Structure of the Department

The department’s structure in 2010-11 was based around the key sectors of Australia’s health and ageing system and several cross portfolio functions. A detailed structure chart is on page 30.

Changes to Structure

During 2010-11, the department underwent a number of divisional alignments to ensure that resources and responsibilities were appropriately distributed to deliver on the Government’s priorities for health and ageing. With the announcement of the Federal Elections in 2010, this also resulted in sports functions being transferred to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as part of the Machinery of Government changes.

The department has worked on additional Government expectations during this period, in particular to implement the COAG Health Reforms. This work has led to growth in programs in the department. It has also led to the creation of a Chief Information and Knowledge Officer at the Deputy Secretary level. There are new technological capabilities being developed to manage various projects across the department. A priority for 2011-12 will be to ensure that these are developed and integrated to avoid duplication through the initiation of strategies and implementation plans for information, knowledge, performance and records management.

The Department’s State and Territory Offices

The department’s state and territory offices represent the organisation’s interests at a local level and ensure appropriate integration of services on the ground with state and territory government agencies. The state and territory offices also work in cooperation with other Australian Government agencies.

Realignment of functions within the ACT region resulted in a new New South Wales and ACT Office being established in May 2011 with functions of the previous ACT Office being administered from Sydney.

Contact details for each office can be found in Part 6 Contact Details.

Strategic Review of the Health and Ageing Portfolio – Flexible Funds

A Strategic Review of the Health and Ageing Portfolio was commissioned by the Australian Government in early 2010 to ensure that the department is best placed to implement and manage the Australian Government’s health reform agenda, and to respond to current and emerging health and ageing challenges.

A key feature of the review was the consolidation of 159 mostly small and complex programs into 18 large flexible Funds. The flexible funding pools will improve the department’s ability to manage grants and other programs, reduce red tape and increase flexibility and evidence based funding for the delivery of better health outcomes for the community. Bringing together the programs into large funding pools will increase funding opportunities for applicants, but also increase the number of applicants seeking funding from one source, improving the quality of applications and consistency of merit between funded projects.

The 18 new flexible Funds are:

Chronic Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Fund.
Communicable Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund.
Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund.
Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund.
Health Social Surveys Fund.
Aged Care Workforce Fund.
Aged Care Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants Fund.
Single Point of Contact for Health Information, Advice and Counselling Fund.
Regionally tailored primary care initiatives through Medicare Locals Fund.
Practice Incentives for General Practices Fund.
Rural Health Outreach Fund.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Chronic Disease Fund.
Health System Capacity Development Fund.
Health Surveillance Fund.
Quality Use of Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Pathology Fund.
Health Workforce Fund.
Indemnity Insurance Fund.
Health Protection Fund.

Information on the programs that have been consolidated to form the flexible Funds is available at: www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/budget2011-flexfunds.htm.

The flexible funding pools will streamline grant funding processes for stakeholders, reducing the administrative burden, which will allow service providers to focus on service delivery.

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