188体育

What has to be assessed

If you鈥檙e developing a transactional service for central government, you must get it assessed. This applies even if your service is internal and will only be used by civil servants.

A service is transactional if it allows users to either:

• exchange information, money, permission, goods or services
• submit personal information that results in a change to a government record

Scope of the assessment

The Service Standard requires you to think about the user鈥檚 wider journey. But that doesn鈥檛 mean the entire journey will be assessed.

The things that get assessed are:

• the transaction you鈥檝e been working on
• your understanding of the user鈥檚 wider journey - and the work you鈥檝e done to make sure the transaction you鈥檙e building joins up with that wider journey

The service could still meet the standard if there are problems with the user鈥檚 wider journey, as long as you鈥檙e taking reasonable steps to make things better and fix the journey in increments.

Exception if you鈥檙e using an assured form building platform

You won鈥檛 need an assessment if you鈥檙e:

• using an assured form building platform to create a form, and
• expecting to get fewer than 10,000 transactions per year

This reflects the fact that forms created using an assured form building platform have government standards 鈥榖uilt in鈥�. And it allows organisations to make cost savings and accessibility improvements by delivering digital versions of document-based forms quickly.

Even if you鈥檙e using an assured form building platform, you may find that your department has an assurance process for forms with a higher degree of reputational or financial risk. This will be a lighter touch process than a service assessment - for example, it might be an expert review carried out by a design or content professional. Contact your department鈥檚 assessment team if you鈥檙e not sure.

Who will assess your service

Your service will be assessed by a cross-government panel if either:

• your service is likely to handle more than 100,000 transactions per year
• civil servants in more than one organisation will use your service

Otherwise, your service will be assessed by a panel from your department. If your department doesn鈥檛 have an assessment team, you can ask for help in the .

You can check when and how to book an assessment.

Services which do not meet the criteria for being assessed

Even if your service doesn鈥檛 need an assessment, you can arrange one to check you鈥檙e building it in a way that meets the Service Standard. Contact your department鈥檚 assessment team to ask about a voluntary assessment.

If getting an assessment is a condition of your spend control approval, you must get the service assessed - even if it does not meet the usual criteria.

Assessments in local government

If you鈥檙e working in local government you can to ask for a peer review of your work.

Adapting the Service Standard

You can adapt the Service Standard to suit different contexts.

For example, you might be building something that鈥檚 non-transactional, like a website or calculator. You won鈥檛 need to publish data on the mandatory KPIs, but you should still know what your users are trying to do and collect data that helps you work out whether they鈥檙e able to do that or not.

Or if you鈥檙e creating a service for people who work in government you could take a more relaxed view of things like uptime, as the service is unlikely to be needed 24 hours a day. But make sure to schedule any downtime outside office hours.

If you鈥檙e creating a service that鈥檚 not for 188体育, you can still use the patterns in the . But it won鈥檛 be appropriate to make your service look like 188体育.

Related guides

You may find the following guides useful:

• Book a service assessment
• What happens at a service assessment