Annual Report 2005–06
Output 2 - Child Support Agency: Performance
Page contents:
- Goal 1: Improve collection of child support
- Goal 2: Customer service excellence
- Goal 3: Effective stakeholder relations and engagement
- Goal 4: Informed customers and community
- Goal 5: Excellence in service delivery capability
| Outcome |
| Effective and efficient delivery of social and health-related services, including financial assistance to the Australian community |
| Output 2—Child Support Agency |
| Delivery of child support assessment, registration, collection and disbursement services |
Traditionally, CSA’s performance has been measured in terms of the cost, effectiveness and price of its outputs (see Table 4) and an important measure of effectiveness is the increasing number of Private Collect cases (parents not using CSA as the payment making mechanism).
Detailed reports on CSA’s performance against each of those measures follow.
Figure 13 sets out the movement in the child support collection rate associated with ‘CSA Collect’ domestic cases since 2003–04.
Figure 13 Child support collection—total credits applied to total liabilities (CSA Collect domestic cases), 2003–04 to 2005–06
During 2005–06 CSA created a new strategic plan. This plan embeds the very substantial reform agenda facing the agency. The Strategic Plan provides a new framework of five goals, which are reported on below. The goals represent the CSA’s future direction as well as reflecting much of the focus of the six challenges from CSA’s 2004–05 Business Plan. There is, however, a stronger emphasis on the specific needs of separated parents (CSA’s customers) and the service response required to achieve improved outcomes for those parents and their children.
Goal 1: Improve collection of child support
Strategies:
- implement comprehensive compliance strategies that ensure the right amount of child support is paid on time
- improve the fairness and accuracy of CSA’s processes and procedures to maximise voluntary compliance
- provide support programs that encourage parents to accept/meet their child support responsibilities.
In 2005–06 CSA assisted parents to transfer $2.56 billion to financially support almost 1.2 million children in separated families. This is an increase on the 2004–05 result of $2.38 billion. Also, in 2005–06 CSA successfully reduced Australia-sourced child support debt by almost $9.1 million, building upon similar results in 2004–05.
CSA collected an additional $41.5 million in child support in 2005–06 through the Intensive Debt Collection (IDC) initiative, and contacted more than 9,000 new customers with a debt to arrange for payment of the arrears.
CSA’s active international caseload grew during 2005–06 by 3,320 cases (15.8 per cent) to 24,312. This follows previously high annual caseload growth and reflects the impacts of globalisation, the increased utilisation of international child support arrangements and improved service relationships between central authorities.
Australia and New Zealand are very effective at collecting child support on a reciprocal basis. CSA entered into an additional bilateral agreement with New Zealand Child Support during the year to register and collect child support on approximately 4,500 targeted cases from New Zealand. This agreement deals with the backlog of cases that New Zealand has where the paying parent resides in Australia. Under this particular arrangement, CSA has received 1,450 cases and collected and transferred $636,560 in maintenance back to New Zealand Child Support.
CSA continued to encourage parents’ independence and self-reliance in managing their child support responsibilities. To achieve this, CSA seeks to understand parents and their specific needs in order to offer them appropriate products and services following separation.
During the year, CSA expanded the delivery of the acclaimed Staying Connected program (a half-day workplace program to help men deal with separation) through tendering for community providers. The program provides child support information to men in their workplace. The program’s outcomes have exceeded expectations, attracting national and international interest and recognition. This year participants included Victoria Police and Australia Post.
CSA also provided a Parent Support Service to all parents displaying emotional and/or psychological distress, or who were assessed as being at risk of harm either to themselves or others. The service is specifically designed to support parents over the telephone and includes two follow-up calls after the initial call as part of the service. The Parent Support Service is delivered by an external provider with staff trained to support parents in distress.
CSA is committed to encouraging and supporting parents to manage their child support responsibilities independently, using Private Collect arrangements. Success in this area has continued, with 52.6 per cent of cases registered with CSA transferring their child support privately at the end of 2005–06, up from 52.2 per cent in 2004–05.
During 2005–06 CSA commenced a number of projects to ensure the fairness and accuracy of CSA’s processes and procedures. A review was commenced to establish whether CSA’s systems and processes were biased in favour of any particular group of parents. CSA also commenced an internal review of the quality of its objections process to inform CSA’s readiness for the pending Social Security Administrative Tribunal (SSAT) review jurisdiction. These projects aim to build customer and stakeholder confidence in CSA decisions and maximise voluntary compliance. Maximising voluntary compliance—whether through increased private collection arrangements or more parents making regular, timely payments to CSA—will positively impact on the lives of Australian children living in separated families.
