VPS Innovation Challenge 2011

The VPS Innovation Challenge 2011 was an opportunity for all VPS members to put forward ideas to tackle specific public policy or service delivery challenges.

Judges

Jonathan Spear, Department of Premier and Cabinet

Sarah-Jane McCormack, Department of Sustainability and Environment

Amanda Caples, Department of Business and Innovation

Maria Katsonis, Department of Premier and Cabinet

Secretary's foreword

In the Victorian Public Service (VPS), we have always looked for new approaches to improve the way we work and respond to the needs of the Victorian community. Today we face many complex and interlinked challenges that require new ways of thinking and new approaches to solve them. We need to do more with less and meet the rising expectations of citizens.

We cannot do this with existing approaches. That is why public sector innovation has been and remains a strategic priority for the VPS. Innovation is a core capability of the VPS and in 2010, I launched a VPS Innovation Action Plan that was endorsed by all departmental secretaries. One of the flagship initiatives under the action plan is the VPS Innovation Challenge. It aimed to harness the talent in the VPS by seeking ideas to address public policy and service delivery issues.

The challenge was issued across the whole of the Victorian Government and was a resounding success. It attracted 136 entries with diverse and broad-ranging ideas. The standard of entries was very high which made judging difficult.

It was pleasing to see that all departments were well represented by entrants and several agencies also participated. Some entries involved collaboration between two or more departments and agencies, or across levels of government which was particularly pleasing to see. Public sector innovation comes from working across disciplines, across departments, across levels of government and across sectors.

On behalf of the other secretaries, I congratulate all the entrants, the finalists and the winners.

Helen Silver

Secretary

Department of Premier and Cabinet

Introduction

The Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) launched the VPS Innovation Challenge in March 2011.

The challenge gave every member of the VPS the opportunity to voice their ideas on how to tackle public policy and service delivery challenges.

There were two categories in the challenge:

The Open Challenge

Any good idea however big or small that would enable the VPS to do better in areas such as:

• a specific public policy area (e.g. population growth, climate variability, aging or education)
• the way in which the VPS works (e.g .better recruitment, more efficient procurement or more effective engagement).

The Secretary's Challenge

The DPC Secretary sought ideas on three specific policy issues:

• How can VPS workforce and resources be used to provide better approaches to service delivery?
• How can the VPS tap into the potential of people and communities in designing and delivering services?
• How can we build a more effective relationship with local government?

The challenge was run entirely on the VPS Hub, the whole-of-government intranet that is a social media platform for collaboration across government. Ideas were immediately visible as soon as they were posted, providing a high degree of transparency.

After the closing date, members from the VPS Innovation Advisory Group assessed the submitted entries and selected a short list. The shortlisted entries were then given the equivalent of five days off-line to develop a detailed business case or feasibility study for their idea. The completed business cases were again posted on the VPS Hub and assessed by the judging panel for the Judges Award. There was also a Peer Award which was voted by their peers across the VPS through the VPS Hub.

VPS Innovation Challenge timetable

1 March	VPS Innovation Challenge launched by Helen Silver, DPC Secretary
31 March	Entries closed
7 April	Short-listed finalists announced
19 April	Short-listed finalists received training on business case preparation
9 May	Feasibility studies and business cases submitted
9-27 May	Peer voting opened on the VPS Hub
30 May	Winners announced
8 June	Winners presented to the DPC Secretary and other secretaries

Emerging themes

The major themes emerging from the entries were:

• focus on the citizen
• whole-of-government collaboration
• social inclusion
• greater use of Web 2.0 technologies
• VPS employee health and wellbeing
• attracting, managing and retraining
• talented people improving internal processes.

Open Challenge

Winner – Judges Award

Sustainability Guidelines for Major Public Capital Works

Ashley Admiraal, Rod McLellan, Lucy Carrigg, Andrew McKinley, Zorana Zanoskar, Nicole Opie, Jeremy Gronow, Penny Blunden and Melissa Clark (Department of Business and Innovation)

The Victorian Government's capital works program involves diverse projects such as public housing, arts and sports facilities, prisons, schools, road and rail, parks and zoological gardens. As there are no applicable Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) guidelines for project owners and managers in government, agencies develop guidelines on a project-by-project basis resulting in variable performance in the delivery of ESD outcomes.

The development of whole-of-Victorian-Government ESD guidelines would establish consistency and incorporate greater use of ESD in capital projects and contribute to:

• lower environmental impact for capital projects
• ›› better value for money for government over the life cycle of capital assets
• ›› the VPS leading the way for other governments
• ›› Victoria's sustainability agenda through positive spill-overs.

Winner – Peer Award

Victoria-Asia Unit: Growing an Asia-literate Victoria

Joel Backwell (Department of Premier and Cabinet), Julien Leyre and Amelia Fyfield (Department of Primary Industries)

A dedicated Victoria-Asia unit would bring a coordinated and systematic approach to positioning Victoria in connecting with and prospering from opportunities arising in Asia.

The unit would improve our Asia literacy by focusing on educating the next generation, Victorian business and the Victorian Government.

