Advisors need to prepare PIP Kit materials for the initial meeting with the PIP claimant and for the subsequent form-filling appointment (see description of the PIP process).

The source materials files are located at: https://doi.org/10.25405/data.ncl.12045264. Please download these first. The files and other materials, equipment and services required are:

PIPKIT-modes-summary.pdf        
  Pictorial representation of the three modes of use

PIPKIT-lasercut-pages-2.pdf    
  Description and information on materials for digital 
  camera wrap and wooden enclosure box
  Also needed:
     Digital camera
     Thin A4 card (e.g. 160gsm)
     Use of colour printer
     Use of laser cutter
     Clear adhesive tape
     Camera wrap design file (see below)
     3mm plywood (e.g. birch)
     15 and 30mm thick pick and pluck foam
     5mm neoprene foam
     Craft knife
     Scissors
     Ruler
     PVA glue
     Hot glue gun with glue sticks
     Elastic cord
     Enclosure design file (see below)
 
PIPKIT-lasercut-camerawrap.ai   
 Source design file for printed and laser cut digital camera wrap
 
PIPKIT-Flex_Box_v3-pipkit-v5-nologos.ai
 Source design file for laser cut plywood enclosure

PIPKIT-SupplementaryMaterials-20201006.pdf
 Materials for each function:
 1. Supporting Information for Appointment
 2. Daily Diary Record-Keeping Modules
 3. Photographic Evidence Gathering
 4. Reminders
 Additional Materials (information cards)
 Also needed:
     Coloured A4 card
     White A4 paper
     Self-adhesive label sheets
     Use of a ink/laser printer
     Hole punch
     Treasury tags (or other binder)
     Self-adhesive coloured dots
     Alternative enclosures
     Online forms service
     URL shortener service

Scheduling and preparations

Claimants who are not already receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or PIP will need to register with DWP to start a new claim. If this is done with an advisor, it is a good time to discuss use of PIP Kit, and if they agree the materials need to be at hand. Similarly, a claimant might already have the claim form and is requesting help. The materials will be needed for this type of approach too. The initial meeting might be booked, but also if there is a slot available, it may be appropriate to see them immediately and discuss the diary. If the deadline is very close, it may be useful to phone DWP to request an extension. This will not affect the start date of the claim but will allow more time for the claimant to gather evidence, and if they want to use PIP Kit, to complete the diary for a week or two.

In practice it is useful to have some sets of PIP Kit assembled, checked and ready to use.

Initial meeting

An initial meeting (either as part of registering with DWP by phone, or simply to discuss preparations and the diary with the claimant) will need:

  • Online form (Mode 1) prepared with a unique per-claimant URL
  • Digital camera set up and prepared
  • Physical paper cards including diary modules (Mode 2)
  • Container to hold the digital camera and paper cards
  • Notes/guides
  • Any relevant privacy statements and consent agreement form.

Claimants could use either the online diary (Mode 1) or paper (Mode 2) but this will not be known until discussed with them.

If the meeting will also be used to register the new claim with DWP, make sure the claimant has the information required for the telephone call (or PIP1 paper form).

Online form

It is easiest to use some type of existing online form service rather than developing, testing and publishing your own. It will be quicker and probably more reliable. You will need to check your own organisation’s policies regarding using third party services, but many organisations will be using such systems for other purposes. The information requested on the form is personal and relates to health, but will not be identifiable (the advisor will know which form is allocated to which client, but no-one external should know this).

In the prototype, the partner organisation had a contract with Microsoft for EU-hosted Office 365 services, which includes MS Forms. This was used to build a base daily questionnaire template which could then be duplicated and made available to “anyone who knows the URL” with the data being collected on a per-form basis. A bit.ly short URL was created in advance for each unique form, ready for allocation to claimants who chose this method (see 1. Initiation). It is important not to allocate the same form to more than one person. The base template included the following optional yes/no questions:

  • Did you have a good day?
  • Did you go out today?
  • Did you manage going to and using the toilet today?
  • Did you manage to wash or bath today?
  • Did you avoid any falls, fits, blackouts or seizures today? Did you take all your medications?
  • Did you eat properly today?

The claimant-specific form should be modified to reduce this down to 2-4 questions only, and add a general optional free text question:

  • Is there anything else you would like to note or mention?

Other survey/form building and URL-shortening services would also probably be suitable.

Digital camera

Having sourced and purchased cameras, creating a wrapper for them may be useful to help identify controls, mask unnecessary controls and also provide a disposable cover foir each use. MicroSD card (say 16 or 32 Mb) should also be procured if they are not included with the camera. If reusing MicroSD cards, ensure they have had all content deleted and been reformatted. Checklist:

  • Digital camera
  • Configure camera settings – for the “Vibe 1080p HD 16MP Action Camera” used in the PIP Kit prototype, the following were used:
    • Turn date stamp ‘on’ (default was ‘off’)
    • Turn anti-shaking is ‘on’ (default was already ‘on’)
    • Set screen saver to ‘1 minute’ – the delay before the screen goes to sleep when not in use
    • Set auto power off to ‘3 minutes’ – the delay before the camera turns off automatically when not in use
    • Set the date/time format
    • Set date and time – so the date stamp is accurate
  • Insert a new blank and formatted MicroSD card
  • Print/apply camera wrap (if required)
  • Charge the camera fully (this may need to be repeated weekly).

Physical diary cards

The files for the paper cards are available as a PDF. For the prototype, these were printed on colour card which would pass through a standard office printer and were then cut into the square shape using an office guillotine. The colours help differentiate the groups of cards, defined below:

  • Your PIP Appointment (yellow)
  • Please Bring These / continued (green)
  • Try to Get & Bring / continued (red)
  • Diary modules (beige) – normally only 2-4 of these per claimant:
    • Good and Bad Days
    • Going Out
    • Toilet Problems
    • Washing/Bathing Problems
    • Falls, Fits, Seizures, Harm
    • Medications/Treatments
    • Eating Problems
  • Take photos (blue)
    • Rooms
    • Aids
  • Instruction sheets (white)
    • Camera
    • Paper card diary.

Other colours can of course be used, but it will help if they are consistent across all claimants so they are easily identifiable by the advisors.

All the cards, with the exclusion of the instruction sheets, had holes punched in the corner so they could be assembled and loosely bound using a treasury tag. These keep the cards in order, but are easy to flick through. So you will also need treasury tags, and sheets of self-adhesive dot stickers for claimants to mark paper diaries with (although they could use a pen or pencil instead).

Photograph of an example completed PIP KIT diary modules showing the completed paper cards and printed photographs laid out

Container

The prototype used a purpose-made laser-cut birch plywood box, lined with foam inserts and a cover plate. These are somewhat time-consuming to make, so other alternatives could be a cardboard box or fabric or plastic bag. If these are low-cost they can be replaced after each use.

Privacy statements and consent agreement form

Like other forms of advice, guidance and support, ensure the claimant understands how information will be collected, stored and processed and that they consent to this.