London Borough of Harrow

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London Borough of Harrow

The council decided to ask Fujitsu to conduct a small project to investigate capacity within the department. The contract was awarded through the Government’s Services Catalogue and began in May 2003.

The Challenge

Following the introduction of new government guidelines to combat benefit fraud in 1999, the process of assessing claims has become more stringent. Like all other local authorities, the London Borough of Harrow was required to verify specific original documents from claimants. However, applications were often submitted without the necessary supporting evidence and the Housing Benefit Department found that it was becoming involved in extensive correspondence with applicants as it tried to gather all the required information.

As a result, the whole assessment procedure became lengthier and more complex. As one of the first sites to implement the Verification Framework, Harrow’s compliance with the required standards had the effect of slowing down many processes. While government guidelines were being followed correctly, claims were not being processed quickly enough. A Benefit Fraud Inspection in early 2003 criticised the council’s performance in an unfavourable report.

Carol Cutler, Director of Business Services at the London Borough of Harrow, had responsibility for the effectiveness of the Housing Benefit Department and was receiving complaints from both customers and councillors. "We implemented a document management and workflow system; we allocated more staff but still we had a backlog of claims that we never managed to reduce. This is a high-profile service that has a significant impact on people’s lives, yet it was not operating efficiently. Everyone was working very hard but the department was not delivering outcomes and I could not see why."

Of particular concern to Carol Cutler was the fact that members of staff in Housing Benefit were so busy fire fighting that they could not actually provide her with specific information about why certain processes were taking so long. "As the problem had gone on for some time, and the people involved were clearly caught up in it, I felt I needed to undertake something radical."

The Solution

A transitional period within the management of the department provided the opportunity to take action. The council decided to ask Fujitsu to conduct a small project to investigate capacity within the department. The contract was awarded through the Government’s Services Catalogue and began in May 2003.

As Carol Cutler explained: "I asked the council to approve a small amount of funding and agreed an initial piece of work with Fujitsu. We expected improvements and so it was a no risk situation for Harrow." Payment to Fujitsu was to be made in three stages: the first after both parties had agreed how to amend processes; the second when the department had met its targets for four consecutive weeks and the final one when the backlog was eradicated.

The Benefits

The Housing Benefit Department now responds to all communications within 48 hours. If applications are complete then benefit can be paid after two days. Claims are now processed well within the standards set by government for the performance of claims processing. Halfway through the project some of the benefits were evident on the front desk; there was spare capacity instead of queues of applicants. Within four months, the backlog of applications was cleared.

"The whole operation is running much more smoothly" reported Carol Cutler. "70% of applications are not complete yet the Housing Benefit Department no longer assumes total responsibility. When customers receive a form back it is obvious that nothing has happened and that they need to take some action. We find that they do accept responsibility for completing applications. The result is that internal morale is very much higher because employees are dealing with customers who are happy, not disgruntled."

The requirements of the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate were key for Harrow. All the relevant recommendations from the inspection report that were identified for completion by this project were addressed. Carol reflects "I am confident that we can maintain improved performance because we have changed the culture of the department." Working within a given timescale is now a key motivator. Individuals discuss progress with their supervisors every week and are pleased to see improvements in meeting targets.

"People can be very comfortable in a working situation that’s always busy. What we’ve done is convince them that within existing resources we can continue to improve processes, the working environment and the satisfaction of giving good service." Carol Cutler plans to take the lessons learnt from this project into other departments, using the same model for managing performance.

The Implementation

In the first phase of the project, Fujitsu staff worked on site, analysing how the department operated and collating data to provide recommendation for a course of action. It was clear that document management processes and quality targets, not consistency or speed, prioritised the gathering of information and the culture of the department was such that it valued the objective completion of an application rather than overall customer service.

Fujitsu’s recommendations provided an implementation plan to amend processes and improve performance on a permanent basis. This aim was to eliminate the backlog of outstanding applications.

One of the fundamental changes was the decision to hand responsibility back to applicants by returning whole application forms if they were not complete when first submitted. At the same time, the department undertook to provide a quick turn around once a complete application was handed in. Claims are registered on first receipt so that the benefit start date is protected. Claimants are allowed the statutory timescale to continue the process; if they do not respond the application is closed.

Fujitsu also revised the process to optimise assessment at the initial receipt of claim. This new procedure ensures that all missing items are noted and requested at the first point of customer contact rather then one by one as the claim is processed.

As part of the implementation plan, Fujitsu worked with the cooperation of all levels of staff throughout the organisation to develop new working practices. The aim was to encourage the art of ‘working smarter, not harder’.

The Expertise

Carol Cutler is clear that Fujitsu’s main achievement was not only to identify ways of improving processes but to support the council through a programme of change. "Any consultancy would have identified the problems, what was special about Fujitsu was the hands on approach. The project was managed in a very user friendly way; with an indication of what the potential risks and problems were. Fujitsu was very good at project managing; very flexible, especially when things did not work out as expected and we had to adapt our plans."

Fujitsu identified that there was scope to enhance performance monitoring throughout the department. There was too much emphasis on policies and procedures and not output in terms of customer service. Fujitsu therefore provided the council with a model for monitoring performance at all levels and keeping on top of workloads. A performance framework was put into place that enabled the management of performance upon a team and individual basis.

"Fujitsu’s consultants were extremely good at managing people, particularly when there was resistance to measuring performance" continued Carol Cutler. "They had conducted a very careful discovery phase upfront so when emotion got in the way they could quote facts and focus discussion on reality rather than opinion. Although it seemed like slow progress at the time, the modelling and analysis undertaken at the beginning stood us in very good stead further down the line".