Chapter 5: The Values and relations with the Public

Conclusions

Service delivery continues to be a major theme in the ongoing APS reform process. A number of agencies are developing programs designed to meet the needs of individual customers and are making considerable investments in developing customer-focused service delivery skills and behaviour in their staff. Improving performance in this area remains an essential activity for the APS and requires continued concerted effort into the future.

The use of service charters is widespread among APS agencies. Employees generally have a good understanding of the content of their agency’s service charter and are positive about the impact that the charters have on service delivery. However, individual agency performance, particularly in terms of employee awareness and views of effectiveness of service charters, varies considerably, and small agencies generally have less positive results. This highlights the need for agencies to constantly monitor and review the effectiveness of their service charters to ensure that they accurately reflect changing client needs.

Most agencies appear to have developed effective mechanisms for receiving and responding to feedback from the general public, including by gathering measurable information on client satisfaction, although the extent of information included in annual reports is variable. Employees also generally have a positive attitude to the impact of feedback mechanisms on service delivery. These results suggest that agencies would benefit from extending feedback, and mechanisms for responding to it, to the minority of employees involved in service delivery who do not currently receive it. Future surveys will ask agencies to specifically report on the level of client satisfaction with their services.

Overall, the surveys and other data suggest that agencies recognise the importance of effective service delivery. Almost all are putting in place mechanisms, including effective e-government mechanisms, to ensure that they meet the needs of the public.

The issue of encouraging and utilising public consultation and communication is a growing one for the APS. There are already many examples of innovative approaches to public consultation and communication in the APS on policy, program management and service delivery issues. Individual agencies, in consultation with their Ministers, need to identify if there are additional areas where they could benefit from more extensive public consultation and communication.

Information provided by the Ombudsman indicates that many larger agencies have established effective mechanisms for reviewing decisions, handling complaints and obtaining customer feedback to enable improvements to services. However, evidence from the Ombudsman and the ANAO suggests that there are also some areas where agencies could examine service delivery to see if it can be improved further, particularly in relation to explaining and recording reasons for decisions, and in reducing delays.