John’s Idea

The Tell Us Once programme highlights both the potential of service transformation and perhaps the  obstacle.

Tell Us Once (TUO) is piloting a new type of service.  As the name suggests the ambition is that customers tell government once about a change to circumstance and its government, rather than customers, that are responsible for delivering the change across public service activities.  The two changes of circumstance selected were births and deaths. 

The approach to designing the new service has been excellent.  A partnership between central and local government, the design team has explored its way to a proposal which generated a detailed business case and widespread enthusiam. 

Core to the proposition is that customers access the service in a way that suits them.  With bereavement there has been an understandable preference for face-to-face contact and the pilot councils have been able to provide this service as part of existing front office facilities.  Other channels (telephone and digital) will be provided centrally - a business model which could clearly be extended to other services.

14,000 customers have used the pilots so far and feedback has been impressive, both from the people using the service (99 per cent satisfaction) and the people providing it (97 per cent satisfaction).  TUO has shown that contacts are reduced by 7.1 for death and bereavement and 2.1 for births.

The pilots have also demonstrated a hard business case.  The financial benefits for government derive from a reduction in overpayments, reduction in recovery costs, reduction in fraud and error and efficiency savings.  Government will get all its costs back in four years. 

While TUO tackles many of emerging themes around service transformation (identity assurance, cross-government IS/IT infrastructure, and data sharing) the toughest is yet to be overcome.  How do we get agreement across government departments and between government departments and local government to invest in the service when there are winners and losers in terms of costs and benefits.  

Behind the Total Place initiative is the assumption that radical service transformation, built around the customer, provides the way of navigating through the anticipated reductions in public expenditure.  TUO presents a small but perfectly formed test case for this assumption.