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Last updated: 9 March 2006
Please note: This document is for reference purposes only and is no longer considered by the APS Commission to be current.
Supporting Ministers, Upholding the Values
Introduction
The quality of the interface between the administrative and political arms of Government has always been central to good government, and the subject of debate. A series of reforms over the last 25 years has improved the responsiveness of the public service to the elected Government and increased its agility and capacity to manage changing community requirements, but also added a new dimension to the debate about the relationship between the Australian Public Service (APS) and the Government.
Growth in the number of Ministerial advisers over the last 20 years across jurisdictions has in turn increased the scale of the interaction between public servants and Ministers and their offices. It is no longer possible to assume that informal mentoring processes will reach all APS employees who should understand their responsibilities in conduct in these relationships.
The impact of both of these factors on APS employees is canvassed in the background section below. Together, they add considerably to the importance of providing formal advice to APS employees to help them make judgements about the application of the APS Values in the provision of support to Ministers and their offices.
Target audience and key messages
This guide discusses approaches to good practice under three headings:
- Part 1—building effective relationships—basic requirements and responsibilities across the APS
- Part 2—matters that may be addressed by agency-specific policies and procedures
- Part 3—promoting effective relationships.
The guidance is primarily directed towards agency heads and their senior managers who are responsible for providing both leadership and guidance to staff about the handling of interactions with Ministers and their offices. However, it may also provide useful information for other APS employees, and for Ministers and their advisers. It addresses the distinct roles played by agency leadership, by managers, by Ministerial liaison areas, and by all employees in ensuring that their interactions with Ministers and their offices are based on mutual respect and on the foundation of the APS Values and Code of Conduct.
Agency heads and their executive should:
- set the relationship with Ministers and their offices by their own good example, clarify the expectations of Ministers of the service to be provided to them and any general requirements for implementing Government policies and programmes, and ensure this is regularly reviewed with the Minister along with the agency’s performance
- articulate policies and procedures or provide written protocols for achieving these, consistent with the APS Values and Code of Conduct and any other legal requirements
- ensure that guidance developed by their agencies deals with those situations known to create challenges for employees
- emphasise to senior managers the importance of adhering to these policies, procedures and written protocols, and their responsibility to disseminate them amongst all relevant staff
- be openly available to senior managers and their staff who have questions or are seeking advice, including with respect to the agency head’s or executive’s approach in particular cases.
Senior managers should assist by:
- adhering to agency policies, procedures and written protocols and ensuring that relevant APS Values and elements of the Code of Conduct are being properly balanced
- keeping an open door policy, mentoring employees new to working with Ministers and their offices, and providing feedback on their own interactions with Ministers’ offices
- talking to Ministerial staff where their own staff have raised concerns with them.
Ministerial liaison (or similar relevant) areas in agencies should assist by:
- making policies, procedures, written protocols and other relevant guidelines accessible to all who need them
- drawing to the attention of senior managers the scope for communicating these policies, procedures, written protocols and other guidance
- facilitating regular agency meetings with staff in Ministers’ offices
- providing feedback to both their agency and staff in Ministers’ offices on ways to optimise the benefits of the working relationship.
All employees should help build effective relationships by:
- thoroughly understanding the APS Values and Code of Conduct
- taking advantage of learning and development opportunities that enhance their confidence in balancing the Values generally, and in balancing them when working with Ministers and their offices in particular
- always seeking advice whenever they have questions about balancing the APS Values and complying with the Code.
Staff in Ministers’ offices will be aware that it is the Minister who makes the decisions. They can assist in establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships by being aware of the statutory responsibilities of the public servants they interact with, including the requirements that public service employees uphold the APS Values and comply with the Code of Conduct.
A number of agencies taking part in the development of this guide identified a need for good working models of agency protocols that could readily be adapted by other agencies. Accordingly, examples of good practice protocols provided by agencies as part of the evaluation have been identified in the discussion included in the guide as appendices.
The 2002–03 State of the Service report noted that there were signs that smaller agencies in particular had limited capacity to implement some APS-wide policies. Some employees in these agencies might find the interaction with offices more difficult, simply because of the infrequency of the contact.1 Given that many non-departmental agencies do have limited dealings with Ministers and their offices, there could be great value in taking a portfolio-based approach to many of the good practice ideas put forward in this guide where small agencies want support of this nature.
Background to the Guide
Under the Public Service Act 1999, the Public Service Commissioner has responsibility for promoting the APS Values and for evaluating the extent to which agencies incorporate and uphold them. In 2003, the Australian Public Service Commission released two key documents (APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice: A Guide to Official Conduct for APS Employees and Agency Heads and Embedding the APS Values) to help employees and agencies to understand how the Values should be applied in practice, and how to embed them in agency systems and procedures. In both documents particular attention was given to the relationship between the APS and the Government and the Parliament.
The Commission also investigated the nature of the relationship between the APS and Ministers and their offices for the 2002–03 and subsequent State of the Service reports to provide a firmer evidence base in the light of parliamentary and other public discussion of changes in the relationship.
State of the Service reports and other evidence
In 2003, the Commission for the first time conducted a survey of APS employees as part of its preparation of the annual State of the Service report. That survey revealed that contact between APS employees and Ministers and their offices was very widespread. Twenty-six per cent of APS employees—88% of Senior Executive Service employees, 47% of Executive Level employees and 20% of employees at the APS 1–6 levels—reported having had contact with a Minister or their office in the last two years. The results varied between different types of agencies and the location of APS employees, but demonstrated a far more extensive level of engagement amongst the 130,000 APS employees than previously thought.
