The evidence from our interviews with APS leaders points to the need to build collaboration across the APS, enhance service-delivery reform, and ultimately, drive tailored responses that reflect the plurality of individual and community identities in Australia. The degree of common ground between citizens and APS leaders on both the barriers and enablers to a higher quality service experience is remarkable and helps us to clarify six pathways to reform (see Table 5).
- Achieve ‘line of sight’ - between policy, programmes and services around the first principle of integrating program management and delivery functions through regional service centres.
- Citizen-centred service culture - introduce a ‘user-first’, ‘co-design’ approach for all services and a personalisation approach with strong advocacy capability for citizens experiencing complex problems. Citizens stress the need for greater client care and support.
- Capacity, communication and capability – enhance service culture capability, greater advocacy support for the vulnerable and intelligent marketing and communication of government services through targeted channels (strategic communication and engagement).
- Service quality – establish a single source of truth across government information and reduce the complexity of the service offer.
- Service experience – introduce a ‘tell us once’ integrated service system which values the time of the citizen and understands and empathises with their service journeys.
- Citizen-centred service innovation – an opportunity for innovation lies in digital access and support; the creation of integrated regional service hubs; the recruitment of “trusted” and “local” community service coordinators; and viewing complaints as learning opportunities
Table 5. Barriers and enablers to quality service provision
| Delivery barriers | Service reform |
|---|---|
| Lack of proactive engagement from government with users | Personalisation of public services e.g. identification and ‘push out’ of relevant user services |
| Users experience difficulty finding the right information, at the right time, in the right context | Establish a ‘single source of truth’ across government information |
| Access to services is hindered by the complexity of government structures | Join-up, simplify and ensure ‘line of sight’; collaborations across agencies to enable holistic delivery/programs; more emphasis on partnerships with other levels of govt (or service providers) to leverage resources and enable improved outcomes |
| Users are uncertain about government entitlements and obligations | Proactive engagement from government through strategic communication |
| Public services are not meeting user service delivery expectations | Strengthen service charters and incentivise performance to improve delivery outcomes |
| Users are being required to provide information multiple times | Establish ‘tell us once’ – integrated service systems; digital advances, one-stop-shop, data matching opportunities to produce seamless services based on known data |
| Inconsistent and inaccessible content | Adopt user-first design principles |
| Complexity of tools provided by government | Simplify around user needs |