How do I apply for a Blue Badge?

There are 2 methods for applying for a Blue Badge –

National Gov UK (Valtech) - https://www.gov.uk/apply-blue-badge    

Integrated into MCS with all application details available to view via service desk

Catalogue – Blue Badge

DfT Blue Badge Applications

Or

• MCS – Template form for Blue Badge Customers  

Catalogue – Blue Badge

Form - MCS Blue Badge Application

Both of the above methods will result in a Service Request being raised – for either a customer or organisation.

How do I check and update an applicant’s details? 

A Customer Profile is required for any Blue Badge Applicant –  

• From Valtech the Customer Profile is created via integrations on receipt of an Application.

• For Applications via “MCS Blue Badge Application” then the Customer Profile needs creating manually via “Community” - “People” (if a Profile does not already exist). 

A typical Blue Badge Customer Profile will require the following mandatory items –

• Title, First Name, Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• Address in full - Please ensure the Post Code is correct with the right format - Example for “NP15 1DN” not “NP151DN”, “NP1 51DN”, “NP151 DN” etc.
• Contact Telephone Number – Valtech only accepts the MCS type of "Mobile Number" - this can be a populated with a landline if a mobile number is not available but must have a type set as “Mobile”
• Photo - A recent legible photo in portrait (as passport photo) showing a true resemblance of the Blue Badge Holder - this will be printed on the Blue Badge.
• (Optional) Email address can be given but this is not essential for Valtech.

For Organisations please provide -

Name & Company number (for charities only)

Address

Contact Points for Phone, Email

Contacts with Relationship “EMPLOYEE”  

** Exceptions - if the Application is submitted on someone’s behalf, in this case then the Applicant and the Badge Holder both require a Customer Profile creating & for Organisations both the Organisation (Org) & Contact (Person) will need Profiles.

How do I manage the approval process?  

On receipt of a Blue Badge Application, this is accessed by a member of the authorities Blue Badge Team.

Applications have a dedicated Page “Review” to provide an outcome for the Application -

Standard outcomes consist of -

** Customers can also amend the Select List “Please Confirm Application Outcome” bespoke to their requirements.  

However please ensure a corresponding Status with Transition is also created via the Administration portal > Status & Transitions –

The “Standard” outcomes also have rules assigned with the following Actions;

** Create linked task will create a task within the Service Request for Task

Form - Blue Badge Task Forms > Blue Badge Assessment.

Each “Question” has a pre-defined score assigned depending on the answer, after completing the assessment a summary score sheet is presented

The summary then totals up the final assessment score to enable the Blue

Badge Assessor to make a decision whether to Approve or Decline the Application (a score of 15 or more grants automatic eligibility – however this is at the discretion of the assessors who may award a badge below this value, depending on overall assessment -

Standard outcomes are either “Approve Application” or “Decline Application” however, as shown in the above screen customers can add bespoke outcomes to refer the assessment internally or to external arbitrators.   

The “Standard” Assessment outcomes also have rules assigned -

How to order a Blue Badge?  

Should an Application be “Approved” from either the initial Application or from an Assessment then a Contract will need creating which will finally trigger integrations to order a Blue Badge from Valtech for Printing & Delivery.

The Contract can be configured against the Service Request that has been submitted. By clicking on the “Contract” button within the Service Request –

The following will appear on the screen. Please note that all fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory in order to proceed further.

For “Customer” Blue Badge Contracts –

Select the following options before “Add contract” –

**Customer role will vary between sites depending on customer Contracts. 

A contract will now appear in the Service Request “Contracts” section –

Click “Edit” to proceed.

The full Contract will now be displayed – (Please see the Dynamic data section)

The Dynamic data section,” Order Blue Badge” will need completing with the following mandatory options so integrations can include them for ordering a Blue Badge from Valtech for Printing & Delivery –

Eligibility - The following are the eligibility short codes for awarding a Blue

Badge - PIP, DLA, AFRFCS, WPMS, BLIND, WALKD, ARMS, CHILDBULK,

CHILDVEHIC

Assessment Type – Source – DESK, PHONE, APPEAL, GP (Welsh Only)

Issue as Not for Reassessment – Should the Applicant have a permanent disability then not further assessments required – Automatic Eligibility.

Delivery to – Home or Council

Delivery option – Standard or Fast (Fast Track - only available for Home deliveries)

Application channel – Online, Paper, Phone, In person

Once all contract details are complete change the Contract Status from

“Under Review BB” to “New BB”

The Blue Badge integration scheduler (running every 30 minutes) will now pickup any Contracts with Status “New BB” for processing into Valtech.

Once integrated into Valtech the Contract Status will change again from “New BB” to “Active BB”, in addition to the status change integrations will also populate the Contract “Reference no” with the confirmed Valtech Blue

Badge number –

Once a Blue Badge has been ordered and badge number assigned, management of the Badge is carried out within Contracts.

Should an “Active” badge require cancelling, this is actioned against the

Contract by selecting Action > Cancel within the Contract Detail –

When choosing “Cancel” mandatory options “Cancelled by” & “Reason”  require completing before confirming the cancellation with the “Cancel contract” button below.

How to cancel a Blue Badge? 

When the Blue Badge has been cancelled the Contract Status will change to “Cancel BB”, and a summary of the cancellation will be shown.  

Cancelled Blue Badge Contracts will also update Valtech including the reason via integrations.

How to replace a Blue Badge? 

Once a Blue Badge has been ordered and badge number assigned, management of the Badge is carried out within Contracts.

Should an “Active” badge require replacing, a reason has to select in the

Dynamic data section of the Contract – under “Replace Badge” –

The final step is to change the Status to “Replace BB”  

How do I send a reminder to the customer to renew their blue badge How to replace a Blue Badge? 

Once a Blue Badge has been ordered and badge number assigned, management of the Badge is carried out within Contracts.

Notifications can be setup against a Blue Badge contract to automatically email the Badge Holder (if email supplied) at any designated period before and after anniversary of the contract.

Alternatively, customers can manage Blue Badge Contracts by exporting

Contract Details via the Action button – “Contract Details”

How do I send a reminder to the customer to renew their blue badge

Contracts can be filtered, formatted, grouped, aggregated, sorted or downloaded into various formats including CSV for managing end dates and expiries in customers preferred applications.

Blue Badge customers can then be contacted via any of the following methods (if provided from the original application) –

• Email
• SMS
• Telephone
• Post  

How to reinstate a Blue Badge? 

Once a Blue Badge has been ordered and badge number assigned, management of the Badge is carried out within Contracts.

Should an “Inactive” badge require reinstating, change the status of the contract to “Reinstate” -

This will reactivate the Blue Badge on Valtech

If any errors occur in this process, then a note will be added to the contract and the status will be updated to Attention.

Common FAQ’s

How will I know there has been an issue with the initial integration of the application? 

If there is an issue with the initial integration of the application, then there is new functionality with the V8 web services that can notify a person via email. This will require the configuration of an integration event rule.

I can’t find and application what are the steps I need to follow? 

Valtech Applications are retrieved and integrated into MCS via a scheduler which runs every 30 minutes.

Should a Blue Badge application be missing from Valtech then customers should report the issue via iSupport detailing the applicants name and approximate date & time of submission to Valtech.

A customer has submitted an application, but there is no supporting documents? 

Support documents to a Blue Badge application are stored against Document Types within MCS in order to categories their purpose, these consist of the following document types   –

When integrations retrieve supporting documents including the Photo ID, please ensure the Document type exist with the correct Access level assigned – User > Service -