Seventh quarterly update of icare's Improvement Program released

icare continues to make significant progress in the execution of its Improvement Program, according to independent assurer Promontory Australia.

The most recent period has seen icare onboard a further new claims services provider, as well as showcase the positive advancements identified in recent culture surveys.

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 notes that during the Reporting Period icare achieved a number of key milestones of the Improvement Program. This included Promontory's assessment of a further 12 Recommendations as complete and effective in the period, taking the total number of Recommendations assessed as complete and effective to 27.

As at the Reporting Date icare had commenced or completed work on:

• the Design Phase for all Initiatives
• the Implement Phase for 95 percent of Initiatives
• the Embed Phase for 75 percent of Initiatives.

Promontory raised three key areas of focus for this update: culture, ownership and consistency, and sustainability.

The Report mentioned that in the period, recent icare engagement and culture surveys demonstrated an increase in staff engagement and a move to a more 'constructive' and a less 'defensive' style across the organisation.

However, the Report cautioned that while initial signs are positive, cultural reform takes years to bed down and that icare would need to foster a culture of constant vigilance and continuous improvement with active risk management to ensure reforms become part of the organisational fabric.

Promontory also observed that "…improvements in governance and non-financial risk reporting have been evident across different business units, signalling an uplift in icare's risk maturity".

Moving forward, consistent ownership of outstanding pivotal program initiatives will be important to ensure the seamless integration into BAU.

Similarly on sustainability, Promontory observed that it was important for icare to consider how it would maintain the outcomes from the Program into the future so that they were not eroded over time, given a large number of the Program's Initiatives are now reaching the end of delivery stages.

icare Managing Director and CEO Richard Harding said he was proud of the Program's progress.

"It's good to learn that Promontory continues to acknowledge the solid progress being made. We've worked hard to deliver a new claims model this year, an important milestone for icare that will improve support for injured workers.

“It's good to learn that Promontory continues to acknowledge the solid progress being made. We've worked hard to deliver a new claims model this year, an important milestone for icare that will improve support for injured workers.”

"I want to thank our hard-working staff across New South Wales for helping to close a further 12 Recommendations during this period. Of course, as we move forward with further transformations, we will remain vigilant to also embed ongoing, sustainable change into all our operations."

Promontory will continue to provide quarterly updates on icare's progress in executing the Improvement Program. These updates are published on this website.