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)
- Instruction sheets (white)
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).
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.