The Department of Finance has developed a new toolkit to support the Australian Public Service (APS) Reform Agenda.
Unveiling the Department’s Commonwealth Evaluation Policy and Toolkit, the Minister for Finance, Senator Simon Birmingham said the Government expected the APS to deliver for all Australians by setting clear goals and measuring progress towards its achievements.
“These new resources will help to drive continuous improvement by building evaluation capability and expertise into everyday practice across the APS,” Senator Birmingham said.
“The collaborative process used to develop the Policy and Toolkit reflects the way Finance supports and engages with entities,” he said.
He said this included leveraging existing expertise, working in partnership with Commonwealth experts through a cross-Agency Evaluation Reference Group, and creating opportunities for self-service to promote the objectives of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (PGPA) Act 2013.
Senator Birmingham said more than 40 Commonwealth entities, and a number of external stakeholders, helped to develop the Policy and Toolkit.
“The aim of the Policy is to embed an APS culture of evaluation and learning from experience; improve the impact of programs through evidence-based policy and delivery; and to support Commonwealth entities to improve the quality of performance reporting,” he said.
“The Policy anchors evaluation within existing public sector frameworks established under the PGPA Act, and aligns with the strengthened focus on evaluation in the Budget process.”
Senator Birmingham said the Toolkit provided people who were new to evaluation with an overview of evaluation concepts and approaches.
The Department’s Evaluation Policy can be accessed at this PS News link.
