The Secretaries Board (the Board) is established under section 64 of the Public Service Act 1999, with responsibility for stewardship of the APS, to develop and implement improvement strategies, work collaboratively and model leadership behaviours.
Membership of the current Board comprises the Secretary of each Commonwealth Department of State, the Australian Public Service Commissioner and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA).
The Board appointed Ms Rosemary Huxtable AO PSM in January 2024 to undertake an independent, high level review of the effectiveness of current Board operations and to make findings and recommendations to support its ongoing strategic work. The Terms of Reference for the Review is at Attachment 1.
Methodology
The Review was conducted over January and February 2024 and adopted quantitative and qualitative methods to assess Board effectiveness, including:
- Twenty-two face to face interviews with Board members, members of the Board secretariat and executive in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and key personnel from select Board Sub-committees.
- A review of the minutes of the Board over the period October 2022 to December 2023 and the minutes, membership and terms of reference of Board Sub-committees.
- A scan of previous reviews that have examined the role of the Board and a desk-top analysis of equivalent structures in comparable administrations (New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom).
The Reviewer provided an oral update at the Board meeting of 7 February 2024 and submitted a draft report to the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 27 February 2024. The final report will be considered at the April meeting of the Board.