Refine search Expand filter

Reports

Published

Actions for Volume Ten 2011 Focusing on Health

Volume Ten 2011 Focusing on Health

Health
Financial reporting
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Project management
Workforce and capability

This report includes comments on financial audits of government agencies in the Health sector. In 2010-11, Ambulance Officers spent an extra 77,200 hours waiting at emergency departments for patients to transfer to hospital care. In 2010-11, only 66 per cent of patients were moved from the emergency department to an inpatient bed within eight hours of their arrival. This is significantly down on last year’s 73 per cent and well below the 80 per cent targ

Published

Actions for Visiting medical officers and staff specialists

Visiting medical officers and staff specialists

Health
Management and administration
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

We found that hospitals are generally able to deploy their VMOs and staff specialists to be at the place and time required. However, a hospital’s ability to manage supply and demand at a local level is limited. This limitation will become more critical with the current national health reforms when public hospital funding will depend on their ability to set and meet activity targets and priorities. NSW Health cannot be sure that all payments made to VMOs

Published

Actions for Volume Seven 2011 focus on Law, Order and Emergency Services

Volume Seven 2011 focus on Law, Order and Emergency Services

Justice
Financial reporting
Management and administration
Procurement
Project management
Risk

The audits of these agencies’ financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011 resulted in unmodified audit opinions within the Independent Auditor’s Reports. It is recommended that emergency services agencies continue to develop and implement comprehensive volunteer workforce management plans to ensure they have the right volunteer resources.

Published

Actions for Responding to Domestic and Family Violence

Responding to Domestic and Family Violence

Community Services
Justice
Health
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Service delivery

Organisations generally work together to improve the safety of victims when there is an overt and serious crisis, particularly where children are involved. There are no standard ways for victims and perpetrators to access help that might prevent ongoing violence and address underlying issues. This is particularly problematic where there are repeat victims and perpetrators, many of whom have complex mental health, drug and alcohol problems and are difficu

Published

Actions for The effectiveness of cautioning for minor Cannabis offences

The effectiveness of cautioning for minor Cannabis offences

Justice
Health
Project management
Service delivery

Over the last ten years the NSW Police Force (Police) has used cautioning to divert over 39,000 minor cannabis offenders from the courts, saving at least $20 million in court costs. People cautioned for minor cannabis offences are also less likely to reoffend than those dealt with by the courts. Adults are more likely to be cautioned for minor cannabis offences today than when cautioning was introduced ten years ago. However this is not the case for youn

Published

Actions for Police Rostering

Police Rostering

Justice
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Risk
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

Overall, the NSW Police Force (the Force) is not meeting its target for responding to urgent calls for assistance. Today, one in four complaints is about customer service. Victims of crime report issues including difficulties in contacting an officer and frustration at having to wait for an officer to return to duty to find out about their case. The timeliness of investigations is also at risk when follow-up is delayed. Seventy per cent of comm

Published

Actions for Dealing with household burglaries

Dealing with household burglaries

Justice
Management and administration
Risk
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

The NSW Police Force has done well to maintain a downward trend in household burglaries in NSW since 2001. Police recognise the impact this crime has on the community’s perception of security and safety. Success has come from a continued focus on prevention and enforcement. However, there are other factors which have influenced this result. These include a rise in the rate and length of imprisonment, the heroin drought in 2001, increases in the number of

Published

Actions for Readiness to respond: Follow-up audit

Readiness to respond: Follow-up audit

Health
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration
Workforce and capability

The Ambulance Service of New South Wales has substantially implemented the 28 recommendations of the 2001 audit report that it accepted. It has also introduced significant new initiatives to improve performance that were not part of the 2001 recommendations. It has made substantial changes to its organisation and operations to implement these changes. Many of the changes are still proceeding. The Service has addressed a key finding of the 2001 audit

Published

Actions for Responding to homelessness

Responding to homelessness

Health
Community Services
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Project management
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration

Many projects, both Partnership Against Homelessness and by individual agencies, have shown good results or led to improvements. One example is helping mental health patients maintain stable housing. Another is providing street outreach services to homeless people in inner Sydney. Despite these efforts, we were unable to determine how well the government is responding to homelessness statewide. This is because there are no statewide performance measures

Published

Actions for Addressing the needs of young offenders

Addressing the needs of young offenders

Justice
Management and administration
Risk
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration
Workforce and capability

The Department of Juvenile Justice and the NSW Police Force generally work together and with other agencies to identify and address the needs of young offenders. We found that this is done particularly well for young offenders who end up in detention and under community supervision. Both the Department of Juvenile Justice and the NSW Police Force have put some practices in place to identify and address the needs of young offenders diverted from the Child