Unpaid Work Assessment Tool
Background
We continue to modernise our digital solutions to better support how we work. Part of this task involves reviewing tools that were used to good effect in the NPS and CRCs prior to our unification and adopting and improving them for our new Probation Service.
It is important that people on unpaid work are allocated to the most suitable unpaid work project or placement for them, taking account of their risks and needs. There are currently a variety of ways this is done across England and Wales. To support doing it more effectively and consistently the new digital unpaid work assessment is being launched.
More information
Unpaid Work Assessment Introduction Video (3mins 5secs)
Full Assessment Guidance (updated 2 Feb 2022)
Want something to takeaway? Try the UPW ASSESSMENT EXPLAINER (Updated May 2022)
Unpaid Work Assessment Explained
Who needs to know?
Probation practitioners, placement coordinators and unpaid work teams
What’s happening when: roll-out
The tool is available now. Your region / PDU will communicate with you on when you are expected to start using it.
What do I need to do?
The unpaid work assessment will need to be completed by probation practitioners because they are the experts on identifying and managing risks and needs. This will not represent a change in most probation regions but in a small number, where the assessment is currently completed by unpaid work supervisors, it will. Speak to your line manager about what this means for you in your region.
How it works
The new unpaid work assessment is populated with three sources of information – NDelius, OASys and ‘other’ information (i.e. that is not recorded on either of those systems).
The unpaid work assessment is accessed by clicking a link in NDelius. As it opens, it pulls through known risk and needs information from NDelius and OASys, reducing the need for practitioners to re-enter information that has previously been recorded.
If an OASys has not previously been completed, or was completed more than 12 months ago, then a new OASys risk screening (including a full analysis, if triggered) must be completed before commencing the unpaid work assessment. OASys sections 2-13, the RMP and the ISP do not need to be completed.
The practitioner works through the assessment with the person on probation, editing information and answering all questions. Once completed, the form is automatically saved as a PDF in NDelius (in the document list) for the unpaid work placement coordinator to access and use when allocating the PoP to a project.
Once the probation practitioner has completed the digital unpaid work assessment it is automatically converted into a PDF document and saved to the ‘document list’ tab in NDelius.
Placement coordinators will need use professional judgement and access the PDF at the most relevant time in order to inform decision making when allocating the individuals to the most suitable project.
Placement coordinators should only have to access the digital unpaid work assessment rather than searching for risk and needs information in NDelius, OASys and a separate unpaid work assessment.
Unpaid Work Assessment Introduction Video (3mins 5secs)
What are the benefits?
The digital assessment has been designed to save practitioner time by removing the need to duplicate information previously entered into case management systems.
It will improve the consistency and accuracy of recorded information will lead to unpaid work teams getting more relevant information so they can ensure people of probation are placed on the most suitable projects.
Probation Practitioner
- The UPW assessment extracts known information from NDelius to pre-populate the form. This will removing the need to duplicate information previously entered. It will also improve consistency and accuracy of recorded information.
- Probation practitioners will be able to correct any errors in the form
- The EASU code (used to confirm completion of an unpaid work assessment on NDelius) will no longer need to be manually entered once the new unpaid work assessment is in use.
Placement Coordinators
- There should little impact of the introduction of the digital unpaid work assessment on the work of Placement Coordinators. However, the improvement in the range, consistency and quality of information you receive, should improve.
- Once complete, the assessment will be converted into a PDF document and saved in NDelius for unpaid work staff to use when allocating individuals to the most suitable project.
- Placement coordinators will only have to access this one document rather than searching for risk and needs information in NDelius, OASys and a separate unpaid work assessment.
Latest Developments
Digital tools and systems are built iteratively by digital specialists with ops staff, for ops staff.
After they are launched, the digital team track ops staff experiences with them, they get a better understanding of what works and develop even better versions of the tools with you.
Several changes have been made based on your feedback; now:
Declaration box
The declaration box has been removed. You will now be able to see a preview of your assessment PDF when all the assessment has been completed. You can then submit the assessment. Following submission of the completed assessment, a confirmation page allows you to download the PDF and advises about next steps
RoSH information
The RoSH information has been updated to show more clearly in two OASys scenarios:
- In OASys – if you answered Yes to R5.2 but there is no data in R10.6
- In OASys – if you answered No to R5.2 and no data in R10.6
Placement availability
On the placement availability section on the current UPW assessment, the default setting was for all boxes for availability to be automatically selected. The check boxes for availability are now set to blank so that you can tick the times that suit the person on probation.
Assessment saves
After saving part of the assessment, you are taken back to the task list page and returned to the top of the list instead of the section I am working on. Now you will be returned back to the section you are working on in the task list and will not have to scroll down it each time.
Caring commitments
Information about a person’s caring commitments, that have been logged in Delius, will now be shown in a table on the Are there carer commitments section of the unpaid work assessment.