Under the Education Act 1990 the Department of Education is legally required to ensure that every child receives an education of the highest quality. This includes in alternative education settings such as distance education and schools for specific purposes catering for students with emotional or behavioural disturbances, students in youth detention and students in hospital for long periods of time. The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) oversees the program for home schooling registration under delegation from the Minister. 

This audit will assess how well the Department and NESA fulfil their responsibilities to support students to receive a quality education delivered through flexible ways and/ or in alternative settings.

If you have experiences or views on flexible education delivery/alternative education settings, you can share them with the Audit Office. This can be done anonymously if you wish. We will consider all feedback provided as we audit the NSW Department of Education and NESA.  

Please note that the audit mailbox will close COB Friday 28 February 2025. 

You can provide feedback on this audit either through the ‘contribute to this audit’ button in the left hand menu (or the comment icon on top right for mobile) or through this link. 

We may use your feedback to identify key themes, risks or issues which may then be further investigated during the audit. In some instances, we may use extracts of contributions in our audit report as examples of feedback provided where appropriate. If we use extracts of a contribution, we will not identify the source in the report. 

However, please note: 

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. In general, the audit team will look for supporting evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews). Please contact the Department of Education, NESA or the NSW Ombudsman regarding individual matters (details below). 
• We will not share your feedback with any party, including the Department of Education or NESA, nor do we publish feedback on our website. 
• While we will consider all feedback provided, we may not contact you to discuss. 
• We are not able to answer questions or provide information collected during the course of the audit. 
• Performance audits focus on assessing whether public money is spent efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. The Auditor-General is not permitted to question the merits of government policy objectives. Please visit the Performance audit guide for audited entities (including non-public sector entities) for more information on how we undertake performance audits.

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act 1983 to keep information gathered during the course of a performance audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections seriously. 

Exceptions include the Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament – a public document – and where the Audit Office is permitted or required to disclose information under other legislation.

All information that the Audit Office receives, and working papers that the Audit Office creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information in Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Sector) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). An access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for excluded information. 

For more information on our confidentiality obligations, please visit Our confidentiality and reporting obligations for contributions page.

If you have questions or feedback about individual matters, you can: 

• contact the NSW Department of Education through the website 
• contact the NSW Education Standards Authority through the website 
• make a complaint to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524.

In 2014, the State entered into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with a private operator to deliver the Northern Beaches Hospital. The Northern Beaches Hospital opened in late 2018 and provides free public patient services as well as a range of services for private patients. 

This audit will examine whether the Northern Beaches Hospital PPP is efficiently and effectively delivering public hospital services.  

In doing so, the audit will answer the following questions: 

1. Do NSW Health agencies ensure the effective and efficient delivery of public funded hospital services from the Northern Beaches Hospital? 
   1. Do NSW Health agencies effectively identify and monitor risks to the success of the Northern Beaches Hospital?
   2. Do NSW Health agencies collect the information required to ensure effective delivery of public hospital services at the Northern Beaches Hospital?
   3. Do NSW Health agencies effectively manage the Northern Beaches Hospital contract to ensure effective delivery of public hospital services at the Northern Beaches Hospital? 
   4. Is the Northern Sydney Local Health District using the Northern Beaches Hospital Public Private Partnership to achieve efficient service delivery? 
2. Is the operator of the Northern Beaches Hospital effectively delivering public hospital services in selected clinical areas? 
   1. Does the Northern Beaches Hospital meet contract requirements for performance, planning and reporting? 
   2. Does the Northern Beaches Hospital provide quality care consistent with equivalent public health facilities in NSW?

Included within the scope: 

• The parties to the Northern Beaches Hospital contract deed: Northern Sydney Local Health District, the Ministry of Health (as the delegate for the Health Administration Corporation) and the private sector operator, NBH Operator Co (a subsidiary of Healthscope Ltd.). 
• Comparison against benchmarks for peer or near-peer NSW Health hospitals. 
• The audit will focus on two areas of clinical activity: Emergency Department activity and General Surgery. 
• The main period of focus for this audit is from July 2022 to June 2024.

Excluded from the scope: 

• The decision to deliver the Northern Beaches Hospital via a Public Private Partnership. 
• The design and construction phases of the Northern Beaches Hospital Public Private Partnership. 
• Quality as it relates to an assessment of the specific effectiveness of clinical activities or scopes of practice. However, the audit may comment on whether the agencies have themselves adequately considered and assessed clinical evidence as part of performance monitoring and oversight of clinical services. 
• Merits of government policy objectives.

