The NIAA continues to deliver in an environment of constantly changing enterprise, operational, shared and emerging risks. We are committed to maintaining strong processes that align with the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy and section 16 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).
Managing Risk
We have a principles-based and practical approach to risk management. Key to this is understanding the risks we share with our partners as we deliver for First Nations peoples. We are improving our risk monitoring, reporting and management practices. We are also developing staff capability to proactively identify, manage and escalate risk. This will ensure we have the best chance to deliver for First Nations peoples.
A strong risk management culture positions us for successful service delivery and policy development. We are refining our internal controls and governance arrangements to efficiently and effectively manage risk, fraud and non-compliance across the NIAA.
Our approach to managing risk continues to mature. We are integrating, strengthening and embedding our Risk Management Framework and Policy to deliver on our purpose. Our capability is building as we identify and understand emerging risks in the economic, environmental and health domains. This will build our resilience and responsiveness.
How we engage with risk
We recognise that many of our activities are inherently risky. It is not possible or desirable to eliminate all risk. Our operations involve the direct funding of services in regional and remote locations across the country, creating inherent risks in the requirements to travel to and engage with communities in these locations and in supporting a remote workforce. There will always be risks – to people and to our reputation. We need to engage with risk and manage it as best we can to achieve our important outcomes.
We have a greater appetite to engage with risks that aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations, or that will help us achieve important outcomes.
We have less appetite for risk that maintains the status quo, where there are suitable alternate options, or where the potential consequence is one where we have low or no tolerance.
Enterprise Risks and Mitigations
People and capability
Risks |
Mitigation |
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The NIAA is not able to maintain the right capabilities (people, resources, processes, systems and culture) to deliver government objectives.
The NIAA’s investment in and management of its people may not meet short and long- term requirements to achieve its purpose. |
- We have a clear employee value proposition and will have targeted strategies for attraction, recruitment and retention, particularly to increase our Indigenous workforce.
- We continue to implement the NIAA’s Digital Strategy, Data and Information Management Strategy and ICT strategy, focussing on a tailored capability uplift program, including delivering the One Network Project.
- We prioritise building the capability of our staff. This year we will drive targeted activities through the ‘Our People Strategy’, to be launched this year.
- We continue to enhance our human resource management processes to ensure that staff confidently raise claims of misconduct or discrimination, in a trauma informed environment, and that any complaint is dealt with appropriately. We also ensure any identified trends are addressed at a local or Agency level.
- We are committed to strengthening our integrity culture in line with the APS priority reforms, including the capability of our people through dedicated integrity training initiatives.
- We continue to implement the Risk Management Framework to embed a positive risk culture at the NIAA through further education about risk and training staff to apply the Risk Management Framework and Policy.
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Relationships and influence
Risks |
Mitigation |
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The NIAA is not able to maintain credibility with key stakeholders and partners and is unable to collaborate and influence outcomes in support of the organisation’s purpose.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples do not see the NIAA as trusted or reliable. |
- We have a regional presence connecting communities, service providers and state, territory and local governments.
- We actively seek and capture feedback from communities to build relationships and trust.
- We invest in a systematic external stakeholder engagement approach at all levels of the NIAA.
- We maintain a Customer Relationship Management system and support staff to protect personal and sensitive information in accordance with our privacy obligations.
- We are strengthening our capability to collect, use and share data and information to build trust and strategic influence.
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Culture
Risks |
Mitigation |
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The NIAA’s organisational culture may not continue to work towards the unifying power of a One Team approach and leads to limited cohesion and alignment to the NIAA’s purpose. |
- We live our values and behaviours, and support cultural safety.
- We have mature staff networks that are supported by the organisation.
- We are developing a Diversity and Inclusion Framework that outlines how we value and respect our employees’ differences, and to foster a sense of belonging and support.
- We implement the Footprints Cultural Learning Framework to enhance cross- cultural capabilities.
- We implement an internal communications strategy and implementation process to increase information sharing and support a “one team” approach.
- We drive a culture of high performance and accountability through the development of the organisational performance framework, including implementing the Group Performance Review process.
- We monitor our organisation’s culture on an ongoing basis through the APS Employee Census as well as team and individual performance discussions.
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Delivery
Risks |
Mitigation |
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The NIAA’s administrative processes may impact effective and timely delivery of programs and services.
The NIAA’s future sponsored programs are not grounded in evidence and the lived experience of Indigenous communities. |
- We are developing regional and sector strategies to better target our investment to the areas of greatest need and to enhance how we measure performance.
- We continue to adopt a ‘digital first’ approach for enhanced use of information and improved evidence base. This will also improve the internal sharing of information and our ability to detect and respond to further performance and compliance issues.
- We are implementing a project management system (Project Central) for use across the Agency to support our consideration of risk, opportunities and capacity to deliver.
- We are enhancing the Agency’s Integrated Program Compliance and Fraud Framework to further improve our proactive approach to compliance, fraud and corruption, including prevention, early engagement and response.
- We are implementing all recommendations outlined in the ANAO report into the NIAA’s Management of Provider Fraud and Non- compliance.
- This year we will focus on implementing our Engagement Toolkit to support our Agency role as a convener and broker, sharing insights and feedback for better design and implementation of programs.
- We maintain emergency and business continuity policy and processes to respond to and minimise service disruption.
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