Objective 2 — You will have seamlessly integrated services that support your needs and life events
Although people often interact with government through individual services (such as completing a yearly tax return), there are events in a person’s life which require interactions with multiple Government services provided by different agencies or tiers of government (like the birth of a child or starting a business).
Looking at government services in the context of people’s key life events enables us to simplify, integrate and tailor the delivery of services to the needs of customers, as opposed to the structures of government.
We’re working with the Australian public and Federal, State and Territory governments to identify common issues and opportunities for us to improve. This lets us streamline services to make government easier to deal with.
Through the life events approach, we’re building services that work together to make it easier for us to support your needs.
GovX has engaged with Australians to map 12 important life events. The maps include more than 5,000 data points and over 200 unique insights and 10 common (or systemic) issues.
More than 530 people from over 55 federal, state and territory, and local government agencies, industry and service providers are working together to understand the needs of people going through these experiences and redesign services accordingly.
We’ve started work on a life event measurement framework, which will include specific measures for benefits and reduction of issues for each initiative we undertake. We will measure service performance and efficiency, citizen experience and contributions to citizens’ well-being.
Customers registered for digital services can complete a simple online task to confirm their details, instead of filling in a paper form.
Case studies
Birth of a Child
The birth of a child triggers a range of health and administrative activities for new parents which include up to seven separate interactions with multiple government agencies at both state and federal levels. This process can take several weeks to complete.
The Birth of a Child pilot with the ACT, Queensland, and the Commonwealth is addressing some specific instances of these common issues. For example, there are between 15 and 20 health service interactions for a healthy pregnancy. There are up to 7 interactions with government agencies to register a birth and enrol in Medicare and Centrelink. Parents need to provide the same information to government many times and in many forms. Around 30% of birth registrations have errors that require a follow-up, meaning re-work for government and parents of newborn babies.
The Australian Data and Digital Council’s Birth of a Child pilot, led by the ACT Government, proposes a “tell us once approach” aimed at reducing the burden of form filling and government interactions for new parents by re-using information that governments already hold. At the pilot stage, the initiative will develop and implement a streamlined process to automate newborn birth registration and enrolment processes for Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Immunisation Register and My Health Record. The first sites for the pilot will be in the ACT and Queensland. Benefits are expected to include reduced effort for parents and government services following up missing information, less paperwork for parents and more rapid enrolment of newborns in health services, such as digital health records and the Immunisation Register.
NSW, QLD and the Commonwealth agreed to work together to investigate digital birth certificates, to enhance the Birth of a Child life event project.
ACT Government with the Commonwealth, NSW and Queensland Governments
Improvements for Older Australians
Nominees can claim on behalf of the person they are acting for, making it easier for older Australians to get support when making a claim for financial assistance. Couples have the option of completing a joint Age Pension claim digitally rather than having to complete a paper form.
Customers who are registered for digital services can easily transfer from Newstart Allowance, Carers Payment and Disability Support Pension to Age Pension. These customers can complete a simple online task to confirm their details, instead of filling in a paper form.
Services Australia