The Victoria-Asia Unit would involve cross agency staff from the departments of Premier and Cabinet, Business and Innovation, Education and Early Childhood Development and the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship to develop an Asia Ready Workforce Strategy. The unit will harness the untapped Asia knowledge and expertise across the VPS and the wider community to better co-ordinate existing initiatives and develop new policies and programs to build and maintain an Asia-ready Victoria.

The unit adopted a multi-faceted approach that would be mutually reinforcing. It has the potential to realise economic and social benefits for Victoria.

Finalist – Customer First

Rod Holland, Darrel Wollensack and Michael Oldaker (State Revenue Office)

Approaching service delivery from the citizen's point of view, Customer First would engage Victorian citizens and give them an opportunity to express their opinions regarding service delivery. By having a  greater understanding of the needs and concerns of citizens, a platform for change would be created that would facilitate:

• ›› improving voluntary compliance by improving citizen knowledge and acceptance of their land tax obligations
• ›› reduction in compliance costs (red tape) for citizens
• ›› improving assessments, forms and publications to better suit citizens' needs.

Finalist – Emerging Futures

Art Truter and Neil Houghton (Department of Planning and Community Development)

Emerging Futures would put citizens in the centre by engaging with the community on challenges to encourage collaboration between government and the community. Emerging Futures is a portal that would open up to a growing segment of the population that is both internet-aware and social media smart.

By asking a series of questions around matters of interest such as "Where will you live?" "Where will you work?" "What values do you think should drive our futures?" Emerging Futures would allow individuals to respond in many ways that allow the VPS to find out what is important to Victorians and provoke discussion and conversation around these ideas.

Finalist – Major Project Review Board

Fiona Prowse (Department of Premier and Cabinet)

The Major Project Review Board would be an independent body that reviews completed major projects, allowing the VPS to strengthen governance and decision making around major projects. The board will mandate a post-implementation review of all major projects and significant government projects.

By evaluating projects that hold strategic significance, the board will be able to develop a greater understanding of project management in a Victorian context and feed key learnings into future projects.

Secondary benefits of the board would include strengthened VPS capacity and internal relations due its cross collaborate nature and increased community faith that will enable new projects to be approved and existing ones to be supported by the public.

Secretary's Challenge

Winner – Judges Award

Enhanced operational decision making for service delivery to complex clients

Stephen Graham (Department of Human Services)

A small proportion of clients may consume the majority of service-delivery resources. They are complex clients and may receive services from a range of departments and agencies (e.g. youth justice, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health, housing and disability).

Often navigating a wide range of services unaided, they continue to present and can add to intergenerational demand on these services. To help break this cycle we need to know what happens to them in an operational setting and get enough information to tailor services to help them.

Enhanced Operational Decision-making is an integrated reporting solution, using data warehouses across departments and agencies to get more comprehensive information about complex clients. It would promote better outcomes for complex clients by allowing service providers to get the information they need to focus appropriate expertise, make better informed decisions and intervene early to head off any intergenerational issues.

Using this client centred approach, providers can manage clients to a point where they can exit the system and not have a long-term need for such services.

Enhanced Operational Decision-making will mean fewer services to clients are duplicated, more efficient use of funds and resources, better use of specialists and caseworker expertise and, with a client focus, an improved perception of government service.

Winner – Peer Award

People Plus and MindLab-in-a-Box

Celia Pollard (Transport Ticketing Authority), Christian O'Dea (Department Of Justice), Leonie Newnham (Department of Sustainability and Environment), Neil Houghton (Department of Planning and Community Development), Harry Buskes (Department of Business and Innovation)

Today's public servant is facing an unprecedented array of complex social, environmental and economic policy issues, together with the changing community expectations of public services and the government. The aim of People Plus and MindLab-in-a-Box is to create a more agile public service that is at the leading edge of public policy thinking and service delivery design. This idea proposes two complementaryelements in a cross-departmental proposal that would embed innovation as a systematic discipline in the VPS.

Members of the VPS would be used to develop a new unit that has a mobile innovation capability (MindLab in-a-Box) as well as an internal consulting agency (People Plus) that would comprise of public servants using design principles to assist public policy decision-makers. The unit would create a dynamic VPS workforce that would deliver better public sector management and service delivery, and also bring in members of the community to collaborate on new solutions.

Finalist – @ur.service

Murali Maheswaran (State Revenue Office)

One call. One click. One window into local government.

By creating a single citizen interface with local government, @ur.service would streamline service phone numbers and online portals across local government by consolidating call centres, dispatch, job tracking and data capture services.

By providing a 'one-click, one-call' system similar to the 311 service currently in place in Baltimore, USA, the Victorian Government would improve operational efficiency and provide a one-stop shop for citizens.

Through a thorough exploration of the current research and findings from similar systems in place, @ur.service would provide continuous service improvement through rigorous evaluation and follow-up. By allowing the Victorian Government to collect detailed data with job tracking information and realtime monitoring of citizens needs, valuable information would be gathered to assist when planning future services and applications.

