Exemplar 25: Lasting power of attorney
Published 1 June 2013
© Crown copyright 2013
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gds-transformation-programme-2013-to-2015/exemplar-25-lasting-power-of-attorney
The service aimed to process 300,000 applications each year.
Department responsible
| Department | Permanent secretary | Digital leader |
|---|---|---|
| Office of the Public Guardian | Usrula Brennan | Matthew Coats |
Status
Service is live and being continuously improved and expanded.
Watch an update filmed in May 2014, when the service went live:
May 2014: Lasting power of attorney goes live
Watch a description of the exemplar:
Exemplar 25: Lasting power of attorney – Background
Watch a demo introducing the service, filmed July 2013:
Exemplar 25: Lasting power of attorney - Demo
Watch a demo of some new features, filmed January 2014:
Video: Demo: Exemplar 25 – Lasting power of attorney
Successes
The service received very positive feedback from users.
The service was named runner-up at the Civil Service Awards.
Moving from a paper-based service to a digital service led to a reduction in error rates.
The service performance is being measured and published.
90% of digital users are paying online.
The service was the first exemplar to pass a live Digital by Default Service Standard assessment.
The live service was released with an average user satisfaction rating of 90%.
There’s now a full, permanent Civil Servant service management team in place.
Challenges
Agency-wide digital transformation to allow the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) to be a digital exemplar.
Building support models for new digital services.
Next
Continue to improve and expand the service.
Back office case management system scheduled for Digital by Default Service Standard assessment in November.
Live service performance
Digital take-up
Proportion of applications made using the digital service.
Completion rate
Proportion of users who start and complete their application using the digital service.
Digital strategy statement
From the ‘Ministry of Justice digital strategy’ – December 2012:
End-to-end digital transformation of the Office for the Public Guardian: this includes applications for Lasting Powers of Attorney by April 2013 and deputyships during 2013-14, and the processes that support them.
Scope of exemplar
Lasting power of attorney (LPA) allows people to appoint a person or persons to take decisions for them if they lose mental capacity. There are 2 types of LPA - property & finance, and health & welfare. The present system is paper based and inefficient. The transformation aims to put it online for the first time, cut costs and improve speed and accuracy.
OPG’s aim is to encourage more people to plan ahead for an uncertain future by making LPAs easier and quicker to create thus allowing citizens to choose for themselves who they would want to be making decisions on their behalf were they to lose capacity. This could also potentially mean fewer expensive applications to the Court of Protection, who would need to step in and appoint someone to manage a person’s affairs if they hadn’t put an LPA in place.
Digital inclusion
GDS has mapped the exemplars against the digital inclusion scale to help show where these services may be difficult for some people to use. See the mapping for Lasting power of attorney.
Delivery Status
Discovery
Completed: Discovery — February 2012.
Read about the discovery phase.
Alpha
Completed: Alpha build — February to April 2012.
Beta
Completed: Beta development — July 2012 to June 2013.
Completed: Public beta — July 2013.
Completed: Service migrates to production infrastructure — May 2014.
Live
Completed: Service goes live — May 2014.
Completed: Build deputyships service — July to September 2014.
New case management software goes live — January to March 2014.
Private release of deputyship service — October to December 2014.
Public release of deputyship service — January to March 2015.
Decommission existing case management system — after March 2015.
Fully integrated service goes live — after March 2015.
Anticipated volume
300k applications a year
Service link
See the lasting power of attorney service.
Service performance
See how the lasting power of attorney service is performing.
For further information about this project please visit our blog or contact us.