Defra User Research - Rural Payments Agency

My name is Rachel and I'm a User Research Consultant from a design consultancy called Hippo Digital. With my colleague Charlotte, we're working on a 6 week piece of discovery research on behalf of Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

We'd like to speak to Farmers and relevant people to help us better understand their experiences of calling the DEFRA rural services helpline (03000 200 301) and contact centres, finding information online and contacting the organisation via email. You may have also contacted a related agency that is part of Defra, such as the Plant Health Line, or CITES.

Farmers may have used the helpline for a variety of reasons, such as finding information on imports and exports, any basic payment enquiries or to get information on schemes. We'd be really interested in speaking to some of the farming community network as part of this research, so we can better understand their experiences and challenges.

To register interest and receive further information, please see the following online form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsfW-G-7tEATdg3BDAiY0NBHsD9irnlyxZO3oqo_waRIw-Iw/viewform

Thank you very much
 

Vader

Member
Mixed Farmer
My name is Rachel and I'm a User Research Consultant from a design consultancy called Hippo Digital. With my colleague Charlotte, we're working on a 6 week piece of discovery research on behalf of Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

We'd like to speak to Farmers and relevant people to help us better understand their experiences of calling the DEFRA rural services helpline (03000 200 301) and contact centres, finding information online and contacting the organisation via email. You may have also contacted a related agency that is part of Defra, such as the Plant Health Line, or CITES.

Farmers may have used the helpline for a variety of reasons, such as finding information on imports and exports, any basic payment enquiries or to get information on schemes. We'd be really interested in speaking to some of the farming community network as part of this research, so we can better understand their experiences and challenges.

To register interest and receive further information, please see the following online form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsfW-G-7tEATdg3BDAiY0NBHsD9irnlyxZO3oqo_waRIw-Iw/viewform

Thank you very much
Can you get someone from defra to come here to verify your not a troll data harvesting names and phone numbers .
?
 
Hello - we are a service design consultancy working with Defra on this specific piece of work. unfortunately I don't have a DEFRA e-mail because the work is only for a short amount of time.

The full consent form is here https://defragroup.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJuxDysSCcZAoFo and I've attached the participant information form from Defra.

If you have queries - you can e-mail our main stakeholder for this work - Rachel Dempster [email protected] who is the Customer Change and Innovation Lead in the team we're working with.

I hope this helps answer those concerns!
 

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JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
My name is Rachel and I'm a User Research Consultant from a design consultancy called Hippo Digital. With my colleague Charlotte, we're working on a 6 week piece of discovery research on behalf of Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

We'd like to speak to Farmers and relevant people to help us better understand their experiences of calling the DEFRA rural services helpline (03000 200 301) and contact centres, finding information online and contacting the organisation via email. You may have also contacted a related agency that is part of Defra, such as the Plant Health Line, or CITES.

Farmers may have used the helpline for a variety of reasons, such as finding information on imports and exports, any basic payment enquiries or to get information on schemes. We'd be really interested in speaking to some of the farming community network as part of this research, so we can better understand their experiences and challenges.

To register interest and receive further information, please see the following online form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsfW-G-7tEATdg3BDAiY0NBHsD9irnlyxZO3oqo_waRIw-Iw/viewform

Thank you very much
I'll start

If you ring the DEFRA main number it's answered in Liverpool and they are the most nasty, unhelpful, almost militant bunch of disinterested folks out there

Going on from that the option menu takes a minimum of 2 and a half minutes to listen through pressing options and then once you've selected the correct option, it's pot luck if anyone answers

Going on from that RPA and APHA don't cross reference their systems or procedures

You can never speak with a decision maker directly

DEFRA got raided for Brexit preparedness and then when you're back on post you're in to job creation . Prime example 5 year under 8 hour livestock transporter authorisations - why even the need? Grant them based on due diligence and remove them for legally proven transgressions. Otherwise leave them in perpetuity just like the personal animal species CPC

Same with RPA temporary land associations. Just compel the registered holding number to notify you when the TLA ends?

And as for losing BCMS to a multi species new organisation , I have to ask does anyone in the non-farming (food only in reference now) DEFRA actually care about farmers anyway?
 

Vader

Member
Mixed Farmer
Hello - we are a service design consultancy working with Defra on this specific piece of work. unfortunately I don't have a DEFRA e-mail because the work is only for a short amount of time.

The full consent form is here https://defragroup.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJuxDysSCcZAoFo and I've attached the participant information form from Defra.

If you have queries - you can e-mail our main stakeholder for this work - Rachel Dempster [email protected] who is the Customer Change and Innovation Lead in the team we're working with.

I hope this helps answer those concerns!
Service design consultancy...
Another cog in the machine of mess ups...
Ever noticed the more things get techy and more expert consultants are used the more things don't work??
Examples, every gov scheme...

Funny how gov happy to throw cash at consultants who no idea about the subject, while they could just talk direct to farmers and fix it quickly.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
DEFRA are actually paying a consultancy to research and inform them what's wrong with their customer interface, are they?

We've been telling them on here for several years that they fundamental lack any understanding of the agricultural industry or the people in it.

The DEFRA "helpline" is a clear example.