During 2005–06 CSA continued to implement strategies to improve compliance by maintaining a focus on:
- Departure Prohibition Orders (DPOs)
- non-lodgement of tax returns
- the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
- litigation
- proactive audits of avoiders and minimisers.
Through the use of DPOs customers with a significant debt can be prohibited from leaving the country until their debt is cleared. During the 2005–06 reporting period, 482 new DPOs were issued and 294 finalised and/or revoked. Total collections and corrections were $6,751,931. CSA has commenced working more closely with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and the Australian Federal Police in order to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of DPOs.
In 2005–06 CSA referred over 14,000 customers to the ATO for lodgement-enforcement action. This is a decrease on the 2004–05 figure of 24,000. However, CSA has also negotiated an increase in referrals to the ATO and expects this figure to increase to over 125,000 referrals in 2006–07.
For customers unwilling to enter into arrangements to make their child support payments, further compliance options include intercepting tax refunds via the ATO. In 2005–06 CSA intercepted over 80,000 refunds, which generated over $62 million in additional child support.
As a last resort, CSA is required to take legal action for enforcement. Litigation action in 2005–06 resulted in 786 cases finalised and $7.7 million in unpaid child support being collected. CSA also proactively sought out customers who avoid and minimise their child support and in 2005–06 reviewed a total of 702 cases resulting in an additional $3.8 million.
In 2006–07 CSA will continue to improve collection through the implementation of a comprehensive new compliance and enforcement program, which includes significantly increased outputs across all areas. Proactive investigation of avoiders and income-minimisers will be significantly increased to improve system integrity.
Goal 2: Customer service excellence
Strategies:
- respond to every customer with empathy and provide prompt, accessible, consistent, complete and unbiased support
- provide tailored service options and referral systems to customers with complex child support issues
- broaden staff accountability to achieve the best possible outcome for the customer.
During 2005–06 CSA increased its focus on improving customer service and customer satisfaction through initiatives ranging from increased staff training to the creation of online services for customers.
CSAonline was launched in April 2006 and has received positive feedback from CSA customers. CSAonline enables parents to review their child support statements and letters and update their personal details online at any time, thereby providing greater convenience for parents. By the end of June, over 6,000 customers had registered for the service.
In April 2006, CSA also introduced a service guarantee to parents, which involved the generation of a customer receipt number for all customers. This initiative was received positively by customers and staff and assists in improving levels of responsibility and accountability with the CSA.
CSA’s emphasis on customer service was reinforced by the changing structure of the organisation at a regional level. During 2005–06 CSA changed the role of Regional Registrars to State Managers to better reflect the expected emphasis on the local leadership role. In addition, two national roadshows were held to engage staff on the important changes affecting the CSA, and to focus on improving customer service.
During 2005–06 the General Manager and State Managers participated in regular talkback radio to provide improved accessibility for parents and provide an additional customer-focused face to the agency. CSA followed up all individual callers and introduced matt@csa.gov.au, a direct email address for listeners wishing to contact the General Manager. In addition, Local Liaison Officers ensured Members of Parliament were provided with timely and accurate responses for their constituents. CSA also continued to present public information sessions for customers to discuss their individual concerns and to inform the community about CSA services.
These customer service improvement initiatives resulted in further increases in customer satisfaction levels. Results from CSA’s real-time customer feedback system, Customers Having a Say (CHAS), showed improvement over the good 2004–05 results. The CHAS feedback is based on the CSA charter elements, with customers ranking their service according to accuracy, extent to which they felt informed, promptness, objectiveness, respect and resolve. In 2005–06 there were significant improvements in the elements of ‘informed’, ‘promptness’ and ‘objectiveness’. The remaining elements also showed an increase on the 2004–05 results. Overall, a total of 78 per cent of customers gave ratings indicative of satisfaction with the service provided by CSA staff.
Similarly CSA’s other key customer service rating index—the Professionalism Survey—also confirmed positive gains in customer satisfaction above already high levels. In 2005–06 the average customer rating of CSA staff professionalism was 3.9 (out of a maximum score of 5) compared with 3.8 in 2004–05.
Another indicator of CSA’s success in improving customer service is the continuing decline in complaints received and upheld under independent review. Total complaints received in 2005–06 were 10,403 compared with 12,258 in 2004–05, a decrease of nearly 18 per cent.
CSA continued to improve the quality of its decisions. Objections to CSA decisions also declined again this year despite the increased number of active cases. There were 19,148 objections in 2005–06 compared to 19,508 in 2004–05.
