Philip Virgo’s excellent blog post in Computer Weekly of 21 December 2010 about how to suitably design the new Universal Credit system deserves reading by all who might influence the process of delivering such a service.
Whilst many of the of the comments should be injected into the PASC call for written evidence, Philip’s penultimate paragraph is suitably ‘systems thinking’ – “To really help those trying to help better themselves, we require systems that assume chaos and unpredictability. That will entail giving front-line staff responsibility for holistic support and the ability and authority to over-ride the “system”.”
A suitable ‘New Year’s revolution’ in government thinking…