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Working with the Australian community
Delivering services to the public
Abramson’s model of engagement places a strong emphasis on the public’s interaction with the Government as customers of government services.
Over the last decade there has been a strong focus on improving the quality of service delivery in all areas where the APS interacts with the public. These initiatives have included the introduction of a requirement that all APS agencies with public contact have service charters in place, and an increasing emphasis on using ICT to improve government service delivery within the framework of the Government’s e-government strategies.
There have also been significant structural changes to support improved service delivery, including the establishment of Centrelink as a specialist government service provider, the contracting out of employment services to the Job Network, and the creation of DHS to direct, coordinate and broker improvements to service delivery through six agencies: Australian Hearing, Centrelink, CSA, CRS Australia, HSA and Medicare Australia. Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICCs) were also created to coordinate the delivery of most Australian Government Indigenous programmes across agencies.
More recently, the availability of new technology and the increasing expectations of highly- educated citizens for seamless and tailored services have created a growing interest in how the delivery of services can be better structured around the needs of citizens.
Service delivery continues to be one of the most significant aspects of APS activity. The employee survey found that just under half of employees (49%) were directly involved in delivering services to the general public or managed employees who did so. This is similar to the level of involvement in 2006. The proportion of employees involved in service delivery work appears to be stabilising after the downward trend of the last few years.
When employees were asked what best described the type of work they did, the proportion reporting service delivery to the general public (23%) was much lower than the 49% reporting that they were directly involved in delivering services to the general public. This is because many employees who chose other functional descriptors for their work still have contact with the public. Seventy per cent of employees who described their work as ‘exercising regulatory authority’, for example, also reported having direct involvement in delivering services to the general public or managing employees who did so.
Service delivery employees are generally very positive about their work. A large majority of employees (78%) involved in delivering services directly to the public (or managing such employees) reported that they receive appropriate training and/or have access to information that enables them to meet their client service responsibilities. Employees directly involved in service delivery were also very positive about the impact of their workplace practices on service delivery over the last 12 months. In particular, they believe that their colleagues:
- behave ethically, professionally and fairly when making decisions that affect their clients and customers (90%)
- do not abuse their authority or position when dealing with customers or clients (91%)
- are committed to providing excellent customer service (86%).
Almost all (95%) agreed that confidentiality of information was taken seriously in their workplace.
Monitoring the effectiveness of service delivery
The second part of the OECD’s model of citizen engagement emphasises the process of consultation, where citizens provide feedback to the Government. APS agencies have put a strong emphasis on collecting feedback about the quality and effectiveness of government services.
In 2006–07, all agencies that had public contact reported having either quantifiable performance indicators or service standards for the quality of services provided to the public in place or being developed.
There is widespread and increasing use of mechanisms to report against the performance indicators or service standards, with internal agency management structures (97%) and the annual report (96%) continuing to be the mechanisms most commonly used. Reporting to internal service delivery units or teams has also increased substantially over the last five years (87%, up from 65% in 2002–03), as has the use of balanced scorecards (49%, up from 23% in 2002–03).
Agencies with public contact are also making increasing use of public feedback mechanisms (see Figure 11.1). As in 2005–06, the most common mechanisms agencies used to obtain feedback from the public were website links, liaison with peak bodies and telephone hotlines. In 2006–07, obtaining information through focus groups was much more popular (75%, up from 57% in 2005–06).
Figure 11.1: Use of feedback mechanisms to obtain information from the public— relevant agencies, 2006–07
Figure 11.1 shows the proportion of agencies with public contact using feedback mechanisms to obtain information from the public in 2006–07. The most common feedback mechanisms were website links, liaison with peak bodies and telephone hotlines.
Source: Agency survey
Most agencies that collect feedback from the public have mechanisms to ensure that it is fed into service delivery improvements (see Figure 11.2).
Consistent with the high rate of use of feedback mechanisms in agencies, most employees directly involved in service delivery to the general public agreed that their workplace used feedback from their customers and clients to improve the services they delivered (72% of relevant employees agreed, 9% disagreed).
Figure 11.2: Use of feedback collected from the public-relevant agencies, 2006–07
Figure 11.2 shows agency use of feedback collected from the public in 2006–07. The most common uses of feedback were integrating into decision-making processes to improve programmes/systems, responding directly to person/organisation responsible for the feedback, and presenting findings in agency forums.
