Adam Lennon talks about how family courts have found ways to navigate the challenges coronavirus has brought and what the last few weeks have been like working in the family jurisdiction.
A blog post from Robin Marchant explains how HMCTS is developing an online service for the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) tribunal appeals process.
A blog post from Jon Lock, Digital Communications Manager for the CJS Common Platform Programme (CJS CPP). Jon talks about how the CJS CPP is incorporating short videos to improve our communication messages to staff and stakeholders across the Criminal Justice System. The videos also aim to keep people updated with the progress we are making.
Leanne Galbraith explains when she was recently invited by the Law Society attendee of the National Digital Practitioners’ Working Group to present at their Criminal Law Society Committee meeting on the 7th November in relation to the Common Platform and the Modernisation of the Criminal Justice System.
A blog post from Sue Walker-Russell, a Regional Implementation Co-ordinator for the Criminal Justice System's Common Platform Programme. Sue talks about our online plea service, a public facing service that enables defendants to engage with the Magistrates' court process more easily.
A blog post from Leanne Galbraith on the National Digital Practitioners Working Group on 27 October 2016. The post includes details of a video of the working software that has been created for the prosecution and how designs of the common platform are very similar to the GOV.UK website.
A blog post from Andrew Hyland who led the HMCTS Help with Fees project. The Help with Fees (also known as fee remission) service ensures the courts and tribunals are available and accessible to those who need them – regardless of their personal circumstances. If you apply for fee remission and are on certain benefits or on a low income you may not have to pay a court or tribunal fee, or you may get some money off.
Every month the National Digital Practitioners’ Working Group meetings are arranged. These meetings are for defence practitioners to raise any digital issues they may be currently experiencing within the Criminal Justice system plus the opportunity to showcase the latest developments within the Criminal Justice System Common Platform Programme.
I would like to draw defence practitioners’ attention to the Citizens Advice Witness Service which is funded by MOJ and offers free, independent and impartial support for defence and prosecution witnesses in every criminal court in England and Wales. The Witness Services provides practical information about the process as well as emotional support to help witnesses feel more confident about giving evidence.
Agile delivery allows for the iterative and evolving design and implementation of services to meet user needs – and this is a good thing. The challenge this can face, however, is that designs can focus on the Minimum Viable Product and so when products start scaling or have additional contexts applied, the system can need substantial re-engineering or re-implementation to address these challenges.
Over the last year, we’ve recruited 13 user testers into the Criminal Justice System Common Platform Programme. Over that time, we’ve experimented with a number of on-boarding processes, with varying results. We needed to get people up to speed quickly about the technologies that we’re using, the application that we’re building and the domain language and context that goes with them.
