Consumer Vulnerability

Engage+

Project Data

Start date:

04/01/2025

End date:

08/31/2026

Budget:

£706,088

What is the project about?

The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a confidential list of customers with additional needs. It enables us to tailor our services and provide extra support to households that may require assistance, particularly during an unexpected power cut.

UK Power Networks promotes PSR sign-ups through partnerships with trusted organisations and targeted awareness campaigns. Engage+ will use market research and data analysis to identify the specific challenges customers face, with findings guiding customer testing and behaviourally informed interventions to reduce or eliminate those barriers — making it easier for more people to register.

The project will also explore opportunities to securely share data with trusted healthcare organisations. This would support the identification and registration of customers with medical conditions more efficiently. By working closely with healthcare providers, we can increase awareness, identify eligible individuals more quickly, and ensure they receive the right support at the right time.

How we’re doing it

Engage+ is taking a data-driven, customer-centred approach to improving access to the Priority Services Register:

Analysing existing data such as PSR records and website analytics to understand current behaviours and identify gaps.
Surveying customers to assess awareness of the PSR and perceptions of the registration process.
Testing new service designs to determine which formats are most user-friendly and effective for encouraging sign-ups.
Exploring attitudes toward data sharing by gathering customer feedback on the use of personal information between trusted organisations.
Collaborating with healthcare partners to develop an evidence-based approach to data sharing, helping to identify and support vulnerable customers more effectively.

What makes it innovative

This project introduces a new approach to enhancing the customer journey for those signing up to the Priority Services Register (PSR). It will generate valuable insights that can be shared across the utility and healthcare sectors.

Behavioural science — a well-established, multi-disciplinary field that explores how people make decisions — is central to this work. By applying behavioural principles to the PSR registration process, we can test established theories in a new context and identify practical ways to make the journey easier and more effective for customers.

In addition, targeted market research will deepen our understanding of how consumers perceive the PSR and how they feel about data sharing between utilities and healthcare providers. These insights will not only improve the PSR sign-up experience but also inform broader service improvements to better support customers with additional needs.

What we’re learning

We want to understand why some eligible customers do not sign up for the Priority Services Register (PSR). By identifying the perceived barriers to registration, we can take targeted action to reduce or remove them. Through customer testing and real-world trials, we aim to identify which approaches most effectively improve the registration experience.

By applying leading behavioural science techniques to specific challenges in the PSR journey, we can strengthen the impact of current registration methods. Learning from this process also allows us to explore how these methods could be adapted for similar use cases, ultimately benefiting a wider group of customers.

As part of this project, we will also conduct market research to explore customer attitudes toward data sharing between the utility and healthcare sectors. Understanding these perceptions will help us make informed, ethical decisions about data sharing, ensuring it is used responsibly and in ways that support the public good.

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