ASC online Financial assessment improvement
Financial assessment is a critical step in accessing adult social care — but it sits across multiple teams, systems, and user contexts.
In this project, we set out to understand why the process feels difficult for both residents and staff, and what it would take to move towards a more accessible and joined-up service.
Working within a multidisciplinary team, I led service design across the end-to-end journey — connecting user experience, operational workflows, and system constraints to identify where change would have the most impact.
Project team: PM, user researcher, service designer
Key Findings + Outstanding Questions
The challenge
The financial assessment process wasn’t just a form — it was a complex service involving:
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vulnerable residents and their families
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social workers supporting care decisions
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finance officers managing eligibility and contributions
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multiple disconnected systems and manual processes
As a result, the experience was:
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difficult to understand
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slow to complete
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heavily reliant on paper and manual handling
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may out of sync with care delivery
This often led to anxiety for residents, delays for staff, and inefficiencies across the system.
Systematic view
How we approached
I approached this as a whole-service problem, not a digital one.
We combined multiple methods to understand both user and operational realities:
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User interviews with residents and family members
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Shadowing finance officers to understand internal workflows
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Working closely with social workers
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Reviewing existing journeys and previous discovery work
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Benchmarking five councils on the same platform — learning how they implemented, iterated, and overcame similar challenges.
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Usability testing of existing online financial assessment tools
This allowed us to connect what users experience with what actually happens behind the scenes.
Service design focus
Making the service visible
One of the key challenges was that no single team had a full view of the process.
I led the creation of these maps based on user research:
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end-to-end service blueprints
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user journey maps across different user types
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internal workflow mapping across teams and systems
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storyboards to bring real experiences to life
These artefacts helped teams and service owners move from:
fragmented understanding → shared clarity
And created a foundation for more focused, constructive conversations.
Pain points throughout the journey
What We Found
Through this project, we found that the financial assessment is not just a form — it’s a fragmented service spread across users, teams, and systems.
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The process is unclear and unpredictable for users, especially during already stressful situations
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There is a heavy reliance on paper and manual handling, creating friction for both users and staff
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Users often depend on family members to navigate the process, adding coordination complexity
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The service is out of sync with care delivery, leading to uncertainty and backdated charges
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A significant amount of staff time is spent on admin and chasing information, rather than progressing cases
👉 Overall, the challenge is systemic — not just a transfer the paper form into a digital form.
Planning workshop with senior stakeholders to see how to proceed to next step
What happened next
Turning insight into action
Rather than jumping straight into a single solution, we used these insights to shape a phased approach to improving the service.
We structured the opportunities across three horizons — immediate quick wins, medium-term planning, and longer-term research opportunities — giving the team something to act on while building towards a digital-first future.
👉 We are now redesigning and building an online financial assessment form, with a focus on:
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making the process easier to understand and complete
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reducing reliance on paper and manual handling
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enabling users to provide information and evidence digitally
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supporting a more efficient and scalable service for teams
This work is ongoing, and forms part of a wider shift towards a more accessible and user-centred Adult Social Care service.