Source: Agency survey
When asked for ideas on how to help improve service delivery, a number of employees provided comments. The main themes of these comments related to training; customer service, particularly consistency and quality within agencies; resources, including more employees and time to do the job; and better relationships with customers, particularly through improved complaints handling and satisfaction surveys and building on stakeholder relations. A sample of the comments is set out below.
Training, training, training. The more I know about my job the better I will be able to provide service. I do not feel that I have been appropriately trained or given access to the appropriate information from within the agency or from other agencies to effectively do/learn my job.
High workloads have a significant adverse effect on [our] ability to deliver effective and comprehensive training.
Well established, clear and transparent rules/regulations/protocols and expectations of service and contact with external clients/stakeholders.
More staff to see customers. Customers are unable to book an appointment to see someone––are asked to come in to be seen as walk-in. Customers are expected to wait for long periods in the waiting area. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
The Department conducts client and customer surveys, [but] results rarely filter down to desktop level.
Service delivery … is often far poorer than we would like, simply because we don’t have the resources (people/equipment) to do it any faster. We would like to provide better (faster, more accurate) service, but can’t with the resources available.
Service delivery achievements in 2006–07
Centrelink-Improved Customer Service and Emergency
Responses to Natural Disasters
Centrelink improved customer service by making
self-service available to 50 services and increasing the use of self-service by 21%. It also
achieved a 56% reduction in unmet demand and a 35% reduction in wait times at its
Call Centres.
Centrelink also provided emergency responses to significant natural disasters including storms in South Australia and Western Australia, floods in Victoria and Newcastle, cyclones in Port Hedland, and bushfires in Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria.
FaCSIA-Child Care Management System (CCMS)
The CCMS Taskforce has laid the groundwork for a national
child care computer system that will provide parents with access to regular
online statements, enabling them to track their children’s attendance and the Child
Care Benefit fee reductions paid to child care services on their behalf
DVA-Reduction in Claims and Progressed Veterans’ Health
Services
DVA achieved a significant reduction in the backlog of
claims under a number of Acts. They also reduced the time taken to consider claims under
the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.
DVA also doubled the number of private hospitals across Australia that are approved to provide health services to veterans; worked with the Division of General Practice to ensure greater access to community-based mental health services for veterans and their families; and signed a new five-year $5.5 million contract with the Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental health.
DHS-Improved Customer Access
DHS has improved customer access to services by
implementing full Family Assistance Office services in all Medicare customer
service offices and trialling extended service delivery options in some Centrelink
offices.
Service users’ satisfaction
Consistent with the positive views of service delivery employees, users of government services generally report high levels of satisfaction with the services provided when surveyed. Table 11.1 shows the overall level of client, customer or stakeholder satisfaction based on survey results provided by 18 agencies. Direct comparisons between agencies are not recommended because the survey tools used to measure satisfaction are specific to the business of each agency and use different methodologies.
Although the results are very positive, it is important to assess them in context. Generally, citizens tend to rate the services that they use highly and this should be kept in mind when interpreting results. It is important that APS agencies are alert to movements in their satisfaction rating and that they benchmark performance against comparable service providers both within Australia and internationally.
| Agency | Overall satisfaction level | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Austrade | 88% | Client satisfaction |
| Australian Electoral Commission | 4.0 | 5 point scale of overall customer service |
| Australian Industrial Registry | 97% | Good to excellent client service |
| Australian Tax Office | 3.96 | 5 point scale of overall professionalism performance |
| Bureau of Meteorology | 91% | Satisfied and above with weather forecast |
| CRS Australia | 89% | Would recommend CRS Australia to other people |
| Defence Housing Australia | 81% | Satisfaction with overall customer service |
| Department of Education, Science and Training | 85% | Overall satisfaction of stakeholders |
| Department of Immigration and Citizenship | 80% | Overall client satisfaction with service |
| Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources | 82% | Stakeholders rated satisfied and above |
| Department of Transport and Regional Services (Australian Transport Safety Bureau Readership Report Survey) | 89% | Extremely satisfied or somewhat satisfied with reports |
| IP Australia | 74–91% | Strongly agree or agree to six different service elements measuring customer satisfaction |
| Medicare | 93% | Community satisfaction with Medicare |
| National Library of Australia | 96% | Satisfied with their visit |
| National Museum of Australia | 94% | Satisfied to very satisfied with their visit |
| National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority | 81% | Well or very well overall management of Australia’s offshore petroleum safety regulation |
| Social Security Appeals Tribunal | 91% | Service satisfaction of applicants |
| Workplace Ombudsman | 90% | Very satisfied with the way their claim was handled |
| Source: Latest agency service user data | ||
The Canadian First Surveys
Surveys of citizens are becoming more common internationally. The Canadian Citizens First survey series is now well-known. The surveys are conducted every two to three years and focus on topics, including citizens’ expectations and priorities for improvement in government services, client satisfaction with specific and multi- channel service delivery, and the relationships between the quality of services that citizens receive and their level of confidence in government institutions. The surveys provide a rich source of data that can feed readily into service improvement.
