On 12-Apr-05 Mike Brewer wrote:
> The report in question is DWP research report 232, a link
> to which can be found at
> http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs2005.asp
> The report itself is at
> http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep232.pdf
> It was co-written by Steve McKay, who has occasionally posted
> things to this list.
>
> The executive summary says that (p3):
> "Some staff said that they were entering some incorrect
> information to fill in unknown details so that they could
> get the system to continue with the case. Others took notes
> whilst clients were on the phone then completed the relevant
> screens afterwards." This is by no means the headline of the
> report, and the quote above makes it sound much less bad
> than the PM headline. It would be interesting to know what
> the authors made of this.
>
> Mike Brewer
>
> PS: the DWP website says this was published in March 2005,
> and the most recent report is number 242. So the real question
> is: who prompted the PM programme about this month-old report?
Thanks to Mike and others for putting the record straight and
pointing out the link to the report.
Well, there you go. Hoist with my own petard ... I should be
less credulous of media reports, even when resting on the
credibility of the BBC! (In passing, I wonder if the lack
of follow-up in the "PM" programme may have been a reflection
of this misleading impression, perceived by or brought to the
attention of producers after the headline had gone out.)
The relevant section of the Report is in Chapter 5, "How the
new scheme is working", especially pp 52-56. This is quite
damning of the new CSA computer system "CS2", which seems to
follow the form of other regrettable IT initiatives in Government.
A propos of the question of legality, there is the following
quote (p. 52):
"As an example of the level of frustration faced by
staff because of this flaw in the system, one AO
told us that they were putting in a false contact
date to get the wage information to clear. This
person was extremely concerned that by doing so they
were breaking the law but was determined to get cases
moving and knew of no other workaround that could help."
And it wasn't just dates ... It also seems that seems that
an entry into the system, correct or false, was impossible
to correct once entered.
Oh dear. Despite the undoubted good intentions of the staff
involved, the fact that they were aware thet they were
breaking the law should have led to Management taking the
issue forcibly upwards. And where were the Staff Unions in
all this?
Best wishes to all,
Ted.
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
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Date: 12-Apr-05 Time: 21:40:19
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