Capability Reviews Program

Strengthening today's capabilities to meet tomorrow's challenges

What is a Capability Review?

The capability reviews are forward-looking, whole-of-agency reviews that assess an agency’s ability to meet future objectives and challenges.  To maximise openness during the review and buy-in to the review recommendations, the reviews are conducted collaboratively and transparently.  Secretaries are updated on a regular basis regarding progress and are provided insight into the preliminary findings as early as possible during the review process.

Each review is led by three ‘eminent’ senior reviewers (referred to as senior reviewers); two external to the public service and one serving Executive officer (at the Deputy Secretary level) seconded from another department.   To date the senior reviewers have included retired Secretaries and private sector executives with broad experience and knowledge of the public sector, either at federal or state level.  The senior reviewers are supported by a number of APSC officers and secondees from other departments during the review.

The assessment is made against a common framework, focusing on leadership, strategy and delivery capabilities.   The common framework is depicted in a ‘model of capability’, and defines the core elements of capability against which the agency is assessed. The model was adopted with only minor alterations from the approach developed specifically for the UK Civil Service.

Impartiality is a key tenet of the review process and while the reviews are administered by the APSC, each review is conducted by an independent review team that works at ‘arms-length’ to the APSC for the duration of the review.

The reviews are designed to be relatively short and sharp and as a result, take a high-level view of the strategic operations of the agency.  The length of each review is dependent upon the size and complexity of the agency, with the average duration spanning 2-3 months.

Interviews are undertaken with senior executive staff (SES), and a series of workshops are also conducted with executive-level (EL) staff.  A range of external stakeholders are also interviewed, including relevant Ministers, key stakeholders (including for example, private sector companies, union organisations, peak bodies, interest groups, citizens and clients), and central agency departments.

The APS capability review process does not stop at the point of delivery of the final report.  By contrast to the UK methodology, the APSC works with the agency to prioritise the final recommendations.  The agency is responsible for development of an Action Plan detailing how the recommendations will be addressed.  This plan is agreed with the APS Commissioner and the APSC monitor progress throughout its delivery.  It is the responsibility of the agency to implement the plan.

A short review, referred to as a ‘health-check’ is conducted not less than 12 months following the original review.  The health-check measures progress against the agreed action plan. 

Why Conduct Capability Reviews?

The Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration delivered in 2010 (the Blueprint) identified that increasing citizen expectations, technological change, a tightening labour market and an increasingly  contested market for policy ideas are just some of the organisational challenges faced by the Australian Public Service (APS). To effectively meet these and emerging challenges, the Blueprint identified the need to place an APS-wide focus on development of the capabilities necessary to position it as a high-performing public service.

To provide a baseline against which capability could be measured and improved, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) was tasked with delivery of a program of regular reviews to assess institutional capability, with a particular focus on strategy, leadership, workforce capability, and delivery. 
Cumulatively the capability reviews will provide an APS-wide view of capability through identification of systemic capability issues and areas of best-practice.  By being able to point to short-comings in critical capability, whole of government solutions can be developed to achieve long-lasting improvements and address core agency capability issues.  Similarly, identification of areas of best-practice provides the APS with the opportunity to make better use of existing capability, and through the creation of centres of excellence promote lateral cooperation and innovation. 

International Experience

The idea of conducting agency capability reviews has its precedent in a number of Commonwealth countries, including Canada, New Zealand and the UK.  Each country uses a different methodology and an examination of these concluded UK methodology provided the best basis for development of an Australian equivalent.  The UK Cabinet Office initiated a program of capability reviews 2005 and these continued until late 2010.  In February 2009, the National Audit Office (NAO) published its Assessment of the capability Review Programme.  The report found that the program had succeeded in raising the capability of the Civil Service and had made capability improvement a key feature of management board agendas across Whitehall.

In addition, objectives and drivers for the UK program aligned closely to those outlined in the Blueprint reform and examination of UK methodology highlighted a number of key features that the APSC considered would contribute to the success of the approach for the APS.  In particular, the in-house delivery model, the use of eminent reviewers to lead the reviews and the strategic nature of the reviews.

On this basis, it was agreed to test and tailor the UK capability review methodology through a series of pilot implementations commencing in February 2011.  

Conducting a Capability Review Program

The capability reviews are delivered over the following four phases Preparation, Review, Collaboration and Implementation.

Preparation:

Work is undertaken in preparation for the review including agreement of scope, Terms of Reference (ToR’s), preliminary data gathering, and identification of the senior reviewers

Review:

The Capability Review is conducted by the Review Team and a report is developed and delivered by the senior reviewers to the Secretary and the APSC Commission.  The Secretary is also provided with the opportunity to formally respond to the findings and recommendations contained in the final report.

Collaboration:

The APSC works with the agency to prioritise the recommendations and the agency develops an Action Plan detailing work to  be undertaken to implement the recommendations.  This plan is agreed with the APS Commissioner and the agency reports progress against it.

Implementation:

The agency implements the action plan and reports progress on a regular basis to the  APSC.  The APSC also conducts a ‘health-check’ review approximately 12-months after the first review to review progress against the Action Plan.

What will be reviewed?

The Capability Reviews model focuses on the core activities of ‘leadership’, ‘strategy’ and ‘delivery’. 

The elements of the model describe the attributes against which capability is assessed.

In the final report a rating is applied to each of the ten elements of the model based upon a four-point scale originally developed by the UK and including ratings of Green, Green/ Amber, Amber/Red and Red.

Contacting the Capability Reviews Program

If you have any queries regarding Capability Reviews, please contact us at:

Capability Reviews Program
Australian Public Service Commission
16 Furzer St
Phillip ACT 2606
Phone: 02 6202 3925
Email: capabilityreviews@apsc.gov.au

• Frequently asked questions