A survey of public sector employees conducted for the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) has found a majority keen to be among the world’s most informed and effective public administrations, adopting new ways for developing policy and services.
In its report, Today’s Problems, Yesterday’s Toolkit the world-first survey of nearly 400 public sector staff in Australia and New Zealand found that while the public sector was generally well-functioning, it faced a “creeping crisis” of effectiveness and legitimacy.
“Only 40 per cent believe that senior management is willing to take risks to support new ideas,” the report says.
“Middle management is also identified as a blocker to innovation.”
The report says that the struggle to deliver solutions to Australia’s crucial public challenges such as reducing emissions or Indigenous incarceration rates, helps to explain why an Ipsos Social Research Survey conducted in 2018 found trust in the Australian Government to be at an all-time low.
It calls for a radical reimagining of the role of Government and the Public Service and argues that the key to improving trust in Government is to change the way people in Government work.
It says that “if the Prime Minister wants a more effective Public Service, he needs to focus on investing in talent and letting the creative thinkers in the service advance innovative ideas that improve people’s lives”.
“Stripping the service of the policy capability to advise Government wisely and the licence to speak truth to power so that we rely excessively on private sector consultants for solutions to public problems, is a false economy,” it says.
The report outlines nine skills that make up a 21st century toolkit for public problem solving, saying that Public Servants who use the skills would know how to define actionable and specific problems.
Dean of ANZSOG, Ken Smith said the report showed how much Public Service leaders were operating in a rapidly changing environment.
“The decline of trust in Governments is bringing new challenges, and the growth of new technology brings opportunities, as well as the obvious risks, to find new solutions to ongoing problems,” Professor Smith said.
“In this environment, Public Service leaders need to be able to think creatively to solve complex problems and deliver public value.”
The 117-page report can be accessed on the ANZSOG website at this PS News link.
