Asset management
Assets are managed within whole of government policies and guidelines. Key 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 improvements, equitably and according to priorities, ensuring appropriate standards of accommodation to encourage best practice in service delivery
- optimising maintenance effort through strategic management and managing resources in accordance with statutory obligations, occu-pational health and safety, optimum service delivery and asset retention
- progressing initiatives to identify, rank and mitigate risks 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
- maximising the responsible use of facilities, facilitating partnership agreements for sharing facilities, and using community and shared facilities where appropriate
- establishing the Asset Strategy Steering Committee to provide strategic oversight and direction in asset management.
Risk management
Risk management activities are governed by the Risk Management and Audit Committee (RiMAC). RiMAC is chaired by the secretary and includes key stakeholders from the department and one external member.
The Tasmanian Risk Management Fund (TRMF) covers all the department’s insurable risk, including legal liability and property damage. Contributions to the fund for 2005-06 totalled $7.1 million, including $5.7 million for workers compensation and $830,000 for the 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.
Students are not insured for the cost of treatment of injuries sustained during school-based activities, with parents being required to meet these costs. However, 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.
Key risk management initiatives during the reporting year included:
- The Roadmap Consultancy, to develop a departmental risk management strategy. The risk reference group, consisting of departmental risk managers, will oversee the implementation
- provision of advisory services and project management to raise risk management awareness throughout the department
- development of risk management plans for business centres
- development of templates to assist with risk management processes
- ongoing development of the department’s risk management website
ICT risk management
Risk management progressed in the area of ICT. Procedures to manage the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets were further defined, particularly in the areas of:
- loss of information
- data corruption
- inappropriate access to information
- availability of information.
Backups of all systems occurred regularly to minimise the risks of losing information and of data corruption. High availability options were 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.
Risks to confidentiality, integrity and availability were identified, and mitigation strategies implemented where appropriate.
Employment