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Executive Summary
This Progress Report is the second annual update on progress towards the Government’s public sector reform agenda. APS Reform strengthens the public service, enabling it to adapt to changes in public needs and expectations of government. The transformation effort outlined in the following pages builds on previous reform efforts to create a public service prepared for our present and future.
Enduring transformation of the APS’s increasingly diverse workforce of over 185,000, spread across Australia and more than 100 agencies and government entities, requires sustained and iterative effort. The areas of future focus considered in this report consolidate reform progress over the past 2 years and outline the public service’s approach to a culture of continuous improvement.
This report notes the public sector’s progress across all reform outcomes, including through the landmark passage of the Public Service Amendment Act 2024 in June 2024. The Australian Public Service Commission is working with 9 lead agencies and departments to progress and embed 59 reform initiatives across the service. These initiatives span the breadth of the public service’s diverse range of responsibilities. The government’s 4 priority pillars, announced in October 2022, continue to provide the framework for further strengthening the public service.
The first phase of APS Reform sets the foundations for transformation of the public sector, including to support an initial portfolio of 44 reform initiatives. The case studies included in Appendix A of this report outline the positive effect these initiatives are already having for the community and in the service.
From November 2023, APS Reform transitioned to a second phase. This next phase reinforces and embeds early reform achievements, with a further 15 initiatives to build lasting capabilities that empower all public servants to do what is right, and to do it well.
The second phase of APS Reform builds on the learnings of previous efforts, with a continued emphasis on the strategic use of governance mechanisms to drive coordinated and effective implementation of reforms, and on collaborative efforts to manage implementation risks and challenges. Underpinning these efforts is the APSC’s continued support for whole-of-service investment in key capabilities that enable reform outcomes, including change management, partnerships and engagement skills.
Of the program’s 59 initiatives, around one-third are substantively complete and the remaining are progressing through design, planning and delivery stages. Together they are helping create a future where public servants are champions of integrity, conscious of community and business needs, practise inclusion and are highly capable. As reform initiatives have progressed through the design, planning and delivery stages, the APS has continued to improve its program delivery model, including maturing the governance framework through the specialised APS Reform Program Board, a new emphasis on evaluation, and a change management approach to enabling APS-wide change.
To maintain momentum, the APSC has embedded a cascading system of evaluation to monitor and report on progress across 4 levels: initiative-level delivery and risk; outcome-level performance; program-level success; and impact-level research based on lived experience. There are 51 metrics underpinning 16 overarching performance measures that enable objective monitoring of success over time. The system of evaluation aligns with the structured approach to manage risk, to ensure that risks are identified, continuously assessed, actively managed and reviewed against developments in a dynamic delivery environment. Over the past year, the service identified and successfully managed 4 primary whole-of-reform strategic risks.
Progress Report sections
The first 3 sections provide an overarching understanding of the APS Reform agenda and its impact on the public service and the Australian public:
- Section 1: Overview of APS Reform discusses the ongoing commitment to service excellence, the overall approach to delivering service-wide reform and the transition into a phase of reinforcement, embedding and targeting. It also covers Australia’s role as an international leader in public sector reform.
- Section 2: Progress of APS Reform initiatives discusses the implementation and progress achieved during the second year of APS Reform, contextualised according to the overarching objectives for the reform agenda. Of the 59 initiatives, 22 are complete, 20 are in the delivery stage, 8 are in the planning stage, 8 are in the design stage and one is on-hold for future consideration. Progress has been made against every reform outcome.
- Section 3: Impact discusses the impact of APS Reform on the community and the service, with case studies demonstrating impacts against each pillar of reform.
The final 4 sections provide a detailed account of how the agenda has been built, supported and used to drive whole-of-service improvement, and areas of future focus:
- Section 4: Program delivery model discusses the key components in governance and decision-making, program delivery, reporting and engagement. It also covers the importance of change management to secure lasting results, and the ongoing efforts to boost capability across the service to enable change.
- Section 5: Performance framework discusses the framework used to measure performance, including metrics, data sources and how we are planning on reporting on the progress of reform over time.
- Section 6: Program risks discusses the approach to proactively identifying and managing risks. It also discusses the greatest overarching risks identified through regular reporting over the second year of reform, and how combined, centralised and project-led mitigations have successfully managed these risks.
- Section 7: Areas of future focus considers the importance of embedding enduring outcomes through the second phase of reform (and beyond), and discusses how the APS can be ‘future-ready’ in giving effect to a range of cross-cutting national priorities, ensuring that the APS continues to work for Australia, both now and into the future.