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2010-13 Department of Health and Ageing Corporate Plan

Better Health | Better Care | Better Life

Corporate Plan (PDF 1611 KB)

Secretary's Message

Welcome to the 2010-13 Department of Health and Ageing Corporate Plan. The Plan sets the direction for the Department over the next three years.

Our vision is to achieve better health and active ageing for all Australians, and the Plan enables each one of us to align our work with the priorities and goals of the Department for this purpose. It is these goals and priorities which shape our work and provide the ‘line-of-sight’ for each of us as we work for the benefit of the Australian community.

We deliver on our vision through our people, and our values define how we do this and the standards of service we provide. Our people, and the values by which we work, are together our greatest assets. We also deliver on our vision through leading and partnering with others – particularly with other agencies, other governments, and community and other stakeholders. Collaboration is core to our way of doing business.

This triennium will bring new challenges as we work together with the states and territories to implement the Government’s health and hospital reforms. These reforms will bring the largest change to our health, hospitals and aged care system since the introduction of Medicare. The changes will have far reaching impact on the work we do across the Department, particularly in prevention, primary care, acute care, aged care, mental health and workforce. The challenges before the Department in implementing the Government’s health reform agenda are unprecedented. I have every confidence the Department will meet these challenges with the professionalism and readiness to adapt that has marked our history to date.

This Plan provides a compass, a high level guide to our way forward over the 2010-13 triennium. I encourage you to read it together with the strategic directions laid out in the Portfolio Budget Statements, and with the values and performance frameworks set out in the Australian Public Service Values and in the Department’s People Strategy, its Collective Agreement and its Capability Map. Together these documents provide the framework for our daily work. With the needs of the Australian people our central concern, the 2010-13 Corporate Plan will help guide our efforts in maintaining Australia’s health and our care for the aged at world best practice.

Jane Halton PSM
Secretary

Our Vision

What we want to achieve.
Better health and active ageing for all Australians.

Our Goals

The long term objectives we seek.

1. Population Health	Reduced incidence of preventable mortality and morbidity in Australia.
2. Access to Pharmaceutical Services	Reliable, timely and affordable access to cost-effective medicines.
3. Access to Medical Services	Improved access to cost-effective medical, practice nursing and allied health services.
4. Aged Care and Population Ageing	Access to high quality and affordable aged care and carer support services.
5. Primary Care	Access to comprehensive, community-based primary health care.
6. Rural Health	Improved access to health services for people living in rural, regional and remote Australia.
7. Hearing Services	Reduced incidence and consequence of hearing loss.
8. Indigenous Health	Improved health outcomes for Indigenous Australians to help close the gap in life expectancy and child mortality rates.
9. Private Health	A choice in affordable, quality private health care services.
10. Health System Capacity and Quality	Improved long-term capacity, quality and safety of Australia’s health care system.
11. Mental Health	Improved mental health and suicide prevention.
12. Health Workforce Capacity	Improved capacity, quality and mix of the health workforce.
13. Acute Care	Better access to public hospitals, acute care services and public dental services.
14. Biosecurity and Emergency Response	Preparedness to respond to national health emergencies and risks.

These goals reflect the Outcomes the Australian Government has identified for the Department of Health and Ageing. Key strategies for achieving these Outcomes are set out annually in the Health and Ageing Portfolio Budget Statements.

Our Key Priorities

The Department’s key priorities for 2010-13.

• Support the Government in its reform of the health and hospital system, including implementation of the new funding and governance arrangements for hospitals, primary care and aged care.
• Renewed focus on primary health care to better manage the burden of chronic disease and improve access to frontline care in the local community for individuals and families.
• Improve the delivery of health care and early intervention measures to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to help close the gap in life expectancy rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
• Support people living with mental illness, their families and their carers through integrated, effective and evidence-based mental health care.
• Reconfigure health service delivery to achieve better health outcomes for people living in rural and remote communities.
• Improve the capacity of the health workforce through education and training and by expanding the roles of non-medical health professionals.
• Support older Australians with a national health and ageing system responsive to their needs, and improved governance arrangements and reforms.
• Support electronic health reform, through promoting the adoption of measures such as healthcare identifiers and personally controlled electronic health records, to provide the infrastructure to improve health outcomes.

