The Department engaged the Australian Continuous Improvement Group in July 2011 to conduct an analysis of the structure, functions, skills and capabilities of the Norfolk Island Public Service.

You can access the report at the Department’s website:                  www.regional.gov.au/territories/norfolk_island/public_service_review.aspx

And you can read more about ACIG’s work on Norfolk Island here.

And ACIG has been selected to join FaHCSIA’s prestigious Social Policy Research and Evaluation Panel.

As one of the companies selected for this panel, ACIG will be providing services such as:

• design and/or review of evaluation plans and frameworks, including program logics and performance indicators;

• conducting evaluations;

• managing evaluation projects within time constraints, including contract management;

• providing expert advice on program and/or policy evaluation;

• reporting and/or presenting evaluation outcomes to departmental audiences; and

• publishing and presenting evaluation outcomes to a wide range of audiences.

The Panel enables FaHCSIA (and most other Australian Government agencies) to seek a quotation from ACIG without having to go through an open tender process.  Talk to your corporate services or procurement area for more details.

Please don’t hesitate to give us a call at ACIG  to discuss (no obligations and completely confidential) your evaluation requirements.

In Kuala Lumpur we delivered a two-day seminar about evaluation in government.  In Northern NSW we implemented an improvement program for the NSW Sugar Co-op.  In Darwin we reviewed performance management at NT Health.  In Canberra we conducted evaluations for five new Australian Government clients. On Norfolk Island we reviewed the Norfolk Island Public Service.  In Sydney we implemented an improvement program for  Sydney Water.  And in Adelaide we delivered the 2^nd Annual Lean in Government seminars.

One of our senior consultants, Michelle Scott Tucker, has been invited to become a Company Director (and she said yes!).  And we’ve welcomed some more new faces, including:

• Dr Jason Kaminski, our business transformation and knowledge management expert.
• Ms Genevieve Wilson, our new Office Manager.
• Ms Samantha Comte, arts sector specialist.
• Mr Tom Dale, former Ministerial Advisor and federal government senior executive.

We’ve won so much new work that our client list for 2011 reads like a government who’s who.

NT Department of Health & Families, Wyndham City Council, NSW Sugar, Australian Land and Coast, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Department of Primary Industries (Vic), Department of Sustainability & Environment (Vic), City of Brimbank, AusAID, Department of Justice (Vic), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, City of Stonnington, City of Boroondara, Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, Port Stephens Shire Council, Melbourne Water, Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, Public Libraries Victoria Network, Austrade, Department of Health (Vic), Department of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry, Department of Business and Innovation (Vic).

Here’s hoping that 2012 is even bigger and even better – for the team at ACIG, for you and for all our friends and families.

A Development Grant provides funding support to individual researchers, research teams or a HMR company in partnership with one or more researchers to undertake research at the early proof-of-principle stage.  The grants support the development of a product, process, procedure or service that if applied would result in improved health care, disease prevention or provide health cost savings.  The scheme focusses on health and medical research that has the potential to be commercialised.

In particular our focus will be on the outcomes and benefits accruing to the Australian Government, industry and the wider Australian community.

In line with the Australian Government’s Budget Expenditure review Principles, ACIG’s evaluation will also assess the program for:

• appropriateness;
• effectiveness;
• efficiency;
• integration; and
• performance.

ACIG employs a team of in-house consultants and supplements their extensive expertise by the use (on an as-required basis)of associates.

Our associates range from single person freelancers (retired academics, for example, or former senior executives and public servants) through to larger organisations such as Roy Morgan Market Research.   Our associate model enables ACIG to remain responsive and flexible, yet still able to meet the diverse needs of our clients.

If you are interested in joining our Panel of Associates, or think you have what it takes to become one of our employees, please contact us.

Some of our existing associates

Peter Johnstone OAM is principal of PJ Governance Pty Ltd and has been Chief Executive of a number of public sector organisations.  He has pursued a strong interest in the development of effective forms of corporate governance, entrepreneurial management and community engagement.  Peter worked closely with us on ACIG’s a review into the capacities and capabilities of the Norfolk Island Public Service.  Our review actively informed Australian Government funding and resourcing decisions in the face of the Norfolk Island Government’s insolvency crisis.  More details about this assignment are here.

