Page 4065 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 23 October 2018
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I am also pleased to report that the director-general is leading a body of work focused on improving the management of complaints and concerns to ensure that all staff can have trust in our processes and systems. This work has involved the development of a number of strategies and actions to provide alternative avenues for staff to raise concerns and to shift the focus of complaint and misconduct processes to early intervention and alternative dispute resolution. This work includes the introduction of an employee advocate, modifying existing preliminary assessment processes and establishing an external and trusted avenue for employees of ACT Health and Canberra Health Services to raise issues on bullying or other matters.
The establishment of an employee advocate is just one practical way that these organisations will provide staff with another avenue, beyond those already available, to have their issues or concerns addressed and resolved in an appropriate and timely manner. The advocate will be able to advise staff on the options available to them and give them guidance on what a complaints process would entail. This resource will be available for all employees to directly raise issues and also to refer cases to the appropriate avenue for action. The employee advocate will be central to encouraging the early resolution of matters wherever possible and, most importantly, providing staff with support in a timely way.
We will also soon commence a new workplace culture survey for our two health organisations. The anticipated time frame for the surveys is March 2019, subject to finalising the organisational structures for both organisations. This will be an important process for staff to have their say on what has improved over the past year and where we can continue to focus our efforts. Of course, the findings and recommendations of the independent review into workplace culture within ACT public health services, announced on 10 September 2018, will also help inform the content of the surveys.
I would also like to quickly take the opportunity now to update the Assembly on the independent review, which will build on the initiatives that I have just outlined to improve the workplace culture within our public health organisations. It will be a formal mechanism that will provide clear direction to the Director-General of Health, the CEO of Canberra Health Services and both the Minister for Mental Health and me as we continue to take healthcare forward in a strong and positive way.
I would like to formally table the terms of reference for the review, which I publicly released on 21 September when I also announced the three-member independent panel appointed to lead the review. I present the following paper:
Workplace Culture within ACT Public Health Services—Independent review—Terms of reference, dated 23 October 2018.
The independent panel has commenced its work and since the panel was announced a number of developments have occurred. Secretariat support and a review office have been established, with the secretariat staff drawn from across the ACT and commonwealth public services, so that ACT Health staff can have confidence in the integrity and independence of the process. A public web page for the review has also
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