As @JP1 posted above, you call it then have to wade through minutes of recorded message about things irrelevant to your business (because the single number acts as gateway to all the "DEFRA family" organisations) only to be left in a queue to see if anyone actually answers and, if you are lucky, they rarely understand your question let alone know the answer.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
DEFRA are actually paying a consultancy to research and inform them what's wrong with their customer interface, are they?

We've been telling them on here for several years that they fundamental lack any understanding of the agricultural industry or the people in it.

The DEFRA "helpline" is a clear example.

As @JP1 posted above, you call it then have to wade through minutes of recorded message about things irrelevant to your business (because the single number acts as gateway to all the "DEFRA family" organisations) only to be left in a queue to see if anyone actually answers and, if you are lucky, they rarely understand your question let alone know the answer.
So bloody true, it is hugely frustrating to the point of my wanting to chuck the phone ina bucket of water.

So I try email instead..... several weeks later a response that doesn't answer the question.... at all. And usually ends with a suggestion that I call the "Helpline"... :mad:
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
@Janet Hughes Defra
why are DEFRA paying a consultancy to understand the efficacy of their communications?
Presumably, this is in advance of the avalanche of helpline queries expected when the SFI goes live in June.
If your team really thought about root cause issues, then you would not need to rely on a helpline. The SFI scheme would be simple from the outset because you would have involved farmers in the co-design and listened to them instead of the various agents, corporates, wildlife trusts, RSPB NE and NT personnel
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
So bloody true, it is hugely frustrating to the point of my wanting to chuck the phone ina bucket of water.

So I try email instead..... several weeks later a response that doesn't answer the question.... at all. And usually ends with a suggestion that I call the "Helpline"... :mad:
That would be an email that every time "someone" responds, you reply instantly because you need an answer and you get a log response stating they (their union) says they have 15 WORKING days to reply

Have you ever noticed how any email NEVER has a direct email to respond to, NEVER has a direct 'phone line and MAINLY (if undersigned at all) is by a department head not the person writing the email. NOBODY is accountable or actually cares , it's ALWAYS a "team" based reply
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
I'll start

If you ring the DEFRA main number it's answered in Liverpool and they are the most nasty, unhelpful, almost militant bunch of disinterested folks out there

Going on from that the option menu takes a minimum of 2 and a half minutes to listen through pressing options and then once you've selected the correct option, it's pot luck if anyone answers

Going on from that RPA and APHA don't cross reference their systems or procedures

You can never speak with a decision maker directly

DEFRA got raided for Brexit preparedness and then when you're back on post you're in to job creation . Prime example 5 year under 8 hour livestock transporter authorisations - why even the need? Grant them based on due diligence and remove them for legally proven transgressions. Otherwise leave them in perpetuity just like the personal animal species CPC

Same with RPA temporary land associations. Just compel the registered holding number to notify you when the TLA ends?

And as for losing BCMS to a multi species new organisation , I have to ask does anyone in the non-farming (food only in reference now) DEFRA actually care about farmers anyway?
I’ll pm you later about the last paragraph.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
That would be an email that every time "someone" responds, you reply instantly because you need an answer and you get a log response stating they (their union) says they have 15 WORKING days to reply

Have you ever noticed how any email NEVER has a direct email to respond to, NEVER has a direct 'phone line and MAINLY (if undersigned at all) is by a department head not the person writing the email. NOBODY is accountable or actually cares , it's ALWAYS a "team" based reply.
This was one of the issues I put to JH and her team at Groundswell. There even seemed to be an understanding of the need....
 
@Janet Hughes Defra
why are DEFRA paying a consultancy to understand the efficacy of their communications?
Presumably, this is in advance of the avalanche of helpline queries expected when the SFI goes live in June.
If your team really thought about root cause issues, then you would not need to rely on a helpline. The SFI scheme would be simple from the outset because you would have involved farmers in the co-design and listened to them instead of the various agents, corporates, wildlife trusts, RSPB NE and NT personnel
That's exactly right, and exactly what we're doing, as I hope you'll see when we open SFI for applications.

We do however also need to communicate with people about the fact that the service exists / what it includes, and as with everything else we do we gather feedback to understand how it's working so we can continuously improve. We do that in a range of different ways, including occasionally doing structured, paid-for research and also through engaging with farmers on here and in many other ways. We do this whole range of things so that we can get a good & representative range of views on how things are going.

(Sorry this is a very slow response, I've been off sick I'm afraid)
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
That's exactly right, and exactly what we're doing, as I hope you'll see when we open SFI for applications.

We do however also need to communicate with people about the fact that the service exists / what it includes, and as with everything else we do we gather feedback to understand how it's working so we can continuously improve. We do that in a range of different ways, including occasionally doing structured, paid-for research and also through engaging with farmers on here and in many other ways. We do this whole range of things so that we can get a good & representative range of views on how things are going.

(Sorry this is a very slow response, I've been off sick I'm afraid)
Pleased to have you back Janet.
 
Pleased to have you back Janet.
That's very kind, thank you - glad to be back

(I was worried you'd all think I'd done a runner having not signed in for a while, and there doesn't seem to be any way I could find on here to indicate that I wasn't around in the way you can on eg Twitter by just doing a tweet - if anyone knows how to do that on here, I'd love to know so I can let you all know if I'm not going to be here for a bit! cc @Clive )
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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