Stronger Communities
Note: cluster focus areas are subject to change based on NSW Government priorities and responses to evolving customer needs.
Stronger Communities delivers a safer, just, inclusive and resilient community experience for NSW Citizens
The Stronger Communities cluster brings together the former Family and Communities and Justice clusters. The new cluster provides, for the first time, the opportunity to focus our social support, justice and emergency management systems, on prevention and early intervention. This will support and drive change in how NSW looks after its most vulnerable people and proactively manages responses to disasters.
Three long-term goals have been identified:
- communities, families and victims are supported and have access to services when they need it, anywhere and anytime;
- staff have a working environment that promotes increased flexibility, collaboration, efficiency and supports them to deliver excellent customer service; and
- our organisation has the capabilities to take advantage of emerging technology and new ways of working to predict and prevent the need for societal interventions.
Horizon 1 (short term)
Stronger Communities continues to develop digital and back-office enterprise platforms focused on improving user experience for citizens. These platforms lay the foundations for the delivery of secure, consistent and reliable services.
We will:
- Consolidate disparate public portals onto a common enterprise platform.
- Replace legacy and end-of-life systems with enterprise platforms.
- Implement consolidated digital case management capabilities.
- Refresh core policing systems, processes and tools.
- Transform operational policing units into a capability focussed organisation with a unified operating model.
Stronger Communities will transition from a paper-based working environment to paper-lite mobile work practices by establishing the foundations for a digital workforce.
We will:
- Consolidate to a single Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) sub-system, starting with the principal department.
- Establish core infrastructure including secure wireless networks, enhanced cloud capabilities and mature cyber-security practices.
- Implement digital collaboration and communication tools.
- Improve organisational capabilities to leverage advances in technology.
- Pilot next generation mobile devices to extend full information availability to emergency responders.
Strong Communities will build robust data analytics platforms that will provide consistent, accurate and on-demand information for citizens and the workforce. This will be supported by data governance policies and procedures.
We will:
- Establish the foundations, core functions and data sharing components for Emergency and Incident Management Services. This will ensure there is a common situational awareness between all emergency responders for any specific incident.
- Establish data ownership and data quality practices to increase value of information assets.
- Implement proactive security capabilities that facilitate the secure sharing and protection of sensitive information.
- Develop common standards for function, application and infrastructure design and for structuring, storing and sharing information.
Horizon 2 (medium term)
Stronger Communities continues its journey to integrate various systems and processes and develop digital and back-office enterprise platforms to provide a single, secure, touchpoint for services.
We will:
- Deliver seamless life journeys for our customers across all services provided by the department.
- Support the NSW Premier's Priority “Government Made Easy”.
- Continue the development of 'Connected ecosystem', a contemporary insights platform, and implement a contemporary Firearms Registry.
- Integrate policing platforms to establish the foundations for next generation policing systems for a safer society.
- Co-design and integrate the emergency management digital capabilities to support the sharing of information, systems and processes. This will help to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of emergency management.
Stronger Communities continues its journey towards a modern digital workplace by further developing collaboration and communication channels and secure data sharing platforms.
We will:
- Support flexible, mobile working arrangements improving employee engagement and attracting talent.
- Provide zero-trust secure access to systems from anywhere, at anytime.
- Complete consolidation to a single ERP sub-system with the inclusion of Emergency Services and Police.
- Expand the agile ways of working to cross-agency projects to ensure projects are delivered faster and to a high quality.
- Extend the deployment of next generation mobile devices, across the emergency services vehicle fleet, to enhance situational awareness on the frontline.
Stronger Communities continues its journey towards integrated data and analytics platforms. This work focuses on providing real-time insights and open data access for citizens (where appropriate under security and privacy obligations).
We will:
- Uplift the department's capability by implementing predictive analytic tools to deliver enhanced decision making and security.
Horizon 3 (long term)
Stronger Communities personalise various digital and back-office enterprise platforms to provide an on-demand, omnichannel and secure touchpoint for cluster services.
We will:
- Use data analytics to better understand our citizens so we can adapt our services to meet their needs.
- Use the emergency service collaboration infrastructure to develop mobile-based applications for: emergency and incident alerts; crowd sourced incident intelligence; and predicative analysis capabilities.
- Deliver an advanced 'Connected ecosystem' and contemporary insights platform, that supports preventive policing and adapts to the changing nature of crime.
Stronger Communities will provide staff with a next generation digital workplace by delivering intelligence-based technologies that: automate repetitive cognitive tasks; support everyday tactical and strategic decision making; and provide flexible working options.
We will:
- Enable the workforce to use data and experience for evidence-based service delivery.
- Provide zero-trust secure access to adaptive networks and cloud services.
- Expand agile ways of working in several areas: field operations, specialist teams, corporate and back-office; and external teams such as emergency services organisations, law enforcement agencies and community services agencies.
Stronger Communities continues its organisational journey towards data and analytics platforms that fully support intelligent and automated insights, and provide: system-generated alerts, robotic monitoring and a secure integration marketplace. These improvements will enable the community, partners and industry to deliver evidence-based service improvements.
We will:
- Implement advanced analytic tools providing:
- predictive capability;
- smart data discovery;
- natural language processing; and
- geospatial functionality.