Tracking Template
Instructions for use
Guidance
This guidance is in four parts: a. General overview of tracking template b. General guidance/’desk-aid’ for the tracking template c. Detailed description of each worksheet within the tracking template d. User feedback form
General overview of tracking template
This template is designed to help you plan and monitor your LA’s performance against the Right Benefit Indicator. You can download the template and save it to one person’s PC, or to your benefit team’s shared area. You may want to consider passwordprotecting the template if it is saved in a shared area, so that only certain people can update the template. There are a number of worksheets, each with a different function. The first worksheet is for data entry and this data feeds through to subsequent worksheets. Next there is a Management Summary, followed by detailed overviews to: enable you to track outputs for specific activities that count towards the Right Benefit Indicator help you to plan future activities after analysing progress to date show the overall cost in man hours, and the cost-effectiveness of each activity as cost per output You can modify the template, for example to add or remove activities. However we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the layout first as any modifications will have to be made to a number of worksheets. One useful modification may be to have separate activity rows for each of the risk groups – for example, having separate categories for phone reviews Risk Group1 (RG1), phone reviews RG2, etc. Although this will make completing the template more complicated, it will enable more sophisticated planning that responds to the differing success rates that are achieved for each of the risk groups. If you have concerns about expanding the template, then we recommend initially using the template as it is, and monitoring its effectiveness.
Using the tracking template
If you have not already done so, you should set a target number of changes in entitlement for the year. This target is aspirational and should be based on the number of changes in entitlement you are likely to achieve, given the make-up of your caseload. In some of the worksheets you will see reference to this target – often broken down into a monthly figure. In other worksheets you will see monthly planned activity and predicted outcomes. These are based on the activities you undertake, such as interventions and datamatches. We expect that you will base your planning predictions on past performance, such as the average number of datamatches you received each month last year, and the success rate in terms of changes in entitlement resulting from these. 1. Data collection - identify the source of the data you will need to complete the template and decide if you need to set up any new processes. 2. Tracking – populate the template with data up to the most recent period for which Right Benefit figures are available, and any activities you have undertaken. 3. Estimates – using the tracking data, estimate your future outcomes for each activity, taking into account whether you expect the levels for each activity to remain broadly the same, increase, or decrease. 4. Variances– check that final estimates do not vary too much from actual tracking data, or if they do, that you are confident that you will see the change in performance on the activity. Monitoring the accuracy of planning assumptions becomes more important where significant changes in outcome levels are forecast. 5. Workflow – forward plan activities based on the current level of activity and its effectiveness in eliciting changes of circumstance. Check whether planned activities and estimated outcome levels will enable you to meet the target you have set by the end of the year. 6. Meeting your target - if your planned activities are not predicted to meet the target you have set; look in detail at which activities can be increased, preferably selecting those with a high level of outcome and low cost, or aim to improve activities with poor levels of outcome either absolutely or relative to your benchmarking group, or both Use worksheets 9 and 10 to help you change planned activity, either to reduce costs or meet targets. 7. Unit costs –worksheet 10 shows the overall total costs of activities and the effectiveness – i.e. cost per Right Benefit count - of each activity.
These calculations make use of estimated unit costs for your activities that need to be entered on the data entry sheet. You can use £s or person hours and you may find the Evaluation Guide useful in helping you to determine these costs. If you do not have exact costs/person hours per activity, then use known costs of other activities to make an estimate. For example, if you know that a phone review costs £10, and you believe that a visit (unknown cost) is roughly five times more costly, and checking earnings takes roughly half the time then you would use estimates of £50 and £5 respectively. 8. Annual costs - worksheet 10 shows the costs of monitored and planned activities across the year, in terms of overall cost of activity; and the cost effectiveness of each activity. You may find his helpful for budgetmonitoring where you have resources to spend more, or have to make savings by the end of the financial year. The value of completing this exercise will be sensitive to the accuracy of your Unit cost estimates, but as long as the relative costs are plausible, then it will provide a cost/benefits appraisal of the various activities. The following sections describe the content and purpose of each worksheet, and suggest how you can use the data contained in them.
