Call for evidence: An inspection of the Home Office's visa casework 'onshoring' ('Network consolidation')
UK Visas and Immigration's strategy for managing visa applications includes the 'onshoring' of decision making from overseas visa sections to its centres in the UK. This process, which it refers to as 'network consolidation', has been underway for some time, with some overseas visa posts already closed and the work 'onshored' and others are set to close over the next few years.
I have just begun an inspection of network consolidation and am now inviting anyone with relevant knowledge or 'before and after' experience of the onshoring of this function to write to me by 1st March 2019 with their evidence.
My intention is to examine the evolution of network consolidation from UKVI's previous 'hub and spoke' model; where decision making was done at a number of 'hubs', the majority overseas, each of which dealt with applications received from several countries, the 'spokes'.
I will look at resource planning and governance of the network consolidation programme; the origin, planning, governance and delivery of the closure of particular visa posts, comparing the projected benefits against the actual outcomes; UKVI's performance in the UK compared with overseas; staff and other resource issues; and stakeholder management.
However, the other key element is the 'customer experience', which is why I am making this call for evidence.
