United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The Office of the Family Advocate forms part of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in South Africa. The Port Elizabeth Office is situated in the Eastern Cape, the poorest province in South Africa. There are 6.4 million people living in the Eastern Cape (14.4% of South Africa’s population) with 2.53 million children living in poverty (statistics obtained from the Children’s Institute of the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town).

There are only 3 Family Advocate offices situated in the Eastern Cape, namely in Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and East London. The core function of the Family Advocate Offices is to protect the best interests of all the children involved in the family law disputes e.g. custody, guardianship or contact (access) disputes. We aim to remove the children from the arena of conflict between the parents, by either mediating the disputes or alternatively through investigation for example to determine with which parent the children should live after the divorce. The Family Advocate then compiles a report with a recommendation to the court, as to which arrangements would be in the best interests of the children. We give a voice to the children’s wishes and needs and also represent their best interests in court, should the matter go to trial. These cases have the potential to drag on for months if not managed effectively. It is a very traumatic time for the parents and especially for the children involved. For obvious reasons it is in the best interests of the children to finalize these cases as soon as possible, preferably through mediation as opposed to litigation, so as to minimize the conflict between the parties, which in turn have a negative impact on the children. Often the children get drawn into the conflict. We believed that to improve on our customer service, we needed to shorten the turn around times of our investigations and effectively managed and monitored the case flow in our office.

Part of the case flow problem was also that we experienced problems in tracking the movement of the files for the pending cases in the Family Advocate office, as well as were unable to effectively monitor the progress of the cases under investigation. If we wanted to determine the cycle times of the cases in order to prioritize old cases, we had to do a manual count and verification of cases’ cycle times. Clerical staff also often had to physically search for files by going from the one office to the other to try and find the “lost” files. Valuable time was lost in searching for files and we were ineffective in monitoring the case flow of our pending cases.
We embarked on a project to improve service delivery in the Port Elizabeth Family Advocate Office. We trained all staff members on service excellence and developed a case flow management system with the goal to reduce the turnaround cycles for our court case investigations.

Our two prong approach entailed the following:
Firstly we set our own target to finalize 80% of all our cases within 12 weeks (3 months), as opposed to the national target of 6 months / 24 weeks. We developed an electronic case flow management tool (a spreadsheet programme on Excel), which captures all the relevant information of each of the pending court cases in our office. The spreadsheet also has an early warning system to notify us if any of the cases becomes older than 10 weeks.
Secondly all staff members were enrolled for the service excellence programme initiated by the PE Chamber of Commerce (aimed at the private sector) to improve service delivery in the Nelson Mandela Metro, with the focus on the 2010 World Cup Tournament. PE Chamber of Commerce graded and monitored our service delivery and the Port Elizabeth Office achieved accreditation for service excellence.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
With the electronic case flow management system, we now have comprehensive information on each file immediately at our disposal of each file. We can track the file immediately and are at all times informed of our cycle times (of individual cases as well as the average cycle time of all the cases). The innovativeness of the electronic system is the built-in “early warning alert ”. This warning informs anybody who is monitoring the case flow in the office, of the cases which are nearly overdue, in other words cases which could exceed the target cycle time of 12 weeks. Once a case’s turn around time reaches 10 weeks, a message printed in red appears next to the case. The message reads “CAUTION”. The supervisor and the advocates can then with a press of a button at any given time determine which cases should be prioritized. This system enabled the Port Elizabeth Office to shorten the average cycle time of cases to 10.61 weeks in 2006/2007. As we are able to monitor the case flow and progress of all our cases effectively, it reduces the turn around time to finalize our cases and also enables us to keep track of the movement of each individual file. Court cases are also not delayed because of a delay with the investigation conducted by the Family Advocate Office. In terms of service delivery, we previously had no independent feedback on the quality of our services. We were reliant on questionnaires (not always completed) and letters from our clients containing either compliments or complaints. The PE Chamber of Commerce is an independent, impartial company, whom arranged training for our staff members (through the Nelson Mandela Metro University: Business School) and also monitors our services continuously with the assistance of the company KA Smart. This company conducts so called “mystery shopping”, by sending people incognito to our office or phoning into our office, pretending to access our services and thereby monitoring our responses and services. We then receive written feedback from them, identifying our weaknesses and strengths of our service delivery and are able to concentrate on specific areas to improve our services (see Annexure “C” – copy of a mystery report). In summary the problems thus addressed were: • Turnaround times of cases (times were shortened) • Measuring of cycle times – it is now electronically measured (previously we had to do a manual count) • Improved management and tracking of cases in the office – system shows with whom every pending case is at any time • We did not have independent feedback regarding our level of service – it is now monitored and measure and it lead to improved service delivery • As our cycle times shortened, it lead to improved customer satisfaction • Investigation times are shortened, conflict is minimized and it leads to better outcomes for children • Long cycle times - the national target for turn around cycle time of court cases in 2006/2007 was 6 months or 24 weeks. Our average turn around cycle for the last financial year was: 10.61 weeks. Our turn around cycle for the period 1 April 07 until 30 Sept 07 is 10,63 weeks. • Independent monitoring of services - Port Elizabeth Family Advocate is the only Justice Department which participated in service excellence training coupled with independent monitoring. We achieved accreditation for service excellence in the Nelson Mandela Metro and have subsequently upped our service levels’ rating to a score of 92% in comparison with the average score of 87% of other private and public companies in Port Elizabeth

