Improving the Crime Service through technology - Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner - GOV.UK
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Improving the Crime Service through technology Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner Justice Matters
Why are we reforming the crime service? We rely on paper based systems & poor IT infrastructure, which drives The criminal justice system is designed over reliance on physical hearings to around experts rather than the citizens move cases forward. The result is to we serve. sink resources into estates and manual processing instead of good services. We administer arcane processes that Resource and time allocation does not are hard to administer & even harder reflect the work being done – simple to navigate. Court is used to solve things can take a lot of time. issues better dealt with elsewhere. 2 Justice Matters
The vision for crime reform The Crime Programme will make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible and transform the way we work, delivering efficiency and effectiveness. We will achieve this by: • Improving and automating business processes – activities will be automated, reducing administrative effort and avoiding errors and delays; online case management will be enabled • Sharing data and information – access, appropriate to the relevant party, will be provided to the most up-to- date version of the case at any time • Enabling new ways of managing business processes by moving to structured data and away from document images • Eliminating re-keying and ending duplication of effort across CPS and HMCTS • Driving a joined-up, standardised and simplified way of working to improve efficiency and quality, reducing delays 3 Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles Develop a design that is led Ensure that proceedings and Improve engagement of Preserve Judicial by understanding the needs information requiring public public users in the Criminal independence of victims, defendants, access are transparent to the Justice System practitioners and witnesses public Have an approach that is Work with others to provide clearly linked to business Improve effectiveness better guidance, signposting benefits with a view to all Reduce reliance on the through timely sharing of and access to services changes improving the physical courtroom where high quality information, through alternative digital effectiveness, efficiency possible thereby reducing delays channels and/or user experience of the system Actions are taken in advance Develop a common process Be digital by design and use of hearings and in Have a shared view of Case that reduces duplication automation where accordance with any information across the CJS appropriate directions or timetable Develop processes such that Develop a service which is criminal cases are clearly Have the right people in the Deliver a single source of futureproof and responsive to part of a common national right place at the right time management information legislative or operational model, with variations only change where essential 4 Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles Specific to technology Develop a design that is led Ensure that proceedings and Improve engagement of Preserve Judicial by understanding the needs information requiring public public users in the Criminal independence of victims, defendants, access are transparent to the Justice System practitioners and witnesses public Have an approach that is Work with others to provide clearly linked to business Improve effectiveness better guidance, signposting benefits with a view to all Reduce reliance on the through timely sharing of and access to services changes improving the physical courtroom where high quality information, through alternative digital effectiveness, efficiency possible thereby reducing delays channels and/or user experience of the system Actions are taken in advance Develop a common process Be digital by design and use of hearings and in Have a shared view of Case that reduces duplication automation where accordance with any information across the CJS appropriate directions or timetable Develop processes such that Develop a service which is criminal cases are clearly Have the right people in the Deliver a single source of futureproof and responsive to part of a common national right place at the right time management information legislative or operational model, with variations only change where essential 5 Justice Matters
Who are our users? Judiciary Witnesses Victims Defendants Advocates Defence firms Prosecutors Experts Youth Probation Police Witness care Offending Service Teams 6 Justice Matters
How do we know what users need? Defence Practitioner Collaboration Working with CPS Regular Group User engagement Researchers with other stakeholders Working Regular court groups on visits specific functionality Operational Validation of staff seconded designs with to the users programme Judicial Feedback from people Engagement using the Groups system Judicial Working User Public Engagement Group needs Events! 7 Justice Matters
The multi disciplinary team Strategic Design Technical Design Digital Delivery Implementation & Engagement & Architecture Delivery Business Business Service Owner managers Change Analysts Managers Tech Leads Service Technical Subject Matter Managers Architects Developers Experts Business Product Owners Project Professionals 8 Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023 By the end of 2020… • Common Platform rolled out to first early adopter site and two new Court and Tribunal Service Centres • Incorporated new technology and ways of working into a national service which provided support to new services. In addition to TfL and TVL, who were already using Common Platform for Single Justice Procedures • DVLA began using for Single Justice Procedure (SJP), following Transport for London and TV Licensing • Police forces in England and Wales also started to using the SJP process for COVID regulation breaches 9 Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023 By early 2022… • All courts in England and Wales will be live on Common Platform • DVLA and some Police forces will be prosecuting SJP offences using Common Platform and some non-police prosecutors will start to use it too • Staff will be moved into CTSCs working on reformed IT and processes • Feasibility work on defendant engagement with Norfolk and Suffolk police forces will also be completed 10 Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023 By March 2023… • Reform of all in scope Crime Services will have been achieved • Criminal court measures contained in Judicial review and Courts Bill will have been enacted • Areas previously in transition will be reformed, and all projects will be concluded by March 2023 • Additional functionality will have been introduced including interfacing CPS with the Common Platform, replacing Digital Case System (DCS) in the Crown Courts, introducing enhanced case progression functionality and integrating with new Scheduling and Listing and publication solutions 11 Justice Matters
