Statement of Intent 2006 - Strengthening Our Capabilities

On this Page:

Backing the business to win

We want to strengthen our capacity and capability to lead social development and complete our move to an outcomes-based approach from the ground level, right through the organisation.

To do this we need to reconfigure the skill base of our workforce both at the frontline and within National Office to assist in shifting the focus from a transactional approach to one of achieving outcomes.

We also need to provide our staff with the right systems and tools to support this aim. Our vision for this is:

Our people have the skills, environment, systems and resources they need to achieve outcomes for clients and for Government. Our people feel respected, valued and connected to the Ministry. They have opportunities to reach their full potential and feel appropriately rewarded.

Refer to the Child, Youth and Family section for information on the capability related priorities and work the merged Ministry will be focusing on from 1 July 2006

top

Our People

Our ability to attract and retain the people with the skills, abilities and commitment to enable the Ministry to deliver outcomes for clients and for the Government is a key priority, especially in a tight labour market.

To ensure we have the people capability we require, we are:

investing in the development of our leaders and managers
investing in the qualifications of our staff
committed to developing and supporting our people to do their jobs well
committed to providing a positive work environment where people are able to work to their full potential.

Since the Ministry’s establishment in 2001, we have achieved excellent results in both policy and service delivery activities and our staff are the key reason for this. As a result of our achievements our reputation continues to be strong and this increases our attractiveness as an employer.

The tight labour market has increased competition for skills and has meant that we have had to work harder to get the same recruitment results as in the past. In some cases it is taking longer to find people with the right skill mix and relevant experience. Work on the Ministry’s “employment brand”, developing a graduate recruitment programme, further enhancing our frontline Cadet programme and a continued focus on active development (such as secondments and the building of a Leadership Development Framework) will strengthen our ability to attract and retain the right staff.

Centralised Recruitment Model

In mid 2005 a centralised recruitment team was established to support the Ministry’s National Office recruiting managers, enabling time to be spent on value-added parts of the recruitment process and bringing greater consistency in how we treat candidates.

This approach has reduced external recruitment costs and helped us to build a strong Ministry employment brand. We are continuing to grow this model exploring the enhancement of our recruitment techniques and tools.

Graduate Recruitment

With tight labour market conditions an important Ministry strategy is to grow our people to ensure we have the skills and experience we will need for the future. It is important that this process starts up-front; in order to support this we have developed a co-ordinated graduate recruitment programme to help meet the Ministry’s future staffing needs. Last year we launched a Ministry graduate recruitment programme where we marketed to, identified and placed suitable candidates into graduate roles across the Ministry.

In 2005/2006 10 graduates joined the Ministry as part of the graduate recruitment programme. In 2006/2007 it is estimated that number will grow to 25-30.

Leadership Development Framework

Improving the overall effectiveness of our managers and having people with the skills to readily move into critical roles are important strategies for the Ministry. Our Leadership Team has defined the essential skills our managers and leaders need and we are building resources, including a core set of workshops, to support the development of those skills.

Along with this more traditional development “training” approach we are implementing a new development process. This process seeks to understand the career aspirations, strengths and development needs of senior staff. Senior managers then engage with their staff to identify work experiences that will prepare them for further development and lead to greater responsibility.

We are implementing this development process to:

improve retention of our senior managers by knowing and, where possible, delivering on their realistic career expectations
create movement across the Ministry so that our future general managers have breadth of experience
ensure appropriate succession planning.

NZQA Qualifications for Staff and Managers

Many of our front line staff have considerable experience in working with clients, and leading people, but do not have formal qualifications. They have learnt through on the job experience and it is important for their development to formally recognise their knowledge and skills.

We have built several qualifications to recognise the learning that has taken place. Over 600 Case Managers have completed an NZQA Level 4 Public Sector Services qualification, with a further 900 currently working through the qualification. We have over 225 managers who have completed an NZQA Level 5 qualification in Frontline Management and 220 managers who have completed an NZQA Level 5 qualification in Public Sector Services – Middle Management Leadership.

We are also investigating other suitable qualifications and developing a number of developmental opportunities for different business areas.

Government Pay and Employment Equity

The Ministry is committed to the outcomes of the Government Pay and Employment Equity plan of action. We will:

evaluate pay and employment for the Ministry and develop an action plan if required
work in collaboration with the State Services Commission and the Pay and Employment Equity Unit in the development of pay and employment equity processes in the public service.

top

Our Technology

Our technology needs to support the Ministry’s focus on clients and enable business strategies and the outcomes that the Ministry is seeking. To do this we need to ensure that our systems are focused on the client and our infrastructure is flexible, secure and resilient. Some key activities to support this are as follows:

Social Assistance Reforms

We are working closely with our policy design and service delivery areas to ensure that any changes to the benefit system and national implementation of a new service delivery model would be appropriately supported by technology.

