Managed services for Development Management

V.R.I - Validate Register Input

Since 2002 the Planning Portal has worked in partnership with LPAs to help deliver a planning service that is less bureaucratic, more transparent and accessible. In that time together, we have overcome many of the sometimes significant barriers to implementing e-enabled services.

Underlying this drive, Government is applying increasing pressure on LPAs to realise service efficiencies from reduced running costs. With many struggling to keep abreast of handling time targets (BVPI 109) whilst making savings to their overall running costs, now is a time to evaluate and re-engineer current business processes to find smarter ways of working.

Recent research has identified an opportunity to further improve service delivery and free up precious local authority planning resources to concentrate on assessing the merit of an application’s content, rather than on its administration.

The Planning Portal are keen to identify service providers that enable LPAs to expedite the initial receipt of planning applications through to the validation and registration phase, an often resource’ intensive process allowing LPAs to "Bag and Dispatch" planning applications to an accredited supplier to process on their behalf.

A key part of any Validation, Registration and Input (VRI) service must include the validation of planning applications against an agreed rule-base, in line with proposed legislative changes for LPAs to introduce Planning Application Requirements (or validation checklists).

All applications are then converted from paper applications into e-applications and submitted directly via the Planning Portal into the LPA back office system database, without the need for manual intervention.

The range of application types (i.e. minor, other etc) subject to this service would be agreed between the supplier and the Council.

This service extends the already common practice of out-sourcing paper documents for scanning into one where the entire paper application is e-enabled and validated.

Benefits of VRI service:

• Removes the early stage admin burden by devolving in-house registration and validation of applications to external supplier.
• Enables more efficient and quicker application registration.
• Relieves pressure on short-staffed and under-resourced authorities.
• Releases Council staff to focus on assessing the merit of applications.
• More of the allotted processing time is available for actual consideration of the proposal, helping to meet planning application processing targets.
• Means paper applications are not disadvantaged compared to electronic.
• One standard process that encourages tackling the cultural change to adopt greater online working and electronic consultation with all parties.

Supporta (previously known as TerraQuest) has recently concluded a pilot of this service with the London Borough of Hillingdon where all of the above efficiencies were realised, delivering an overall improvement to the Council’s application service.

Further details of accreditated VRI providers are available here.

Alternatively please contact Scott Alford for further information on  scott.alford@planningportal.gov.uk or call 0117 373 8550.