Writing notices to clients is an important aspect of our workflow process. It is our principal method of communicating to clients about actions taken on their application or case, ensuring that due process requirements are met, and sharing information about their rights and responsibilities.
DPA sends an average of over three thousand notices clients each and every day. While EIS maintains a tremendous notice history and ensures notices are distributed effectively, the system has many weaknesses and there is a recognized need for changes. The most recent effort to improve our notice system began when staff and local quality councils recommended that the notice system be improved. Subsequently, in 2006, the DPA Leadership Team made notice improvements, aka the Notice Project, one of the division’s top system priorities.
A small committee involving Field Services, Systems Operations, and Program and Policy Development started working on different aspects of this project with the ultimate goal of improving communication with clients, reducing the number of notices sent to clients, developing enhancing features for notices , reducing cost, and improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of this critical communication process. Listed below are elements of the project that the committee identified and the status update of each element:
A) Review frequency of notice usage
The committee researched notices with the lowest frequency of usage. Based on the most recent report, there are a total of 173 underused and unused notices from August 2006 through August 2007. Unused notices are those without a single issuance in the preceding 12 month and underused notices were sent less than 10 times in a year. With the help of the Field Work Request Coordination Team, the committee determined which of these notices could be ended.
B) Review of all notice-related work requests
The committee reviewed the Work request Tracking System to identify all notice-related work requests. Work requests that focus on notice improvement and enhancements are being consolidated and incorporated into the project. Improvements and enhancements described in the work requests include: notice keyword system, format improvements such as font, color coding, and wrap around feature.
C) Review of notice content
The committee will conduct an overall content review to ensure notices provide clear, accurate, and effective communication to our clients. The committee is working with Department of Law to ensure our notices of adverse action (NOAA) meet due process requirements. Department of Law has already provided excellent feedback from their review of the NOAA. One of the suggestions the Department of Law brought forward is the need for a guideline to assist staff in writing notices. Field Services and Policy and Program Coordination are currently working on this guideline which will eventually be available in the Administrative Procedures Manual.
D) Review the volume of notices sent to clients
Reducing the volume of notices clients receive from our agency is one of the primary goals of this project. A brief study of several combo cases and the notice history shows that the average number of notices sent to household when an application is approved range from eight to 15 notices. For denials, there is an average of four to six notices. Reducing the volume of notices sent to clients will alleviate the confusion many have in understanding the status of their case and what is required from them. Clearer notices should help reduce work load while sending and fewer notices will reduce costs. A group of frontline staff from various offices will review the notices DPA generates on a daily basis to identify strategies, such as consolidating notices to decrease the volume of notices sent to clients.
E) Phase II – A New Notice System
Ultimately, the plan is to gradually replace the EIS notices with a new system that supports a more robust and flexible notice system. DPA is in the process of purchasing new software (AppLinx) that has the capabilities needed to help enhance the notice system. The AppLinx technology would allow us to improve the look and format of our notices and enable features such as multiple colors, changing fonts, printing multiple pages, etc. AppLinx would also give us the capability of creating our notices outside of EIS (in Word for instance) and still see the history on EIS.
We will provide you with more updates as the Notice Project progresses. If you have any questions, please email Clarissa Moon at Clarissa.Moon@alaska.gov.