Recommendations
Information Technology
1. We
are concerned that the work conducted over the course of the Operational
Improvement Plan to rectify the problems with the CS2 IT system
have either not resolved the problems or have revealed new problems.
More than 400 of these problems are sufficiently serious to cause
new cases to get stuck in the system. We hope that our successor
Committee will maintain a close interest in progress made in resolving
the IT problems with the old and current systems. We request that
the Commission supply our successor Committee with quarterly reports
on progress in this respect. (Paragraph 16)
2. We are concerned
at the almost exponential rise in the number of clerical cases
caused by shortcomings in information technology. The additional
costs of clerical administration of cases are mounting alarmingly.
We are concerned that this does not represent the "stable
base" that the Operational Improvement Plan set out to establish
for introduction of the future scheme. (Paragraph 22)
3. We welcome the
steps that the Commission has taken to learn from the disastrous
mistakes made in commissioning the CS2 IT system. We are encouraged
by the organisation's confidence that the IT system to administer
the future scheme will be more efficient to run and we note the
strong case that has been made for using off-the-shelf packages.
(Paragraph 26)
4. However, it is
often the process of making different packages work together that
creates IT problems. We ask the Commission to keep our successor
Committee up to date with the progress of development of the future
scheme system and we therefore request that it make six-monthly
reports to our successor Committee on its work in this area. (Paragraph
27)
Transitional arrangements
5. The
launch of the future scheme represents the "clean break"
from the past and current systems of child maintenance recommended
by Sir David Henshaw. It is essential for the future health and
equity of the system of child maintenance that this launch, and
the transition of cases from the old and current schemes is managed
successfully. However, we are concerned that the requirement to
operate three schemes on three different IT systems concurrently
during the transitional period will pose a formidable administrative
headache. (Paragraph 36)
6. We are very concerned
that the escalating costs of clerical administration of cases
risk placing an intolerable burden on the Commission at just this
crucial moment. We also note that delaying the process of transition
will only increase the long-term costs of clerical administration.
(Paragraph 37)
7. It will be for
our successor Committee to oversee the transition process and
maintain a close eye on the work of the Commission in this crucial
period. We call on the Commission to provide our successor Committee
with six-monthly updates on what steps it is taking to contain
the numbers of clerical cases and on the total monthly cost of
clerical administration. We also ask for six-monthly reports on
its planning for handling old and current scheme cases in the
transitional period. (Paragraph 38)
Improving service delivery and case management
8. We
commend the staff and management of the CSA for their very substantial
achievements in exceeding their target by a wide margin for clearing
the backlog of uncleared cases and for meeting their target for
processing new claims. The CSA has also made big strides in improving
its accuracy and its levels of customer service. It is to the
credit of all in the organisation that, in these respects, it
has never been working more effectively. However, there is still
room for improvement and we hope that the Commission will be able
to maintain this momentum and urge it to ensure that it learns
from these successes in designing operations for the future scheme.
(Paragraph 50)
Improving outcomes
9. Whilst
the newer maintenance outcomes target may be more complete, it
nonetheless appears to have been set at a much more achievable
level than the previous case compliance target. Although the Commission
met its revised Operational Improvement Plan maintenance outcomes
target, it missed the original case compliance target by a wide
margin. We ask the Commission to set out how it calculated the
maintenance outcome target to ensure that it was sufficiently
challenging. (Paragraph 58)
10. The Commission
missed its 2008-09 target for collection of arrears and acknowledges
that the 2009-10 target is looking very challenging. However,
we welcome the Commission's achievement in stemming the growth
in arrears and anticipate that the suite of new powers that it
has obtained will stimulate further progress. Reducing levels
of arrears are key to restoring confidence in the child maintenance
system and represent an essential element of the platform for
launching the new system. (Paragraph 66)
11. We encourage our
successor Committee to maintain a close eye on progress in reducing
arrears and, to that end, we call on the Commission to provide
a six-monthly update on progress, including specifically reporting
on the use that has been made of its new statutory powers. (Paragraph
67)
12. The Operational
Improvement Plan explicitly set out to lift 40,000 children out
of poverty. Improving the operation of the child maintenance system
is integral to the Government's strategy for reducing levels of
child poverty. We are unhappy that the Commission's contribution
to these cross-Government targets cannot be precisely quantified.
We call on the Department to establish meaningful performance
indicators for the Commission to measure its contribution to efforts
to combat child poverty. (Paragraph 72)
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