Case Studies By Service Area
Evaluation and Research
Enhancing Crown entity performance through more effective monitoring
The Scope
The Treasury and State Services Commission asked MartinJenkins to review the Crown entity monitoring policies and practices of nine government departments. The aim of the review was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current monitoring practices and to recommend areas for improvement.
Crown entities deliver many important public goods and services and their performance is central to the achievement of a wide range of social and economic outcomes. Government departments play a critical role in assisting Ministers to carry out their responsibilities in steering Crown entities and monitoring their performance.
Our Involvement
MartinJenkins Director, Nick Davis, led a team of senior consultants (Alan Barker, Ben Bush and Nicky Hunn) in the review of departments’ Crown entity monitoring practices. Our involvement included designing the self-evaluation framework and methodology and working with departments to implement that approach. Alan, Ben and Nicky produced review reports for each participating agency and Nick wrote an overview report summarising the system-wide findings
The Outcome
The reviews represent the first stage in an ongoing project aimed at ensuring government departments have robust monitoring arrangements in place. Participating agencies have subsequently used the information in the reviews as a foundation for proposals to improve their monitoring practices. The lessons learned from this review are a source of information that has and will continue to be used by central agencies when considering possible system-wide improvements to the monitoring practices of departments.
The MartinJenkins Difference
This project required a strongly independent and analytical review approach, coupled with excellent project management skills given the tight timeframe and budget. The resulting reports attracted significant interest in the public sector and are being used to shape thinking at both departmental and system-wide levels.
We were able to “hit the ground running” given our track record of assisting organisations to implement outcomes-based management approaches and extensive experience advising on public sector management. A number of our consultants have direct recent experience in Crown entity monitoring.
