Who are we

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Assessing Progress on SAs Strategic Plan
Presentation to the Australasian Evaluation
Society (SA Branch) Wednesday 28 June 2006 By
Tanya Smith Executive Director, Office of the
Executive Committee of Cabinet
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SA Strategic Plan

• 6 objectives, 84 targets, 10 years
• Comprehensive, ambitious and grounded in
  measurable goals
• Aims for deep, enduring change
• in how government thinks and operates
• in governments engagement with and
  responsiveness to community

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First principles
Its about results, not efforts.
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How has it been implemented

• Top-down / centre-out
• Cabinet committee oversight (ExComm)
• Linkage to CE performance agreements
• Bottom-up / outside-in
• Interest groups and other stakeholders
• Boards and advisory councils
• Common denominators
• Alignment and ownership

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How the Audit Committee fits in

• Representatives from five advisory boards
• Operational since August 2004
• Advises ExComm on
• Interpretation, data sources, measures and
  baselines
• Recorded progress/lack of towards targets
• Commitment to 2-yearly public reports
• First to be released 30 June

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Progress score card report

• Independent, spin-free snapshot
• January 2006 cut-off for most data
• Literal interpretation of target achievement
• No comment on strategies provided
• Five categories assigned
• At or better than target level
• On track to achieve in time
• Progress but unlikely to meet
• Little/no/backwards progress
• Unclear data not available/problematic

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The good news

• Strong endorsement of the plan
• Impressive performance towards achieving the
  targets overall
• Good, readable report for the congress
• Explicit recommendations for updating the plan
• Will help with advisory board and wider community
  buy-in

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Further work required

• Target-specific data issues around 19 targets
  categorised as unclear
• Cross-government data issues ad hoc,
  duplication of effort, confidentiality concerns
• Regional data a particular concern
• Wording of targets allows for technical
  successes and failures

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The unclear targets

• No new data available
• Census (e.g. homelessness)
• Source has dried up (e.g. Florida)
• Problems with definitions (e.g. audiovisual
  sector)
• Problems with comparators (e.g.
  cost-effectiveness of public service)
• Theres just no measure yet (e.g. regional
  infrastructure)

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Cross-government data issues

• Lack of coordination
• Duplication of effort (in collection, analysis
  and dissemination)
• Patchiness of coverage (agency-led surveys)
• Uncertain regularity (a lot of one-offs)
• Reluctance to share
• Who knows whos doing what?
• Who says we can have that?

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Regional data

• Very limited
• Very dated
• No consensus on defining regions
• Other localised sources are less reliable or not
  credible

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Wording of targets

• Technical wins/losses Increase investment in
  strategic areas of infrastructure
• Baffling concepts Raise the lowest income of
  South Australians relative to those of the
  average South Australian
• Ambiguous terms Reduce the percentage of South
  Australians who are overweight or obese

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Thoughts for the update

• Get SMART targets which are specific,
  measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound
• Outputs vs. outcomes - consider prioritising
  and/or grouping in appropriate hierarchies
• Include milestones where the target has a long
  timeframe
• Disaggregate data and drill down to regions where
  possible
• Draw on the resources of the ABS and Audit
  Committee

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Thoughts for implementation

• We need to be better at
• Strategic planning
• Project management
• Aligning people to the plan
• Aligning budgets with the plan
• Evaluation
• Trusting and collaborating with the community
• Turning ideas into policy decisions into action

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Back to the good news

• Still the best thing going being copied
  elsewhere
• Is making a difference
• Community is rallying
• Update process will be thorough
• Political commitment still evident
• Were all a lot smarter!

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• www.saplan.org.au