Page 1242 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children, Youth and Families and Minister for Health) (2.54): Members will recall that in tabling the government response to the final report of the independent review into the workplace culture within the ACT public health services, known as the culture review, a commitment was made to provide members of the ACT Legislative Assembly with regular updates on progress made. To date, three biannual updates have been provided—in March and September 2019 and April 2020.
In my statement in April I noted that Mr Mick Reid, of Michael Reid and Associates, had been commissioned to undertake the first annual independent review of the implementation and impact of the culture review, in line with recommendation 19. This recommendation was that the culture review oversight group auspice, for the next three years, an annual independent and external review of the extent of the implementation of the recommendations of the review and consequent impact on cultural changes within ACT public health services.
The scope of the terms of reference of this inaugural review was considered and agreed by the culture review oversight group. The review was to examine and make findings and recommendations in relation to the following: record any changes or amendments to the recommendations of the independent review of a not insubstantial nature and the reasons for making such changes or amendments; the extent of the progress made with the culture review implementation process against the original plans outlined in the final report; the impact on the workforce culture of the changes introduced to date; and the effectiveness of the initiation and planning phase of the cultural review process undertaken, including what has worked well and why, and has there been any early impact, what has not worked well and why, and has there been any impact, what may, therefore, need to change or be improved, what has been learned so far, and how can these insights and experiences be leveraged to improve the process and outcomes/impact of the culture review implementation process.
Mr Reid was the chair of the independent panel that undertook the culture review and so was well placed to undertake the first annual review of its implementation. The culture review oversight group agreed that, as the implementation of the final report had only been in progress for 12 months at the time of commencing the inaugural review, the review would occur by a desktop review of the documentation produced as part of the culture review implementation process, and interviews with members of both the oversight group and the cultural review implementation steering group and other nominated key stakeholders. However, it was acknowledged that the second annual external review next year will require a more comprehensive review of the perspectives of cultural change from a broader base of staff, including members from the clinical and administrative areas, and members of the community.
The inaugural annual review addresses four areas. These are: assessment of the governance framework to oversight implementation; assessment of the progress on the recommendation to the review; review of the evidence of the impact on culture; and recommendations for the next phase of the implementation. In summary, Mr Reid found that, given the limited time frames since the commencement of implementation,
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