To further improve customer service, a new service delivery model that will significantly enhance the organisation’s approach to customer relationship management has been developed.
Through creating a strong focus on the ‘customer as a whole’ rather than viewing the customer through individual business processes, CSA will create a more customer-centric approach including personalised case management for customers with complex needs. This personalised service offer will be primarily through a face-to-face service channel.
A range of other specific activities will also drive customer service improvements. These will include smaller, better performing frontline teams; call recording of all customer telephone calls; better quality and increased training and support for frontline staff; system enhancements to CUBA (CSA’s case management information system), and further enhancement of CSAonline .
Goal 3: Effective stakeholder relations and engagement
Strategies:
- engage stakeholders to play an active role in supporting separated parents
- partner with government and community stakeholders to develop and deliver products and services
- collaborate with key stakeholders to provide more seamless services.
As a key service delivery agency in the family law system, CSA works with other relevant government agencies to ensure children in separated families are financially supported by their parents. This collaborative approach helps to deliver parental understanding of the system, focuses their attention on the needs of their children and builds on opportunities to encourage their access to the wide range of services available. This approach is a customer-centric rather than a transaction-based approach and helps to proactively address the many issues facing separated parents. This, in turn, increases their ability to meet their child support responsibilities.
During 2005–06, CSA worked collaboratively with the Attorney-General’s Department, FaCSIA and Centrelink to develop the referral and service models for the Family Relationship Centres and the Family Relationship Advice Line. Training for all staff involved commenced in June 2006 after the appointment of the service providers by the Attorney-General’s Department.
CSA worked collaboratively with Centrelink to assist parents with both Centrelink-related and child support issues. Staff also worked with Crisis Support Services to support parents who display emotional and/or psychological distress. In addition, CSA developed a partnership with beyondblue to promote community understanding that separation is a key risk factor for depression and related disorders. This partnership has significantly helped to raise awareness of depression and provide support to help parents deal effectively with it.
CSA was also presented with a Commended Award from Suicide Prevention Australia in recognition of the contribution CSA has made to the community through initiatives such as the Parent Support Service and the Being Connected program for newly separated unemployed parents.
CSA recognises the vital importance of effectively engaging key customer representative groups and has worked hard during 2005–06 to create better partnerships to promote greater understanding of the child support system and to provide improved access to support services.
State Managers reviewed the membership of their stakeholder advisory panels during 2005–06 and worked to develop stronger relationships and outcomes for customers through better engagement.
During 2005–06 CSA proactively sought opportunities to work closely with advocacy groups such as the Lone Fathers Association, Sole Parents Union, Dads in Distress and the Stepfamily Association of Victoria, to address both individual parent issues and concerns regarding the child support system. Through these enhanced relationships, CSA has received constructive feedback concerning both policy development and service delivery. CSA has attended advocacy group meetings and conferences and ensured that advocacy groups have access to key CSA staff for advice and assistance. Maintaining and improving these relationships enables advocacy groups to work with CSA to improve service to customers.
The External Relations Group was established midway through the year to enhance stakeholder engagement for CSA through a range of activities with other agencies in the family law system. In 2006–07 CSA will continue to integrate stakeholder engagement within CSA’s internal processes and engage government and community stakeholders to provide a more seamless service for separated parents.
Goal 4: Informed customers and community
Strategies:
- increase customer understanding of child support, the broader Family Law System and the options available to them so they can make informed choices
- increase stakeholder understanding of CSA, our products and services and the interrelationship between the Child Support Scheme and the Family Law System.
CSA placed a significantly greater emphasis on communication activities in 2005–06 with the creation of an External Relations Group and a strong focus on proactive communication.
CSA proactively increased its interactions with national, suburban and regional media to increase customers’ understanding of child support delivery and CSA’s self-help tools, and to help them make informed choices. During 2005–06 CSA staff regularly appeared on talkback radio to provide information to the community and parents about CSA services. In addition, CSA issued more than 60 Media releases profiling new service delivery options, self-help tools, compliance initiatives, and information sessions for parents. A total of 51 community information sessions were held during the year, where CSA staff met with and discussed services with almost 1,500 members of the community. During this time CSA’s media coverage shifted from being inherently negative in character to being consistently 70 per cent positive in coverage since November 2005.
CSA continued to deliver communication and self-help products to assist separated parents. The ‘Me and My’ series of self-help booklets is designed to assist parents with their parenting and financial and emotional issues after separation. This series commenced in 2003–04 as the result of a collaborative effort with CSA’s partners (both government and non-government) in the Family Law System. Me, My Kids, and My Ex was released, with over 90,000 copies distributed by 30 June 2006. This information resource provides hints and tips to help parents form a workable relationship after separation for the benefit of their children.
