Chapter 4 - Capability and risks

“Ka tika katoa mai a muri, ka t-u rangatira t-atou i mua”

The Ministry of Education works with government, the sector, families and communities and key stakeholders to develop and implement education strategies and priorities.

Capability: the way we work

The Ministry of Education works with government, the sector, families and communities and key stakeholders to develop and implement education strategies and priorities.

In doing this, we want to be known for the high quality of our:

• leadership
• analysis, planning and implementation
• focus on results and what matters
• service provision and responsiveness
• communication and stakeholder relationships
• commitment to public sector values.

Over the last 18 months, the ministry’s Organisational Development Programme (ODP) has put in place a process of change within the organisation which will shape work programmes in these key areas.

This work underpins our commitment to achieving the Development Goals for the State Services. Particular areas of focus include the goals: Employer of Choice, Excellent State Servants and Accessible State Services.

Leadership

The Ministry of Education must continue to be a facilitator for improvement in education, but it also has a strategic role to ensure: government strategies are clear and understood; priorities are given maximum impact; desired education outcomes are achieved; and the education system works for all.

To build leadership, we want to ensure our strategies:

• are focused on outcomes, are evidence-based and coherent, with clear priorities and targets
• outline clear responsibilities and accountabilities
• are monitored, evaluated and improved.

And we will:

• work across government to achieve shared outcomes
• further embed the realignment of the ministry’s new groups for greater coherence
• strengthen ministry governance structures and processes
• develop the leadership skills and behaviours of our managers and staff through professional development, training and coaching. This includes active commitment to the Leadership Development Centre and its programmes.

Analysis, planning and implementation

The ministry needs to continue to improve its abilities to effectively plan, communicate and implement policy and change.

This is affected by the quality of other factors such as: our use of evidence, evaluation and knowledge to ensure organisational learning; our change management, project management, communication, impact assessment, risk assessment and evaluation; and the ways we involve our stakeholders in the formation of our strategies, policies and implementation.

Recent work in this area has included developing the Special Education Action Plan: Better Outcomes for Children, including a key stream of work on Outcomes, Evidence and Monitoring, as well as making progress on the Evaluation Strategy and the sector indicators programme, including the publicly accessible website, Education Counts.

To further improve the quality of our analysis, planning and implementation we will be:

• strengthening knowledge management systems, including implementing a new electronic document management system across the ministry
• strengthening our training in the use of implementation and planning methodologies
• reviewing and strengthening ministry policy and strategy development processes
• introducing new training and development for our policy staff
• building stronger processes for integrating the knowledge and experience of our regional staff into policy development
• continuing to develop and use evaluation across the organisation
• applying the findings of the ministry’s Best Evidence Synthesis programme.

Focusing on education and results

The ministry must be focused on the results that really matter. This means clearly setting and communicating key outcomes and priorities, being held accountable for our part in delivering them and, where appropriate, holding others to account for the parts they play.

We will be working to support a stronger results-focused culture, aligned with the State Services development goal: Excellent State Servants. This will involve strategy development and business planning processes that develop clear priorities, as well as setting targets and measuring strategies against progress indicators. We will also be focusing on management processes that set clear results to be achieved, and monitor and review results.

Service provision and responsiveness

The ministry provides a wide range of services to the government, education providers, students, teachers, families, whānau and communities. These include:

• specialist education services
• resources and payments
• ministerial services
• advice and support
• targeted interventions in schools and early childhood education centres
• information.

For this, the ministry needs to be accurate, responsive and client-focused. We need to build the practice and reputation of the ministry as an efficient and effective service provider. Developing our capability in these areas will support the State Services development goal: Accessible State Services.

To further raise the quality of our services and responsiveness, we will review service standards for key areas and make sure we meet them. We will also work with new performance measures, as part of the ministry’s redeveloped output plan.

Stakeholder relationships and communication

The ministry needs to work in partnership with, and be accessible to, many stakeholder groups in the education sector, across government and in the community. Work here most closely aligns with the State Services development goals: Accessible State Services and Coordinated State Agencies.

We must respect and manage our key relationships by understanding what matters to our stakeholders, their views, issues and the distinctive contributions they can make. We want to build effective long-term relationships by communicating clearly and being open and honest, to ensure stakeholder involvement and input into ministry thinking and planning.

We will continue to develop a stronger understanding of stakeholder views through:

• collation and analysis of stakeholder research and feedback
• providing communication and client service training for relevant ministry staff
• developing and delivering training in the use of plain English
• working with stakeholders early in the development of strategies and implementation/delivery planning
• integrated planning of initiatives both across the ministry and across government
• improving the ministry’s communications.

Commitment to public sector values

The ministry has an obligation to ensure that public sector values are well understood and that there is a strong commitment to high standards of behaviour in our role as public servants. We are committed to increasing trust and confidence in the ministry and in the public sector, in line with the State Services development goal of Trusted State Services.

To build further our commitment to public sector values we will be reviewing our code of conduct, particularly around managing conflicts of interest, and ensuring we make best use of induction and other opportunities to improve understanding of expected behaviours.

People and culture

Strengthening our capabilities will require some significant shifts for ministry people and in ministry culture. Work in this area is closely related to the Employer of Choice and Excellent State Servants development goals for the State Services.

We know we have very passionate and committed people. Our challenge is to develop and support them to ensure we can deliver on what we stand for, fulfil our leadership role, and build a great place to work.

