Presentation from one of the winning projects in the IT Excellence Awards 2010. The project is about making applications for free school meals an easy to use online process

1. Online Free School Meals
“a revolution in public service delivery”
Amanda Derrick, Programme Director
Socitm 2010 Conference
Local Government IT Excellence Awards

2. The Connect Digitally Programme is driving service costs
down through online delivery
• Led by Hertfordshire County Council and funded by the
Department for Education
• Leading 152 English local authorities (LAs) in
– Streamlining service delivery
– Realising cashable savings
– Improving quality of service for citizens
• Transforming three transactional services for citizens by
moving them online
– School admissions
– Free school meals
– Payments to LAs and schools

3. Online Free School Meals (OFSM) transforms the
customer journey from a difficult paper based process…

4. … to an online service that improves the experience for
the family and saves the LA money

5. OFSM: an innovative use of technology which integrates
the back-office and redesigns the front-office
HMRC
Parent/carer Eligibility
applies online Checking DWP
Service
Home Office
Internet
Internet
Confirm FSM eligibility to
school
LA School
Back Office
Application
processed by local
authority officer
Meal
Parent/carer provided
applies by phone
Paper-based
or face to face sooner
application
application plus
proof of benefits

6. OFSM is providing an increasingly valued service to
English and Welsh LAs …
2008/2009 2009/2010
350000
300000
Number of Transactions
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

7. Examples of cashable savings reported by LAs
• 10,000 fewer citizen calls to Customer Service in
the renewals process, saving £20,000
• Reduction in staff, saving £98,000
• Reduction in office space, saving £6,000
• Fewer queries from schools, saving £5,000
• Improved audit process, saving £18,000 between
September and June
• £11,000 savings for one morning’s work including
savings for parents/schools/LA/DWP

8. Increasing take-up drives costs down with ROI of seven
to ten fold
40
Across 152 LAs
30
Channel Shift
20
10
0
Delivery Costs (£m)
Decreasing Service
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
-10
-20
-30
Proof of Benefit Required Proof of Benefit Removed
Online Application Form Full Online Service
-40

9. Examples of the impact on LAs and families
• Increased take-up of FSM from 20,000 to 27,000
• 95% of renewals needed no further checks
• Service response reduced from 3 months to 3 minutes
• Parent quotes
– “Very, very good, I’m not good at reading and writing and I
found it so easy – thank you”
– “I was very impressed that the application was straightforward
to complete. I know of people who have not claimed for other
benefits as they find it too difficult to complete forms”
– “The system ensured my son had free school meals without the
worry …difficulty of paper application and posting issues …a
fantastic experience considering the normal stress of form
filling, stamping, posting and checking. 10 out of 10. Couldn’t
have been easier.”

10. Online Free School Meals is a project delivering…
• Innovation
– Innovative technology
– New ways of working
• Return on Investment
– Cashable savings for central and local government and citizens
– 7 – 10 fold return on investment
– Benefits realised exceeded expectations
• Outcomes
– Secure, reliable ECS delivered on time and to budget
– 162/174 LAs registered to use ECS
– Removal of paper proof of benefit on target
• Impact
– Transformed citizen experience
– Child receives a free school meal by next day
– Welsh authorities followed English example
– Encouraged DWP to consider use of informed consent
– Improvement in data quality

11. Online Free School Meals…
Delivering ‘more for less’ – a revolution
in public service delivery
“Take-up of FSM has increased by a
factor of 5 but we’ve been able to
reduce staff by more than half”