CSA also developed a comprehensive Getting Started information booklet for new CSA customers to enable them to make better informed decisions regarding their child support circumstances. This guide was also made available to existing customers on request. In 2006–07 every new customer will be sent a copy of the booklet. This equates to more than 100,000 separated parents who register with CSA every year. This information will help separated parents understand child support and their responsibilities.
CSA also continued to review and improve its customer letters, forms, fact sheets, publications and website during 2005–06 in order to enhance customer understanding and reduce complexity. The top 24 letters and 11 forms were reviewed. Five forms were eliminated, six were improved and a further 29 letters will be reviewed in early 2006–07. At the same time CSA will also commission and complete a review of the customer account statement and assessment notice, the most significant written communication sent to customers, with over 6.5 million sent each year.
During 2006–07 CSA will continue to build customer and stakeholder understanding of the Child Support Scheme, CSA products and services and CSA’s role within the Family Law System, through expanded education and communication campaigns and increased collaboration with Family Law System partners. CSA will maintain its new focus on media visibility and seek additional opportunities to build greater stakeholder understanding and involvement in developing and contributing information resources.
Goal 5: Excellence in service delivery capability
Strategies:
- create a work environment that supports staff to deliver excellent service
- provide staff with development, support and leadership to build a culture that will shift customer service to a new level
- improve CSA’s internal systems, financial management capability and governance processes
- gather customer feedback and use it to inform continuous improvement of our business.
CSA strives to ensure that its people have the capability, commitment and resources to deliver appropriate child support outcomes by focusing on reducing unplanned leave, improving leadership and staff training, and ensuring internal systems provide the support staff require to provide excellent customer service.
During 2005–06 CSA implemented a comprehensive strategy to address unplanned leave. Strategies to engage staff in reducing unplanned leave included the distribution of information cards, wellbeing promotion days at work sites, increased reporting on unplanned leave rates, posters to reinforce the importance of supporting teams by being at work, workshops on unplanned leave, training for managers and regular messages to staff via the CSA intranet site. CSA also worked with Health Services Australia to investigate the causes of the high levels of unplanned leave and to develop appropriate responses. Centrelink provided CSA assistance with site-specific analysis and leadership workshops which have been central to the response.
As a result, CSA reduced the number of days of unplanned leave per full-time equivalent staff member to 16.27 days, significantly less than its original target of 16.97 days. This represents a 9 per cent reduction on the 2004–05 figure of 17.86 days. CSA will sustain its focus on unplanned leave in order to achieve the 2006–07 target of 14.29 days (a further reduction of 12 per cent).
CSA held a number of national roadshows during the year to provide all staff with the opportunity to hear about changes affecting them and the CSA in a face-to-face forum. Staff responded positively to this opportunity and provided significant feedback for the future direction of the agency. Of greatest significance is that 94 per cent of staff support the change agenda.
During the year, a number of reviews were undertaken to evaluate CSA’s capability and readiness for implementing its reform agenda. Significant reviews included:
- strategic architecture review of our information and communication technology
- records management
- Information Communications and Technology (ICT) capability
- readiness for the implementation of Social Security Appeals Tribunal review of its decisions
- financial management and administered funds reporting priorities
- corporate services
- objections process
- Privacy Regime
- project management capability.
As a result of these reviews, CSA has implemented change initiatives to improve business practices and its positioning for delivery of the reform agenda.
In addition to these reviews, CSA also received support from Health Services Australia and CRS Australia to assess CSA’s workers’ compensation-related management systems and practices. Reviews were also conducted on cases with prolonged absences from the workplace to ensure all appropriate management strategies were in place. A joint working group involving the core department, CRS Australia and CSA developed an action plan to implement a number of strategies during 2006–07 to address increasing premium costs through prevention, early intervention and best practice in case management. These strategies are also closely linked with strategies to manage unplanned leave.
During 2005–06 CSA invested approximately $800,000 in external training activities for staff in addition to a range of learning programs that were developed and delivered internally to meet special requirements. A corporate guideline for training and development of staff was also developed to ensure national training products are of a consistent and high standard.
In 2006–07 CSA will implement a range of initiatives to further support staff to provide quality customer service. These initiatives include the introduction of smaller frontline teams, training for staff on the scheme changes, customer interactions and leadership skills, the ongoing development of a new performance framework, a range of information technology system enhancements, and ongoing research into customer preferences, which will be integrated into all aspects of CSA business.