Citizen Portals update
July 2011
Contents
- Introduction
- Background
- Actions to date
- Current Issues
- Opportunities
- Conclusion
1.Introduction
Many of the CAF for Adults Demonstrator Sites have included Citizen Portals in their deliverables. Similar questions were asked in relation to Citizen Portals so an event was held to enable them to come together and discuss issues and to support each other through development. This also led on to advice being sought from the National Information Governance Board and a response gained. The aim of this paper is to pull all of these together into one place.
2.Background
As part of the Personalisation Agenda many Adult Social Care Services have considered providing Service Users with a Portal. The aim of the portal being that the Service User can access parts of their Social Care Record and input into their Assessment and Support Plan. In some instances the portal may also enable them to manage their budget and access a Market Place to arrange services as required.
3.Actions to date
a)Citizen Portal Event
A Citizen Portal Event was held on 30th June 2010. A report covering the outcomes from the workshop can be found on the CAF Network site in the Resources Section.
b)Submission to the NIGB
As an output a paper was to taken to the NIGB Board meeting on the 24th Feb 2011. It asked the NIGB to:
- Review the information governance arrangements planned for implementation in the CAF demonstrators, confirm whether the plans appear acceptable and identify any potential issues.
- Respond to specific questions in the paper on the level of authentication required
c)NIGB response
A formal response from the NIGB Board was sent to Carl Evans and Jan Hoogewerf on 6th April 2011. It gave the following recommendations:
‘… in relation to the model … presented for the Citizen Portal, the Board was generally supportive of what you are trying to achieve and made the following comments:
- That the proposed portal needed the same level of service user authentication as that agreed for Healthspace;
- That there was also a need to educate and train users about the need for and how to create a strong password;
- Concerns were raised by members over the operation of the portal particularly in the context of more complex patient relationships, for example, where a Lasting Power of Attorney had been created for individuals with impaired capacity and asked that further consideration be given to how to implement access in line with the extent of the power given.’
4.Current Issues – Healthspace / CFH
CFH’s planned approach for Health Space when the CAF Programme asked for advice, was that incorporated into the paper to the NIGB and included the following:
-Account creation will include a request for security information. A unique activation code which will then be sent via post whereby the applicant has to respond within a given timeframe before the account is created.
-Authentication of registrants will be based on Shared Secrets which users have submitted as part of the registration process. This will be done with Intelligent Controls e.g. a virtual on-screen keyboard, complexity of response, usage limits, intelligent questioning and answering algorithms etc.
This has subsequently been replaced by a new approach, which includes working on a cross-Government project to introduce national authentication services called the Identity Assurance Service (IDA). It is commercially run by providers to common national standards, which will be used for accessing a range of services, e.g. DVLA, Healthspace, HMRC, etc. More information on this can be found by clicking on the following links
Ministerial Statements:
The guidance from the NIGB is that decisions regarding IG are a balance between risk of unauthorised access and usability, but the level of security put in place is ultimately a local decision.
5. Opportunities
There are opportunities to further work on access and security through the IDA project; however it will not be delivered until after the CAF Programme is completed. It is worth the CAF Demonstrator Sites continuing to monitor this and other changes brought in by Government that may affect how they interact with their Service Users.
6.Conclusions
You can also find recommendations and guidance from SIIP on Citizen Portals attached.
For further information on what CAF Demonstration Sites are working on Citizen Portals see the CAF Demonstrator Site Matrix.
Many CAF Sites have continued to raise questions around Citizen Portals, particularly around access and security. There is the option to run another workshop to further discuss Citizen Portals but this would need to be sponsored by one of the sites or suppliers. If you are interested in running such an event, potentially in October or November 2011 then please contact Yarni Finney on or on 07920506341.
Yarni Finney
29 July 2011