You can share information relating to this scope with the audit team. Submissions can be made anonymously. Please note that submissions will close on COB Friday 15 November 2024. 

You can contribute to this audit either through the contribute to this audit button in left hand menu (comment icon on top right for mobile) or through this link

We may use your submission to identify key themes, risks or issues which may then be further investigated during the audit. In some instances, we may use extracts of submissions in our audit report as examples of feedback provided where appropriate. If we use extracts of a submission, we will not identify the source of the submission in the report. 

However, please note: 

• We will not examine individual matters, nor can we investigate all issues or concerns raised. In general, the audit team will look for confirmatory evidence from other sources (such as documentation, data and audit interviews). 
• We will not share submissions with any party, including NSW Health or the private operator of the Northern Beaches Hospital, nor do we publish submissions on our website.  
• While we will consider all submissions, we may not contact you to discuss your submission. 
• We are not able to answer questions or provide information collected during the course of the audit. 
• Performance audits focus on assessing whether public money is spent efficiently, effectively, economically and in compliance with the law. The Auditor-General is not permitted to question the merits of government policy objectives. Click here for more information on how we undertake performance audits. 
   

The Audit Office is required by section 38 of the Government Sector Audit Act to keep information obtained during an audit confidential and the Audit Office takes its responsibilities under these sections very seriously.  

All information that the Audit Office receives, and working papers that the Audit Office creates during an audit, are classed as excluded information in Schedule 2 of the Government Information (Public Sector) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). An access application under the GIPA Act cannot be made for excluded information.
 

If you have questions or comments about individual matters, you can: 

• make a complaint about the provision of healthcare to the Health Care Complaints Commission online or by calling 1800 043 159 
• make a complaint about a NSW government agency to the NSW Ombudsman online or by calling 1800 451 524 
• make a complaint about corruption to the Independent Commission Against Corruption online or by calling 02 8281 5999. 

Click here for more information on our confidentiality and reporting obligations for submissions received via our website.
 

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) enters into contracts with private companies to operate bus services. In Metropolitan Sydney these contracts are worth an estimated $4.8 billion.

This performance audit will assess the effectiveness of Transport for NSW’s design and management of metropolitan Sydney bus service contracts. It will examine whether TfNSW is effectively managing the performance of contracts held by private bus companies to ensure contractual commitments are being met, with a focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relating to customer experience, and whether TfNSW has designed an effective governance regime to underpin the performance management of bus contracts in metropolitan Sydney, and demonstrating that contracts are being managed to deliver value for money. 

This report will focus on the 2023–24 consolidated financial statements of the NSW general government and total state sectors. It will comment on the key matters that have been the focus of our audits and highlight significant factors that have contributed to the State’s financial results.

New South Wales has over 180,000 km of roads across its network. Local councils manage over 85% of these roads.

This audit will consider how effectively three councils are managing their road assets. The audit will examine whether the selected councils have a strategic framework in place for road assets, have effective data and systems for managing road assets and whether they manage their road assets in line with planned service levels and quality outcomes.  

The councils selected for this audit are Gwydir Shire Council, Wollondilly Shire Council and Clarence Valley Council.

The audit will also consider relevant guidance and support provided to councils by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.

This report will analyse the results of the 2023–24 financial statement audits of NSW Government agencies. It will comment on financial reporting and performance, key accounting issues and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits.

This report will analyse whether members of New South Wales Parliament complied with requirements outlined in the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal’s Determination.

Under Section 27B(3) (c) of the Government Sector Audit Act 1983, the Special Minister of State has requested that the Audit Office perform a recurring performance audit of emergency relief grants commencing in 2024-25. 

In accordance with the Protocol for Auditing Emergency Relief grants, the Audit Office will select particular grants processes for review.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is responsible for regulating mines under the Mining Act 1992 and mine safety under the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013. This includes approving licences, regulating licence requirements, ensuring that mine rehabilitation works are undertaken, conducting work health and safety inspections, and responding to work health and safety complaints. The department oversees these functions in over 6,000 mines in a range of mining sectors. 

This audit will consider how effectively the department is conducting its licencing and regulatory functions in line with the Mining Act 1992 and the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013.

This report will bring together findings and recommendations from our 2023–24 financial audits of local councils. It will comment on financial reporting and performance, internal controls and governance, and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits. During the year, we will also investigate options to analyse financial sustainability as part of our audit program of work.