Output Group 1.3 I Child support

Output Group 1.3 I Child support

Contribution to Outcome 1

Strategies

Influence a whole-of-government approach

Build a community focus

Encourage and support parental responsibility

Streamline agency service delivery

Increase organisational capability and productiveness

continually improving the skills and leadership capabilities of its people

developing and maintaining systems and tools to support staff to deliver high-quality service to parents

reviewing sourcing arrangements to ensure that CSA’s personnel, human and technological infrastructure supports are the best they can be.

Guarantee transparent and accountable service

Outputs under Output Group 1.3

Child support

Performance summary

Role

Business challenges

Challenge 1: Influence a whole-of-government approach

CSA contributed to FaCS submissions to the inquiry into child custody arrangements. Since the committee’s report was released in December 2003, CSA has worked hard to improve weaknesses in administration identified by the committee, such as improved communications with parents. Working to implement the Government’s response to the recommendations of the inquiry—in partnership with other areas of FaCS, government and others—will be one of CSA’s priorities for the next financial year.

In 2003-04, CSA focused on strengthening relationships and lines of communication with its stakeholders. CSA developed a new business area to manage external relations and liaise closely with Members of Parliament on issues relating to child support administration. Relationships across government continue to be strengthened.

Family Law Pathways Network

The network has applied for and been granted funding for a project that aims to collect data and map the family law pathways system in Western Australia, and also to inform and educate service providers and encourage networking among them. The project will culminate in a workshop to resolve the issues identified through the project mapping in order to create achievable and sustainable outcomes. The network steering committee is currently finalising the selection of the project officer(s) who will carry out the study.

Cooperation with the courts

CSA also has arrangements with these courts to assist them in child support proceedings between parents who are CSA customers (as opposed to proceedings where the Family Court Registrar is involved as a party). An experienced CSA officer is nominated as an information resource for the court. The officer either attends the court on a designated day or is available to provide information by telephone, as and when the court requires. The CSA officer does not give legal advice, but can explain how CSA would administer particular orders or agreements and answer other questions from the parties or the court.

CSA also participates as an observer on the Family Law Council, a statutory authority established under section 115 of the Family Law Act 1975, with members appointed by the Attorney-General in consultation with the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Membership includes a judge of the Family Court and may also include other judges, lawyers, social workers, relationship counsellors, government employees and others. The council’s function is to advise and make recommendations to the Attorney-General about the workings of the Family Law Act and other legislation relating to family law.

In a joint project with the Family Law Council and the family law section of the Law Council of Australia, CSA is producing a guide for legal practitioners, providing precedents for court orders and child support agreements made under the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989. The guide will assist family law practitioners to help their clients obtain court orders and agreements that properly balance their wish for finality and their need for flexibility while providing their children with a proper level of financial support. It will be released in the latter half of 2004.

‘Me and My’ series of booklets

CSA plans to expand the series further with the introduction in 2004-05 of two new booklets that deal with how parents can better manage relationships with the other parent and their new partners.

CSA will release an interactive multimedia CD-ROM in the near future that will also draw on collaboration with its partners in the family law system.

Challenge 2: Build a community focus

Support for unemployed parents

Direct Telephone Support Service

Elsewhere in Australia, CSA staff continue to transfer parents directly to appropriate community service providers in their region.

Supporting Parents Referral Service

Community services directory

Outreach activities

As part of CSA’s integrated, holistic outreach program, CSA officers also visited 428 community service organisations, and addressed a total of 822 staff, to strengthen community links, disseminate information and train staff on basic child support issues. Of these organisations, 23 provided multicultural support services and 31 were identified as helping Indigenous parents.

Increasing the capacity of community service providers to deal with child support issues has been a continued focus. CSA has provided training and developed a product to support community providers in helping parents adopt a problem-solving approach when dealing with child support issues.

Community information sessions

More than half of these information sessions were conducted in rural and regional areas and more than 70 per cent of those attending took advantage of the opportunity to have a personal interview after the sessions to discuss their individual circumstances.

Gateways pilot project

Major government agencies, family law practitioners and community groups presented in ‘Expo’ style their part of the journey along the family law pathway.

The pilot was so successful for participating organisations and client service officers that there are plans to make it an annual event and accommodate more participants. The pilot involved 17 organisations and 150 participants.

Strategy: Support parents in the workplace

Supporting parents in the workplace—'Staying Connected’

The program was successfully piloted with Australia Post and the Australian Defence Force. It was officially launched in May 2004 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia where, with its high proportion of separated fathers, it has been warmly received by the mining community.

