| << PREVIOUS | NEXT >> |
| [ CONTENTS ] |
Annual Report 06–07
Output 2: Child Support Agency—Performance—Excellence in service delivery capability
2006–07 saw a continued focus on building corporate capability and developing increased organisational capacity to enable delivery of a demanding reform agenda and to sustain CSA’s future performance.
Improving our management systems and governance
Significant work was undertaken during the year to improve the robustness of key management systems and governance.
Reviews were undertaken of financial management systems and frameworks, procurement processes and property management arrangements. Results have led to improved financial management accountability and a restructure of the property management division. The changes will ensure that CSA is better able to meet its responsibilities in terms of overall governance and compliance with Australian Government requirements.
An external review of CSA’s information and communications technology governance and capability was undertaken, resulting in the development of a capability improvement programme. Examples of capability improvements included:
- a greater focus on managing interface issues across the various reform initiatives and between organisational units within CSA;
- the establishment of account managers and an ICT Planning Office to facilitate more effective partnerships;
- an IT Service Management team to delineate and refine key internal processes, and create a single service desk to improve responsiveness for CSA users;
- the establishment of contract arrangements with organisations that can perform systems development work, providing CSA with greater access to resources to supplement its own capacity in times of peak workload;
- an integrated release schedule and supporting processes to manage the implementation of technology enhancements to support Child Support Scheme reforms; and
- a review of systems architecture by Deloitte, providing a roadmap for the future development of CSA systems to support customers.
Other important systems improvements were effected during the year through the creation of a new Business Assurance Branch within the Service Quality and Corporate Support Group. Critical development work on a new learning management system to support the extensive training and development associated with the reform agenda was effectively finalised.
In 2006–07, work was initiated on improving CSA’s data quality, data classification and security clearance issues ahead of the implementation in July 2008 of Stage 3 of the Child Support Scheme reforms. At 30 June 2006, 46 issues had been identified and are in various stages of remediation. This work has also identified changes to business processes to better support CSA customer service officers. Systems enhancements to CSA’s information management system (Cuba) were effected to address Australian National Audit Office findings from 2005–06.
Supporting CSA staff
Increased emphasis was placed on supporting staff in 2006–07, because of the very significant impacts of the Building a Better CSA and the new Child Support Scheme change agenda.
In December 2006, smaller teams were implemented, with the appointment of an additional 100 team leaders. The average team size in CSA is now 13 staff; previously teams were typically 24 staff. This reduced team size allows team leaders to focus on supporting staff and delivering customer outcomes. A new leadership role called a ‘service manager’ was also introduced, to provide support to team leaders at their physical location. This local leadership capability allows for improved support for frontline staff, which in turn leads to improved performance for our customers.
During 2006–07, CSA successfully implemented a number of strategies specifically aimed at supporting managers and staff in business units to develop a healthier and more productive workplace, and to better manage workplace absence. These strategies included team leader training focused on improving people management skills—particularly in the areas of positive work behaviours, injury prevention and injury management—and implementing nationally consistent management guidelines and practices.
In addition, CSA revised its injury management processes to incorporate more emphasis on early intervention and timely rehabilitation, and established a network of rehabilitation case managers to service CSA business units.
Internal communication
During the year an Internal Communication Team was established to support CSA staff. CSA’s internal communication system comprises intranet headlines (for up-to-date news), regularly updated intranet information channels, General Manager newsletters and emails, monthly news publications such as Snapshot, deskdrops, and team presentations produced as required. Part of the internal communication strategy is to ensure that information is given to staff at the right time and delivered in a consistent and integrated fashion.
‘Roadshows’ are one of CSA’s primary ways of delivering information about the change programme to staff. Roadshows are national presentations delivered by senior staff across the organisation. In 2006–07, three national roadshows were delivered to staff to provide information on the implementation of Child Support Scheme reforms and to maintain the very high level of staff engagement with and support for CSA’s new direction.
A number of different channels were established to give staff the opportunity to raise issues and seek clarification. One example is GM Direct, a forum of frontline staff who work with the General Manager to give their insights and provide a litmus test of how the change programme is being viewed by, and impacting on, staff. Leadership forums were also established, to promote engagement on key implementation issues and to increase the change leadership effectiveness of the teams.
Creating capacity and developing corporate infrastructure
In 2006–07, a national workforce plan was developed and implemented to adequately meet the recruitment required to roll out the CSA reforms and other business improvement programmes. The plan is supported by an accommodation strategy, and includes securing new leases on property, both for the longer term and as part of CSA’s disengagement from the ATO.
The workforce plan sets out a strategy to ensure staff are recruited and trained well in advance of the implementation of Stage 3 of the Child Support Scheme reforms in July 2008.
More effective management of workplace injury and absence in 2006–07 resulted in significant reductions in the rate of unplanned absences, number of workers compensation claims, time lost due to workplace injury, and cost of workers compensation claims. These improvements represent the first year of a six-year plan of continuous improvement aimed at enhancing our service delivery capability.
CSA’s continued efforts to reduce the amount of unplanned leave also increased the organisation’s capacity during the year. In December 2005, CSA’s unplanned leave rate was 17.86 days per full-time equivalent employee; at the end of June 2007, the rate was 12.44 days. This is a tremendous improvement, and means that CSA has saved approximately 8,000 days of productive capacity. More importantly, it means the workload of frontline staff is less affected by colleagues being absent. The proactive approach implemented during 2006–07 will continue during 2007–08.
The Information and Communications Technology group continued to build capacity and capability in 2006–07, particularly in the areas of technology independence, systems strategy and architecture and telephony.
Through the Technology Independence Programme, CSA is disengaging its technology infrastructure from that of the ATO. During the year, CSA developed an information and communications technology governance framework, in conjunction with the ATO; a CSA sourcing strategy; and detailed plans for infrastructure disengagement. Data requirements and arrangements for system access were defined and agreed with the ATO, and detailed interface design was completed.
CSA’s telecommunications contract with NEC was finalised in 2006–07, delivering significant savings and providing for increased capacity and capability to cater for rapid growth in staffing, the commissioning of new sites and the introduction of new technologies such as call recording.