Most informants argued that a culture shift was required in the way Commonwealth departments and agencies manage and deliver public services to meet the Thodey aspiration of “seamless services and local solutions designed and delivered with states, territories and partners”. Although many noted that a change process was underway in most agencies, four specific reform themes loomed large in discussion.
First, most of these APS leaders recognised the need for a whole of government approach to combat declining trust in regional and remote communities:
“The APS footprint can be used to facilitate whole of APS collaboration in community engagement (KS4).”
“The APS should be able to collaborate whole of government in policy design and delivery through shared accountability mechanisms and budgetary incentives (KS1).”
Three service delivery principles were emphasised by most informants: regional decentralisation; user-first design; and, personalisation supported by a strong service culture.
“Practice co-(user) design by default and use behavioural insights to improve our understanding of the needs and aspirations of target groups and develop personalised service offerings (KS6).”
“Develop opportunities for dynamic engagement with users through inclusive service design and strategic communication (KS5).”
For example, it was argued strongly that departments should see user feedback as an opportunity for progress; i.e. a problem-seeking culture should be fostered. All complaints should be taken seriously and considered at executive board level. Simulators should then be used to make progress (e.g. ATO simulation lab, DTA’s co-lab).
“Each and every SES officer needs to do service delivery, so they understand that their role in life is to service the citizens of Australia through the elected government of the time. So that’s what we’re here for, we should never lose sight, every single day we should never lose sight that were actually doing this for the greater good (KS6).”
Most significantly, it was observed by several respondents that digital should not be viewed as the cure-all for regional service delivery problems nor should we assume that citizens believe this to be the case either:
“I think that the opportunities for regional areas are exactly the same as anywhere else because the key thing is that digital is not the answer to everything, we always view it as part of a mix of different solutions which may be backend, it could be front-end service delivery – you know, that direct relationship or the interaction and transaction occurring between the customer service officer and the individual. The solutions may range so digital is always a part of, as opposed to the end in itself; and so therefore there will be particular context or situations where digital could be made use of in order to reach greater numbers of people in regional areas. But only when we deem it to be a useful part of the solution (KS9).