Response

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a significant challenge to the delivery of education for more than 800,000 school students across 2,200 NSW public schools. By 30 March 2020, more than 90% of NSW public school students were staying home. Teaching methods needed to adapt rapidly to accommodate remote students and those in physically distanced classrooms.

The solution was a digital hub that would be viewed more than 3.74 million times by 951,000 unique users who downloaded more than 510,000 resources. Although it was designed for our own public schools, the hub reached educators across the United States, the United Kingdom and India. NSW Catholic and Independent schools also accessed the shared resources.

The NSW Department of Education needed to provide an agile, responsive solution that was reliable, accessible and user-friendly. Teachers needed centralised, authoritative support and resources, while students needed access to their teachers and to learning and wellbeing support services. Principals needed technology that would allow them to address their communities and continue to lead their teams remotely.

The department formed a taskforce to ensure access to learning, information and support services during this period. This taskforce included experts in curricula, online learning, user experience design, IT, video production, wellbeing and disability, as well as business and system support. It quickly identified the need for a centralised and official repository of educational resources, tools and up-to-date information on the main website, education.nsw.gov.au, to best meet the needs of students and teachers.

Using the award-winning Education NSW platform, the team was able to quickly build and scale a responsive user-focused hub. ¹

A key feature was the introduction of on-demand professional learning for teaching staff, covering key areas such as curriculum modules, student assessment and wellbeing, and using digital technology to teach. The taskforce team rapidly sourced or developed more than 5,000 high-quality resources and made them available online. The department established 25 virtual staffrooms, enabling teachers across the state to collaborate and share information and resources. Thirty thousand teachers from across the state participated in the virtual staffrooms, and between 16 March and 30 April 2020, Department of Education corporate staff members delivered 60 state-wide live professional learning webinars on a variety of topics. Over 19,000 educators participated in these webinars in the first 20 days of the COVID lockdown period.

The successful launch included four weeks of live training and Q&A sessions, which were recorded and made available on the website. This training contributed to teacher identified professional development hours.

Communications for the Learning from Home hub focused on internal channels for staff and external channels for parents and key stakeholder groups, so there was consistent messaging and coordinated implementation, alongside customised calls to action.

The hub enabled school communities across the state to have the same access to information and resources, improving education opportunities for many. To improve equity of learning, the department also provided tens of thousands of computers to those in need. And students were able to access virtual counselling to support their wellbeing in this challenging time.

While the pandemic has been a significant disrupter to the delivery of education, it has also been the catalyst for improvements in several areas. Virtual counselling for students – which was not available before COVID-19 – will continue to be offered.

The one-stop shop of resources and virtual staffrooms provided educators with the most contemporary knowledge, and access will continue via the hub as it is continually updated. Teachers from smaller, remote and regional schools will continue to have a greater sense of connection to their colleagues in other parts of the state, providing support and sharing the lessons they have learnt.

When the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) transitioned its more than 10,000 employees to remote working in early 2020, it wanted to make sure they remained connected and engaged. 

The department’s Crisis Management team (CMT) provided access to equipment so employees could create ergonomic workspaces at home. The team also worked with DPIE leaders to communicate new measures designed to keep employees safe, engaged and informed. These included virtual channels featuring pre-recorded videos and live discussions. In addition, CMT provided guidance and resources to help leaders support employee wellbeing while working remotely.

The department also ran pulse surveys during the pandemic to better understand how employees were coping. The surveys, which were designed with input from DPIE staff, were short and engaging, while also giving employees the opportunity to share and be heard. The surveys included targeted questions about health and wellbeing, experiences of working from home, and access to flexible working and leave options.

The first survey ran in May 2020 and had a participation rate of 59%. Employees were keen to share their experiences, including their frustrations, what they thought was working well and how they were feeling. The survey results showed positive scores for communication and leadership engagement, with respondents saying they had a strong sense of trust in their leaders. As part of the department’s communications strategy, leaders regularly presented live, made themselves visible to staff, and provided updates on DPIE and COVID-19. 

The second survey, which ran in August 2020, had a participation rate of 46%. Respondents were asked to indicate whether they felt like they were ‘thriving’, ‘gliding’, ‘surviving’, ‘fluctuating’, ‘struggling’ or ‘sinking’. They also had the option to identify specific concerns and request a call from the Health and Wellbeing team. Almost 80 people asked for a follow-up call and received additional support. 