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Head of the Family Advocate’s unit for the Eastern Cape, Rene Claassen, proposed the solution, namely an electronic case flow management system, coupled with the training of all staff members on service excellence to be monitored by an outside independent organisation. The formulas for the electronic spread sheet were designed by an IT specialist from a local college, Mr. Paul Critchlow. Paul and Rene sat for many hours together to develop the system. Once the system was refined, it was implemented in the Port Elizabeth Office by René Claassen with the assistance of the project team namely Wendy Mxuthu, Telana Koen and Felicia Arosi. Senior Family Advocates (supervising the Family Advocates) then commenced using it as a management tool to measure performance. The Administrative component also used it to calculate the month end statistics of overall performance in the office. The stakeholders in the solution were the following: • our local legal aid centers who represented parties in the court cases who could not afford their own legal representation • Private attorneys • Private advocates • The Divorce Courts • The Judiciary • Staff members in the Port Elizabeth Office • Senior management in National Office who are held accountable for our performance • The community and public in our city of Port Elizabeth • The parents involved in the court cases • The children involved and affected by the court cases.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objectives were to electronically measure case flow and cycle times of pending cases in the Family Advocate Office and to train all staff members on service excellence in order to improve levels of service delivery. A strategy used to achieve the objective was to develop an electronic system which measured the key result areas in the Family Advocate Office, pertaining to pending court cases and investigations. A further strategy was to improve the service levels of the office by training staff members on a tested service excellence programme and to then measure the service rendered by the office. The strategies were established through wide consultation with all the stake holders involved and planning sessions in the office with staff members and supervisors. Further planning sessions were held with the IT consultant, supervisors and administration, to ensure that the system would measure the “right” things. The project manager was Rene Claassen, assisted by the following team members: • Paul Critchlow • Felicia Arosi • Telana Koen • Wendy Mxuthu