Data entry
Please note, this tracking template has been set up for you to enter data for each calendar month of the year. Alternatively it could be set up for each of the thirteen scans. Views are sought on this in the feedback form. This is the only sheet on which you need to enter any data. When you enter the month end date in the top line, the cells in the data entry column will become yellow and indicate where the data needs to be entered. The remainder of the worksheet will be greyed out. Section 1 – TARGETS, CHANGES FOUND, ACTIVITIES COMPLETED – Some fields on the data entry sheet are marked ‘available from SHBE’. To start with, you will have to set up separate internal processes to record the information – but in the future: This is something that could be provided centrally by DWP if there was demand. Or as an alternative it is something that you could request from your software provider. The second line ‘Monthly target figures’ is for you to set a local Right Benefit Indicator target for your own LA. We expect that your target will be aspirational – based on the number of changes you are likely to achieve from your particular mix of claims. We provided information on setting a local target in circular A4-2008. The monthly profile you decide upon does not need to be a flat profile. Section 2 – PLANNED FUTURE ACTIVITIES – is used for entering your anticipated future activities (rather than targets) for the remainder of the year. You can change this data if further information becomes available. For example, you may enter 100 data matches a month, based on the average number you received last year. However, if your datamatches decrease, you can update the cells for the remainder of the year at any time to reflect this. Similarly, you can base your anticipated future success rates (i.e. the % of each activity that results in a change in entitlement) on past data, but you may want to update your predictions for the remainder of the year if this varies significantly as time progresses. Section 3 – UNIT COSTS – can be used to account for the financial cost or the cost in hours of carrying out each activity (e.g. 1 hour per visit), and the cost of processing the subsequent changes of circumstance. This data will help with budgeting.
1.
Management summary
This sheet contains the high-level summary of how you are progressing towards the Right Benefit Indicator. There are four tables, described below. In each table, some cells are colour-coded with a traffic-light warning system: green – at or exceeding target amber – below target - monitor pink – significantly below target – take action
Monthly changes in entitlement achieved shows the number of changes for each calendar month, followed by a small smoothing adjustment based on the number of days in each month. Each monthly figure is then compared with a monthly target that you have set, and the variance is shown in the bottom line. A positive figure in this line means that you have exceeded your target for that month, while a negative figure indicates that you have not achieved your monthly target. Year to date changes in entitlement achieved presents the same data as the first table, but in cumulative form throughout the year. If at any time you begin to fall short of your cumulative target, the last row shows the new monthly target you must meet in order to achieve the original annual target. The last two columns summarise your current position compared with the annual target you have set. Changes in entitlement achieved against plan shows how the number of changes you are achieving compares with the number of changes you planned to achieve each month, and the monthly variance. The bottom half of the table shows your cumulative position to date and the variance at the end of the most recent month. If the traffic light system shows that your planned activities are not resulting in the number of changes you expected, you may have to update some of the success rates input at section 3 of the data input sheet. Activities undertaken against plan simply tracks whether or not you have completed the number of each activity that you planned to do every month by giving a monthly variance figure. Again, the bottom half of the table shows your cumulative position to date and the variance at the end of the most recent month. If the traffic light system shows that you are not carrying out as many activities as you had planned, you may have to increase certain activities for the remainder of the year.
2.
Initiatives summary
This worksheet allows you to keep a record of any one-off initiatives you have undertaken, and/or preventative measures you have taken that are likely to impact on the number of changes in entitlement. This will be a useful reminder of activities that could explain unusually high results in tables 4 and 5.
3.
Monthly activity
This worksheet takes information from the data entry sheet and summarises the activities that you have undertaken each month. Although not strictly an activity, it also includes changes of circumstance reported by customers themselves. The last column shows a year to date total for each source. It includes both customer self-reporting, and activities that you undertake to detect changes. This data is used in the Planning worksheets of the Template.
4.