The latest version of the survey, Citizens First 4, provides evidence that Canadians who receive high-quality public services have more confidence in the public sector. It also highlights how to further improve service quality by improving access to services and understanding citizens’ concerns about the privacy and security of their personal information. Similar surveys are being conducted by the New Zealand and South Australian Governments, based on the Canadian model and tools that also facilitate benchmarking across jurisdictions.
New approaches to service delivery
In recent times, there has been increasing interest in looking at new approaches to service delivery. Government policies are placing a growing emphasis on differentiating and targeting services to more effectively achieve outcomes and foster self-reliance, particularly in the context of the implementation of the Welfare to Work reforms. This has also involved a more tailored approach to the choice of the appropriate delivery mechanism for service delivery, whether that is direct intervention and delivery by APS agencies, delivery through other levels of government, self-regulation or delivery by third parties, including both the not-for-profit and private sectors.
While there has been a strong trend for the Government to collaborate with third parties to deliver services, there have also been cases in recent times where the Government has required the APS to be involved in more direct service delivery or implementation. The most recent example is the Australian Government’s intervention in the Northern Territory to deal with the national emergency in relation to the abuse of children in Indigenous communities. To meet these demands it is important that the APS is able to build and sustain its capacity for agility, direct programme development, implementation and management.
There has also been a growing interest in using contingent service delivery to promote behavioural change in complex policy areas. The Government, for example, has applied income management in the provision of benefits where state child protection authorities are concerned that parents are at risk of neglecting their children.
Since the late 1980s there has been an emphasis on making the delivery of public services more customer-focused. More recently, the debate has shifted, with an emphasis on structuring services to meet the needs of citizens. Viewing service users as citizens rather than customers recognises the totality of the individual’s relationship with government, which is more than their involvement in a specific transaction.
The citizen-centred approach acknowledges the importance of structuring government programmes and services in a way that takes account of the individual’s total experience of government programmes. There will be a difference in how citizens choose to interact with governments on different issues. For services of a transactional nature such as passports, tax administration or medical and child care rebates they are likely to want efficient timely service and many would prefer not to have to visit offices. More complex services may involve greater interaction, and the focus may be on providing better, easily accessible, coordinated and seamless service delivery. Both these types of services can benefit from genuine insight mechanisms within and across agencies to help understand citizens’ experience through all available sources.
In part, the greater emphasis on citizens’ experience of service delivery reflects increasing demands from the community. The next generation of adult citizens will have grown up with the expectations the digital age presents—easily accessible available information, quick transactions, a choice of channels and integrated services. There is also an expectation that the burden of complying with government regulation or accessing programmes should not be too heavy, that doing so will become easier over time, and that government will use all available means to provide simple, streamlined and efficient services. This is particularly important given the growth in the number of programmes being provided. Agencies that proceed solely along programme lines will have difficulty in meeting these expectations if they do not take into account the views and needs of service users, community groups and the citizens generally.
In Canada and the UK there has been a particular focus on this issue. An emphasis on citizen or user focused delivery is seen as going beyond the use of customer satisfaction surveys and consultation with the community about policy design. Instead, it requires a deeper, richer understanding of how services relate in practice to people’s everyday lives and of how to enable services to fit citizens, rather than citizens being expected to fit service arrangements. It is based on a view that in wealthy countries, where entitlements and services from government are of high quality, people’s focus has shifted from access to services and products to how they can be supported to lead their own lives and helped to navigate an increasingly complex and information-laden world.
