Insight into how Sir Brian Roche's high-level direction of the public service will impact day-to-day work

Last week, our new Public Service Commissioner, Sir Brian Roche, spoke about reorientating the public service . This is the first of two blogs where we delve into Sir Brian’s main messages to explore how his high-level direction for the public service could play out in the day-to-day work of public servants.

Productivity, performance and capability are classic public service themes, and we’ve predicted they’ll get plenty of airtime in 2025. Sir Brian has taken these themes and put a modern twist on them.

In his speech, Sir Brian describes his brief as improving public service performance, and he’s clear that systems are the challenge, not individuals.

In his view, public service processes are elaborate and slow: too many meetings don’t result in decisions; and risk aversion gets in the way of responsiveness. Sir Brian certainly isn’t the first to make these points – but as a moderniser, what’s his solution? He sees three immediate steps.

  1. Developing a social investment model to address cross-cutting issues by dismantling government silos and empowering communities, so people and families are at the centre of service delivery.
  2. Challenging public servants to embrace the possibilities of data and AI, while keeping privacy concerns at the forefront.
  3. An increasingly efficient and business-friendly public service, which contributes more to economic growth.

So, what makes Sir Brian’s speech interesting?

In our view, his speech shows a whole lot of forces impacting at once: fiscal constraint at the same time as a pressure to perform AND modernise the way the public service thinks about performance. A wave of technological change is landing – and at the same time, a potential consolidation of public service entities is on the cards.

Like the saying goes, change is the only constant. It can unleash energy and ideas, but can also create fatigue.

We’ll be watching with interest to see how Sir Brian’s vision for productivity, performance, and capability plays out this year.