Working with the Australian community

Key chapter findings

Last year’s State of the Service report identified building organisational capacity to address the challenges of the future as one of the critical challenges facing the APS. The analysis in this chapter confirms the importance of this challenge, with the APS implementing new ways of working in a broad range of its interactions with the community.

The findings of this year’s agency and employee surveys, and the continued high levels of satisfaction reported by most users of government services, confirm that the APS continues to deliver high-quality services to the community. In particular, agencies are putting a strong emphasis on collecting, and responding to, feedback on the quality and effectiveness of government services. There may be potential to explore international initiatives that take a more coordinated approach to benchmarking the quality of service delivery and collecting feedback that can feed directly into specific initiatives for service improvement.

There is also a growing emphasis on structuring service delivery around the needs of users. The APS has already adopted more coordinated approaches in a range of areas, and APS employees are very positive about the extent to which their workplaces strive to match services to customer needs. There is still potential, however, to identify opportunities where a greater emphasis on the experience of different citizens could assist in improving service quality and achieving government outcomes. Achievements made under the framework of the Government’s e-government strategy demonstrate what can be done when agencies apply new technologies in innovative and practical ways. They also indicate, however, that citizens’ expectations are continuing to increase and that agencies should continue to keep abreast of developments in this area.

In deciding what form more tailored approaches to service delivery will take, there is no longer a presumption that services will be delivered in any particular way. The challenge, now, is to find the most appropriate form of 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.

Working with external stakeholders is a very common feature of APS agencies’ work and the extent of agency involvement with stakeholders on matters of substance appears to be increasing. The delivery of services through third-party providers now makes up a substantial amount of government expenditure. Agencies have focused solidly on establishing appropriate frameworks for their relationships with external stakeholders, but the development of their capacity to support this mode of working will continue to be a priority.

Engagement with the community is increasingly going beyond the traditional government strategies of simply informing the community of government programmes, or gauging their levels of satisfaction with service delivery. Examples of significant consultation on the development of policy and the implementation of programmes are widespread throughout the APS. There are also a growing number of examples of initiatives aimed at encouraging the more active participation of citizens in the business of government, including through the more innovative use of ICT. Active engagement with the community has proved to be particularly important when the Government’s policy objectives require changing the behaviour of communities or individuals, for example, with the National Landcare Programme or the development of Shared Responsibility Agreements in Indigenous communities.

These new ways of working raise a number of challenges for the APS. The APS needs to ensure there are effective governance structures in place to support its work with external stakeholders and more direct engagement with the community. It also needs effective governance structures to provide the flexibility to deliver more personalised and tailored services that can influence and change behaviour. This raises questions about how performance can be assured, citizens’ rights to redress maintained, and expenditure managed appropriately in the new environment. The challenge is to develop transparent arrangements that provide the right balance between the flexibility to respond to community needs, the protection of citizens’ rights, and the levels of accountability needed to ensure that the Government’s objectives are being met.

The new ways of working also emphasise the importance of ensuring the right blend of skills and experience in APS employees. While core service delivery skills remain important, a new and more complex blend of skills is now required, including the need to build and maintain relationships, manage significant contracts, negotiate and resolve conflict, and analyse and integrate a range of differing views into policy proposals and service delivery processes, as well as the ability to work across portfolio boundaries. An emphasis on using information from a range of sources to develop insights into the experience of service users will be particularly important. Corporate areas will necessarily play a major role in supporting line areas in their new roles.

Working with the Australian community will continue to be both challenging and rewarding for APS employees. By maintaining a strong focus on developing its capacity to engage with the community, the APS will be well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities that are emerging in this area.