The Department of Education, Skills and Employment and Services Australia have each taken out two of the 12 finalist spots in the 2020 Public Sector Innovation Awards.
This year the awards received 44 nominations from across the Australian Public Service, which have been whittled down to four finalists in each of the three categories: citizen-centred innovation, culture and capability, and digital and data.
The finalists will produce a five-minute video pitch which will be presented to a panel of judges on July 21. The winners will be announced at an award ceremony in late July, at the close of Innovation Month.
The Institute of Public Administration Australia and the Public Sector Innovation Network have partnered to run the awards, with the support of EY.
See the full list of finalists below.
Citizen-centred innovation
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment, for its Regional University Centres Program. The initiative gives students the option to remain in their regional or remote community while undertaking their course online in a “fully supported ‘campus-like’ environment”.
The Department of Health, for its dementia in the community project, which uses a “human-centred design approach to understand the needs of people living with dementia and co-design cross-jurisdictional policy supports”.
Services Australia, for delivering a streamlined digital JobSeeker claim experience. The agency has also taken a spot in this category for its Medicare Online Account Redevelopment project.
Culture and capability
The Australian Taxation Office, for its Single Touch Payroll system.
The Australian Trade and Investment Commission, for AustradeNEXT, a digital-based initiative which helps to develop the pipeline of women to senior leadership roles.
The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, for its foresight to develop a suite of products that have helped the department “better understand the long-term impacts of COVID-19, plan for strategic risks and opportunities, and build futures literacy across the organisation”.
The Department of Parliamentary Services, for Classified, its innovative cyber security awareness program.
Digital and data
The Bureau of Meteorology, for using climate and land forecasts to develop a new methodology which water utility agencies can use to better manage pipe failures.
The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, for innovations with 3D x-ray technology that can be used to identify biosecurity risks at the Australian border.
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment, for developing and rolling out a mechanism to deliver wage assistance to around 70,000 small businesses across Australia, which has supported apprentices and trainees.
The Digital Transformation Agency, for notify.gov.au, an “integrated digital notifications platform that allows for secure, timely and accessible communications” between federal agencies and the public.
Read more: Quick win: DTA shows how it’s done with open-source notification platform
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