from a range of central
government departments and agencies, local
government organisations and voluntary
organisations) worked to bring about more joined
up operation between public services,
concentrating in particular on issues around
access. The Teams have published an action
plan, setting out some of the key
developments they aim to bring about. One of
those was the development of a further Action
Plan to meet public demand for extended hours
service by the end of 2001. "Making
it happen:extended public service hours"
- The Government’s corporate
IT strategy supports improved access by
promoting the use of innovative, IT-based
approaches to service delivery.
3. This detailed work, in the IT field and elsewhere,
is making a valuable contribution to giving the
customer the service he or she needs simply and
efficiently. But it is important, in preparing
and in implementing the detailed improvements
that emerge, to keep in mind the broader
picture. Improvements in access to services need
to take account of the needs of all their users,
including those who are disadvantaged socially,
economically or reason of disability, and those
who are themselves working during conventional
service delivery hours.
4. Many public services have made remarkable and
innovative improvements in access to their
services, and we in the Cabinet Office will be
making greater efforts to ensure recognition and
publicity for best practice of this sort,
through the internet
and by publicising "beacon" services.
We are also doing all we can to encourage
service providers to involve front line staff
more in planning services – which the best of
them have often found is an effective route to
improvements.
5. This checklist is intended to help people at all
levels in service delivery organisations to
review access arrangements for the services they
provide. It contains no hard and fast rules –
but where a response to one of the questions set
out is negative, there needs to be a convincing
argument to support the position. The checklist
is also intended to be of interest to people
preparing detailed guidance on questions of
access, especially by electronic means, as a
reminder of the broader framework.
6. We see the checklist being only a first step to
encouraging improvement in this field. More
detailed guidance will be developed in a range
of fields, especially but not exclusively
relating to electronic service delivery; and we
shall try to bring together in a more coherent
and easily accessible way the examples and the
guidance from which service providers can learn.
7. British public services at their best are at least
as good as any service provided by anybody
anywhere. But others are not as good as they
could be, and we have to ensure that all
services continuously strive to meet their
customers’ needs.
Times the service is available or can be applied for
Delay
Access and affordability
Physical access
Choice of access routes
Modes of payment
Joining up
Encouraging access
Information, language and simplicity
Facilitators/champions
Front-line staff
Learning from experience
Service delivery checklist
Times the service is available or can be
applied for
The Government is committed to "making
public services available 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, where there is a
demand … public services that respond
to users’ needs and are not arranged
for the provider’s convenience"
1.
Research into the areas of greatest
demand for extended hours of service has
recently been completed and published ,
but all providers need to be aware of
their users’ preferences here.
The Government, working closely with
employers in the public and private
sectors, will be promoting flexible
employment policies which enable
businesses to adapt their approach to
service delivery to meet the needs of
the market, and which at the same time
enable employees to achieve a better
work-life balance. There are several
organisations who can offer guidance on
these matters including Department for
Education and Employment's work-life
balance web pages and
the Employers
for work-life balance web pages.
1. Have you consulted customers on whether
they wish to be able to apply for, or
receive, the service outside ordinary
working hours?
http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/servicefirst/index/publications.htm#Consultation
2. Are there any barriers to extending
service hours, for example by extending
services offered over the Internet,
extending counter opening times or by
offering an out of hours telephone
service? How might these be overcome?
3. Do you have a
policy on telephone access outside normal hours?
Delay
The revised service standards for central
government departments and agencies
announced in the Modernising Government
White Paper are on the Internet at http://www.servicefirst.gov.uk/2000/introduc/six.htm
4. Where a delay is likely between applying
for the service and receiving it, are
the likely delay, and the reasons for
it, clearly drawn to the customer’s
attention at the earliest opportunity?
5. What methods are in place for monitoring
and reducing delays, and for keeping
customers informed during delays?
6. What assessment have you made of the
impact of delays on public attitudes to
the service?
Access and affordability
It is important that public services are
available to all, and not denied to
people because of their income or
because they are not judged to be in
priority need. Gender can be a
significant factor in social exclusion,
particularly when combined with a
disability or ethnic background 2.
Women (particularly those who are not
working) may have no financial resources
for their personal disposal.
