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Background

Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) has responsibility for the administration and delivery of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) programs. These programs provide benefits to seniors, persons with disabilities and their children, survivors and migrants. In 2000-2001, the department estimates it will provide benefits to nearly 5 million Canadians and more than 135,000 clients living abroad. Total benefits paid under the programs are estimated at $43.8 billion for 2000-2001 and it is expected that administration and delivery costs will be $277.4 million.

Income Security Programs (ISP) Outreach is intended to promote awareness of CPP and OAS at the community level, and to improve citizens' understanding of how these benefit programs fit within overall retirement planning and income security. Outreach works with several other ISP divisions whose overall objective is to ensure that people obtain the benefits they qualify for, and that they see these benefits as a reliable part of their retirement income planning. In short, ISP Outreach's mission is "to be leaders in the community at providing Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan information to enable Canadians to plan and manage transitions in their lives."¹

ISP Outreach was created as a separate entity from ISP Communications in April, 1998 as a result of an ISP Omnibus Submission approved by the Treasury Board. Prior to this, Outreach resources were in place in regional and local offices across the country. However, since Outreach had been funded by the Canada Pension Plan, there was no presence in Quebec where the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) is administered by the provincial government. As a result of the Omnibus Submission, three changes occurred:

• the scope of Outreach activity was expanded to also incorporate Old Age Security;
• resources were increased (approximately doubled) in each of the regions and a significant presence was established in Quebec; and
• a headquarters presence was established for program direction, planning, product development, and research.

Objectives and Resources

The principle objectives of ISP Outreach are to work at the community level to:

• raise awareness and knowledge of CPP and OAS among current and future clients of the programs;
• improve Canadians' understanding of the role of CPP and OAS within overall retirement planning and income security;
• improve confidence in the CPP and OAS programs; and
• work with other ISP areas to increase the proportion of individuals that receive the benefits to which they are entitled under the Income Security Programs.

The first three objectives have been actively pursued under the current design and implementation of the program. However, the activities necessary to achieve the fourth objective are still in progress on a national basis.

ISP Outreach has a national budget of $4.5 million which includes approximately $3 million for salaries. This salary budget is allocated for 82 Full time Equivalents (FTE's). Of these, eight are at national headquarters in Ottawa. The remaining 74 are spread across the 10 regions.

The approach to staffing varies from region to region. In some regions (e.g., Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatchewan) staff are dedicated to Outreach. In other regions (e.g., Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and British Columbia), individuals are allocated to Outreach on a fractional basis and also perform other duties relating to the Income Security Programs.

Program Activities

The Outreach personnel in each region are accountable to the ISP regional manager. Consequently, the program is responsive to regional needs and specific activities vary from region to region.

Nevertheless, the activities undertaken fall into four broad categories as follows:

• Direct Contact With Individuals. This has been a major focus of ISP Outreach. Specific activities in this category include staffing booths at public events and giving presentations to individuals via retirement and pre-retirement seminars. Events such as these may also result in follow-up requests for information.
• Working With Intermediaries. ISP Outreach attempts to provide information to individual Canadians through a leveraged model. Specifically, this involves working with individuals who will, in turn, provide relevant information to individual Canadians. Examples include financial planners, staff of MP and MLA constituency offices and funeral directors.
• Communicating With the Media. ISP Outreach staff are often responsible for dealing with local media as regards the Income Security Programs. This may include both reactive and proactive approaches.
• Identifying and Enrolling Those Entitled to Benefits. This category of activities which is in progress at this stage, involves the development and implementation of procedures directed at target populations considered to be at above-average risk of not receiving benefits to which they are entitled. Outreach works in this area in concert with other ISP functions such as Communications, CPP Contributor Information, OAS/CPP Policy, the 1-800 system, and Electronic Services (website).

Evaluation Approach

This formative evaluation addresses 15 issues relating to the following five categories:

• Rationale;
• Design, Delivery and Implementation — Clients Reached;
• Design, Delivery and Implementation — Tools;
• Design, Delivery and Implementation — Specific Activities and Alternatives;
• Design, Delivery and Implementation — Co-ordination.

The evaluation has been conducted using qualitative approaches:

• detailed case studies of program implementation were conducted in four regions;
• the evaluation team attended sample events in two regions;
• interviews were conducted with 71 individuals. Twenty-three of these interviews were with HRDC personnel at headquarters and in the regions. The remainder was with partners, non-government organizations and other government departments;
• interviews were conducted with 83 direct Outreach clients at regional events;
• the Performance Measurement Database was examined and users of the system were interviewed in nine regions and at headquarters; and,
• a literature review was conducted relating to Outreach type activities in nine other countries.