New approaches to service delivery—International developments
The Transformational Government—Enabled by Technology programme is the UK’s six-year strategy for transforming public services using ICT. Launched in 2005, the programme outlines how effective use of technology designed around the needs of citizens and businesses can make a real difference to people’s daily lives. This approach aims to deliver a ‘step change’ to ensure that the Government makes full use of the technological advances that are becoming increasingly common in people’s lives, such as the delivery of public services through mobile technology and digital television.
In line with its desire to improve client service delivery, the UK Government commissioned a review of its national standard for excellence in customer service, the Charter Mark scheme. a new customer service standard based on key drivers of satisfaction is expected to be launched in late 2007.
In Canada, the Service Canada Initiative, which aims to provide its citizens with the “one stop shop experience”, was announced in 2005 to be completed over a three- year period. It is expected to deliver seamless citizen-centred service, enhance the integrity of programmes, bring together the many services and benefits available to Canadians by creating an integrated service delivery capability, and make government more accountable.
Closer to home, New Zealand is working towards two key milestones: by June 2007, no wrong door—any citizen accessing government services will be referred to the organisation best able to address their concerns; and by June 2008, right doors in the right place—where government agencies will work together to coordinate the availability of services across the country, using co-location, joint services and management of different physical and electronic channels.
There are different views about the effectiveness of the particular approaches adopted in these countries. However, they are indicative of a growing commitment to pursue more citizen-centric approaches and of the range of approaches that can be taken.
In Australia, the Government has already restructured administrative arrangements in order to better coordinate services to particular groups to meet changing community expectations in a number of areas. The creation of DHS to better coordinate the work of six key service delivery agencies and the opening of 30 ICCs around Australia, are just two examples. ICCs are managed by FaCSIA but bring under the one roof employees working in the main agencies administering government programmes and services for Indigenous people. Advances in e-government, including the Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP), have also increased the capacity of the APS to tailor service delivery around the needs of citizens.
APS employees in service delivery roles are very positive about the extent to which their workplaces strive to match services to customer needs. Four out of five relevant employees agreed that this was the case, an improvement on the previous year. Nevertheless, there is potential for the APS to look more broadly for opportunities to incorporate the experience of service users into service delivery design.
Looking at the totality of an individual’s dealings with government can assist in improving service quality and achieving programme outcomes. This could involve looking closely at the experience of citizens in accessing services at key points in their lives, for example, at the birth of a child, the transition from school to work or higher education, arrival in Australia as a new settler, separating parents, or people arranging elderly care for themselves or their parents. Looking at service delivery from this perspective could help the APS identify intersections of services to particular groups of citizens by different agencies that currently create complexity, and help to design appropriate solutions.
It is important, however, to weigh up the benefits and risks of new approaches. A key theme of the October 2006 Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) conference held in Sydney was that there is a need to be realistic about the extent to which the public sector can provide citizens with a single entry point or coordinated entry points for accessing government services. Where well-designed and implemented, such approaches can help citizens navigate the maze of public sector administration. On the other hand, if the means of service delivery is through employees providing advice to the public, there can be some risk of incomplete or inaccurate information where the breadth of advice is too large or there is insufficient technical support for employees in these roles. The choice of approach will need to be tailored to the types of service being offered.
E-government services
Modern technology is an important enabler in developing new approaches to service delivery. The online strategies of e-government are moving beyond the mere web presence of published information to interactive online service processing. Government service agencies are also developing other innovative ways of using new technologies to assist in delivering their services. It is intended that the Access Card, for example, will use smart card technology to improve delivery of Commonwealth human services and replace the Medicare card and a range of other cards relating to Australian Government health benefits, veterans’ and social services.
ICT has been used to facilitate the provision of service delivery to the Australian community in a range of areas, from the delivery of health care and education, to the collection of taxes and the protection of borders. Collectively, online, electronic and voice-based government services are called e-government services. Australia’s e-government objective is to simplify government interaction with citizens and business, and improve the efficiency of public administration.
The Government’s 2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda,3 identifies four strategic priorities to guide agencies towards the vision for 2010: meeting users’ needs; establishing connected service delivery; achieving value for money; and enhancing public sector capability. The four priorities are equally important in transforming the Government into a more efficient and client-oriented sector of the economy through effective use of ICT.
