Destin Solutions have developed a benefits electronic procedure manual for the Benefits Service at Guildford Borough Council. The manual brings together the Council’s policy, service level policy and procedures on all aspects of Benefits and useful resources such as circulars, LHA rates and legislation.
Gordon Walker, Benefits Manager at Guildford said:
“We had a requirement for a procedure manual because in the past auditors and inspectors had been critical that whilst guidance was given to team members and regularly updated, there was no mechanism in place to ensure that colleagues always accessed the most up to date guidance. I relied upon individuals updating their own hard copy procedure manuals.
I also wanted to consolidate all of the guidance previously issued to team members and hold it in one place. This was to enable any future guidance changes to be easily and quickly updated and to ensure that colleagues would only refer to the most up to date information and guidance. In the constantly changing benefits environment this is important so as to ensure that customers are correctly advised and entitlement accurately calculated.
We chose to work with Destin Solutions as, after looking at a number of available options, we were satisfied that they offered not only the best solution to our requirements, but also the best value in terms of expenditure, resource requirements etc.
The manual has proved a big hit with users as it is very simple to access and search for information. Furthermore, all relevant information and guidance is now in one place. By having access to the manual it also means that colleagues do not need to worry whether a standard form they are using is the most up to date version. When introducing the manual we took the decision to incorporate an extensive library of electronic forms, all of which Destin helped to re-format for us. These forms now ensure that we are always using the most up to date version of forms, we do not need to keep volumes of paper based forms and it has saved on printing costs.
We are also able to access the manual from home, which has certainly helped me in preparing Appeals Submissions.”