DPIE employees overwhelmingly felt that remote working had been a success and said they would welcome the opportunity to continue to work from home for at least part of their time once it was possible to return to the office. The department used the survey responses on working arrangements to continue its proactive workplace planning. 

The pulse surveys showed that the department listened to its people and implemented measures to support their health and wellbeing during the pandemic. This was also reflected in the 2020 People Matter Employee Survey, where 86.6% of DPIE respondents (compared with 82.6% for the sector) agreed with the statement “My organisation adapts and responds to major events that impact our work”.

Responding to COVID-19 required cross-sector mobility in key areas of demand, on a scale never seen before. The NSW public sector’s response has required rapid mobility of staff across agencies, and a quick intake of people from other sectors. The NSW Health COVID-19 Contact Tracing team is an example of this collaboration.

Contact tracing was already part of the NSW Public Health system: many Local Health Districts, though their public health units, had been tracing infectious diseases for 30 years. But when COVID‑19 hit, the system needed a more centralised capacity to cope with the new challenges.

Although contact tracing now seems to happen instantaneously, it is hard to believe that the COVID‑19 Contact Tracing team began as four employees on 13 March 2020 and expanded to 200 employees by the end of that month. Today, there are more than 400 contact tracers in the NSW Health central team alone.

NSW Health Contact Tracing Unit Director Carolyn Murray said that after a late-night phone call from her Director requesting the urgent establishment of a COVID-19 Contact Tracing team, she gathered three nurses together and the four of them began calling people who may have been in close contact with COVID-19.

As the workload increased rapidly, NSW Health reached out across the public sector for staff from other agencies to join the Contact Tracing team. They received an overwhelming response from all areas of the sector, including those not involved in healthcare. This spirit of service and willingness to collaborate were critical to the success of the Contact Tracing team.

Once NSW Health had established a process for moving staff across agencies and assessing core capabilities, employees from NSW public sector agencies were able to move across to the Contact Tracing team quickly at a time of critical need. Many are still temporarily based at the contact tracing headquarters and will remain there as needed.

As the number of infections grew, so did the number of contact tracers, and a range of staff joined the team – from the Australian Defence Force, the PSC, the Cancer Institute, Taronga Zoo and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The NSW Health COVID-19 Contact Tracing team now includes employees from a variety of other sectors, including airlines.

A big challenge for the team was scaling up training to induct new contract tracers quickly, as numbers increased and updates changed daily. NSW Health collaborated with the Health Education and Training Institute to rapidly set up an online training system and standard operating procedures for staff making those important contact tracing calls. The Contact Tracing team also worked with Service NSW to support the design and implementation of the QR code system for venues to help identify attendees who may have come in close contact with the virus.

Although the contact tracing system was designed to make outbound calls and advise people of what they needed to do, it evolved to also receive inbound calls from those requiring additional support or struggling with self-isolation. The success of the service saw it grow far beyond its initial scope and take on an even greater role in fighting COVID-19.

“One of the things I’ve learnt during this time is that people respond to a crisis differently,” Ms Murray said. “Working to engage staff around their strengths and contribute to the response is important. NSW has strong leadership and that flows through to the successes of our contact tracing.”

The challenges of 2020 saw the NSW public sector work in new ways with communities to protect the health of those most at risk.

Several parts of the sector worked with the small Aboriginal community of Toomelah, in remote North West NSW, to implement the first COVID-19 Community Action Plan. This approach has since been replicated in other Aboriginal communities across NSW, acting as a model for effective community collaboration.

Toomelah’s overcrowded housing and disproportionally greater health concerns meant the community would have been particularly vulnerable had a COVID-19 outbreak occurred.

In March 2020, as many were still working to understand the threat posed by COVID-19, Aboriginal Affairs NSW (part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet) contacted the Toomelah Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) to begin work on a Community Action Plan.

The community led the development of the plan, taking responsibility for its design and enforcement. By April, all parties had agreed on the plan – the shortest time the community had taken to move from inception to implementation of a government initiative.

The Community Action Plan outlined agreed actions for the community, the NSW Government, non‑government organisations and the Commonwealth Government should COVID-19 enter the community. It was structured around three levels of threat: preparation, containment and elimination.

Crowded housing posed problems for isolation. In response, vacant Teacher Housing Authority properties were made available and new temporary accommodation was built. A barrier was put in place in Toomelah to prevent any non-essential services from entering the town. This barrier successfully protected Toomelah from acquiring any COVID-19 cases, so the second and third components of the plan – containment and elimination – did not need to be enacted.

