Key chapter findings

Increasingly, the focus of service delivery is shifting towards a whole of government approach. The push to move services and information resources online has continued and would appear to be the way of the future. Despite significant investment in the move to online service provision, governments around the world, including Australia, are still recognising the need for further improvement to meet the growing expectations of citizens for better customer service.

The agency survey shows that consultation in the making of policy and programme decisions is widespread among APS agencies, but less in the area of government regulation. Consultation continues to be a significant mechanism for engaging stakeholders in public debate about government services. The increased government presence on the Internet and citizen access to government services and resources via this medium provides a ready-made mechanism for engaging with service user groups, and is already being used, by agencies.

Improving service delivery continues to be a major theme for the APS. With 55% of APS employees directly involved in the delivery of services to the general public, or managing employees who do so, the importance of those Values that set out how the APS interacts with the public is paramount. As expected, employees delivering services are predominantly located outside the ACT.

Results from selected agency service user satisfaction surveys paint a positive picture in relation to the overall satisfaction with selected APS organisations, with the majority of service user satisfaction levels with agencies above 80% in 2005.

The majority of agencies appear to have developed effective mechanisms for receiving and responding to feedback from the general public. Seventy-nine per cent of relevant employees confirmed that formal feedback mechanisms were in place, although employees reported a drop in the effectiveness of these mechanisms. Over three- quarters of APS employees involved in service delivery agree that they received ‘appropriate training or have access to information that enabled them to undertake their client service responsibilities’.

The use of service charters is widespread, and most agencies have taken on board the need to monitor and review their effectiveness. Although progress has been made, as suggested by ANAO, more work is required before service charters can effectively drive service improvement.

Australian Government agencies are continuing to develop innovative and practical ways of applying new technologies to benefit the community, business and government itself. The Australian Government’s e-government objective is to simplify the complexity of government and improve efficiency of government administration at the same time. Agencies are identifying priority areas for service improvement, where better linkages can bring tangible benefits to a citizen’s experience of electronic government services.

Information provided by the Ombudsman indicates that, although complaint numbers decreased this year, there continues to be a large number of complaints regarding the lack of information provided about decisions made by agencies or that decisions are flawed, and that this is often compounded by poor agency record keeping. Evidence from ANAO reports suggests also that agencies need to have systems in place to promote the quality and transparency of service delivery along with mechanisms that measure the effectiveness of the service they provide.

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