Kate Boyd reveals NSW public service plan for centres of excellence

-- Conference coverage for the The Mandarin | Kate Boyd reveals NSW public service plan for centres of excellence

As the head of the reinstated NSW Cabinet Office, comprising a team of legal, policy and governance advisers, the elevation of Kate Boyd to secretary has involved more than taking on a new public service leadership role.

The former Department of Premier and Cabinet general counsel has also been tasked with resurrecting an office capable of reviewing cabinet decisions and processes. 

“I have worked in central government for quite a long time,” Boyd told The Mandarin's Building a Better Public Service conference last week.

“I have also had some incredible mentors and leaders of The Cabinet Office in its former iteration -- people like Michael Coutts-Trotter and incredible public service leaders who really set a very high standard.

“The transition from [GC to secretary] in that sense has not been very difficult.” 

Boyd said the mission to reduce government reliance on consultants engaged from the private sector, alongside revising down the number of senior executive public servants in NSW, and all while being able to deliver high-quality advice, had led her team to attempt to identify where the pockets of expertise and specialist knowledge resided.

“The premier at the time [Chris Minns] had said his intent was to re-establish a focus on robust policy advice, legal advice, and governance at the centre of government and integrity. We took from that our mandate,” Boyd explained.

“We also wanted to connect people in government with centres of excellence, not only to ensure that the knowledge is shared within government, but to ensure that those agencies can essentially task those centres of excellence with work where they have the capacity to do so.

“It's a great innovation and one that I think will really build the institutional capability of the public service.”

The next step was to connect in-house government specialists -- experts in fields such as grants administration, economic analysis, trend analysts, scenario modelling and data capability -- to an advisory network, all plugged into a kind of concierge service for public servants within the Premier's Department.

Boyd said this would also include a centre of excellence for the application of foresight techniques and so-called 'futures' capability, as well as a new 'trend atlas' to share information with policymakers about mega trends.

"I think the only risk with [a futures approach] is that it can become disconnected from the day-to-day cut-through of, you know, government policy," she said.

"When you apply it to a real policy problem, it just pays such great dividends and you end up with such quality advice going to decision makers."

The Cabinet Office was recently re-established by the Minns Labor government after being scrapped 17 years ago by former Labor premier Morris Iemma.

One of the most rewarding challenges of being responsible for standing up a new agency was the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues, the secretary added.

“The biggest reflection I'd make on leading a new agency is [the task of] getting on the front foot really quickly, and getting a shared sense of purpose … all the way through the agency,” Boyd said. 

“When The Cabinet Office was re-established, it was a swift machinery of government change that was announced straight after the 2023 election -- we all had no idea it was coming.”

Boyd described the exercise as a chance to consider how processes could improve the way whole-of-government advice was developed, as well as optimal ways to leverage the experience of frontline government agencies.

“One of the key pillars of our charter in The Cabinet Office is respect and collaboration … and making sure [frontline experience] is integrated into the policy process and and is reflected in advice to cabinet,” Boyd said.

“[We want our advice to incorporate] a broad range of views from across government on the risks and issues with the proposals [cabinet is] considering.”

“I wouldn't say that we ever see to smooth out those differences entirely. There's no one whole-of-government view on a matter.

“There are different perspectives depending on where your position is in government, and that is of great value to ministers who sit around that cabinet table and really want thorough advice about the potential impacts of every policy proposal on all of the portfolios of government,” she said. 

The NSW public service leader made her remarks at The Mandarin’s flagship government conference in Sydney.