7 If services are available on payment of a
charge, are there procedures for waiving
the charge in cases of hardship?
8. If services are allocated according
to priority needs, are the criteria
sufficiently flexible to take account of
individual circumstances?
Physical access
Taking account of users' needs means
considering how the location of physical
access points imposes costs on them, in
terms of travel costs and difficulty.
This is particularly true in rural areas
9,
where innovative solutions such as
mobile or joint outlets may be possible
solutions.
9. Can any requirement on applicants to
attend in person for a service be
justified, in the light of the
inconvenience it may put them to?
10. Are there sufficient physical access
points for services available so that no
customer has to make an unreasonably
long or difficult journey?
11. Are all the access points suitable in the
light of legal and policy requirements
for access by disabled people? 3
12. Can access be reasonably be provided in
the same place as other services,
especially related ones?
Choice of access routes
13. Have you explored and taken up
opportunities to deliver services
electronically (including through call-centres)?
4
14. Is information about your service readily
accessible on your website, along with
links or information about related
services? 5
15. Do users who are not equipped or able to
use electronic media have a choice of
access routes - for example contact in
person or in writing? 6
16. Do the available means of access impact
adversely on low-income or otherwise
disadvantaged users?
Modes of payment
17. Where a charge is made for a service, are
all modes of payment accepted that could
reasonably be expected? For example, is
there any reason why charge cards should
not be accepted? Or credit cards?
Joining-up
18. Does an application for your service also
automatically lead or point to access to
other related services that someone
approaching you might reasonably want?
19. Are front-line staff fully informed about
all related services that customers
might typically be entitled? Are they
equipped to provide information or
assist in the necessary claims or, if
that is inappropriate, able to help
people make contact?
20. Have you consulted with service providers
(public and private sector) in related
areas about your proposed arrangements
for providing access to other services?
contents
Encouraging access
21. Do you have mechanisms for identifying
potential beneficiaries who are not
claiming or using the service, and the
reasons they are not? How is the
information fed back into the business
planning process?
22. Do you have a means of identifying
cultural or other barriers to use of a
service, for example in relation to
food, clothing, religion, staff
attitudes, comments and complaints, and
what actions have you initiated to
overcome them? 7
23. Are your security/identification checks
sufficient to reassure users that their
business with you is confidential?
Information, language and simplicity
24. Is public information about the service,
including information about how to
complain or make other representations
about the service, set out clearly and
simply so that it can be understood by
all service users?
http://www.servicefirst.gov.uk/2000/plainlanguage/guide.htm
25. Similarly, can users communicate easily
and effectively with the service
provider? for example, are claims forms
easy to understand and complete?
26. How are non-English speakers helped to
access information or communicate with
the service? for example, do you have
leaflets in minority languages or are
you able to provider interpreter
services?
27. Are any further steps needed to make
information accessible to people of
different cultural backgrounds or the
socially or physically disadvantaged?
28. Do you have strategies in place to meet
the information needs of your disabled
customers? http://www.servicefirst.gov.uk/2000/joinedup/accessible.rtf
contents
Facilitators/champions
29. Are existing facilitators and champions (eg
CABx) briefed so as to be best able to
help?
30. What efforts have been made to identify
how many people who are entitled to the
service are not claiming it, and the
reasons they are not?
31. What efforts are needed to overcome
cultural or other inhibitions on the
part of people in need?
32. Do you offer any training
to those who can help users? Do you
offer training to advice agencies when
introducing a change to your service?
Learning from experience
The barriers to effective take-up of public
services may not be readily apparent,
and some users may not be able
effectively to make their views and
needs heard. Gender may be a significant
factor in social exclusion, particularly
when combined with a disability or
minority ethnic background.
33. What arrangements have you made for
identifying and learning from "best
practice" in service delivery –
either within your own organisation or
outside – and for passing on your own
"best practice"?
34. Do you have an effective mechanism or
strategy for encouraging customer
feedback, including complaints, across
the board, for analysing it and for
building learning points into your
planning? 8
This checklist is not intended as a guide to
legal obligations in relation to service
delivery, for example under the Race
Relations Act, the Disability
Discrimination Act, the
Human Rights Act or any of the
statutes relating to gender equality.
