WA Health Misconduct Handling Procedures - Corruption and Crime ...

Central to this is the need to communicate the strategy across theorganisation.[43] In recent years DoE has tackled this issue by developing a centrallycontrolled and resourced Standards and Integrity Directorate that formspart of the Professional Standards and Conduct Division. This Divisionanswers directly to the Director General of DoE and has the promotion ofproper conduct and prevention of misconduct as its primary objectives.[44] In WA Health, Corporate Governance is a central unit with some similarresponsibilities. However, its capacity to deliver change is effectivelyblocked by the fact that it has neither the resources nor influence withinWA Health to deliver change on this scale.[45] On the resources front, it compares to DoE as follows:(1) DoE’s Professional Standards and Conduct Division has 32 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions. In similar roles, WA Health’sCorporate Governance Directorate (Ethical Standards) has 17FTE positions (plus three casual FTE positions). 8(2) A sophisticated, on-line case management system has beenimplemented by DoE allowing for greater visibility, accountabilityand oversight of the management of complaints and misconductmatters; the WA Health case management system is in its infancy.(3) DoE’s Professional Standards and Conduct Division has high-levelrepresentation in DoE’s Executive; the same is not true forCorporate Governance in WA Health.(4) Corporate Governance has the added responsibility of providingan audit service for the whole of WA Health.[46] On the influence front, Corporate Governance does not have a voice onSHEF. This is significant because members of SHEF regard themanagement of misconduct as their responsibility, both collectively andindividually within their particular business units or Area Health Services.[47] An alternative to the DoE model is the decentralised model of districtresponsibility, in which district managers take responsibility for this issue.This model is followed by Western Australia Police.[48] At some level this approach is consistent with WA Health’s structure inwhich members of SHEF are responsible for business units or Area HealthServices. Collectively, SHEF does not understand the nature and scopeof the issue, and does not have an individual or collective strategy to dealwith it.[49] This compares with Western Australia Police as follows:(1) all Western Australia Police districts have governance officers (orsimilar), whose role is to oversee the conduct of internalinvestigations and deal with behavioural issues in each district;12