Output 3: Employment-related services and functions

Regional services

The Commission continues to provide a wide-ranging service in regional areas of Australia. These services are provided through the Commission’s offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In the case of Commonwealth agencies located in the Northern Territory, services are provided through the Adelaide Office and for Tasmania through the Melbourne Office. In addition, senior staff from Canberra regularly visit regional centres to collaborate with our regional staff and local regional networks in the presentation of seminars, briefings and consultations.

A quarter of the Commission’s staff are employed in regional offices and increasingly the balance of their workload is shifting away from a traditional bias towards supporting the role of the Merit Protection Commissioner to supporting the broader range of Commission functions. In particular, there has been growth in activities related to learning and development in the Commission’s regional offices in recent years.

In Western Australia, the Commission has reached agreement with the local Regional Directors Network for the transfer of their training interests to the Commission. In practice, this means the Commission will consolidate learning and development activities formerly undertaken by the network with its continuing interest in learning and development. The transfer is effective from 1 July 2003.

In Tasmania, the Commission has negotiated an arrangement with the State Service Commission (SSC). The arrangement, covered by an MOU and Deed of Agreement between the two Commissions, enables the SSC to access development programs and activities conducted by the APS Commission. These are then made available to the APS agencies in Hobart through the SSC.

The Commission has identified as a continuing priority the further growth of its learning and development activities in the regions during 2003—04. This shift in role is leading to the development of a broader skill base among Commission staff in the regions.