Technological enablers for Reform Single Justice Service Common Platform Video Hearings 12 Justice Matters
Single Justice Service SJS was designed to take simple, low-level cases, most of which only result in a financial penalty, out of the court room where possible and appropriate. This means that: • A higher volume of cases can be dealt with, as cases can be dealt with outside scheduled court times in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres (CTSCs) • Hearings will be quicker and reduce the use of paper, forms, duplication and delay. • Court staff no longer need to print thousands of sheets of paper each week and spend time preparing and transporting physical files to and from court. • Defendants are able to make a plea online if they choose to. This increases the speed by which such cases are heard and resolved. 13 Justice Matters
Single Justice Service 850,000 Over 95% of court Around summary only, non-imprisonable decisions made without need for a hearing, saving prosecutor, Over 23,000 offences per year dealt with magistrate, usher and courtroom Online Pleas received outside the courtroom resource. more than 535,000 Make a 1,742 Police cases have been managed Plea interactions on Common Platform 14 Justice Matters
Common Platform The Common Platform is the new digital case management system which brings together all the relevant information about a criminal case from beginning to end. It will: • Improve the process for everyone – from legal professionals to victims and defendants – whilst also reducing costs and maintaining transparency. • Replace old legacy systems with a single system providing access to all the material necessary to deal with cases efficiently and effectively. • Make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible. • Help remove the manual handling of documents, duplication of process and the re-keying of information. 15 Justice Matters
Common Platform This equates to 101 47,290 cases A total of courts are now using 44% of courts have been Common Platform now live with accepted onto the Common Platform Common Platform 55,480 7,353 Crown Magistrates’ Court Court hearings hearings have have been been managed on managed on Common Platform Common Platform 16 Justice Matters
Video Hearings • Many criminal hearings can take place using video or audio technology, removing the need for participants to attend court in person, thus saving on time and costs. • Audio and video technologies have long played a role in courts and tribunals. In response to Covid 19, we rolled out a new interim videoconferencing technology, known as the Cloud Video Platform (CVP), to support a range of remote hearings across England and Wales and to keep justice going. This accelerated our work to design and deliver a bespoke Video Hearings Service as part of the transformation of the courts and tribunals’ service. • Currently we are transitioning from the interim Cloud Video Platform Solution to our end state video hearing solution with roll out in the criminal jurisdiction planned for early 2022. • The final decision about using video technology in any criminal hearing is always taken by the judge or magistrates, and only when they believe it to be in the interests of justice to do so. 17 Justice Matters
Video Hearings CVP has now been rolled All Magistrates and There have been over out to all Magistrate Courts and Crown Courts Crown Courts that are open have the 350,000 court hearings using the Cloud in all 7 regions capability to conduct video hearings Video Platform 18 Justice Matters
What difference will it make? • All parties including the judiciary, solicitors and barristers, the Crown Prosecution Service and court staff can securely access the most up-to date case information available. • Digital ways of working make it easier to submit materials to the courts, and enable lawyers to represent clients remotely where appropriate, saving time, effort and cost. • Once a case is resulted, the results are shared immediately with all our CJS partners including the police and the Legal Aid Agency without the need for clerical intervention. • Notices, orders and warrants are generated and sent automatically once the result has been entered on the system. • Information and materials about cases stay with the case as it passes through the system, removing the need for re-keying. • Paper forms will be replaced with digital data capture meaning all information is in on place. • Some business processes will be automated where appropriate, reducing administrative effort and avoiding errors and delays. • These efficiencies will reduce the cost of the courts to the taxpayer. 19 Justice Matters
We continue to learn and adapt Getting this far has not been without challenges. We continue to proactively learn and adapt to address the challenges and we are getting better at doing this. Some of the initiatives we have introduced in this regard include: • Better management of the issues log in terms of clarity of action required and accountability • Establishing data to measure how well changes are been embedded in the courts and forecast demand • Consolidating all existing common platform SOPs into a single end to end process thereby providing clarity of task and roles • Embedding change by providing clarity of activities performed by each role in the court and CTSC • Piloting new key functionality with model courts and model offices before national release • Reducing the number of sources the business need to find answers by harmonising all guidance materials onto role based intranet pages • Following feedback we have redesigned learning materials to be more accessible for end users • The programme continues to reprioritised increments to ensure future delivery maximise areas of benefit for the business • We continue to provide livesupport to the court to resolve day to day challenges • We periodically conduct court site visits to see how CP works in reality 20 Justice Matters
What’s next? • Evaluate progress and take feedback from all live sites feeding in lessons learned for planning and preparing for roll out to the remaining courts • Common Platform to be available in all courts by early 2022 • Police SJP roll out by the end of March 2022 • Further functionality will be introduced between now and the end of 2022 including: • Enhanced case progression functionality • Integration with the new Scheduling and Listing and publications solutions • CPS case management system will be integrated into the Common Platform • Non-Police Prosecutors will be onboarded to Common Platform • Legacy systems in courts will be replaced 21 Justice Matters
We can still do better. Tell us how! How could we improve our engagement with What additional the public to ensure technological the crime service improvements do you meets their needs? expect or want to see? Do you have any ideas for improving our technology further? 22 Justice Matters
Thank you for attending this session. If you have any questions for the closing Q&A panel please email: changesomethingthatmatters@justice.gov.uk
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