Overall, the NSW Police Force’s approach to managing injured officers since 2006 is appropriate, focusing on notification and early intervention and the development of successful return to work plans. Early intervention and return to work are the key factors in successfully managing injured officers and reducing the cost of workplace injuries. The Force has not done this well in the past. Through the establishment of the safety command, the Force has built a framework for managing injured officers that should optimise early return to work.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #184 - released 10 December 2008

During the course of the audit we were impressed by the dedication and efforts of teachers in NSW public schools, particularly when dealing with the needs of students with learning difficulties. Although NSW schools perform well nationally and internationally, NSW has a high concentration of poor outcomes in some schools and some regions. Each year a group of between 5 and 15 per cent of children are at risk of not reaching the minimum level of achievement needed to progress at school. In this group, indigenous students are over represented.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #183 - released 22 October 2008

In NSW alcohol-related assaults have almost doubled over the last ten years. In 2006-07 there were 20,475 alcohol-related assaults excluding domestic violence incidents, up from 10,305 in 1997-98. In fact, the number of these assaults is increasing at a faster rate than total assaults. Incidences of alcohol-related malicious damage and offensive conduct have also increased, rising by 87 and 70 per cent respectively. Working with hotels and clubs to reduce alcohol-related crime, however we found that the number of alcohol-related assaults has reduced or stabilised in the last two years in about 14 per cent of Police local area commands.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #179 - released 23 April 2008

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) prosecutes the most serious criminal cases on behalf of the people of New South Wales. The ODPP says it is efficient. We acknowledge that the ODPP has many skilful and committed staff who work very hard to achieve good results for the people of NSW. It could not, however, provide sufficient evidence for us to reach a conclusion on its efficiency. We also identified some significant opportunities for the ODPP to improve its management practices.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #177 - released 26 March 2008

The Department of Education and Training including TAFE NSW is faced with the loss of large numbers of retiring teachers and their associated skills and the need to replace this loss in an increasingly competitive labour environment. While the overall impact of the ageing workforce is likely to be gradual, there is still a risk of shortages. This will particularly apply to specialist secondary school teachers and TAFE teachers in certain skill sets or at specific locations.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #174 - released 13 February 2008

We believe that school reports are an excellent concept. However, in their present form they are not an effective means of holding a school accountable. Successive performance audits by our Office have identified significant shortcomings in the reports. This is not so much the fault of the schools. The reporting content is largely optional. There is limited opportunity to compare performance. And the highly restrictive reporting protocols lead to reports which are not able to release important and relevant information.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #126 - released 15 September 2004

In our view, the agencies we studied cannot be sure that the grants they allocate align with their corporate objectives, and that program outcomes are achieved. This is mainly due to problems with grant selection and the evaluation of results. It was good to see that most of the grants programs had funding objectives which were fairly clear. But we found problems across most programs which could affect the fair and equitable selection of grants, such as, often no procedures for assessing applications, no assessment guidelines for advisory committees, often no clear rationale for assessments and poor documentation of the reasons for decisions.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #104 - released 4 December 2002

The NSW Police and Department of Corrective Services (DCS) have committed to improve performance and productivity in their organisations. Both agencies have introduced several initiatives to promote the health, safety and welfare of their personnel. In addition the DCS policy provides for acknowledgements and sanctions based on the amount of medically uncertified leave taken by the employee. There are additional steps that could be taken to improve the management of sick leave.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #100 - released 23 July 2002