Asset management/Risk management

Asset management

The department exercises full responsibility for managing and accounting for its assets within whole-of-government policies and guidelines. Key objectives and strategies for the effective and efficient use of assets include:

• optimising the use of built resources to support the provision of a range of educational programs and curriculum choices at dispersed sites;
• providing capital funding for building alteration, upgrade or extension, equitably and according to priorities, ensuring appropriate standards of accommodation and encouraging best practice in service delivery;
• optimising maintenance effort by assigning functions to the most appropriate organisational level and assigning resources on the basis of statutory obligations, occupational health and safety, optimum service delivery and asset retention;
• progressing a range of initiatives to identify, rank and mitigate risks associated with asset management within the context of the government’s overall risk management strategy;
• progressing towards industry best practice in procurement practices and full compliance with Treasury requirements; and
• pursuing opportunities to maximise the responsible use of facilities, in order to facilitate partnership agreements for sharing facilities, and to use community and shared facilities where appropriate.

Risk management

The department has a comprehensive risk management strategy (available www.education.tas.gov.au/admin/ff/risk) which is governed by the Risk Management Committee chaired by the secretary.

The department is covered by the Tasmanian Risk Management Fund (TRMF) for all of its insurable risk, with an excess of $100,000. Contributions to the fund for the reporting period totalled $7.5 million, including $6.2 million for workers’ compensation and $700,000 for loss of and damage to facilities.

The Property Protection Scheme (PPS) for schools and colleges is a self-funded ‘pool’ that covers the cost of damage to and loss of facilities and contents up to $50,000. The department successfully trialed the PPS in 2003-04 and the scheme has been extended to March 2006 when it is due to be reviewed.

Students engaged in vocational education and training, workplace learning or special learning activities are covered in respect of personal accident and general/legal liability claims made against them. Students are not insured for the cost of treatment of injuries sustained during other educational activities, with parents required to meet these costs.

Key risk management initiatives during the reporting year included:

• provision of advisory services and project management to raise risk management awareness throughout the department ;
• participation in the Tasmanian government’s Information Security Charter project;
• continuation with the Property Protection Scheme (PPS) in schools and colleges;
• development of risk management plans for a number of corporate areas and school clusters including the Tasmanian Qualifications Authority, the Finance, Facilities and Business Strategy Branch, and the West Coast Cluster;
• development of templates to assist with risk management processes throughout the department; and
• ongoing development of the department’s risk management website.

ICT risk management

Risk management progressed in the area of information and communications technology. There was further development and refinement of procedures to manage the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets, particularly in the areas of:

• loss of information;
• data corruption;
• inappropriate access to information; and
• availability of information.

Backups of all systems occurred regularly to minimise the risks of losing information and of data corruption. High availability options are considered for critical systems with specific redundant hardware components in servers included as a minimum requirement. Disaster recovery plans were tested for several major systems.

Access from outside the departmental network is restricted, and a range of access levels have been set for staff, students and the public to ensure that access to information is limited to a ‘needs-only’ level. A number of security incidents occurred, but these had minimal impact on the department’s business.

Risk assessments continue to be undertaken to identify risks in the areas of confidentiality, integrity and availability, and mitigation strategies were implemented where appropriate.