Finalist – Connecting Government Services to th e Community

Patrick Ow (Department of Health)

This idea aims to connect government services to the community by creating an interactive online directory. The directory would include events, activities, providers and services grouped by postcodes and  municipalities that will combine information offered by community service providers in the 3,160 postcode locations across Victoria. The information would be compiled into a format that would allow members of the public to view, search and connect with their required services and providers through a centralised community services portal.

The portal would also allow organisations to collect donations and volunteer participation by implementing a secure online payment gateway to connect Community Service Providers with volunteers and private benefactors. The Community Services Portal would allow information to be collected to help make informed decisions about resource allocation and funding to the areas and services on a needs basis.

The Portal would encourage document and information sharing, collaboration and interaction between the Government, Community Service Providers and citizens.

Finalist – State/Local Government Exchange Program

Leonie Newnham and Ben Schofield (Department of Sustainability and Environment)

A State and Local Government Workforce Exchange Program would enable people working in interconnected systems of government to understand each system better and develop strategic thinking skills. The program would deliver better government services by:

• creating a systematic approach to develop staff, and assisting local and state government agencies in understanding the work that each sector does
• actively building skills and relationships across the two sectors
• building capacity and collaboration in a consistent and strategic way
• creating a cohort of cross-sectoral experts available to tackle difficult and complex problems at both levels of government
• undertaking system-wide activity across sectors in a way not done before
• setting up workplace projects and looking at workplace problems differently using a fresh set of eyes.

The exchange would allow knowledge transfer and relationship building between sectors by connecting the VPS with local government.

Contributors

We would like to acknowledge everyone who submitted an entry to the challenge for their time, effort and for contributing to the success of the project.

Aaron Sweet	Christine Pappon	Grant Arnold	Keelie Reader	Max Coffman	Rose Broadstock
Alasdair Moodie	Claire Pritchard	Harold Adem	Kellie Fixter	Melissa Kramer	Rosie Pitman
Alex Kusmanoff	Claire Stonierkipen	Harry Buskes	Kelly Zuccala	Michael Kennedy	Ryan Thomas
Alexandra Links	Clare Gleghorn	Ian Bridger	Kim Selling	Michael McKenzie	Sam Ridley
Alfie Oliva	Clare Moran	Ilona Nicola	Kris Faulks	Michael Oldaker	Sarah Langmore
Amanda Finnis	Craig Whiteford	Jacqueline Le Grand-Condello	Kylie Shanahan	Michael Walker	Scott Rawlings
Amanda Wells	Dale Ahern	James Baird	Laura Walsh	Michaella Richards	Sean Shiels
Amber Elliot	Darrell Wollensack	James Dennis	Lauren Fearne	Michelle Goldsmith	Simon Blankenstein
Amelia Fyfield	Darren Rooth	Jayne Cole	Laurie Hawkins	Michelle Wells	Simon Pianta
Amit Golder	David Haubenschild	Jeff Moran	Leesa Willan	Murali Maheswaran	Sophie Patten
Andrew McKinley	Deborah Parker	Jeremy Gronow	Leonie Newnham	Nardia Smits	Stacey Chapman
Art Truter	Deborah Westfield	Jeremy Moloney	Liana Shi	Natasha Ilievska	Stefan Hladenki
Asa Letourneau	Despina Babbage	Jess Strickland	Lisha Constantino	Neil E Welsh	Stephen Graham
Ashley Admiraal	Despina Poursanidis	Jo Beth Taylor	Louise Osborne	Neil Houghton	Susan Green
Barry Denham	Dr Iain Butterworth	Joel Backwell	Lucy Carrigg	Nicole Opie	Tania Sherwood
Becky Sharpe	Drew Grant	John Armstrong	Luke Horwill	Patrick Ow	Tim Fry
Ben Schofield	Eddie Dolceamore	John Barker	Lyn Malone	Paul Beavis	Tim Marshall
Ben Tan	Emma Coath	John Cheevers	Lyneve Whiting	Pen Fisher	Tony Mohorovic
Bertan Mackali	Eva Hamilton	John Jones	Lynne Allan	Peter Gutbier	Tracey Matters
Bethany Johnson	Faye Schmidt	John Kaye	Madeleine Owen	Peter Heazlewood	Tracie Martin
Brenda Petersen	Fi Xuereb	John Kennedy	Marc Bradley	Peter Morison	Vanessa Scott
Byron Thompson	Fiona Prowse	John Lim	Mark Hamilton-Smith	Peter Sculley	Vesna Penjin-Marjanovic
Cathy Lipke	Frank Lavorico	John Malligan	Mark Lim	Philippa Nihill	Viviana Golding
Celia Pollard	Frankie MacLennan	Julianna Balogh	Mark Malkoun	Richard Chapman	William Yu
Cheryl Hardy	George Peters	Julie Francis	Mark Meade	Richard Pang	Zorana Zanoskar
Chris Brougham	Georgie Foster	Julie Jensen	Martin Botros	Richard Woodman
Christiaan O'Dea	Gerard Van Emmerik	Julien Leyre	Martin Butcher	Rod Holland
Christine Hooper	Gerardine O'Sullivan	Justin Gehde	Matthew Payne	Rod McClellan

 

Last updated on Tuesday, 20 September 2011