The Australian Government, through the strategic priority ‘Meeting Users’ Needs’, has made a range of advances in using e-government to improve levels of service delivery to citizens and business. These have resulted in further user uptake of online services, as reflected in the annual Australians’ Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services survey, which indicates an increase in the level of Internet usage by Australians, as evidenced in:
- the level of usage of e-government services has increased significantly, rising from 39% in 2004–05 to 48% in 2006–07
- the proportion of people who mainly dealt with government over the Internet increased from 14% in 2004–05 to 19% in 2006–07
- more than two out of five Internet users (44%) indicated that their use of government websites had increased in the last 12 months.
APS agencies are developing innovative and practical ways of applying new technologies to benefit the community, business and government. Examples of agency initiatives designed to meet the strategic priority of meeting users’ needs include:
- The DHS portal <http://myaccount.humanservices.gov.au> provides citizens who are already registered for online services with Centrelink, Medicare Australia and CSA with an option to link their login access into one single sign-on procedure.
- The ABS eCensus was available for the first time in 2006. This provided an accessible online form that could be used by people with disability, using assistive technologies such as screen reader software. It provided a robust, secure and easy alternative to completing the paper Census form. It also made it easier for ABS to count people living in isolated places. Over three-quarters of a million (775,000) households completed the eCensus in 2006.
- An electronic voting initiative will be trialled by AEC for the first time in the 2007 Federal Election at 29 sites around Australia. It will allow visually impaired voters to cast an electronically-assisted secret vote. AEC will also trial remote electronic voting for certain overseas Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, with access to the electronic voting system being available through Defence’s secure intranet.
- Medicare Australia’s Online Claiming for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) allows Australian pharmacies to submit a claim to Medicare Australia each time an approved PBS registered medicine is dispensed. Medicare Australia’s target of 1,500 pharmacies using Online Claiming for PBS by July 2007 was achieved three months ahead of schedule. In addition, there is also an online ‘real time’ link with Centrelink to confirm a customer’s concession entitlements. As at 9 August 2007, a total of 4,751 pharmacies were online.
In 2007, the ABS eCensus won the Australian Government’s e-Award for Excellence in e-Government. The eCensus was also awarded a Computerworld Honors Program Laureate Medal, which recognises visionary applications of ICT from around the world that promote positive social, economic and educational change.
There are currently over 800 government websites in Australia (growing at 10% per annum) potentially contributing to the complexity of citizens’ navigation of government information and services, rather than making it easier and more accessible. As part of its e-government strategy, the Government has been reviewing and seeking to consolidate the number of its websites and also endeavouring to ensure consistency in their appearance.
The Government’s principal entry point, australia.gov.au, attracts a large number of visitors each month. The site provides users with links to information and services on around 800 Australian Government websites, and searches over five million government web pages. Recent enhancements include new search functionality and a government service locator. In June 2007, there were 632,000 visitors to australia.gov.au.
The 2007–08 Budget allocated $42.4 million to Finance to undertake further enhancements to australia.gov.au in delivering the AGOSP. The AGOSP will improve the online experience of citizens by providing a single sign on to government services and the opportunity to personalise their online engagement with government. In addition, the DITR business portal, business.gov.au, continues to offer simple and convenient access to government information, transactions and services for businesses.
The APS has been a world leader in the use of ICT in service delivery, but it cannot afford to be complacent. Accenture’s 2007 report, Leadership in Customer Service: Delivering on the Promise, which for the first time incorporates service users’ perceptions of service delivery, highlights the increasing expectations of citizens for high-quality ICT service delivery. It found that, while Australian citizens are still generally satisfied, they do not believe service has improved in comparison to three years ago: ‘Looking to the future, the government will need to find more aggressive ways to combine services, if it wants to improve its citizens’ outlook on its service performance’.4
In this environment, a continuing focus on the review and evaluation of the Government’s e-government strategy will be important. Results from the annual Australians’ Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services will be a useful tool to enable agencies to measure the effectiveness of their e-government approaches, and identify further areas for improvement.
3 AGIMO 2006, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.agimo.gov.au>
4 Accenture 2007, Leadership in Customer Service: Delivering on the Promise, p. 18, <http://www.accenture.com>