ACIG, in collaboration with Roy Morgan Research, delivered an evaluation of the Industry Capability Network (ICN) industry support program.  ICN Victoria assists its clients to maximise Victorian, Australian and New Zealand content in their procurement activities under the Government’s VIPP policy and matches local suppliers to government buyers acting on behalf of significant Victorian projects.

ACIG worked with Registered Training Organsation (RTO) CEG to deliver a Certificate IV in Competitive Manufacturing to Stegbar Windows and Doors in Victoria.  The Certificate in Competitive Manufacturing is a nationally accredited qualification in Lean Thinking for the manufacturing sector.  The certificate course takes around 14 months to complete.  Stegbar in Victoria achieved significant improvement in performance as a result of the training and ACIG is currently delivering both certificate III and IV to other members of the group, including Stegbar’s Queensland Plant , Airlite Windows and Doors in NSW and Stegbar’s Lansvale site also in NSW.

We helped SLV develop a comprehensive best practice framework based on Australian and international quality and business excellence frameworks, international library best practices and the SLV’s research project Libraries Building Communities.  We are now implementing evaluations against the framework, called Being the Best We Can, throughout Victorian public libraries. The participating libraries are a mixture of metropolitan and country, single-municipality and regional corporation services.

Read an article in the Oct-Nov 2011 edition of Local Government Manager magazine about the Being the Best We Can project here.

Euan Lockie, from ACIG, and Melanie McCarten, from the State Library of Victoria, also presented a paper about the project at the NSW SITCH Conference (Nov 2011).  A copy of the paper is here.

The Being the Best We Can project won the 2011 LGPro award for Innovation in Management.  You can read more about the award here.

The objectives of ACERA are to deliver practical, rigorous solutions and advice related to the assessment, management, perception and communication of biosecurity risk.  ACERA is delivered by the University of Melbourne under a four-year Funding Agreement  with DAFF.  ACERA was established in 2006 to research risk analysis methodologies and build on Australian expertise in risk analysis techniques.

ACIG will evaluate the:

• effectiveness of ACERA in meeting its Funding Agreement objectives; and

• suitability of the current ACERA objectives for a future Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis.

ACIG has successfully applied Lean Thinking to a number of health services: a case study example is provided below.

Case Study

The Peter James Centre and Wantirna Health (PJC & WH) provides a broad range of sub-acute services to clients within the Eastern Health catchment of some 800,000 people. These services focus on aged care, rehabilitation and palliative care.

Following a series of staff workshops, a project team was established to focus on improving the efficiency and patient outcomes of its core care process. The core care process was divided into four stages: access, assessment, care planning and evaluation, and discharge.

The approach

The deliberate improvement methods of Lean Thinking were chosen as the foundation of the approach.

They were seen to be congruent with approaches being developed and deployed at other leading hospitals, the Victorian Department of Human Services, and by successful organisations in other industries.

ACIG was engaged to bring the method and experience of deliberate improvement to the project, particularly the concepts and tools of Lean Thinking.

The hospital working parties and facilitators were introduced to ACIG’s DIAGNOSE project method, and then coached throughout the period of the project.

The method and associated support included:

• A one day action learning exercise where the trainee facilitators and facility staff were introduced to the principles of Lean Thinking and the tools of improvement in a case study based exercise.
• Coaching to develop the capability of the facilitators throughout the course of the working parties. This coaching included the principles and tools of Lean Thinking, as well as team facilitation.

The deliverables required by PJC & WH included capacity building throughout the organisation to provide staff with the skills to facilitate ongoing deliberate improvement activities.

The Findings

Four working parties were facilitated through a process that included mapping the activity stream for their stage of the patient journey. Team based mapping always has an impact as those involved see the frustration of daily work appear as a braided stream of activity and visible confusion; these working parties were no different. Each of the four working parties identified many opportunities for improvement.

Findings included:

• Referral forms typically contained missing or incorrect information for many fields. For example – 53% for entries in medication fields for external hospital referrals. This generated a large aggregate amount of wasted professional staff time.
• Up to seven disciplines interviewed patients on day one. Patients were often overwhelmed by the process.
• No single clear description of patient goals or a care plan eventuated from the assessment. This meant an absence of a reference point for later decisions.
• Team care conferences were found to be very inefficient: 32% of patients did not have a care planning discussion documented in their medical record.
• Discharge was often delayed due to delays accessing handyman services to modify patients’ homes.

