Capability review: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

Foreword

The 2010 report Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the reform of Australian Government administration recommended that the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) undertake regular and systemic reviews to promote improved capability in the key agencies and to assess the institutional capability of the service as a whole.

The methodology used by the APSC to conduct these reviews drew significantly on the United Kingdom Capability Review Programme. Through the knowledge gained from the first tranche of reviews (the three pilots), the United Kingdom methodology has been gradually refined to more closely reflect the Australian context in which the review program is being conducted. This is the first report of the second tranche of capability reviews.

We thank the department for this opportunity. Its support and genuine desire to benefit and learn from this review has been obvious from the outset. This was reflected in the level of participation and openness shown by both staff and executive. It has also been reflected in the time the Secretary, Dr Ian Watt, afforded the review team at various points throughout the review.

I would like to thank Jeff Whalan, the chair of the review team, and the other senior members of the team, Liza Carroll and Roger Beale. Once again, this review has demonstrated the advantages of bringing together a team of this calibre.

Steve Sedgwick

AO

Australian Public Service Commission

1 About the review

A capability review is a forward-looking, whole-of-agency review that assesses an agency's ability to meet future objectives and challenges.

This review focuses on leadership, strategy and delivery capabilities in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C). It highlights the department's internal management strengths and weaknesses using the model set out in Figure 1. A set of 39 questions is used to guide the assessment
of each of the 10 elements of the model. Those assessments are included in Section 4 of this report.

Capability reviews are designed to be relatively short and sharp and to take a high-level view of the strategic operations of the agency. They focus primarily on its senior leadership, but are informed by the views of its middle management, who attend a series of workshops.

External stakeholders are also interviewed, including relevant ministers, private sector companies, state delivery organisations, peak bodies, interest groups, citizens, clients and central agencies.