A decade of digital abrasion: Our submission to the Review of the Australian Public Service

What will the Australian Public Service look like in 2030?

What capabilities will it need? What skills will be required of those that make up its ranks?

And what will be the challenges that they face as they aim to provide first-class services for the Australian people?

These questions and more are being asked around Canberra as the Thodey Review into the Australian Public Service gains steam.

Headed by former Telstra Chairman (and current CSIRO Chair) David Thodey, it is the most comprehensive review of the APS in four decades.

The team led by Mr Thodey has been asked to produce “an ambitious program of transformational reforms to ensure the APS is fit-for-purpose for the coming decades, and to guide and accelerate future reform activities”.

ThinkPlace is well-situated to have its say about this very important area of discussion.

As a trusted ally of government departments and public sector leaders we have helped progress design thinking and human-centred design principles within the APS.

We have worked with clients as diverse as the Department of Finance, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Jobs and Small Business but we've also helped unlock innovation, drivern digital and organisational transformations and co-designed successful projects with Government instrumentalities like the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and CSIRO.

You can read and download ThinkPlace's official submission by clicking on the cover image below.

thinkplace_submission_-_aps_review_v1.0_002.pdf

Written by Partners John Body, Nina Terry and Darren Menachemson it foreshadows a future APS that has pivoted to face a period of "digital abrasion".

But while much will have changed, ThinkPlace Founding Partner John Body argues, one immutable fact of APS life will remain as important as ever.

"Techniques and technologies might come and go," the submission says.

"But the need to achieve outcomes for Australia and Australians is enduring. It will not change and the APS of the future must never lose sight of its primary purpose - to work with the government of the day to achieve their outcomes for the people of Australia."