These findings are not unique to Peter James Centre – they are typical of many health services.  However, the process by which they were discovered, by a working party of clinical and service professionals using the tools of deliberate improvement, ensured there was a strong commitment to change.

The results

Results have been dramatic and include:

• 47 admission assessment form options have been reduced to 7 – an 85% improvement. Similarly the number of different data fields has reduced from about 215 in those 47 forms to about 75 aligned across the 7 forms – a 65% improvement.
• Over 50% of patients now have documented evidence of functionally based goals – previous audits indicated that no patient file had such documented evidence. In addition there is now clear documentation of team meeting outputs in line with functional domains.
• Every patient now has a designated Key Contact Person to reduce the frustration, confusion and misunderstandings for patients, their families and staff that previously occurred as the result of mixed communication channels.

Perhaps the most exciting outcome had been the increased capability of staff in the use of the tools and methods of Lean Thinking. They have since gone on to tackle other problem areas in their drive for improvement.

Critical success factor

A critical factor in the success of this phase of change at Peter James Centre has been the leadership of the General Manager, Ms. Janet Compton. ACIG has observed over many years of contribution to change and deliberate improvement projects that success and sustainability are ultimately dependent on the quality of leadership. This leadership was evident by the commitment of resources, public support and recognition for the teams, a clear expectation of the outcome, flexibility with the specific recommendations to edify the involved staff, and providing facilitators the time to learn and apply the Lean Thinking methods.

Within the Victorian Department of Health, the Environmental Health Unit aims to improve and protect the health and safety of Victorians by reducing the exposure of Victorians to the following hazards:

• The harmful effects of radiation
• Legionella disease from bacteria in cooling towers in buildings and warm water systems
• Contaminated drinking water supply (and safe fluoridation)
• Unsafe use of pesticides used by pest control operators to control insects and pest animals
• Poor sanitation
• Exposure to other potentially hazardous substances and public nuisances

ACIG’s consultants will analyse and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the Environmental Health Unit’s current regulatory compliance and enforcement activities.  We will also review recent best practice developments in regulatory compliance and enforcement activities.  We will then advise on practical ways to improve the compliance of regulated entities and better protect the health of Victorians from the environmental health hazards and risks that are the responsibility of the Unit to manage.

Our work will deliver an analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Environmental Health Unit’s enforcement activities in obtaining high levels of compliance with environmental health legislation.  This will include:

• A review of the Environmental Health Unit’s regulatory processes, policies, procedures and information management systems.

• An evaluation including, where possible, measurement of the recent performance of the Unit in achieving its regulatory objectives.

• Consultation with Unit staff, regulated entities and related regulatory functions.

• Examination of recent reviews of regulatory enforcement and compliance activities, such as the recent review of the Environment Protection Authority.

ACIG has a sound track record of working with regulatory bodies to review their effectiveness and efficiency.  Similar recent assignments include our work for:

• Department of Justice (Vic)
• Department of Primary Industries (Vic)
• Consumer Affairs Victoria

Norfolk Island has an Australian postcode (2899), Australian currency, Australian police and other Australian connections yet boasts its own nine-member government, its own customs and immigration laws, own stamps and phone cards and even its own Commonwealth and South Pacific Games teams!

And somehow the ACIG team managed to be front page news in Norfolk Island.  And as for Peter Johnstone OAM?  Well, we think we’re lucky to have him too….

ACIG has been asked by the Australian Government Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government to undertake a comprehensive review into the capacities and capabilities of the Norfolk Island Public Service.

Our review will recommend actions that the Norfolk Island Government and the Australian Government can take, if required, over the short, medium and long term to:

• More efficiently and effectively provide an appropriate and sustainable range of government services to the highest ethical standards;
• Improve the capacity and the skills of Norfolk Island Adminstration to deliver government services;
• Deliver government services to a similar standard as those provided by a local or state level government in mainland Australia;
• Improve resilience, change management and innovation across the public sector; and
• Improve performance and accountability mechanisms.