Welcome to Module 5 – Contestable Government – Ensuring that government services are appropriate, targeted and sustainable.

This unit – ‘Managing Outwards in a Networked Government’ explores the complex system of changing relationships between government and other sectors.

We have considered networked government arrangements responding to new service environments for citizens, clients and stakeholders. We have explored strength-based approaches to collaboration and complex and contested policy environments.

Module 5 – Contestable Government – focuses on strategic assessment of government services; understanding changing systems, markets and communities of practice to enable government service delivery and considering options for innovative and alternative service delivery models, utilizing big data tools and artificial intelligence.

Consider the implications of AI changing jobs – 20-50% of ALL jobs… for example, truck driving, lawyers, hospitality workers, doctors – How might public sector jobs be changed?

What insights do you have about adaptive machine learning, predictive analytics and the implications for your work environment, your career and your life?

Building on previous modules regarding the dynamic system and changing stakeholder relationships between government, citizens and other sectors, Module 5 focuses on questions about service delivery – for example:

• Are government services appropriate, targeted and sustainable?
• Are there opportunities for review, rethinking and innovation?
• Is government best positioned to deliver a service or is someone else?
• How may competition or artificial intelligence improve service outcomes?
• How may collaboration improve service outcomes?
• How productive is our service model, compared to what?

As managers, thinking about the services you provide, or manage the provision of, it is likely you would regularly assess the effectiveness of your service model.

One of the key drivers for a whole-of-service review of public sector productivity in recent times has been economic. Audit commission reports have identified the need to reduce the cost of government services and to transform the way in which government interacts with the market through its commissioning and strategic procurement roles.

An example of a whole-of-system transformation is the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) – motivated by principles of control and choice, people eligible for disability services will access their services from the market of providers.

As we progress through this module, please try to apply the concepts and some of the tools to your local service system i.e. challenge the notion of ‘business as usual’.

First, we will consider working definitions of Contestability, Commissioning and Strategic Procurement. We’ll consider the impacts of contestability on our understandings of the diverse roles of government and open ourselves up to challenging the status quo.

We will then:

• consider opportunities (costs and benefits) for services to undergo a contestability test
• investigate the market to understand the system of current and potential providers
• identify possible options and alternative models, including process redesign and digital disruption possibilities, to enable improved services
• map the improved service model to achieve the benefits.