The Digital By Default Service Standard came into full force this month. We have updated the Government Service Design Manual to help services understand and meet the requirements of criteria 10:
Assisted digital
Assisted digital is support for people who can’t use online government services independently. This support will make sure that these people can access and complete government services online.
Updates to the manual
We have made updates to three pages in the Government Service Design Manual that focus on assisted digital.
The guide to assisted digital
This gives a detailed view, including what good assisted digital looks like. The guide also explains how assisted digital differs from (and relates to) digital inclusion, digital take-up (sometimes called channel shift), and how the government will become digital by default.
The assisted digital action plan
This shows service managers how to develop assisted digital support as part of their digital by default service, and how to meet the requirements of the service standard at each development phase.
Researching assisted digital users
This page gives extra guidance on how to research the specific needs, barriers, and challenges of assisted digital users, and how researching them differs from research into digital service users.
Requirements of services
With the Service Standard now in full effect, we will be carrying out a far more robust assessment of services’ plans for assisted digital provision. We will look in detail at the evidence service managers have gathered to support their plans.
Assessors have a set of prompts for assessments at each phase of service design, helping them to get the best information from the service manager about how the service meets the Service Standard. These are shared with service managers in advance of assessment.
By the end of Alpha
The focus here is on making plans that are based on high quality research into assisted digital user needs and volume.
Assessors will look for evidence from service managers including: learning from research; expected amount of assisted digital support required; barriers for assisted digital users to using the digital service independently; plans to test assisted digital support; and funding plans to ensure free and sustainable assisted digital support for users.
Beta
The focus here is on having plans for full assisted digital support that meet user needs and volume, including piloting that support as part of wider beta testing.
Assessors will look for evidence from service managers including how learning from user research has informed their assisted digital support; timelines for getting assisted digital support in place; expected volume and costs by channel during the beta and when fully live; joined up and consistent support across central government transactions.
Live
The focus here is on support meeting user needs and volume to at least the minimum service requirement, and ongoing monitoring of users’ changing needs.
Assessors will look for evidence from service managers including: how assisted digital support has been tested and iterated during the beta; how assisted digital support provides value for money and that volumes and costs are in line with estimates; how performance of assisted digital support is being measured; users are aware of the assisted digital support and can access it easily; the assisted digital support is trusted by users with positive feedback and a good end-to-end user experience.
We’d like to thank everyone who helped us with this update, and we look forward to working with government departments putting high quality assisted digital support in place.
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