Activity success rate
This worksheet shows the percentage of each activity that results in a change in entitlement each month. In this table, the quantity is irrelevant – it shows the number of changes in entitlement as a percentage of whatever number of activities there were in that category. Note that as the customer reporting figures will always show 100%. The first thing this worksheet shows is the relative success of each activity. This – together with an assessment of how resource-intensive each activity is – will give you an idea of where you may want to concentrate your efforts to get the best “return”. If any other LAs in you benchmarking group are using the template, you may want to compare your results on this worksheet with theirs to see if you could improve your success rate in any particular area. The second thing this shows is the trend throughout the year. With some activities, you would expect to see the same level of success throughout the year, and any variation in this may prompt you to investigate the reason. With other activities – for example where you have targeted a group of customers likely to have had recent changes – you should see an increase in the success rate of that activity.
5.
Monthly source of changes
This worksheet takes information from the data entry sheet and tracks the number of changes in entitlement each month from each source or activity. It includes both customer self-reporting of change in circumstance, and activities that you undertake to detect changes. For each source or activity, the penultimate column shows a year to date total, and the last column shows the total for the year that you have planned to, or expect to achieve. From this worksheet you can see at a glance where most of your reductions in entitlement are coming from. Obviously one factor will be the relative number of activities you carry out, but when combined with the success rates in worksheet 4, this should help you plan where you should concentrate to maximise your performance against the Right Benefit Indicator.
6.
Annual activity planning
This worksheet combines the actual activities undertaken to date with the planned activities in the future, and calculates an expected annual figure at the end of the year. The last column – ‘predicted activity by end of year’ shows whether or not you are on track to complete the number of activities you have planned to achieve. The additional two columns are helpful in planning for the remainder of the year. The last column shows the percentage of your planned activities that you have actually achieved at that point in time. The traffic light warning system shows where you have not completed sufficient activities in any given area to meet your planning assumption by the end of the year. However, if your planning data assumed an even distribution throughout the year (e.g. 100 interventions a month), but you have subsequently rescheduled and are planning 120 a month from May to February, you will have to change the planning data on the Data Entry worksheet to reflect this. Otherwise worksheet 6 will show that you are not meeting your planned activity from interventions.
7.
Annual predicted success rate
This worksheet is similar to the previous one in that it combines your actual achievement to date with your planning assumptions for the remainder of the year. It shows the success rate to date of each activity – i.e. the percentage of each activity that has resulted in a change in entitlement, and the assumed success rate to the end of the year. If the figures to date are significantly less than the figures for the remainder of the year, this indicates that you are not achieving the success rate that you originally predicted from that activity. For example, if you predicted a 50% success rate for datamatches (shown in the ‘future’ month columns), but this table shows that you are only achieving 40% (in the ‘actual’ month columns), then you may need to revisit your original assumptions on the Data Entry worksheet under ‘Success rates expected’.
8.
Annual predicted changes
Again, this worksheet follows the pattern of the previous two worksheets by combining your actual achievements to date with your planned achievements for the remainder of the year. This time, it shows the number of changes in entitlement from each source or activity. The first table shows the number of changes in entitlement each month and, along the bottom, a cumulative total of all changes. These are the actual figures you have entered on the data entry sheet, and are not adjusted to give a smoothed calendar profile.
The second table is very important, as it shows your progress against the target you have set for the year (as opposed to your planned activity levels). The top row shows month by month whether the changes in entitlement you have achieved meet your monthly target. The second row shows the cumulative effect (e.g. if you have a shortfall one month, this may be wiped out by over-achieving in the next month).
9.
Monthly variance from plan
This worksheet shows how accurate your original plan was when compared with actual performance each month. It only contains actual achievements, and does not incorporate any of your planning assumptions for the future. A negative figure shows that you have not achieved as many changes in entitlement as you had expected for that activity in that month. The ‘total’ line shows the overall effect each month – e.g. you may have fewer changes than expected from interventions, but this has been offset by more changes than expected from customer reporting. The ‘cumulative’ line has a similar effect over the year – although you may not have achieved as many changes as expected in one month, this may be offset by more changes than expected in the following month. This line shows the overall position to date.
