New Zealanders have high expectations of their public services. They expect progress on the big issues facing the country, like reducing crime and delivering better health services. There is also a strong expectation that public services will be straightforward to access, convenient and effective.
Here at Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, we lead the Public Service in setting ambitious goals and delivering improved outcomes and services for New Zealanders.
We also help build the Public Service so that it can achieve the Government’s programme and provide improved public services.
Every 3 years, we review our strategic intentions in accordance with the Public Finance Act 1989, ensuring its information is consistent with the policies and performance expectations of the Government.
The following is an excerpt from our Strategic Intentions 2024-2028.
Tō mātou ahunga rautaki Our strategic direction
Our vision is for a leading edge, unified, trusted Public Service that serves Aotearoa New Zealand and its people.
Our strategic intentions to deliver on this vision can be summarised as leading the Public Service:
- to achieve better outcomes and improved public services for New Zealanders. A Public Service committed to bringing real tangible improvements in the lives of individuals, whānau, and communities – and public services organised around New Zealanders’ need rather than agency function.
- to maintain and enhance the trust New Zealanders have in public services. It is vital that New Zealanders see the Public Service as legitimate. A system that acts constitutionally and ethically will engender public trust. This ‘licence to operate’ requires strong connections between the Public Service and New Zealand’s communities, cultures, and traditions – including our democratic and constitutional heritage. It requires a very high standard of Public Service behaviour and operations. It also requires public servant conduct in day-to-day interactions with the public to be grounded in a common spirit of service to the community.
The Commission will build Public Service capability and lead the change process to ensure that the Public Service is unified around a common spirit of service, principles and values, and able to work as a single system in the service of New Zealand and New Zealanders.
Specifically, we will lead the Public Service to perform for New Zealand, by:
- Activating the Public Service around priorities.
- Driving efficiency and fiscal consolidation.
- Focusing on capability and performance.
Driving System Performance
Action across the 3 areas outlined above will increase the Commission’s role and impact in driving performance of the Public Service system. The 3 focus areas are mutually reinforcing and are designed to secure a sustainable lift in system performance into the future.
The potential of the Public Service will be activated and focused by organising around the government’s targets and other expectations. Driving efficiency and fiscal consolidation will ensure that the resources of agencies are better and more productively focused. An ongoing focus on chief executive and agency performance, including through chief executive performance management and Performance Improvement Reviews, will ensure focused and effective leadership.
The Commission’s levers for driving performance at the chief executive and agency level are discussed further under 'Our work'. The Commission will also continue to collect information and report on performance at the system level, including through key stewardship reports such as the 3-yearly State of the Public Service briefing.
Activating the Public Service around priorities
New Zealanders expect the Government to take leadership on critical issues to deliver outcomes for customers, clients, citizens, whānau and communities. These issues are often complex and pressing, and span multiple areas.
Government has committed to setting clear priorities for public services, along with clear performance objectives and measures. The Public Service has expertise in ensuring that objectives are reliable and set the right incentives. The Commission’s job is to ensure that the Public Service brings that expertise to bear in support of achieving government priorities.
Government priorities will be reflected as clear and measurable objectives in chief executive performance expectations and in performance reviews.
It is vital that agencies’ strategies align where necessary, and that agencies are organised around cross-cutting goals of government. To this end, use can be made of tools such as Interdepartmental Executive Boards to organise agencies around the big issues that government wants to address. The role of the Commission is to advise government on the use of these tools, and to ensure excellent implementation and oversight of their operation.
Driving efficiency and fiscal consolidation
Strong fiscal responsibility is crucial to maintaining public trust, and delivering better outcomes and services from the resources available to the Public Service. There is a need to improve workforce efficiency and to ensure that agencies are identifying opportunities to reprioritise resources to better effect.
It is the role of the Commission, both singly and in conjunction with the Treasury and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the central agencies), to support the Public Service to rise to the challenge. This incudes supporting agencies to develop the necessary financial and planning capability.
Key supports for reprioritsation and greater efficiency include robust workforce data, and the development of upgraded financial and strategic capability in agencies.
There is also scope for greater efficiencies from coordination and alignment of common business functions across the Public Service.
Focusing on capability and performance
Chief executives of Public Service agencies, and the chairs, boards, and chief executives of Crown entities all need clear and meaningful performance objectives.
More can be done to ensure that these reflect the priorities of government including through expectations tailored to individual chief executives, and expectations reflecting the general operation of government such as quality of financial management.
A single view of agency capability and performance is needed: to this end a common view among the three central agencies is needed, as is a programme of core agency reviews. Performance of the Crown entity sector can be enhanced by the same mechanisms and by upgrading systems for board appointments, expectation setting, and monitoring.