A significant focus of the Organisational Development Programme (ODP) has been on the ‘valuing our people’ work stream. This has included:

• re-working and simplifying the performance management system, including more consistent and focused training and support for managers
• revising our induction processes
• developing with the Public Service Association (PSA) the ‘Valuing our People Indicators’ as a guide to staff and managers on how the ODP may affect day-to-day operations and interactions.

We have also looked to build on the Relationship Agreement between the ministry, New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) and the PSA, providing a number of forums whereby the ministry and unions can engage at all levels.

The Relationship Agreement and the signing of the Partnership for Quality Agreement between the government, State Services Commissioner and PSA will guide the continuing development of the relationship between the ministry and PSA.

The ministry, NZEI and PSA, with assistance from the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit, will conclude the joint review of pay and employment equity for women and develop and implement a response plan.

In addition, we will be looking to:

• enhance internal communications and processes to engage staff, for example, using engagement surveys, feedback and discussion forums and union engagements
• complete and implement the ministry’s Learning and Development Strategy
• ensure the public sector values and those of the ministry are clear and communicated (for example, in induction, training, team meetings, business planning and through awards) and reinforced by management behaviour and attitudes, through performance management and organisational policies and practices.

Leadership of the education agencies and working across government

Achieving our overall aims requires contributions from all six government education agencies. The Secretary for Education has established a leadership group comprised of the chief executives of the six education agencies: Career Services; Education Review Office; Ministry of Education; New Zealand Qualifications Authority; New Zealand Teachers Council; and the Tertiary Education Commission.

This group provides collective strategic leadership in areas contributing to improved performance and transformation of the system overall. Elements of this leadership include:

• aligning understanding of the inter-relationship of education priorities with wider government themes
• setting direction and outcomes within a shared framework for the education system
• overall education system performance monitoring
• education sector risk identification and management
• coordination of the infrastructure supporting the six agencies including information and communication technologies (ICT), human resource capability dimensions, Budget processes, and communication.

These activities ensure that key sector priorities and risks are identified, that statements of intent are aligned, that each agency is clear about the expectations of its own performance and how it will be measured, and that risks are identified and well managed.

The education agencies are increasingly moving to align their outcomes under a shared framework. This framework establishes broader outcomes for the education system and builds on work done in the last two years to help guide agency planning and alignment. (See Appendix 3 for a diagram of the shared education outcomes framework).

The framework sets the outcomes through which education agencies will deliver on government’s goals and strategies for education. The three outcomes cover achievement, relevance and value for money. For each of these outcomes the critical drivers and key indicators are outlined. This Statement of Intent shows that the ministry is predominantly focused on the achievement outcome, however for each of the three outcomes in the shared framework there is a significant contributing work programme.

In addition to the six agency leadership group, satellite groups may be put in place by the education sector chief executives, or through broader social or government directives, to focus on more specific work areas. Current examples include:

• the sector leadership group comprised of the Ministry of Education, New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Tertiary Education Commission overseeing tertiary issues, including the reform programme
• work on realising youth potential for which the Secretary for Education represents all six education agencies
• HESDJ (Health, Education, Social Development and Justice) chief executives, which is responsible for national issues such as the Families – Young and Old budget, the taskforce on family violence, and local issues such as youth gangs in South Auckland
• the newly formed sustainability forum of the six education agencies that will develop a joint policy and action framework for sector-wide consistency and progress
• the education sector ICT Standing Committee (see following page).

Education Sector Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Standing Committee

Expenditure in ICT across early childhood education services, schools, tertiary education organisations and government agencies represents a significant investment. The Education Sector ICT Standing Committee comprises chief executives of the six education agencies, the National Library of New Zealand, The Correspondence School and the Ministry of Research Science and Technology. It is responsible for driving and overseeing the collaborative development and use of ICT across the education sector by taking a whole-of-sector approach, thereby avoiding duplication of effort and higher compliance costs. A key output of the Standing Committee is the development of the ICT Strategic Framework for Education, to provide the mechanism to guide the sector’s ICT investment towards the government’s vision of better education outcomes.

Equal employment opportunities

The Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Plan aims to ensure that any barriers for staff who identify as differently-abled are identified and removed, and that the ministry’s capability and practice reflect the needs of this group and of our clients. It also seeks to match the ministry’s workforce with the diversity of the communities with whom we work, to help us achieve better educational outcomes for all.

The EEO plan is an active and visible part of all Human Resources (HR) strategy and all HR systems, and practices are non-discriminatory.

The ministry also aims to support broader government EEO strategies, such as the New Zealand Disability Strategy, the New Zealand Sign Language Act, the Pay and Employment Equity Review, Career Progression, Effectiveness for Māori Strategy and Pasifika Strategy.

In accordance with the government’s Pay and Employment Equity Plan of Action, we are reviewing pay and employment equity for women in the ministry. The review is being undertaken with the NZEI and PSA, ministry staff representatives and with assistance from the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit, and the State Services Commission.

Measuring our organisational health and capability

The ministry will continue to improve existing approaches to assess its organisational health and capability including:

• undertaking a baseline staff engagement survey
  during 2007
• systematic collation and analysis of current stakeholder research/feedback
• development and use of new/targeted stakeholder research/feedback
• analysis of key HR data over time
• internal analysis and assessment of key capability dimensions
• benchmarking data with other government departments where possible.

We will continue to report on staff numbers, staff turnover, compliance with performance processes and outcomes of employee surveys.

The ministry’s risks

The ministry has identified six broad categories of risk which have the potential to affect the achievement of the outcomes set out in this Statement of Intent. The risks relate to:

• sector relationships and change management
• sector-focused business processes
• ministry-wide business processes
• cross-agency relationships and implementation
• people
• information management and technology.