The Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland (OPG) received significant investment to develop a replacement case management system. The replacement system will allow OPG to offer improved customer service and improve the current PoA processing times.
Over the past two years we have been designing an innovative and effective system for the Power of Attorney (PoA) work stream. Testing is now fully complete, and the replacement system will go live on Tuesday 28th January 2025.
Guardianship orders, intervention orders and the access to funds scheme will then be the next workstream which will be prioritised in OPGs digital transformation project, throughout 2025 and 2026.
Key points users should be aware of
1. Impact on level of service in January 2025
Throughout January 2025, all PoA staff will be attending mandatory training on the replacement case management system. We realise that time spent in the training environment will impact on how quickly we can respond to your enquiries, and we apologise for any delays this may cause.
To allow the transfer of all records held on the old system, to the new (ahead of go live on Tuesday 28th January 2025), our existing case management system will not be available on Friday 24th and Monday 27th January 2025. This will impact on all OPG operational teams over this short period, not just the PoA team. This system downtime will also impact on the level of service we are able to provide, and it will affect how we can respond to enquiries. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience the delays may cause.
2. PG reference
All PoAs submitted for registration will be allocated a reference when received by OPG. The reference will be stated on our letter, regardless of whether the PoA has been registered or rejected.
The case reference will look slightly different compared to what we provided previously i.e. since April 2001. The reference will:
- begin with the letters PG,
- include the case reference number and
- end with the letters POA.
So, for example: PG/reference number/POA.
The case reference will remain active on rejected submissions for six months. If the PoA is submitted for registration after this period a new case reference will be allocated.
3. EPOAR rejection workaround
We have had to put in place a two-step (temporary) workaround for PoAs submitted via our electronic (EPOAR) facility, which do not meet the registration criteria.
- When a PoA is rejected, we will email the sender a letter outlining the details of the actual rejection reasons and explain how to resubmit the PoA via EPOAR once the rejection reasons have been rectified.
- The sender will also receive a second automated email advising that the PoA has been rejected. However, the full explanation of the reasons for rejection will not be included in this email. Please note that there may be a delay in the second email being sent to the sender.
We realise that receiving two advisory emails is not ideal, however this is a temporary arrangement put in place during the deployment of the first phase of our replacement case management system. It is anticipated that normal service will resume in April 2025, whereby senders will receive a single explanatory email when a PoA cannot be registered.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this temporary change to our service.
This is a significant and exciting time for OPG as we develop and improve our service delivery model. We are grateful for your on-going patience whilst we undergo this crucial phase of our digital transformation project.