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

Communities of PracticeOther strategies previously recommended in accord with other public sector reform efforts,include establishment of communities of practice to build and maintain core technicalexpertise, forge links across the service and ensure dissemination of leading practice.AGRAGA recommended communities of practice in the areas of strategic policy andimplementation while the South Australian Performance Commission has adopted a “Headsof Professions” (HoP) program to allow executives to maintain a core network of technicalexpertise in disciplines such as economics, planning, science and innovation, medicalsciences, engineering and education. 335ACTPS Chief Executives previously expressed some reservations about the momentum, formand operation of ‘informal’ networks and instead canvassed a time limited and formalapproach. A number of these communities of practice are already in operation across theACTPS:• Shared Services operates a Return to Work Coordinators network for staff responsible forassisting ACT Government injured workers return to work. This unfunded networkdemonstrates that leading practice can be effectively modeled at officer as well asmanager and executive levels;• participants in the centrally sponsored leadership programs have continued to meet intheir leadership cohorts to discuss new ways of working and proposals to improve thecapacity, capability and effectiveness of the ACTPS. One such group provided acomprehensive proposal to this Review on the ‘no wrong door approach’ that has flowedthrough to the recommendations in Chapter 4;• the Community of Practice Policy Group was instigated in September 2009 by aDepartment of Education (DET) staff member who identified the need to establish betterpractice operational policy development among policy staff within DET. The focus of thegroup was to share understandings of operational policy design, development andmanagement. Over time the group has grown to include officers from other elements ofthe ACTPS and more recently the group has come under the auspices of the current HRCouncil in order to provide an appropriate governance framework to the groups’ work;and• the ACTPS Young Professionals’ Network (YPN) was established under the Attractionand Retention Framework as a means of providing professional developmentopportunities for ACTPS staff aged 35 and under and, in turn contributes to buildingorganisational capability now and into the future. YPN’s activities include training andskills development seminars; engagement events with current issues, knowledge sharing;and networking with fellow young professionals and senior ACTPS staff.335 South Australian Performance Commission (2010).Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 257