Transforming health assessments for disability benefits

We recommend that DWP should: a review the Programme plan and produce an updated business case, incorporating the white paper reforms, including: . allowing for optimism bias and contingencies for test-and-learn activity, new legislation and development of the Health Assessment Service;

DWP should: c be transparent about the Programme so that stakeholders including Parliament understand what it is trying to achieve, how it is performing and its flexibility to adapt to new initiatives by publishing: the metrics it will use to monitor the delivery of the Programme and the realisation of its benefits;

DWP should: c be transparent about the Programme so that stakeholders including Parliament understand what it is trying to achieve, how it is performing and its flexibility to adapt to new initiatives by publishing: regular data on the performance of the services, including data on claimant outcomes for the interim Functional Assessment Service and the new Health Assessment Service by claimant characteristics; and

DWP should: c be transparent about the Programme so that stakeholders including Parliament understand what it is trying to achieve, how it is performing and its flexibility to adapt to new initiatives by publishing: data about and evaluations of the realisation of programme benefits.

b produce interim target operating models for the Programme at appropriate stages and continue to develop its test-and-learn approach including: ? testing and learning what works best for the new services between now and 2029 so DWP and contractors are clear about what they need to implement;

c be transparent about the Programme so that stakeholders including Parliament understand what it is trying to achieve, how it is performing and its flexibility to adapt to new initiatives by publishing: ? its new business case;

DWP should: a review the Programme plan and produce an updated business case, incorporating the white paper reforms, including:plans for different scenarios including risks from both interdependencies and external changes such policy and legislative change. This should inform the longer-term risks to Programme objectives individually and in aggregate;

DWP should: a review the Programme plan and produce an updated business case, incorporating the white paper reforms, including: completing work to establish the criteria by which DWP will track the agile test-and-learn aspects of the Programme and assess whether the Health Assessment Service is ready to proceed to each new stage; and

DWP should: a review the Programme plan and produce an updated business case, incorporating the white paper reforms, including: demonstrating it has effective assurance and control over development of the Programme?s digital architecture, including how the Programme will fit with DWP?s other departmental digital initiatives, using oversight independent of the Programme;

DWP should: b produce interim target operating models for the Programme at appropriate stages and continue to develop its test-and-learn approach including: setting out the data and evidence that the new services will need to produce to enable the test-and-learn activity, the tracking of benefits and the Programme?s evaluation;

DWP should: b produce interim target operating models for the Programme at appropriate stages and continue to develop its test-and-learn approach including: setting out how the Health Assessment Service will be benchmarked and use comparative data from the interim Functional Assessment Service; and

DWP should: b produce interim target operating models for the Programme at appropriate stages and continue to develop its test-and-learn approach including: putting in place the mechanisms to provide feedback to healthcare professionals and decision-makers and helping assure the consistency of decisions, for example by using data from mandatory reconsiderations and tribunals;