Harrington - the third and final report.

rogerblack

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wca-review-2012.pdf

Selected quotes and conclusions.

'A number of the major charities in this year’s call for evidence say that although they have seen some change for the better, it is disappointingly incomplete in coverage and depth. I agree with them'

'56. Use of free text is now monitored each month for healthcare professionals who have completed more than 20 assessments, with healthcare professionals in the highest and lowest deciles being identified each month. There are considerable differences between the lowest and highest deciles, but the Review retains the belief that use of free text is key to an accurate report of the face-to-face assessment.'

'59. Indeed, in the National Audit Office October 2012 report on contract management of medical service in DWP they state that: “the Department should consider tightening performance requirements linked to quality of medical [sic] assessments. The current target of no more than 5 per cent of reports being graded as ‘unsatisfactory’ is not sufficiently challenging'

'109. Implementation of the recommendations around the face-to-face assessment appears, from anecdotal evidence, to be patchy. The variability in the quality of Atos performance was a frequent complaint received from Decision Makers during the Review’s unannounced visits.
In line with the National Audit Office report, DWP needs to monitor Atos more closely to ensure performance is as strong as possible because the face-to-face part of the assessment is, disappointingly, still often seen by claimants as the only important part of the WCA.'

On progress.

(p37/38)
New ESA50, early 2013.
Treatment of those receiving or recovering from any sort of chemo leads to support group - early 2013.
Evidence based descriptor changes report - summer 2013.
(concentrating on mental function, and fatigue/variable conditions)
Pain and fatigue will not get their own descriptor - only their effects on the tasks the descriptors describe.
Guidance on the homeless - Summer 2013

schrodie

It's such a shame that Harrington has decided to resign, his recommendations has lead to a positive change in the WCA implementation culture.

Harrington was doing too good a job in making the WCA more humane and highlighting the deficiencies of Atos which is not what the government expected!

What probably did for Harringotn is where he said "In the final analysis, all this effort should be to ensure that the claimant gets the fairest and most effective way of assessing their needs."

This is not what the tories want!!

rogerblack

schrodie wrote: »

It's such a shame that Harrington has decided to resign, his recommendations has lead to a positive change in the WCA implementation culture.

Harrington was doing too good a job in making the WCA more humane and highlighting the deficiencies of Atos which is not what the government expected!

What probably did for Harringotn is where he said "In the final analysis, all this effort should be to ensure that the claimant gets the fairest and most effective way of assessing their needs."

This is not what the tories want!!

Another interesting part of the report (this is spread over it, so I can't easily quote) - was the discussion over the problems with targets.
Local managers can look great by doing more cases a day per decision-maker, than the centre down the road.
But, there is not enough feedback about making these decisions _correct_, even if it makes the decision slower.

There is a limited quality assessment framework.
However, this is limited to another DM looking over the existing decision, and seeing if the conclusion that is come to is completely unreasonable.

Very importantly - they get to see the result!

It's not what might be considered a 'gold standard' review, where the DM looks through the evidence pack, and comes to an opinion, which is compared to the original DM.

This might in principle be a positive exercise.

I also found the reports from trials, where DM's phoning claimants to tell them why they wouldn't get benefit found the process 'upsetting' wryly amusing.

schrodie

I was disappointed that he didn't push more of the audio recording of assessments and the woeful number of machines available and why for some reason many are "broken".

Still it's clear the government don't want it so there's no point in a review recommending it.