Pathway 2 Shared Accountability - tpximpact/f4-fsa-field-ops-discoveries-overview GitHub Wiki

Pathway Summary

Goals

  1. Increasing the responsibility that FBOs can take for their role in delivering food safety
  2. Giving the FSA and FBOs tools that enable better self-governance
  3. Equipping Field Ops frontline workers with the resources to confidently exercise their official controls duties

Recommendations

  1. Standardise FBO profiles
  2. Set up for online registration
  3. Extend FBO self administration online

Strategic Alignment

This pathway aligns with the following Ops Transformation Seven Elements of the future delivery model.

  • Shared accountability between industry and the FSA
  • Tailored inspection regime
  • Digitised real time data by default

Pathway 2: Continuous Improvement

Recommendations

Standardise FBO profiles

Within each food domain, inspectors and vets record and keep records about the food business that they interact with. There is no consistency to the format or structure of these records. There are often multiple and non-authorative sources in isolation. Additionally, the service delivery partner typically maintains its own customer intelligence file, resulting in incomplete picture held by interested parties.

This recommendation is to baseline and standardise the information that the FSA holds for food businesses, and improve the quality and access of operational intelligence that inspectors and vets require to carry out official controls in-the-field and remotely.

The result will be to pool information that is scattered in different places and formats and structure it consistently for a common approach to understanding who FBOs are and how the FSA engage with them.

Improvements to FBO profiles will help Field Ops

  • understand needs for case management and customer relationship tooling
  • identify gaps in FBO and industry knowledge
  • underpin standardised customer intelligence reporting, eg, FBO personnel history
  • support segmentation initiatives

Related: this recommendation builds on top of operational planning model work - the core FBO data used as part of that should be re-used within profiles.

Goals

  • Consolidate and streamline service user intelligence, for a consistent approach to engaging with FBOs

Steps

  • Review FBO data captured and used across inspection domains

    • eg, Statements of Resource and Wine operator profiles

  • Define essential common and domain-specific FBO data needed to plan and carry out official controls

    • Plant address and location
    • Operator
    • Key FBO personnel
    • Throughput and volumes
    • Controlled and other activities
    • Approval or registration schedule / history

  • Review base FBO profile data against plant and establishment data model

  • Standardise FBO profile repository structure and view

    • Common and centralised folder structures
    • Core templates for essential use cases
    • Headline FBO data
    • Inspection planning
    • Resourcing snapshot

  • Extend profile model as needed consistently across inspection domains

    • Export countries
    • Risk or segmentation factors
    • Enforcement history
    • Inspection regime

Product Outputs

  • food business operator profiles

Set up for online registration

Restrictions to plant and premises access during the pandemic illustrates the risk of incomplete customer contact information. This is a good opportunity to correct this while validating the current data that is held about food business operators.

The process of verification is as important as the outputs from the exercise. It (re-)establishes communication protocols with FBOs, and by shifting to an online process the FSA gains insight into the digital maturity and capability of its service user base.

This will also help with future digital rollout planning as the FSA shifts to shared accountability model. Previous discoveries has proven that access to FBOs for service design, planning and testing is very difficult unless there is an immediate operational relevance.

Goals

  • Improve completeness and quality of FBO register data
  • Establish digital and behavioural foundations for modernised service (self-)administration

Steps

  • Identify critical and high risk FBO profile data

  • Build on FBO profiling

    • Critical is essential for inspection services to be delivered
      • For example, key contacts, address/location, company details
    • Riskiest is the most likely to be stale, inaccurate or incomplete
    • Be selective about what is really needed to speed up the process and build user confidence

  • Design simple online verification tool for key data

    • Consider aligning with existing government single sign on
    • Consider assisted digital alternatives
      • Manually process incoming requests initially
      • Carry out verification during face to face visits with ITL / inspectors

  • Develop and engage FBO call-to-action comms plan

    • Be clear with operators what you want them to do, why and by when

  • Follow up gaps in data verification

    • Factor in time for Field Ops (or supporting units) to follow up nil returns

  • Identify lessons from FBO response to digitisation and information management

    • Look out for the risk factors and challenges that may affect digital adoption and future shift in accountability

  • Extend tool for new online registrations and approvals

    • Or leverage existing FBRS to drop users into the right process

Product Outputs

  • FBO register
  • FBO online services account
  • FBO profile API

Extend FBO self administration online

A critical step to becoming a modern regulator is to leverage up-to-date technologies. This recommendation is to begin the work of getting both FBOs and the FSA on a common digital footing.

In operational management terms, this is fundamentally a channel shift agenda, and sets up the behaviours and platform for shift in accountability.

The key difference from the previous step in this pathway is that setting up for online registration is principally about (static) data verification, whereas this is about (interactive) process handling. It moves Field Ops, the FSA and FBOs towards processing key interactions and facilitating secure information exchange online.

Related: This recommendation builds on foundational steps of mapping process and outcomes and setting up for online registration

Goals

  • Increase operational efficiency
  • Reduce operational overheads
  • Enable increased FBO accountability

Steps

  • Map key interactions and information exchange with FBOs

  • Develop and engage FBO comms plan, setting out channel shift vision and expectations

    • Use the opportunity to recruit pilot / acceptance testing users and solicit input for prioritisation

  • Prioritise (with industry) the channel shift opportunities for

    • two-way information sharing, eg,
      • inspection and audit reports, enforcement history, scheduled visits, resourcing plan
      • approval support documents, extended approval requests
      • sampling reports
    • Self-administration, eg,
      • change in details

  • Progressively extend online functionality for internal and FBO users

  • Convert manual processes to assisted digital

Product Outputs

  • FBO portal for self-service and information sharing