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Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

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across <strong>the</strong> ACTPS. Significant improvement opportunities were identified in <strong>the</strong> followingareas.The view was expressed that <strong>the</strong> ACTPS currently gives insufficient priority to safety issues<strong>and</strong> support for <strong>the</strong> management <strong>and</strong> early return to work of injured workers. It was argued<strong>the</strong>re is also a lack of line manager/supervisor <strong>and</strong> senior management visibility of, <strong>and</strong>accountability for, injury prevention <strong>and</strong> management.There are significant variations in <strong>the</strong> skills <strong>and</strong> capabilities of line managers/supervisors <strong>and</strong>key injury management personnel across <strong>the</strong> ACTPS to manage <strong>and</strong> support <strong>the</strong> return towork of injured workers.There are inconsistent approaches to <strong>the</strong> management of injured workers being implementedacross <strong>the</strong> ACTPS. The inability to identify, provide, <strong>and</strong> fund <strong>the</strong> placement of an injuredworker in suitable alternative duties in circumstances where <strong>the</strong>y are unable to return to <strong>the</strong>irpre-injury position ei<strong>the</strong>r on a temporary or permanent basis is a significant barrier to returnto work. There is also no formalised whole of government governance arrangementoverseeing workers’ compensation disputation <strong>and</strong> litigation.Structure, Roles <strong>and</strong> ResponsibilitiesThe ACTPS has a fragmented model of injury prevention <strong>and</strong> management. Elements ofresponsibility for <strong>the</strong> overall injury prevention <strong>and</strong> management function in <strong>the</strong> ACTPS arecurrently spread between CMD, Shared Services <strong>and</strong> individual agencies with, in most cases,a separation between <strong>the</strong> responsibility for an outcome <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> resources needed to achieve it.The current structural arrangement for injury management does not allow for flexibility instreaming cases to ensure that <strong>the</strong>re is an appropriate match of skills <strong>and</strong> experience of <strong>the</strong>person managing <strong>the</strong> claim to <strong>the</strong> particular circumstances of <strong>the</strong> injured worker. There arealso limited opportunities for career development <strong>and</strong> professional support for injurymanagement staff.Moreover, having injury management teams so closely aligned with o<strong>the</strong>r “human resource”management responsibilities has in many instances created management difficultiesespecially in circumstances where performance <strong>and</strong>/or grievance issues are associated with aclaim for workers compensation benefits.The Review underst<strong>and</strong>s OIR is preparing a detailed improvement plan to arrest this ongoingdeterioration in health <strong>and</strong> social outcomes for ACTPS injured workers. The improvementplan is to be presented to <strong>the</strong> Government soon. Critically, this improvement plan proposesfundamental structural changes to work safety <strong>and</strong> workers’ compensation arrangementswithin <strong>the</strong> ACTPS. The current model is a microcosm of <strong>the</strong> wider ACTPS issues - it isfragmented <strong>and</strong> lacks <strong>the</strong> cohesion <strong>and</strong> collaboration essential to improving injury outcomesfor ACTPS injured workers.Administrative Arrangements Changes: 140

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