Program Relevance

The evaluation has found that the need for CPP and OAS public education is high and that Outreach has a significant role to play in local communities to this end. Available evidence indicates that Canadians have poor levels of knowledge of the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. These low levels of knowledge create two significant risks:

• individuals may not receive all services or benefits they are entitled to; and
• individuals may base their retirement planning and related financial decisions on inaccurate information.

The evaluation has found that a significant share of the resources of ISP Outreach have been dedicated to direct communication with individual Canadians. These activities are relevant to the achievement of program objectives. However, they are not as efficient as other approaches that leverage the resources, networks and contacts of partners and NGOs in raising Canadians' level of awareness of the income security system. For example, Outreach has notable successes at working with local partners but these have not been as numerous as possible and Outreach has not yet adopted this way of doing business in a consistent, national manner.

To be more effective, ISP Outreach can adopt a more leveraged and targeted approach in all regions.

Design, Delivery and Implementation — Clients Reached

Based on the analysis of this evaluation, Outreach has exceeded targets in almost all of its activity areas such as contacting clients, attending public events and distributing CPP/OAS information. However, ISP Outreach has not been able to consistently measure, on a national basis, the impacts of these activities. To this end, an innovative activities/impact/costing pilot is underway in Outreach with full implementation scheduled for April 2001.

Design Delivery and Implementation — Tools

Overall, ISP Outreach has access to high quality information tools. However, the process for developing new tools in response to identified needs requires improvement. In particular, production of new national information materials can take an unacceptably long time. Several regions have addressed this by applying regional resources to address particularly urgent requirements. The evaluation has identified a few areas where current information tools are inadequate in reaching certain client groups including aboriginal people, individuals who speak neither official language, etc.

The evaluation found that the Performance Measurement Database (PMD) was constrained by the technologies available at its inception 3-4 years ago. As a result, it was used primarily to record activities and serve as a database to track partners and interest groups. It has been challenging to develop, implement, use and maintain. In addition, the design of the system makes it very difficult to produce aggregate data in a timely and accurate fashion. Based on this learning curve, Outreach is in the process of developing an innovative web-based system that will link with the ISP National Reporting Database. It will report equally on activities, costs and impacts according to a pre-defined program/performance framework where each region has identified its targets and priorities for the coming year.

Design, Delivery and Implementation — Specific Activities and Alternatives

Findings relate to specific activities targeted to the public, to partners and intermediaries and to the media.

Public

The direct public focus of the program has traditionally consisted of staffing information booths at public events and providing retirement and pre-retirement seminars. The evaluation has found that these activities do perform an educational role but are primarily a public relations function unless they are clearly focused. For example, the individuals reached via this approach are Canadians who often are literate and somewhat aware of pension issues.

Outreach's efforts to reach higher-risk clients such as aboriginals and low-income seniors offer better opportunities to raise awareness of ISP benefits and services.

Partners and Intermediaries

ISP Outreach has worked cooperatively with other organizations. Most often, these relationships have been based on inquiries and requests. The evaluation has found several examples of valuable partnerships. Primarily, however, it is the finding of the evaluation that the potential benefits from working with partners and intermediaries are greater than has been realized to date. It is noted that Outreach is focusing its efforts to increase their capacity in this regard.

Media

The program's relationship with the media has been generally positive but limited in scope. Volume of media contacts is lower than expected but consideration is given to the fact that media relations are shared in ISP between Communications, Outreach and regional/HQ issues spokespersons. Regional personnel indicate that the media has generally resisted their approaches for a continuing, pro-active partnership.

Design, Delivery and Implementation — Co-ordination

The evaluation has found that the existing organization structure of ISP Outreach and division of authority is a limiting factor in terms of addressing the objectives of Outreach. Generally, control of the program resources rests with regional ISP managers, while accountability to senior management and central agencies for achieving ISP Outreach's objectives rests primarily with headquarters.

Coordination of the Outreach activities with other ISP communication-related activities is not problematic and the forthcoming overall ISP Branch Communications Strategy will further refine this integration.

Footnotes

1	The Income Security Programs Outreach Strategic Framework, June, 1999.