10 minutes
A service-path review you can run Run a short structured review on one process you touch, and end with a single change, an owner and a date.
What you’ll be able to do Complete a five-question service-path review on one process you touch and produce one change with a named owner and a review point. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: How should you use the hour? Draft a service-path review for your work, including process examined, who cannot complete it, what we record when they stop. Keep the scope small enough to move The temptation with a review like this is to aim it at the system. Resist it. A review of the whole service path produces a document; a review of the renewal notice you send produces a changed notice. Pick something inside your reach or one conversation away from it.
The five questions below are ordered deliberately. The first two find where people stop. The third asks what the step is for, because a step that protects something real needs replacing rather than deleting. The fourth is where most findings actually land: the alternative exists but only on request, which means it exists for people who know to ask. The fifth turns the finding into work.
The five questions Who cannot complete this step at all, and why not?
Where do people stop, and what do we record when they do?
What does this step protect, and could that be protected another way?
Is the alternative route the default, or does the person have to ask for it?
Who owns the change, and when will we check?
A service-path review One page recording what you examined, the single change you propose, who owns it and when it will be checked.
Process examined The exact step, not the whole service: the renewal notice, the assessment booking, the eligibility letter.
Who cannot complete it The group the step costs the most, and what specifically stops them.
What we record when they stop The category currently used, and whether it reads as the person's choice.
Proposed change One sentence another person could act on without you in the room.
Owner and review point A named person and the date you will check.
Complete this for one process and send it to the person who owns it.
Browse and download only. Staff notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Download this published draft One change, named and dated What you can change You control whether your finding leaves the room as a recommendation with an owner or as a shared concern.
What to watch for Do not end a review with everyone agreeing it is a problem. Agreement without an owner is the most comfortable way for nothing to happen.
Your next step Before your next review conversation ends, say the change, the name and the date out loud, and write them down.
What the review is looking for An assumed capability
Something the step quietly requires: a printer, a morning free, a phone with minutes, reading English, a stable address. The most common finding, and usually the cheapest to fix.
An alternative on request
A route that exists for people who know to ask. Making it the default, or offering it explicitly, converts it from a courtesy into a service.
A protective step
A step that exists for a real reason — verification, safety, a legal requirement. These get redesigned rather than removed, and knowing which is which keeps a review credible.
A category that ends inquiry
Withdrawn, declined, not engaged. Each reads as a decision by the person and stops anyone asking what the process did.
Carry this forward A review is worth running on a process you own or influence, not on the whole system, because the output has to be something you can actually move.
The most useful finding is usually a step that assumes a capability the person does not have, rather than a policy that is wrong.
A finding without an owner and a date is a note, and notes do not change processes.
A completed service-path review with one named change, an owner and a review point.
Send your completed review to the person who owns the process, or keep it if that is you, and put the review point in your calendar.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Back to course Carry this into practice How the Division is organized, who it serves, what home and community-based services actually are, and what the most integrated setting requires of the people who administer them.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