Subsequent surveys have confirmed this finding. The questions asked in the 2004 and 2005 surveys narrowed the timeframe from two years to one and confined the nature of the contact reported. Employees were asked to respond in relation to direct contact only(defined as ‘contact in person, by telephone or email’). Nevertheless, the rate of positive responses was only six percentage points lower in both 2004 and 2005 than in 2003.
The 2004 and 2005 surveys added to our understanding of the nature of the interactions being reported. Of those respondents to the surveys who reported having had direct contact with Ministers and/or their offices in the past year, the most common matters concerned were provision of advice (including policy, legal and programme advice) and the provision of factual information (such as programme-related information).
| Nature of interaction being reported | % of respondents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 2004–05 | |
| Provision of advice (e.g. policy, legal, programme delivery) | 58 | 52 |
| Provision of purely factual information (e.g. programme- related information) | 57 | 54 |
| Parliament-related functions (e.g. tabling of documents, possible parliamentary questions, correspondence) | 32 | 28 |
| Provision of public affairs support for the Minister (e.g. preparation of speeches, draft media releases) | 30 | 32 |
| Constituent issues (e.g. electorate briefing, individual constituent matters) | 25 | 19 |
| Administrative arrangements (e.g. arranging travel or meetings) | 16 | 17 |
Source: 2004 and 2005 State of the Service employee surveys
Despite the breadth of contact between Ministers or their offices and the APS, the employee survey suggested most employees are comfortable in these interactions. Both the 2004 and 2005 surveys of employees who have had direct contact with Ministers and their offices have found that two-thirds of employees felt highly or very highly confident that they could balance the APS Values appropriately.
There is also evidence to suggest that Ministers and their offices are generally satisfied with the work of their departments. Examples from 2002–03 annual reports include:
- the Department of Transport and Regional Services: 98% satisfaction with briefing and Ministerial correspondence relating to outcome 1, and 96% for outcome 22
- the Department of Education, Science and Training: at least 96% of policy advice rated satisfactory or higher on three criteria: presentation, timeliness and quality3
- the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: ‘the Ministers and Parliamentary Secretary, and their staff, have expressed formally and informally to the Department’s Executive their satisfaction with the quality and timeliness of policy advice and programme administration’4
- the Department of Finance and Administration: 98% of Budget advice, Ministerial and briefing documents that were rated, were rated satisfactory or above.5
Work published in 2000 by Behm, Bennington and Cummane,6 based on interviews with Ministers, advisers and senior public servants has nevertheless indicated areas where Ministers would like to see better service from APS agencies. In particular, that research presses the need for a strategic approach to the effective alignment and feedback between administrative service provider and political decision-maker. While some of the findings of the Behm study perhaps rely too strongly on a service provider and/or customer model of the relationship between APS employees and Ministers and their offices, it does point very usefully to the need for effective feedback arrangements around the policy development process.
At the same time, respondents to the 2003, 2004 and 2005 State of the Service employee surveys expressed considerable uncertainty about the nature of policies and the content of protocols in their agencies guiding their interactions with Ministers and their offices. There was also a significant minority of employees who expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to balance the APS Values.
Accordingly, while most APS employees are confident in their dealings with Ministers and their offices, and most Ministers and their advisers are generally satisfied with the support they receive from the APS, there is scope for improvement in the quality of service to Ministers, and in employees’ confidence in providing that service. The then Public Service Commissioner concluded in his 2003–04 State of the Service report that
agencies need to put further effort into promulgating and actively supporting policies or protocols on employees’ interactions with Ministers and their offices. The consistency and strength of the survey and evaluation evidence of the last two years suggests that this is a priority for the APS.7
As a consequence of these findings, the Australian Public Service Commission conducted an evaluation of the measures agencies have in place supporting their employees’ interactions with Ministers and their offices. The evaluation drew on:
- the 2003 and 2004 agency and employee surveys run as part of the research for the Commissioner’s annual State of the Service reports
- multivariate analyses commissioned especially for the evaluation
- policies and protocols supplied to the Commission by 20 of the largest APS agencies
- focus groups conducted with senior APS employees, particularly with Senior Executive Service Band 1 and Executive Level 2 employees
- interviews with departmental staff who had experience as Departmental Liaison Officers
- discussions with staff working in Ministerial liaison roles in departments, and relevant staff in the Departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Finance and Administration
- the Parliamentary Network, a contact group established in 2004, comprising agency staff in Ministerial liaison roles
- published research.
This good practice guide draws substantially on that evaluation and on subsequent consultation.
Agencies consulted as part of the development of this guide raised the issue of measuring outcomes following implementation of the good practice advice identified. The Commission will continue to incorporate questions in its State of the Service agency and employee survey questionnaires and to make available benchmark data on agency arrangements, employee understanding of those arrangements, and employees’ confidence in managing challenges arising in the course of their interactions with Ministers and their advisers. Those agencies that do not receive their own agency- specific results because of size and sampling issues are invited to make use of the Commission’s questions in their own agency surveys and read their own outcomes against Service-wide benchmarks and those established for medium and small agencies.
1 Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service Report 2002–03, 2003, p. 199,
2 Department of Transport and Regional Services, Annual Report 2002–03, pp. 26, 81,
3 Department of Education, Science and Training, Annual Report 2002–03, Chapters 3, 4 and 5,
4 Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Annual Report 2002–03, ‘Overview of Performance Framework’
5 Department of Finance and Administration, Annual Report 2002–03, Chapter 3,
6 A. Behm, L. Bennington and J. Cummane, ‘A Value-Creating Model for Effective Policy Services’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2000, pp. 162–78.
7 Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service Report 2003–04, 2004, p. 40
