HMCTS - Face-to-face Assisted Digital Support

Good Things Foundation works with HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to design, test, deliver and evaluate face-to-face Assisted Digital support, delivered through the Online Centres Network, for people who would otherwise be excluded from new HMCTS online services (Civil Money Claims, Divorce, Probate, Social Security and Child Support, the Single Justice System, and Help With Fees). Because of Covid-19, centres also adapted the model to remote delivery.

By the end of the project, the aim is to have fully tested the Assisted Digital service, its impact and cost-effectiveness, so that HMCTS can decide on further delivery and scaling within the future courts and tribunals model.

Face-to-face (and, since Covid-19, remote) assisted digital support is delivered by a network of local partner organisations, including Bristol Law Centre, Bromley by Bow Centre, several Citizens Advice branches, Community Law Service (Northampton), Hackney Cooperative Developments, Nottingham Law Centre, Support Through Court (Manchester) and others, helping users complete HMCTS online services.

The practice's own key-learning notes describe the face-to-face Digital Support service as highly valued by users and as addressing a clear set of barriers (lack of skills, access, confidence or ability to complete forms online). It notes that these barriers would exist whether people accessed HMCTS services online or on paper, and that the service is both effective (meeting user needs) and efficient (providing access to justice through digital channels).