Our Values

What is important to us.

• An apolitical, impartial and professional environment.
• The importance of achieving results for the Government and the community.
• Delivering services to the public fairly, effectively and impartially.
• Transparency, accountability and responsiveness.
• A workplace that is fair and free of discrimination.
• Diversity and equity in employment.
• The highest ethical standards.
• Innovation.
• Respect.

These principles reflect the Australian Public Service Values in the Public Service Act 1999 (section 10) and the Department’s People Strategy.

Our People

What we recognise and encourage as managers, staff and individuals.

• Working by Our Values.
• Taking personal responsibility and doing our best to achieve results.
• Clear and strategic leadership.
• Effective and two-way communication.
• Engagement, collaboration and a willingness to explore new ideas.
• Working diligently, professionally and with a positive attitude.

What we do to deliver performance through Our People.

As a high priority Department in an ever-changing and exciting area of public service,
we recognise the importance of:

• attracting the best people;
• retaining and supporting our people;
• building capability;
• motivating and inspiring;
• empowering and encouraging our people to make decisions; and
• monitoring and measuring for improvement.

Our Performance

How we plan, manage and evaluate our work

In order to provide Australians with an efficient, high quality health system capable of meeting ever-increasing demands, it is vital that we have plans and structures in place to ensure we use the Department’s resources and activities efficiently and effectively.

The Performance Management Framework provides an outline of how we will deliver Our Vision and Goals. The framework guides our planning and resource management, assists us to meet our obligations as an Australian Government agency, and promotes continuous improvement through evaluation.

The Performance Management Framework is a valuable resource, playing a major role in structuring and evaluating the Department’s activities. It demonstrates how we should structure our work with the activities of individuals and teams aligned with the key strategic directions outlined each year in the Portfolio Budget Statements.

The Performance Management Framework provides staff with the systems and tools they need to manage their work effectively.

Performance Management Framework

The following is a text description of the Department of Health and Ageing Performance Management Framework (flow chart), which outlines the Department’s external and internal planning and reporting mechanisms.

The Performance Management Framework is made up of two rows.

The top row is divided into three boxes. The middle box identifies the Department’s key planning tools, all of which are connected in descending order. They are: ‘Government Priorities’, ‘Health and Ageing Outcomes’, ‘Corporate Plan’, ‘Portfolio Budget Statements’, ‘People Strategy’, ‘Divisional Business Plans’, ‘Branch/State Territory/Section/Team Operating Plans’ and ‘Individual Performance Development Scheme’.

The box on the top left represents the external performance evaluation tools utilised by the Department – ‘External Measurement/Reporting Tools’, and ‘Annual Report’ – and the box on the top right represents internal performance evaluation tools – ‘Internal Measurement/Reporting Tools’, and ‘Individual Performance Development Schemes (PDS)’.

The bottom row shows the ‘Tools, Regulations and Strategies in place to guide Our Performance’ with arrows indicating that these feed into the planning and evaluation of the Department’s performance. There are two boxes in this row – the left hand one covers external tools, regulations and strategies, while the right hand one covers internal ones.

The ‘External’ box on the bottom left lists the ‘Public Service Act 1999’, ‘APS Values’, ‘APS Code of Conduct’, ‘Financial Management Framework’ and ‘Program specific legislation’. The ‘Internal’ box on the bottom right lists ‘Governance Committees’, ‘Chief Executive Instructions’, ‘Program Management’, ‘Finance Strategy’, ‘Fraud Control Plan’, ‘Control Self Assessment Tool’, ‘Enterprise Risk Management System’, ‘IT Strategy and Roadmap’, ‘Procedural Rules’, ‘Collective Agreement’, ‘Capability Map’, ‘Environmental Management Plan’, ‘Business Continuity Plan’ and ‘Workplace Diversity Plan’.