Challenge 3: Encourage and support parental responsibility

An important focus for CSA is to encourage and support parents to manage their child support responsibilities independently, thereby fostering better relationships within separated families and resulting in more child support being paid in a timely manner for the benefit of children. CSA’s emphasis on parental self-reliance is paying dividends, as the year 2003-04 marks the second consecutive year that over half of the parents registered with CSA (51.8 per cent) transferred their child support privately, with minimal CSA intervention.

Figure 3 below shows a disproportionate increase in the amount of child support transferred in 2002-03 compared with previous years. In previous years the amount of child support transferred through private collections was under reported. The increase above natural growth in 2002-03 is therefore due to the inclusion of previously uncounted private collect transfers, made possible by the introduction of ‘Cuba’, CSA’s new IT system, in March 2002.

Figure 3 CSA transfers by payment arrangement, 1993–94 to 2003–04

National collection strategy

CSA also successfully collected an additional $19.3 million in child support as at 30 June 2004 as a result of additional resources provided through the Intensive Debt Collection Budget initiative to target ‘hard debt’.

In particular, CSA has expanded the international stream of its operations to bring about increased compliance—and, where appropriate, enforced payments—from international parents. It has also developed a strengthened working relationship with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and a closer working relationship with international child support partners, including New Zealand.

Challenge 4: Streamline agency service delivery

Integrated service delivery model

The New Clients stream seeks to enable newly separated parents to make sustainable child support arrangements by providing appropriate options, pro-active support and quality referrals.

The Collection Support stream provides ongoing support for the changing needs of separated parents who generally meet their child support responsibilities. This ensures regular, reliable child support for children.

The Debt Management Services stream provides intensive case management to collect outstanding child support from parents who are unwilling to pay their child support voluntarily.

The International stream supports separated parents where one parent resides overseas.

The channels through which CSA provide services are shown to the left of the pyramid in Figure 4, demonstrating the telephone as the channel of greatest demand, with an increasing trend towards electronic services.

The business management framework underpins the CSA client service delivery model, ensuring that all activities and infrastructure are directed towards fulfilling CSA’s strategic intent and providing linkages to CSA’s quality improvement and governance focus (the cycle around the pyramid).

Figure 4 CSA—integrated service delivery model

Review of CSA letters

Additional work (reverse work flows), caused by letters lacking clarity or giving incorrect information, were a primary target of this project. An evaluation of the project outcome is under way and is expected to be completed by August; however, preliminary results appear to indicate encouraging trends in information for parents now being more relevant and timely.

Challenge 5: Increase organisational capability and productiveness

Recruitment, development and retention of staff

CSA has continued to work on establishing processes for employee performance and career feedback, development and advancement to improve quality outcomes for parents as well as to enhance employee job motivation and satisfaction. These in turn will lead to improved business performance and parent satisfaction.

CSA team leaders are responsible for the direct performance management of employees, providing them with a formal framework under which issues concerning assessment of their performance can be properly managed.

The employee portfolio provides the process for employees and their team leaders to set expectations and provide feedback for performance for the employee’s current job and level and advancement to higher levels. The process identifies agreed developmental needs and results in a plan to improve current performance and/or provide opportunities for future career development.

Negotiation of a new agency agreement

Negotiating our new agency agreement provides us with the opportunity to consult with our people and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) about key issues for improvement. We have provided and will continue to provide many and varied avenues for consultation and feedback throughout the process.

Challenge 6: Guarantee transparent and accountable service

Parent feedback: Clients Having a Say (CHAS)

Early results are very promising with all except one aspect of client satisfaction rating above five out of seven, equating to more than 70 per cent of parents being satisfied or better. Newly separated parents rate all except one aspect of client satisfaction at six or above out of seven, equating to more than 80 per cent of parents being satisfied or better.

Client charter review

CHAS, to measure parents’ perceptions of how well CSA staff were meeting their service commitments.

Reviews and appeals

CSA parents with special circumstances can apply to have their child support assessments varied. CSA received 29 619 applications for a change of assessment in 2003-04. This represents 4.2 per cent of all those eligible for a child support formula assessment.

Of the applications, 14 263 resulted in varied assessments while 6068 remained unchanged, with the balance being withdrawn or invalid. Payers made 54.3 per cent of all applications and payees made 44.1 per cent. The Child Support Registrar generated the balance of applications.

The registrar can initiate a change of assessment where special circumstances exist. In 2003-04, the registrar initiated 325 change-of-assessment applications. Of these applications, 82 per cent resulted in varied assessments.