However, with schools across the state shutting down in April and limited home internet access in Toomelah, the community faced a new challenge: how to deliver online schooling. The Department of Education, Department of Regional NSW and Toomelah LALC again worked together to develop a solution. In the end, the school’s wi-fi signal was extended to allow much of the community to access the school’s wi-fi network from home. The agencies involved are now investigating whether this access can be extended beyond the school system to also allow free access to the Service NSW website.

Toomelah’s location on the NSW–Queensland border presented additional challenges as new restrictions required community members to provide identification to cross the border – necessary for Toomelah residents to access the closest hospital, supermarket and other essential services. Many residents of Aboriginal communities have no photo identification. To resolve this issue, the LALC invited Service NSW to the community to process legal photo identification applications for willing residents.

Support from the NSW public sector during the pandemic, and the willingness of all involved to collaborate respectfully and effectively for the benefit of the community, has built strong bonds of trust. It has also served as a blueprint for genuine government–community collaboration that will hopefully inform the sector’s broader work in serving customer needs.

As we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be easy to forget the impact of the 2019–20 bushfires on the state, the country and even the world.

Over the 2019–20 fire season, 11,774 fires across NSW burnt more than 5.5 million hectares of land – about 7.0% of the state’s total land area. They destroyed 2,476 houses, three schools, 284 facilities and 5,559 outbuildings, and damaged 800 kilometres of road.¹ The Government declared a State of Emergency three times.

Images of NSW employees from the Rural Fire Service – supported by Fire and Rescue NSW, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the NSW Forestry Corporation, all working to keep communities safe – were beamed around the world.

Agencies worked together, supporting each other and sharing years of knowledge to minimise the devastating impacts on the NSW community.

Taken from the NSW Premier’s Award 2020 nominations, the following are just some of the ways the NSW public sector served customers and the community during and after the fires.

The Department of Communities and Justice established the Bushfire Housing Assistance Service and the Bushfire Housing Assistance Response Team to support people displaced due to the fires. More than 8,000 people received more than 19,000 nights of accommodation.

The Department of Customer Service’s Spatial Services’ Emergency Information Coordination Unit became a hub for emergency data sharing across NSW Government. The unit delivered timely spatial data and imagery for emergency services at the height of the bushfires. It continues to support recovery efforts and collaborate with Infrastructure NSW on infrastructure and asset management for better planning, forecasting and responses for future bushfire and emergency events.

The Department of Education worked to ensure schools were safe and able to open on day one of Term 1, 2020. This helped provide a sense of normality and security for young people who had experienced the trauma of the fires. The department conducted safety checks for over 400 schools in three weeks, and rebuilt two schools in less than three months.

Local Land Services used existing expertise to establish a triage call centre, taking pressure off emergency services. The agency provided landholders and animal owners with veterinary advice, fodder, water and other support for injured and displaced animals. The agency also assisted the community with the daunting task of stock destruction and burial.

The NSW Telco Authority provided 24-hour emergency coordination of telecommunications to support emergency services. The authority maintains the Public Safety Network (PSN), providing reliable radio communications for emergency services. The PSN provided more than 99% coverage throughout the crisis, helping crews and local communities remain safe.

The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment began emergency air monitoring and quickly deployed nine temporary monitoring stations, at Batemans Bay, Coffs Harbour, Cooma, Grafton, Lismore, Merimbula, Port Macquarie, Taree and Ulladulla. These stations provided vital information on air quality in impacted communities. Five of the monitoring stations are now permanent.

Public Works Advisory, within the Regional NSW cluster, worked with contractors to clear debris from fire-damaged properties and make communities safe as quickly as possible. It cleared close to 3,600 properties and directly injected more than $150 million into local communities, assisting with economic recovery.

Service NSW extended hours and worked tirelessly to connect those impacted by the fires to different government services.

TAFE NSW offered fee-free short courses to affected communities, providing the skills needed to help rebuild devastated communities. More than 1,500 people enrolled for free training.

Transport for NSW employees worked around the clock – often surrounded by infrastructure that was still smouldering – to reopen affected road and rail infrastructure, which at times provided vital connections to regional communities.

The unprecedented speed with which these essential services were repaired, reopened or reimagined is testament to the unswerving commitment of the NSW public sector to NSW communities.