Looking Behind the Rhetoric – Addressing the Benefits, Costs & Risks of a Whole-of-Government Approach to Community Engagement with Rigorous Design & Review

Farland T¹*

1. NSW Premier’s Department, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Whole of government modes of addressing challenging community issues would seem appropriate in a country like Australia with its 634 governments (Federal, State and Local), nine State and Territory public sectors and 625 local councils.

Whole of government solutions to pressing social, economic and environmental issues has been an elusive goal of most OECD jurisdictions for at least the past decade.

There is no silver bullet for successful “joined-up” or multi-agency work. Given the variable definition and scope of whole of government activity and the potential associated risks and costs, it is prudent to base any adopting of joined-up working on rigorous analysis and design.

In this session Tim will discuss:

1. Critiquing the pervasive rhetoric of the “joined-up” genre: collaboration, integration, cross-cutting or joined-up
2. Assessing the specific community benefits, costs and risks of particular approaches
3. Identifying the strengths and limitations of multi-stakeholder service delivery and issues management
4. Exploring a design and review tool to assist with the framing of sustainable and results-based community-centric services