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
• A spread sheet on Excel was first developed in consultation with the professional head of the Family Advocate Office, René Claassen in Port Elizabeth. The sheet was developed by Mr. Paul Critchlow. • Once the spread sheet with the formulas was developed, all the cases were loaded on the system by Mr. Paul Critchlow. • The system was then tested by the professional head, Rene Claassen, to check that all the key result areas were measured and monitored by the case flow management system. • Once the system was fully operational, all of the administrative staff was trained on how to use the system. Ms Telana Koen and Ms Felicia Arosi were spearheading the operation of the system and the training of other staff members on how to use the system. • René Claassen then trained the supervisors on how to use the system as a management tool to measure performance of the family advocates and counselors in the office. • In addition all staff members were simultaneously trained on service excellence by the business school of the local university (training was sponsored by the Port Elizabeth Chambers of Commerce - PERCCI). The training was conducted by Ilse Strydom from Nelson Mandela Metro University. • Once the staff was trained, mystery shoppers (people unknown to staff members pretending to be clients) visited and phoned the office to measure the service levels. The name of the company who was tasked with this, is called KA Smart – contact person is Justin Kemp. (PERCCI contracted the company to conduct the monitoring). • From there on PERCCI submitted quarterly reports on service excellence levels to the office, identifying weaknesses and strengths, which enabled us to develop our weak areas and to strengthen our strong areas of service. In our last report, dated 30 September 2007, the Port Elizabeth Family Advocate Office scored 92% in comparison with the average score in the metro of 87.3% (please see attachment). This was followed by in-house training to address weaknesses. The training was done by the following people attached to the Family Advocate Office: Wendy Mxuthu; Rene Claassen; Felicia Arosi; Telana Koen.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main challenges faced were buy-in from staff members, as well as willingness by supervisors to execute the monitoring duties imposed by the case flow management system. It was overcome by making all staff members part of the process and lots of communication. Everybody was kept informed throughout the process and successes and shortfalls were constantly communicated. We also started a monthly service excellence newsletter in which we reported service excellence successes, as well as the top performers in the office, based on the case flow management system. Through these efforts we achieved full participation and buy-in throughout the office.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Case flow management system: The Office utilized the office budget to appoint a computer consultant, Paul Critchlow, to assist with the development of the spreadsheet for the electronic case flow management system. The contractor charged the office per hour for consultations and the work done on the spread sheet. In 2005 R5,500 was spent on the project and in 2006 another R5,500 was spent. Subsequent thereto the only expenditure which has been required to sustain the project, was the maintenance of available equipment(computers) and the computer network, as well as utilization of already appointed personnel (human resources). The annual allocated office budget sustains the project and no additional dedicated funds are required. Service excellence innovation: Initial costs were incurred to train all the personnel on the service excellence programme of PERCI (PE Chambers of Commerce and Industry). PERCI sponsored part of the costs of the training, as it was their initiative to improve service excellence in the metro as part of the Soccer 2010 World Cup campaign. The costs for the training (paid by the office) were: R300 per person. Total amount: R6,000. The project was funded through the office budget of the Port Elizabeth Family Advocate’s Office. No special dedicated funds were allocated to the project. We had funds for special contractors in our “Goods and Services” budget and utilized the funding to appoint a consultant, Mr. Paul Critchlow to assist us to design the spreadsheet for the case flow management system. No additional staff was seconded to the office for the project. We have not received additional capacity (human resources) to reduce our turn around times. We utilized our available capacity, but modernized our services, by developing an electronic case flow management system and utilizing our allocated computers (labour saving devices) optimally. We thus improved our services with available technology, already procured before by our Department We have successfully partnered with the private sector i.e. PE Chamber of Commerce to improve our service delivery and to continuously monitor our services to ensure that we do not drop in standards. It is important to note that if our service excellence results (determined through the anonymous mystery shopping) should drop below 80%, we’ll lose our accreditation.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The case flow management system can easily be replicated in any of the Family Advocate Offices nationally. The spreadsheet with the formulas can be universally applied. Offices need only to capture their own information of all their cases on the spreadsheet, for example the case number and other details of each case. Thereafter the supervisors need to ensure that the spreadsheet is being updated (all information on all the new cases, finalized cases etc be entered onto the spreadsheet) and to monitor the case flow of the cases. The early warning system alerts the supervisor immediately regarding cases which need to be prioritized, in order to maintain the target of finalizing cases in less than 12 weeks. We have successfully replicated the system in our other two offices in the Eastern Cape, namely East London Family Advocate and Mthatha Family Advocate. The service excellence model is also available from PERCI and can be duplicated by any other Chambers of Commerce nationally.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Lessons: • When you measures performance, you get action from employees. Since we have introduced the system, we have always been able to track files at any given time and turn around cycles have shortened significantly. Since our services have been measured, we have been able to strengthen the “right” things and correct / develop the “wrongs”– our weaknesses. • Transparency: The spreadsheet of the case flow management system is available for scrutiny by anyone in the office and is printed monthly and distributed. All employees are then privy to the info of which staff members perform better and which cases are being highlighted by the early warning system, i.e. alerting employees that there cases which are nearly exceeding the finalization target time of 12 weeks and that these cases should be prioritized. • Communication: Through effective communication and consultation we brought all staff members on board, which contributed largely to the success of the project. • Team spirit: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” – had we not had co-operation, full participation and passion to make it work from the team, our project would not have managed to be successful • Leaders need to address the attitudes and commitment of employees to achieve success.


Institution Name:		Case Flow Management and Service Excellence
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Rene Advocate Claassen
Title:		+27 83 419 3677
Telephone/ Fax:		041 585 5718
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		rclaassen@justice.gov.za
Address:
Postal Code:
City:		Port Elizabeth
State/Province:		Eastern Cape
Country:		South Africa

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information