Preface

Section 44 of the Public Service Act 1999 (the Act) provides that the Australian Public Service Commissioner must provide a report each year to the Prime Minister for presentation to the Parliament. The report must include a report on the state of the APS during the year.

The State of the Service Report 2006–07 reflects the activities and human resource management practices of APS agencies during the 2006–07 financial year. The report outlines some of the key achievements and contributions agencies have made in assisting the Government during this period to meet its policy objectives and achieve its stated outcomes.

This year’s State of the Service report is the tenth annual report on the state of the APS that Australian Public Service Commissioners have presented to Parliament. In 1998, the report was a new concept, designed to be an important part of the accountability framework under the more devolved arrangements being introduced, which culminated in the passage of the Public Service Act 1999.

The State of the Service report has come a long way since then. A wealth of data is now available to assess the state of the APS, including results from an annual online agency survey; a representative employee survey with up to five years of data available on key issues; survey questions that allow performance to be benchmarked against State jurisdictions; and detailed evaluations on a range of specific issues.

The State of the Service report provides the APS, the Government and Parliament with a picture of how the APS is performing in a devolved employment environment. It helps to identify the APS’s strengths, its key challenges and where it needs to improve to ensure that it delivers effective outcomes for the Australian Government and the community into the future.

Over the years, the report has chronicled major reforms to the APS, including in the areas of the budget and financial framework, employment and human resources, service delivery and programme implementation. Findings from the reports have led to action to improve APS performance in a number of areas, including the ageing of the APS workforce; the need to manage and sustain the workforce in an environment which requires more highly-skilled staff; the employment of Indigenous Australians; and interactions with Ministers and Ministers’ offices. The report has also helped to identify capability gaps, and inform directions in developing the capability of the APS.

In recognition of the exceptional contribution that the State of the Service report has made towards improving the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of the public service, the United Nations this year awarded the Australian Public Service Commission (the Commission) the United Nations Public Service Award in the category of improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service.

The United Nations commended the Commission for its outstanding achievement in the production of the State of the Service report which it stated should be an inspiration and encouragement for others working for the public service.

The State of the Service report draws on a range of information sources but its main data sources are two State of the Service surveys—one of agencies and the other of employees.

The agency survey includes all APS agencies employing at least 20 staff under the Act. All 88 APS agencies, or semi-autonomous parts of agencies, which were invited to participate in the online agency survey in June 2007 completed the survey. These agencies are listed at Appendix 1. To assist with analysis of the agency survey data, and for comparability with previous years’ data, agencies have again been grouped according to size. Of the 88 responding agencies, 23 were classified as large (>1,000 APS employees), 28 as medium (251–1,000 APS employees) and 37 as small (20–250 APS employees). These size categories are generally consistent with those used by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).¹ Appendix 1 provides information on agencies’ APS employee numbers.

The second State of the Service survey involved a stratified random sample of 8,608 APS employees from APS agencies with at least 100 APS employees. A total of 5,497 valid responses were received, representing a response rate of 64%. The sample size and number of valid responses allows a range of cross-tabulations to be used with a degree of confidence.

Consistent with last year, this year’s report also draws on factor analysis to interpret employee survey data. Agencies with at least 400 employees, and all members of the Management Advisory Committee are provided with their own individual agency-specific results for internal management purposes.

While the size groupings for large and medium agencies are the same for the agency and employee surveys, it should be noted that for the purposes of the employee survey ‘small’ refers to agencies with between 100 and 250 APS employees. Appendix 2 provides information on the employee and agency survey methodologies.

The Commission engaged the services of ORIMA Research to assist with the design, delivery and statistical outputs of both surveys. When designing the first employee survey the Commission also engaged the services of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to advise on aspects of survey methodology; this advice continues to be used. Assistance in the development and pilot testing of the agency survey was provided by our agency contact officers in a number of agencies, including the Australian Trade Commission, the Department of Defence, the Department of Human Services, Medicare Australia and Questacon. Assistance with pilot testing of the employee survey was provided by a number of individual APS employees from across a range of agencies. The Commission is very grateful for this input.

The report also draws on the results of the evaluations conducted by the Commission during 2006–07. The main evaluation was of agencies’ approaches to the employment of people with disability. Appendix 3 provides information on the methodology used for this evaluation, as well as an evaluation project examining ‘wicked’ problems and behavioural change.

The report has also relied heavily on published reports from parliamentary committees and ANAO. Input has been sought from central agencies, particularly the Department of Finance and Administration, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and ANAO—their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. The Commission is also grateful for the contributions of Centrelink, Medicare Australia, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Government Information Management Office, the Department of Education, Science and Training, the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the National Archives of Australia.

Associated with the State of the Service Report 2006–07 are two other publications—the Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin 2006–07 and the State of the Service Employee Survey Results 2006–07. A summary pamphlet, State of the Service 2006–07 At a Glance, has also been prepared. These publications are available on the Commission’s website at: <http://www.apsc.gov.au>.

1. ANAO 1999, Staff Reductions in the Australian Public Service, Performance Audit Report No. 49, 1998–99, Commonwealth of Australia; Canberra, <http://www.anao.gov.au>