Projects

NSW Education School Services Review

Client.
NSW Department of Education
Services
Review, Leadership

Reviewing role and functions for decentralised services to equip them support the business of the future.

01.
Client issue

The Department of Education’s statewide operations are supported by the School Services Division. School Services provided customer service functions and administrative support across eight functional areas in all NSW regional offices. Our client’s challenge centred on the different business models in use across the state, which made managing workload and assuring quality more difficult. The review happened against a period of changing structures for the Department of Education overall.

02.
Our approach

Our team reviewed the functions and roles of School Services Staff with a focus on collaborative design of future options. Our process included:

  • Interviews with staff in the Division to confirm roles, responsibilities and pain points, including site visits in metro and regional offices to understand the local dynamics
  • Interviews with staff in related units to understand differences in work allocations
  • Data collation and analysis, particularly focused on scope and coverage of different roles
  • Development of a design options paper that examined radically different pathways forward
  • Options/design workshop with the Division Executive
  • Final recommendations.

03.
Result

The data highlighted that there were nine different models for how the support was organised in different regions. Our findings validated the issues for the Division and made recommendations that covered structure, individual roles, and agreements between Divisions including:

  • Clarification of the functions and roles of staff in regional offices, including improving supervision for remote staff
  • Agreement across Divisions of the support provided by staff
  • Adoption of common methods for key functions, supported with training.

04.
Key learnings

  • Having a clear eyed, and independent, perspective brought clarity to an issue that was not well understood before the project. This project clearly identified the organisational problem at the root of the presenting issues. The Department was then able to have an informed debate about options and develop an effective response.
  • There is an inherent tension in having the design of centrally delivered positions and functions tailored to local needs and structures. Local tailoring is necessary. Yet while supporting completely different business models can improve some local services, it also imposes costs and inefficiencies on the organisation overall. Design solutions needed to pay attention to both the central and local drivers.
  • Matrix structures can pose supervision challenges. In this case administrative staff were within the School Services Division, but located in the regional offices they supported. For relatively inexperienced administrative the distance from line supervision contributed to differences in quality and approach. By understanding the business risks arising from that arrangement, the organisation was able to identify an effective response.

“Thank you so much for your work. Your innovative way of solving problems will come in good use across our teams within School Services.”

Customer service and administration executive