Service Design - Scheduling and Listing

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Challenge

Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunal Services  is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It’s responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales.  With so many different court and tribunals, of different sizes and in different jurisdictions the tools and practices the use have divergently evolved, over time, to be very different.  Many use a mixture of online and offline, digital and analogue tools and it is often not easy to check that their practices adhere to policy. Scheduling and Listing (S&L), the process of getting hearings into courts with the correct resources and parties matched, is one such area that needed reformation.

Vision

HMCTS had the vision to create a single, digital service which could work across all jurisdiction and scales.

Hypotheses

  • HMCTS Scheduling and Listings Officers could use a common, but personalised, digital solution to replace all their current tools.

  • A digitally connected S&L tool would alleviate many of the issues of inefficiency caused by poor resource visibility and management, such as judiciary, courtroom and legal professional availability.

  • Communication would be improved by a single, connected solution which would reduce errors and increase customer satisfaction.

  • A digital S&L tool would improve reporting for business intelligence, operational dashboards and management information.

  • All parties involved in S&L would benefit from and prefer the new tool to their old ways of working.

Methodology

User research (in the form of interviews, shadowing, and workshops) was undertaken across several courts and tribunals to discover their usual ways of working and behaviours.

Two separate prototypes were introduced to HMCTS to test the above hypothesis.  An OTS product and a Custom Build Tool were both configured to do the job of S&L.

Over a period the two products were taken to different geographies and jurisdiction and tested with users.

Usability testing for efficacy, efficiency and satisfaction were carried out over time through a series of Performance Simulation exercises and interviews.

Results

The findings from research and testing validated all hypotheses and recommendation were made as to how to design the S&L service of the future.