Examples of Bespoke Services
PSNI Toolkit Services
The Digital Toolkit platform has been installed within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) protected network to host services that offer a facility for citizens to interact with the Police. These include:
PSNI - Firearms Services
The PSNI Firearms online service allow citizens to apply, pay for, change and manage their firearms license online. Applications are managed through to the Firearms Enquiry Branch (FEB) within the PSNI protected network. FEB then process Firearms Applications and generate firearms certificates using the Digital Toolkit Platform administration services.
PSNI - Online Services
The PSNI platform instance also hosts other citizen online services and the line of business services to support applications arising from them. These include
- Online Incident Reporting - 24x7x365 critical service which is connected to PSNI control response systems. This is a service for citizens to report non-emergency incidents online rather than using the contact centre phone lines.
- Security Vetting - high profile services which are being developed that to capture, manage and process vetting applications from applicants through sponsors. Applicants can track the status of applications while they are being processed by administrators using the Digital Toolkit bespoke services.
- Fixed Penalty - online service which is being developed that allows citizens to retrieve, view and pay for non-endorseable fixed penalty notices issued to them by the police.
Dept of Justice - Redress Services
The Digital platform has been used within the Department of Justice (DOJ) to host secure services for citizens to apply for redress compensation through representatives ( eg Solicitors) The service hosts secure portals which offer representatives services to create, track and communicate securely (through the secure messaging service) applications for redress compensation to the DOJ Redress teams. These are highly secure, protected services which is segregated and hosted seperately to other toolkit services.
Redress services are currently hosted on the platform for:
- Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) - The Northern Ireland Executive set up an inquiry and investigation into historical institutional abuse. The inquiry covered abuse of children under 18 who lived in children’s homes, borstals, training schools, juvenile justice centres, hospitals and orphanages between 1922 and 1995 in Northern Ireland.
- Victims Payments Scheme (VPS) - The Victims’ Payments Board was established in February 2021. The Board is headed by a President appointed by the Lord Chief Justice, and will consist of a number of members including legal, medical and ordinary members. The purpose of the Board is to determine applications under the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme (also referred to as the Victims’ Payments Scheme).
Dept for Communitities - Appeals Service
The Appeals Service provides administrative support to tribunals set up to hear appeals against decisions made by the Department for Communities, Child Maintenance Service (CMS), Inland Revenue, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and Rates Collection Agency. The Digital Toolkit Appeals online services allows citizens to appeal a benefits decision online for themselves or on behalf of others and track the application through to completion.
The Appeals service also uses the secure messaging service to liaise across benefit offices and government agencies across Northern Ireland to securly gather evidence required in assessing an appeal.
Dept of Justice - Access NI Case Disputes Service
The NICS Access NI team manage applications for criminal record and security checks in Northern Ireland. If an applicant thinks that there is information on their certificate that’s wrong or shouldn’t be there, they can raise a dispute with AccessNI using the Digital Toolkit case dispute service.
Case Disputes are managed through to resolution on the Case Disputes service by the Dept of Justice Access NI processing teams.
The Executive Office - Funding Forms Service
The Central Good Relations Fund (CGRF) supports constituted voluntary and community sector groups to deliver good relations projects which contribute towards the delivery of one of the Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC) Strategy key priorities.
There are two streams of funding available: Project Funding and Small Grants. Project Funding opens once a year for applications. Small Grants are open for applications throughout the funding year. The TEO funding online service allows the CGRF team to configure funding windows for an online funding service. The online service enables charities and organisations to apply for funding through a citizen online organisation portal. The Toolkit will automatically close funding windows within the year and enable the CGRF team to manage the applications through the assessment process to conclusion and award.
Dept of Finance - CPD Request Forms
The Construction & Procurement Delivery (CPD) Branch within NICS work with business areas in the management of the procurement of goods and services. CPD have surfaced a number of work request forms on the Digital Toolkit to allow business areas across NICS to request engagement from CPD to advise on the intiation of procurement for a number of procurement paths, including :
- New Work Request - to request advise in initiating a new procurement for supplies or services
- Existing Contract Work Request - to request advice or facilitate a contract variation on an existing contract
- Direct Award Work Request - to request advice in repect of a Direct Award Contract (DAC)
The Toolkit surfaces forms internally within NICS for business areas, and manages these requests through to worklists for the CPD teams.
Dept for Communities - Jobs Online
A Department for Communities (DfC) service that enables an employers portal for employers to advertise for job vacancies and apprenticeships within Northern Ireland. Employers are registered and validated through a direct connection to Companies House NI. DfC processors can review, approve manage and report on employers and vacancies using the service.
You can view the JobsOnline citizen portal here :
Public Records Office NI - Online Order and Invoicing
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) is the official archive for Northern Ireland.
This Digital Toolkit hosts a service for PRONI that enables citizens to request public records online. PRONI administrators process the request, build and issue an online invoice which citizens. Citizen can then securely access and pay for the invoice online. PRONI Administrators can track adjust and reissue invoices as required.
Dept of Education - Careers Service
Every school in Northern Ireland has a partnership agreement in place with the Dept of Education Careers Service, which provides impartial advice and guidance, and parents are encouraged to ensure that their child makes full use of this service, available free from professionally qualified careers advisors, particularly in year 10 and year 12.
The Digital Toolkit Careers Service allows students (under guidance from their school) and adults requiring Careers support to submit information and requests for advice online. The Careers Service use the Toolkit administration service to manage these requests, allocate Careers Advisors and track Student career decisions across Northern Ireland.
The Executive Office - HMRC Integration Services
The Executive office of Northern Ireland manages the allocation of funding grants to organisations and charities.
The Digital Toolkit HMRC Integration service enables realtime checking of National Insurance and Tax credentials for NI companies who apply for funding grants.
The Executive Office - Spend Local
As part of an incentive to boost the economy, the NI government decided to enable adults to register for pre-paid spending cards.
The Digital Toolkit enabled a registration service which integrated to a number of different identity verification solutions and finally onto the Credit Card provider. The service opened for all adults in Northern Ireland on a particular date and time and was resilient against unprecedented demand.
The Executive Office - Remedy Pay
The Digital Toolkit enabled a citizen service to allow individuals who failed verification for the Shop Local spending card, but still felt eligible to apply. This was then managed through to an administartion Verification Checking service on the Toolkit. The Verification Checking service was a case management system to allow 200 processors to manage and track the manual verification of citizens through Remedy Pay.