Skip to main content

https://dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/all-service-assessments-and-self-certification/amend-my-driver-record-change-of-address-service-assessment-2/

Amend My Driver Record Change of Address - Service Assessment

The AmDR service is responsible for managing all services and channels required to enable drivers to update the details held on their driver record. This includes: change of name/address; replace a lost/stolen licence; renewals and adding/removing entitlements (including passing a test); accounting for 9m transactions per year
The transformation of these services begun with ‘Change the address on your Driving Licence’, which is currently delivered via online, telephone and paper channels.

Department / Agency:
DfT / DVLA

Date of Original Assessment:
23/09/2015

Date of Reassessment:
23/10/2015

Assessment Stage:
Alpha

Result of Original Assessment:
Not pass

Result of Reassessment:
Pass

Lead Assessor:
J. Hughes

Service Manager:
D. Ashford

Digital Leader:
O. Morley


Assessment Report

Outcome of service assessment

After consideration the assessment panel has concluded the Amend My Driver Record - Change of Address service has now met the requirements of those points, and is on track to meet the Digital Service Standard at this early stage of development.

Reasons

The team has now carried out user research with users with no and low digital skills, as required by point 1 of the standard.

The team has now taken a strong and proactive approach to meeting with users of this service who may need assisted digital support. They have got out into the real world to visit users in their own contexts, namely in sheltered housing and in public libraries. The team said that meeting users in these venues enabled them to meet the full range of users with support needs for their service.

The team met users with all levels of digital skills, confidence and access - ranging from 1 to 9 on the digital inclusion scale - asking all of them about their support needs. All users expressed preferred support options, but the team understood that only those users who need it must have appropriate support options available for them. Users able to complete the service independently should be encouraged to do so.

The team researched with 23 users who they believed would need assisted digital support. This was carried out using a working prototype of this specific service, and with the specific aim of understanding support needs. The team found that nearly half of these users might seek assisted digital support from friends and family; around a third might call the DVLA, and; around 1 in 10 would go to a third party organisation for face to face support.

The team found that even the lowest skilled users were able to complete the service unaided once they had been taught how to use the technology and navigate to the start page. The team acknowledged that assisted digital support for the service must include supporting users with such elements of their user journey - ie before they get to the start page, and including general challenges with technology.

The team now has a plan in place to make source code open and reusable, and the team told us that DVLA as a whole is now proposing to adopt this process. The process will include additional controls, reflecting the organisation’s recent shift to using in-house teams - code will be produced in a private repository, available for re-use within the organisation. It will then be reviewed by security experts prior to its public release.

The introduction of this process is a positive step forward and seems an appropriate approach to the requirement for the team, provided there is a presumption of publishing built in to the process, and assuming the process can be built effectively into teams’ work processes and schedules.

Recommendations

In respect of point 1, the team should continue to carry out observational research with users with low or no digital skills, and users with high digital skills, to deepen the understanding of user needs throughout the beta stage.

This should include researching with users seeking support from friends and family to understand their support needs, understanding that friends and family support is not appropriate for government to rely on and appropriate alternatives must be in place. This will enable the team to include these users when putting together a model of support for the service to test in public beta.

The team should put together a model of support to meet the support needs of users who genuinely need it, with other users being encouraged to use the on-screen service independently.

In respect of point 8, the team should keep the new process for reviewing and releasing code under review, and continue to develop the process throughout the beta stage of the project.

Summary

The panel would like to thank the team for their attendance at the assessment meeting today, and for the team’s positive response to the panel’s previous recommendations. Congratulations on meeting the standard and good luck in taking the service forward into the beta stage.


Digital Service Standard criteria

Criteria Passed Criteria Passed
1 Yes 2 Yes
3 Yes 4 Yes
5 Yes 6 Yes
7 Yes 8 Yes
9 Yes 10 Yes
11 Yes 12 Yes
13 Yes 14 Yes
15 Yes 16 Yes
17 Yes 18 Yes