Client Management System

Effective client management requires a client-focused approach that enables collaboration among agencies. The Ministry’s current systems and processes do not facilitate an integrated way of supporting and managing of individuals, families and communities. We need information that is more relevant to clients’ employment needs, we need to facilitate better co-ordination across agencies to meet clients’ overall needs, and we need to support new workflows that require different information from what is currently stored and how it is organised.

A client management system will be designed to support services delivered from all the Ministry’s service lines. Specifically a client management system will:

support a more effective and efficient delivery of services with the flexibility to meet changes over the next five years
support the Ministry in improving its focus on the work and skill issues facing individual clients
support the Ministry’s work in building relationships with industry and employers
provide a single view of the client and the services they are receiving as well as providing a detailed record of all client and case manager interactions
provide workflow functions to better guide staff in determining eligibility and entitlement
automate basic processes to free up case managers’ time so they can provide more proactive assistance to job seekers
increase access by other organisations to selected information held by the Ministry.

Through an open tender process the Ministry has chosen a preferred Client Management System product, Cúram, developed by an Irish company, Cúram Software. Cúram Software focuses on developing enterprise-wide IT solutions for social services agencies worldwide. In October 2005 we commenced a Proof of Concept (PoC) of the Cúram product and expect the PoC to run until the end of March 2006.

The PoC will determine whether Cúram is suitable for the Ministry and involves three streams of work: a technical proof of concept; development of a prototype; and testing of business requirements. Subject to a successful PoC, we expect to submit a business case to Government, in mid 2006, to pilot the client management system.

Application Transformation Strategy

Work is underway to define how the Ministry will move from its existing legacy systems to systems that will better meet our needs in the medium term. Trialling of the proposed Client Management System (Cúram), using a proof of concept approach, is helping significantly to develop a framework to guide this transition. Should Cúram prove suitable, this transition will be undertaken using a step by step low risk approach that is consistent with Government and Ministry priorities and affordability.

Internet Protocol Call Centre (IPCC) Project

The Ministry and the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services make extensive use of call centres as a means of delivering services to their clients. In 2005 we used the Ministry’s network infrastructure to provide contact centre services for the Ministry and CYF. The Ministry’s infrastructure is a fully integrated Internet Protocol data and voice network. Providing these services results in considerable cost savings by routing calls through the Ministry’s network and also provides increased contact centre functionality to improve services to clients, such as the implementation of call recording technology and outbound calling functionality.

Appointment Booking Tool

We have recently implemented a custom built “Appointment Booking Tool” for contact centre and frontline staff.

Annually, approximately 2.4 million clients meet with case managers, with contact centres making and re-scheduling around 1 million appointments. With this number expected to grow, we designed and implemented an automated Appointment Booking Tool that integrates with a number of current Ministry applications, including our Calendar product.

The Appointment Booking Tool:

makes it easier for staff to make appointments for clients
ensures clients received appropriate and timely appointments
provides flexible management reporting on appointment numbers and patterns.

We will be discussing this development with the e-Government Unit, which is a part of the State Services Commission, to see if it may benefit other government agencies.

Studylink Online Services

As part of the Ministry’s focus to improve outcomes for students we are exploring the enhancement of our online student application service. This includes streamlining application and re-application processes, introducing account management services and providing linkages to other relevant student support information and services.

Youth Transition Services Database

The 2004 Budget provided funding for the establishment of a Youth Transition Service in 14 priority areas to assist at-risk school leavers in these areas to move to work, education or training. We are designing an on-line solution to support the Youth Transition Services programme of work.

top

Our Finances

We have structured the Ministry’s functions to ensure a strong efficiency and effectiveness focus in each of our activity areas and have realised organisational efficiencies to fund cost pressures and new functions. We will continue to actively manage our finances by making efficient and cost-effective decisions to stay within our departmental baseline.

GOVT3 Programme – Sustainable Practices

Since the Ministry was established it has been committed to improving the sustainability of its activities. In May 2005 the Ministry entered into a commitment with the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) to be a member agency of the Govt3 programme. As part of this commitment the Ministry is developing a sustainable workplace action plan not only to reduce energy use in buildings but also to operate sustainable practices in regards to ground and air travel, waste, paper use, tenders and contracts.

Syndicated Procurement

We have a strong procurement capability and have led a range of syndicated procurement (commercial) contracts, involving up to 19 government agencies. We will continue to co-ordinate syndicated procurement contracts to allow government agencies with similar requirements to opt into the process, sharing the cost of procurement, and obtain better value for money contracts as a result of increased volumes.