During the reporting year, an ‘Own Motion Report into Change of Assessment Decisions’ was initiated by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. This report and findings of CSA’s own internal audit process have identified the need for a nationally consistent approach to decision making and quality assurance. To this end, the development of a systemic quality assurance framework and review of existing procedures and guidelines have been undertaken by CSA.

Objections

‘The Guide’

Risk and Audit Committee

Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence

Financial and staffing resources summary

b. Budget prior to additional estimates.

c. Estimated expenses for this item reflect the budgeted outlays by government (net expenses). Actual expenses disclose the total transactions on these accounts (gross expenses). There was $2.552 m returned to the CRF for this item.

d. Estimated expenses for these items reflect the budgeted outlays by government (net expenses). Actual expenses disclose the total transactions on these accounts (gross expenses). There was $80.083 m returned to the CRF for this item.

e. Estimated expenses for these items reflect the budgeted outlays by government (net expenses). Actual expenses disclose the total transactions on these accounts (gross expenses). There was $0 returned to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for this item.

f. FaCS includes the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, but excludes the Child Support Agency, which is shown separately.

Performance information

Administered items

Child support

Departmental outputs

Cost

12.0 cents per $1 transferred

$350 per case

Policy advice

Quality-customer satisfaction

Ministers and their offices did not provide feedback on individual output groups but did provide feedback on departmental performance as a whole. Information on ministers’ and their offices’ assessment can be found in Volume two, Part two—‘Ministerial and parliamentary services’.

Quantity

134 ministerial submissions and other written briefings or advice prepared; 1419 ministerial replies to correspondence completed.

Price

Purchasing, funding and relationship management

Quality-assurance

As part of FaCS, the CSA follows the department’s purchasing, funding and relationship management guidelines.

All service providers have agreements or contracts with the CSA that meet FaCS guidelines.

Number of contracts/service agreements under management—2.

Quantity

CSA is the only service provider in this output group.

Price

Research and evaluation

Quantity

Price

Service delivery—Centrelink

Quality-assurance

Services were delivered as agreed.

Service delivery—CSA

Effectiveness—adequacy

A total of $2.19 billion, including $1.4 billion in child support payments transferred directly, and $791 million in child support liabilities collected by CSA.

Average annual liability:

Stage 1 cases: $2350

Cases assessed under the child support formula: $3109.

Effectiveness-independence

The collection rate is calculated by measuring dollars collected as a percentage of liabilities raised since the Child Support Scheme began in 1988.

Total collection (including private transfers)—95.4 per cent

CSA collection (where CSA collects the liability)—90.1 per cent*

* This represents the collection rate for CSA collections on domestic cases. CSA also manages child support cases where one parent resides in another country.

A supplementary collection statistic has been developed to enhance the reporting of CSA collection performance. The 2003-04 result, using this twelve-month rolling collection statistic measure, was 100.9 per cent.

By June 2004, 51.8 per cent of all registered parents had opted for private collection, compared with 50.6 per cent in 2003 and 49.4 per cent in 2002. This was the second year that over half of all parents registered with CSA chose to transfer their child support payments privately.

Effectiveness—targeting

Quality—assurance

CSA maintained and enhanced connections at all levels to improve stakeholder confidence in the administration of the Child Support Scheme and the services delivered by CSA.

Members of Parliament and their staff were briefed during the year; these briefings were well received. The volume of ministerial correspondence increased in proportion to the CSA caseload in 2003-04.

CSA staff conducted community information and outreach sessions in regional and metropolitan centres. These sessions were often attended by local Members of Parliament as well as by parents and other interested people. Those who came to the sessions gained information about the Child Support Scheme and CSA as well as about related community support services. Members of Parliament have provided very positive feedback about the operation of these sessions.

The Registrar’s Advisory Panels and the Legal Liaison Group continued to provide forums for discussion of and feedback about child support issues to representatives from parent groups, other government departments and legal bodies. These formal meetings facilitated the participation of key stakeholders in the administration of the Child Support Scheme in Australia.

Quality-customer satisfaction

CSA conducted a Professionalism Survey in 2004. The results showed a significant improvement from the previous year and are the highest results since the introduction of the Professionalism Index in 1998. (See Figure 10, Volume 1: The four components of the professionalism index in Volume one, Part two — ‘Helping parents support their children—the Child Support Agency’)

A new survey model, based on the CSA Client Service Charter, was designed and has been implemented.

Quantity

At 30 June 2004 CSA had 747 830 registered cases, representing more than 1.3 million separated parents and some 1.1 million children. This is an increase of 5.1 per cent since 30 June 2003.

Price

$1.0 million — FaCS

$0.5 million — Centrelink