Fifth quarterly update of icare's Improvement Program released
This update sets out Promontory Australia’s observations on icare’s progress in addressing the McDougall and GAC Recommendations during the period from 1 November 2022 to 31 January 2023.
icare continues to make sound progress in the execution of its Improvement Program according to independent assurer Promontory Australia.
The Improvement Program was set up following recommendations that came out of the McDougall Review and the Governance, Accountability and Culture (GAC) review in early 2021.
Collectively, the reviews made a set of recommendations to strengthen icare's culture, governance and accountability framework, upgrade icare's risk awareness, risk management and risk capability, and bring about a greater focus on customer outcomes.
Promontory recognised that during the reporting period, icare achieved a number of key milestones of the Improvement Program. These, the report stated, are strong indicators of icare's ongoing commitment towards the effective execution of the Improvement Program and reforms to its operations and management of risk, including at the Board and senior executive levels.
Promontory found (as at the reporting date):
- all Initiatives had commenced or completed work on the Design Phase with over half of these assessed by Promontory as complete and effective
- over 90 percent of the Initiatives had commenced or completed work on the Implement Phase
- over two-thirds of the Initiatives had commenced or completed work on the Embed Phase.
Promontory identified three key areas of focus for this update: technology, governance and managing change fatigue.
In technology, the report observed a considerable uplift in efforts, adding that it is imperative icare continues to exhibit the heightened level of attention observed during the reporting period to effectively manage challenges that may emerge.
In governance, as in prior reporting periods, Promontory found that the Program's governance forums continue to effectively monitor program progress and facilitate robust discussion on the key decisions and issues facing the Program.
In managing change fatigue, Promontory noted while icare has established good momentum with the Program, the coming period is where change fatigue is likely to pose challenges and that icare will need to ensure that it manages change fatigue where it appears so that the desired organisational change is delivered at a level of quality.
icare Managing Director and CEO Richard Harding welcomed the findings, saying it was good to receive another positive progress report.
"Across icare, we are working very hard on delivering our Improvement Program. We’ve done a lot of good work and made good progress, but we know there is still a long way to go."
"We are very focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for those we serve."
Promontory will continue to provide quarterly updates on icare's progress in executing the Improvement Program. These updates are published on this website.