10.
Cost planning
The final worksheet is designed to help you plan resources, and may be useful when budget-planning. There are four tables that show various aspects of the cost of establishing changes in entitlement. The first table simply shows the cost of carrying out each activity for that month. So if you have worked out that it costs you £5 to do a telephone intervention (staff time and cost of call), and you have done 100 telephone interventions in April, then the cost of that activity is £500. The bottom line is the total cost of carrying out all the activities you have undertaken each month. The second table calculates the additional cost of processing any changes of circumstance resulting from that activity. So if the 100 telephone interventions identify 20 unreported changes of circumstance, and you have worked out that it costs £15 to process a change of circumstance, the cost for April would be £300. The bottom line is the cost of processing all the changes of circumstance resulting for that month’s activities. The third table looks at the cost of changes in entitlement for each activity each month. So in the worked example the total cost of telephone interventions for April was £800 (£500 to make the phonecalls and £300 to process the resulting changes of circumstance). If your records show that
there were 18 changes in entitlement from telephone interventions during April, then this table will show that it cost £44.44 for each change established towards the Right Benefit Indicator. The bottom line shows the average unit cost for all of the changes in entitlement you achieved that month. This table is useful as it can be difficult to estimate how cost-effective your various activities are. While something may cost very little to carry out, unless it is achieving a significant number of changes in entitlement, it may not actually be cost effective. On the other hand, interventions by visit may seem expensive in terms of staff time, mileage allowance and possibly mobile technology, but a well-timed visit to an elderly persons’ complex may elicit a number of unreported changes such as occupational pension increases. This will result in a relatively low cost per change in entitlement. You can easily see (by comparing individual lines with the bottom line of the table) which changes in entitlement were above average cost and which were below average cost to achieve. If this unit cost suddenly drops in any particular month, check back to worksheet 2 Initiatives Summary and see if a particularly successful one-off initiative such as the one described above may have affected the unit cost that month. The final table on this Worksheet shows the total cost of both carrying out the activities undertaken each month, and of processing the resulting changes of circumstance identified by these activities. This can be useful for planning one-off initiatives, as you will know the total end-to-end cost of the initiative and can budget accordingly.
User feedback
We have developed this template in consultation with a group of LAs, and decided to provide a fairly simple tool that you can use as it stands, or customise for your own LA’s requirements. We are interested in your views on whether you find it useful, and your ideas on any improvements we could make by 31 January 2009. We will aim to make any changes towards the end of March 2009, ready for the new financial year. Here are some points you may wish to comment on once you have been using the template for a few months. Please email your comments and ideas to: simon.lunn@dwp.gsi.gov.uk General: Do you prefer to have separate worksheets for each section of the template, or would it be simpler to have (a) more tables per worksheet or (b) all tables on one worksheet? Would you prefer to have each Right Benefit Indicator activity split by the six risk scores? Was it easy to add or delete rows? Is an automated add or delete row desirable? Was it simple to set up for the first time, i.e. for all months across the year? Is it easy to update the template with monthly tracking data, checking the planning assumptions remained on track to meet your target at the end of the year? Is the data entry sheet useful? Is months the best unit of time for the sheet, or would it be preferable to have the sheet set up in relation to a) periods between the 13 scans, b) weekly or c) quarterly. Management summary: Do you find the Management Summary worksheet easy to understand, and is it useful? Is there anything that you would like added to the Management Summary? Other tracking: Do you find the other tracking sheets easy to understand and are they useful? Which ones do you find most useful? Is there anything that you would like added to the other tracking sheets? Planning: Do you find it easy to plan activities across the year to meet your target? Is it clear when you are either on-track, or not on track, to meet your target? Do you find the planning sheets easy to understand and are they useful? Is there anything that you would like added to the planning sheets?
Costs: Do you find the cost sheets easy to understand and are they useful? Is there anything that you would like added to the costs sheets?