Refer and Monitor an Intervention Digital Service – October round up
Here is a summary of the latest Refer and Monitor (R&M) fixes, improvements and developments for colleagues in the Probation Service and Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) Suppliers.
What’s been delivered
Viewing an end of service report as a supplier
It’s now possible for suppliers to view the end of service report they have submitted as part of a referral. Previously this wasn’t visible to suppliers meaning there was a gap in being able to view the whole end to end journey of a referral for them.
Case Notes
Case notes are now available in Refer and Monitor. This allows service providers and probation practitioners to add important notes about the intervention. It’s currently a very simple process:
- Alongside “Progress” and “Referral details” there is a link to “Case Notes” where there’ll be a list of the existing notes, and a button to create a new one
- A title can be added for convenience, and then there’s a free text box for the note itself
- Once typed, this can be saved and the note and will appear in the record. Time, date and author are recorded automatically
There’s currently no process to edit case notes or add attachments – but these features may be added in future. Case notes do not transfer into NDelius at the present time and will need to copy and pasted over.
Please note that Case Notes can be used to record if a person on probation is in prison, or the community, their prison location, and likely release, as well as if the referral is urgent. The functionality for these things in Refer and Monitor is still being worked on, but in the short-term case notes is a good place to record this information.
Note also, that Case Notes is not a messaging service and should not be used to replace a phone call or email where this is necessary.
What we’re building
Risk Screen
The new risk screen will go live in the next couple of weeks. This screen allows the probation practitioner to pass appropriate risk information to the CRS supplier, allowing for better sharing of this sensitive information, meaning that CRS providers can work in a safer way with people on probation.
Amending Referrals
This will change the way a referral is done from a one stop piece of work, to one that can be altered. Work will start on the ability to amend the number of enforceable days and completion dates at the start of October. Once completed, it will be an easier task to amend other elements of the referral.
Risk scores
Work is well underway on the next iteration of risk scores. This work provides users with a more comprehensive overview of risk information. Current work is looking at showing alerts and warnings where risk information is going to be shared or needs to be flagged as recent but ‘not current’. It is hoped this will be completed in the next week or so.
Jargon Buster
Refer and Monitor Digital Service (R&M)
Refer and monitor an intervention digital service (sometimes referred to as Refer and Monitor) enables probation practitioners to find suitable interventions and refer service users to the service providers (suppliers) who run intervention programmes. It enables suppliers to prepare and report on the interventions that they deliver.
Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS)
Commissioned rehabilitative services allow probation to commission a greater range of resettlement and rehabilitative services regionally from specialist organisations. This enables the delivery of services that can be tailored to respond to the diverse backgrounds and needs of individuals to effect positive outcomes as well as maximise opportunities for collaboration with local partners, including VCSE organisations, local authorities and Police and Crime Commissioners.
What else we’re exploring
Create and update an initial assessment appointment
The functionality to book an initial assessment, reschedule an assessment, and provide feedback on assessment has been available and live on the service for some time now. The main outstanding piece of work is the ability to let suppliers ‘book’ an assessment in the past. Delius does not allow appointments to be scheduled to a past time/date in this way. This is in the Digital R&M development plan and will be delivered in the next couple of months.
Editing a listing (email address)
Refer and Monitor doesn’t currently support a self-service model where users can update and amend their own intervention listings. The digital team are starting by looking at how to make it possible for a supplier to edit the main contact details of their listing directly.
Improving the case list view
Feedback, support queries and research insight are showing that users need more granular ways to view their case lists. Work will begin shortly to start building some of the improved designs into the service.
Other iterative improvements
Alongside some of the larger pieces of work, the Digital Team have been working on several smaller improvements. This includes showing the referral date of a referral in the ‘my cases’ view and saving a ‘sorted’ case list so that when a user leaves and then returns to the case list page the previous sort is maintained.
More information
- Contact the IT Helpdesk for technical questions. These are then collated and prioritised and allocated to the R&M Digital Team.
- The Probation Hub CRS Pages are currently being redeveloped but some top tips are available and are being updated monthly
- CRS and R&M are a key component of the Target Operating Model being delivered through the Probation Reform Programme
Feedback
- To send feedback on the R&M tool direct to the R&M development team use the feedback option in the R&M Tool (see figure below)
