The year 2016 marked the 15^th Anniversary of the establishment of the State Claims Agency (SCA) on the 3 December 2001. We used it as a year of reflection and evaluation and we carried out a number of reviews as part of this process. The most important of these involved using an independent organisation to carry out a quantitative and qualitative study to establish your, our client State authorities’, experience and perceptions of the SCA.

It consisted of two phases. The first included a series of 25 in depth, one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with personnel at senior levels in our client organisations. The second phase involved online interviews which were offered to around 350 contacts in our client State authorities and which were completed by 144.

So what did you tell us?

The feedback from both phases of the study was very positive and indeed the experience of most who have dealt with the SCA tends to have been very impressive and indeed reassuring. The whole area of claims against State bodies and the escalating risk profile of many of the State agencies has become a much bigger issue for client authorities in recent years. Many State Authorities welcomed the advent of the State Claims Agency. You scored us high in all key areas of usefulness, communication, expertise, value for money and project management.

The key measure in surveys like this is whether you, as a client, would whole-heartedly recommend the services of the SCA to another organisation or colleague within your own State authority. You scored us higher in regard to this measure than any other public sector body and as high as the best private organisation measured previously.

In describing the SCA, you described us as rigorous, experts, passionate, problem-solving, ethical, even-handed, necessary, innovative and thought leaders.

You also provided some very constructive criticism. In particular around the communication of the services we offer and specifically concerning to our activities around claims management and risk management concerning specific claims or initiatives. It was suggested we might publicise our services better, not just to our client State authorities but also more widely to the public. Finally, a good number of you commented that with our expanding remit there was some concern that we will not be able to deliver the same level of service as we have in the last 15 years.

We would firstly like to thank you for your engagement with the researcher and your positive feedback. We are humbled and very pleased that you have found us a useful Agency over the last 15 years and we hope to continue to deliver a high level of service to support you in your daily endeavours to deliver on behalf of the citizens of this country. We have taken seriously the constructive criticism that you have provided and we are already taking measures to try and ensure that your concerns in relation to the future delivery of our services to your organisations are addressed.

Article by: Pat Kirwan, Deputy Director and Executive Head of Business, Risk and Operations, State Claims Agency