Conclusions and recommendations
1. In 2006, 64% of victims of violent crime
were unaware of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and
only 5% applied. The
Scheme continues to be undersubscribed and application rates varied
by gender, age, location, employment status and ethnicity. The
Ministry and the Authority should increase awareness of the scheme
by using research and the Authority's database to examine the
characteristics of both applicants and eligible victims and to
improve the marketing of the scheme. It should also make information
more widely available on how and where to apply, and who is eligible.
2. Almost a fifth of applicants responding
to the Authority's survey found the application form difficult
to complete, and almost half of those using representatives did
so because of the form's complexity. The
Authority should:
- make use of good practice developed
elsewhere in government and by bodies such as the Plain English
Campaign to make its application forms easier to complete;
- advertise its helpline number widely and encourage
applicants to use the service to apply over the phone, with appropriate
support; and
- encourage use of its interactive online application
form.
3. Although not a requirement, over half of
applicants were using representatives and, of those, over a quarter
thought they had to be represented.
The Authority should improve the information it provides to applicants
to make it clear that they do not need to be represented, thus
enabling them to make an informed choice.
4. 30% of applicants pay to be represented
by solicitors and only 21% are represented by Victim Support,
which provides a free service. The Ministry
and Authority should improve the information provided to victims
to tell them about the free service provided by Victim Support
and ensure that there is no encouragement given to 'no win, no
fee' lawyers at public expense.
5. The Authority's outsourced call centre
fails to answer 15% of calls, and of those that are answered half
have to be referred to the Authority's staff as call centre staff
are not able to resolve the query. The
Authority should equip its new applicant support service with
people who have knowledge of the scheme and have access to information
about individual cases to answer queries effectively, and set
challenging targets for the timeliness and quality of their responses.
6. After the Authority changed its policy
so that it requested medical records only when the police report
indicated that a crime of violence had occurred, it took four
years for the Authority to alter the standard nil award letter
so that the position on requesting applicants' medical records
was properly spelt out. This delay could
have disadvantaged some applicants. The Authority should consider
the effect of all policy changes on its standard literature and
amend it quickly as necessary, as well as put in place robust
processes to ensure that this situation cannot arise in the future.
7. The Authority and the Panel have not developed
appropriate targets or adequate incentives and, as a result, case
processing has been inefficient. The Authority
and Panel should:
- develop performance targets
that cover the process from initial application to final appeal,
ensuring each body is accountable for their part in the process;
- put performance management systems in place that
link personal objectives to organisational targets, monitor performance,
and provide incentives for delivering against those targets; and
- finish and roll out its new casework model to
support caseworkers, minimise handovers and identify ineligible
cases as quickly as possible.
8. The Authority returns only 2% of application
forms immediately on the grounds of incompleteness which leads
to cases which cannot be process clogging up the system.
To increase the number of ineligible applications that are identified
at this early stage it should put more experienced staff on the
initial application review stage and provide training.
9. The Authority relies on information from
third parties to assess eligibility in 98% of cases but police
forces, hospitals and General Practitioners often fail to meet
the 30-day response deadline required by the Code of Practice
for Victims of Crime. To improve performance
in deciding cases:
- the Authority should improve
relations with GPs and hospitals in the short term and over a
longer timescale, develop other ways of gathering medical information
to decide cases;
- the Authority should review its forms to check
it requires all the information requested and to make them easier
to complete;
- the Ministry should discuss with the Home Office
and the Association of Chief Police Officers how to improve the
individual performance of police forces against the requirements
of the code. Similar action will be required by the Scottish Government
with respect to the Association of Chief Police Officers for Scotland.
10. Since 2000, the Authority has introduced
operational policy changes incrementally and without fully considering
their impact, which have had the cumulative effect of increasing
processing times. Before
introducing any further changes to its operational policies or
working practices, the Authority should consider the likely impact
on processing times and assess whether the benefits of change
outweigh any increases to processing times or unit costs.
11. Increases in the time taken to resolve
cases and increased costs have led to a real terms increase in
the Authority's administrative costs per case of over 50% between
1998-99 and 2006-07. The Authority should
monitor the administrative cost per case and set targets to reduce
the cost per case in real terms for each of the next three years.
12. There has been a real terms increase of
15% in the Panel's cost per appeal between 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The Tribunals Service should examine why this is and cut costs,
looking particularly for economies of scale.
13. The Ministry has not set rigorous performance
targets for the Authority and the Panel nor held them accountable
for their performance. Only from 2006
did the Ministry take substantive action and only now does it
plan to introduce an accountability and performance management
framework. The Ministry should:
- operate the framework to include
regular and effective monitoring of the performance of the Authority
and the Panel against its targets; and
- introduce a systematic process to review the
performance of all its Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental
Public Bodies regularly so that it can react quickly to poor performance
and recognise and disseminate good working practices.
14. The Ministry only met five of our predecessors'
sixteen recommendations in full even though witnesses at Committee
hearings are responsible for implementing the recommendations
they sign up to in the Treasury Minute.
The Ministry now plans to appoint an official to liaise with the
National Audit Office and the Committee, and to monitor the Ministry's
response to their recommendations. The Ministry should ensure
that it has a senior official specifically tasked with tracking
action on Committee report recommendations and reporting to the
Accounting Officer regularly on progress. In addition, the Authority
should report to the Committee on its progress before the end
of the current Parliament. The Committee also looks to the Treasury
to take a more proactive approach in future to following up the
undertakings made by witnesses.
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