A Question of Balance: Reflections on the Public Sector

This paper overviews the literature on multi-agency approaches to delivering government services, arguing the need to appraise the risks and costs as well as the benefits of whole of government approaches.

This paper has been written by Tim Farland, Convenor, Integrated Services Special Interest Group, NSW IPAA and published with his permission..

“There is no silver bullet for successful multi-agency work. Given the variable definition and scope of whole of government activity and the potential associated risks and costs, it is prudent to base any adopting of joined-up working on rigorous analysis and design”. Tim Farland

There is now a growing body of contemporary literature and research that is taking an analytic and discerning view of the efficacy of whole of government approaches. This means it must be more effective at achieving/contributing to an outcome than any intervention an agency could make on its own.

Farland argues that whole of government aspirations should not be at the expense of the inherent strengths of individual departments.

He offers a framework to assess the viability of multi-agency initiatives. This approach maintains that the framing of sustainable and effective services is contingent on the presence and alignment of the following factors:

1. A clear ministerial and corporate mandate and policy base
2. Measurable objectives and results
3. Appropriate capacity and resources (budget, people, IT)
4. Delivery of citizen-centred services.

Farland sees the ongoing challenge for the Australian public sector across all jurisdictions as to:

1) enhance the valuable and specific functions of Departments

2) craft sustainable “high yield” multi-agency responses to major cross-cutting social, economic and environmental issues.

Follow this link to download free 'Acrobat Reader from Adobe'. You will need it to open PDF files.