2011 in review/ getting to be the best

1. 2011 in review/ getting to be the best Tarun Weeramanthri, Executive Director, Public Health Division, December 2011 Delivering a Healthy WA

2. In early 2011, we had a further values discussion • Personal integrity • Care • Respect for others • Excellence • Teamwork • Leadership • Accountability for State resources We have agreed on the soundness of public sector and Health Department values. We do not need to invent new ones, but rather to demonstrate these established values through concrete behaviours.

3. onwards and outwards - 5 year plan from 2012 • Maintain the internal divisional agenda – strengthen focus on support for knowledge workers, develop a radical new culture of sharing knowledge and learning from others, not just using knowledge effectively within silos, deliver on our priorities. • New understanding of the organisational chart as the skeleton of our division (essential for accountability), and communication as the central nervous system. • Increase emphasis on investment for health gain for health system as a whole • Look outwards - Make public health public-centred, and help drive a national change agenda • Create a world leading public health division – will require management excellence across and all the way through

4. Goals – we have set the bar high for ourselves • Best Public Health Division • Best content experts • Best policy • Best managers • Best teams • High reliability, good underpinning systems • Balance of core and innovation work • Nationally and internationally recognised • Always looking to improve through attention to feedback • Explicit attention to learning, leadership development and regular performance management • Our reputation is vital (quality, timely, balanced expert advice) • Understand the system in which we work (democratic, parliamentary, federation, rule of law, free press, advocacy, lobbying and professional groups etc) • Understand and accept our role as part of the public sector within an overall system (implement policy, advise policy, accountable to public)

5. Chain of formal divisional talks and workshops • Appreciative Inquiry Workshop – July 2011 • Management within PHD - July 2011 • Window of opportunity - Oct 2010 • Yammer and communications – June 2010 • Divisional planning days – leadership and teamwork, best public health division, performance management • Year in prospect – February 2009 • Year in review - Dec 2008. Impact of GFC • Planning day – May 2008. Whole of Division • Opportunities and challenges - February 2008

6. Fight for Facts! • Data – numbers and beyond • Observations and Experiences • Promises - What we said we would do • What we did • What we said • What happened • Anchored in plain English – active sentences • Plain Epidemiology – Who, what, why, when, where, how • Prerequisite for accountability and transparency

7. Culture of conversation • Day to day interactions based on values – walking around, break boundaries of geography • Roles of managers • Comments on BN • Appreciative Inquiry (AI) workshop • AI Review of Epi/Surveillance • AI CDCD Planning Day

8. Knowledge workers regard talk as work – meetings are key • Hot issues weekly – introduced early 2010. Monday mornings – what’s on, what’s hot • Friday afternoon check out meeting for Directors – we consider what we have achieved in the week • Directors’ meeting fortnightly – medium to long term strategy • Public Health Network – range of stakeholders within Health Department, held every 2 months • Many other meetings throughout and across Division • Allow silence, draw out tensions, everyone contribute • Every meeting must be designed with a specific purpose in mind

9. What happened • Delivered lots of things • Didn’t deliver a few (year started and ended with a blip) • Managed to budget and got a good budget outcome

10. Some of the agenda we set for ourselves in the 9 months to mid-2011 • Follow up Stokes Review of adverse events following influenza immunisation • New direction in Chronic Disease Prevention, more focus on Injury Prevention • New Public Health Bill – Work with local government • New disaster ops room with greater functional capacity ready for CHOGM • Contribute to Closing the Gap • Establish Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Registry and new Rare Diseases Strategy • Profile work of Health and Climate Change Committee • Monitor National Health Reform Agenda • Major societal debate on alcohol (inc sport and sponsorship) We have made progress in many of these areas, and many others

11. Events • Perth Hills fires • CHOGM • Rare Diseases Symposium • Asbestos Research seminar • Joint Symposium with Zhejiang • Opening of State Health Incident Coordination Centre (SHICC)

12. Reports • Many regular but important – how do we avoid the ‘routine’ tag? • Language Services Policy • Report on Food Act • Phenols at RPH • Injury • EH Year Book – took over 30+ Aboriginal EH contracts

13. Reviews • Tobacco Products Control Act

14. Systems • Register of Developmental Anomalies • WAVSS

15. Points about structure in 2011 • Licensing, Standards and Review Unit went to PAQ • Modification to Sexual Health and BBV structure, and to DMRP • Recruitment to Prevention and Control (Immunisations) Program • Kept Healthcare Associated Infection Unit • Kept Cultural Diversity Unit • Screening under Genomics • Injury Prevention • Review of Epi and Surveillance areas • Radiation health relocation • Epi – GIS, Surveys, Assessment and Summary Health Measures • CD Prevention – Physical Activity and Built Environment • EH Business Unit progression • (We continue to have hard conversations about resources, alignment, function and structure)

16. Observing and advising • Prostitution Law Reform • Alcohol and youth/Crime and antisocial behaviour

17. Conversation threads • Beenyup – aquifer recharging • Fluoridation and chlorination • Chlamydia/Youth sexual health • Climate change and sustainability

18. Under fire and under pressure • Role in liquor licensing • Kronic • VRE (Vancomycin-resistant enterococci) • Smoking in mental health facilities • Healthway Board - cosponsorship

19. Surprises • Talk Soon, Talk Often

20. Prizes • Online Chlamydia Project

22. Not quite there • Public Health Bill • Poisons Bill • Health Promotion Strategic Framework • Public Health Services and Improvement Framework

23. On or over the horizon • Health reform, Medicare Locals and ABF/ABM – impact on Epi • Review of AHMAC committees • New Aboriginal Health Division • New TICHR head • Development of ANPHA – COAG NPA roll out • Developments in hepatitis C treatments • Greater focus on hospital acquired infections/resistant organisms etc • Doctor shopping • Roll out of the HealthPoint Portal • Research governance in Department • More facilitatory social media policy • Global economy?

24. What do we mean by the best public health division? • Not a definition delivered by someone else • Already here and never here (always provisional) • Future built on clear eyedness about present and the past • AI – when do we feel we (and others) are at our best? What do we need to do more of and less of? (Powerful questions/if we knew the answer, it wouldn’t be AI and wouldn’t be worth finding) • From SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results)– what happens to the W? Recognising weaknesses and failure is one of our strengths • Must both plan and go beyond plans • Metrics are difficult • Side by side park bench conversation as well as face to face • Can’t do it by ourselves – need peripheries of excellence as well as centres of excellence • No turning back – change (external) and transition (internal) • Create the best PHD, conversation by conversation, moment by moment

25. The Best Public Health Division - Domains • Core work and quality • Ideas, innovation, research and data • Partnerships- what we give as well as what we get • Employer of choice • Conversation and communication – iPublic Health

26. First six months of 2012 • Can we take the opportunities in good times as well as we manage the crises in trying times? • Can we improve our project planning and management for cross-divisional initiatives? • Andy Robertson will lead while I am on leave – no such thing as holding • Get the Public Health Bill through, develop the Immunisation Strategy • Strategic planning • Rerun the staff survey • Aboriginal cadetship program