The Commission has consistently championed the work of the public sector, its people and its values by leading and partnering in projects and events that foster innovation, collaboration and connectedness across the sector’s workforce.
The seven public sector values – responsiveness, integrity, impartiality, accountability, respect, leadership and human rights – were embedded as a consistent theme across communications and engagement materials including Commissioner keynote speeches, presentations, blogs, social media posts and newsletters. We also ran specific, successful communications campaigns and events for United Nations Public Service Day and Values Week.
In April 2025, we delivered the State of the Public Sector report, which presented key performance indicators on public sector effectiveness, case studies showcasing public sector initiatives, and comprehensive workforce data. The report drew on two major data sources:
From these data sets, the Commission also developed data insights products to support a range of organisations and government work on topics such as workplace strategies and action plans, efficiency initiatives and workplace audits.
In 2025, the Commission continued to support colleagues across the Victorian Public Service (VPS) to learn, share and connect through live and on-demand events, resources, and communities of practice, hosted on the Innovation Network. A Working in Government Hub was launched, offering on-demand learning events, resources, and information focused on the unique aspects of our state government system and public service work. So far, the hub has been accessed by over 11,000 users, with over 33,000 page visits.
The Commission has continued to help set the integrity expectations for the public sector, provide advice and guidance on how to meet these expectations, and monitor compliance with them.
In February 2025, the Commission published a model protocol for engaging with ministerial offices. This protocol, the first of its kind in Australia, is being tailored by each of the departments. The protocol clearly sets out how departments will engage with ministerial offices throughout the briefing cycle. It is a practical tool to support Victorian Public Service employees to deliver high quality, frank, impartial and accountable advice.
In recognition of the important cultural role that leaders play, this year the Commission also published a model integrity goal for inclusion in all public service executives’ performance plans – which public sector executives are also encouraged to adopt. This reflects a strong priority not just on what executives deliver, but on how they deliver it.
Again focusing on leaders, the Commission has tightened some of the pre-employment screening requirements for the recruitment of public service executives. There are new requirements to validate executive candidates’ assertions around any prior misconduct, and a more prescriptive approach to obtaining references.
The Commission also reminded public sector employees of their obligations during the lead up to elections with refreshed election guidance prior to both local council and federal elections. As part of its monitoring work, the Commission conducted a round of compliance monitoring with departments focusing on leadership and culture, two of the domains under the integrity framework.
The Commission also delivered 3 online sessions for board directors of public entities to improve their awareness of integrity obligations with a combined audience of more than 400 people.
Supporting the sector to improve the diversity, adaptability and performance of its workforce has been a key focus of the Commission’s work.
The Commission is leading the delivery of the VPS secretaries’ investment in a focused approach to core public service craft capability development over the next four years.
This commenced with the development and publication of the 2025 Capability Development Statement from Victorian Public Service secretaries to publicly affirm these commitments.
Our Capability Development team designed and delivered capability development initiatives for priority VPS cohorts including staff new to government, people managers and executives.
The program included 10 forums which were attended by a total of 2,990 employees across 10 VPS departments and over 40 entities. Ninety-two per cent of surveyed
participants were satisfied with the learning offerings, reporting improvements in their capability, knowledge and confidence.
In 2025, the Commission refreshed and delivered two series of the Executive Essentials Program to 131 new leaders. The Commissioner also hosted three interactive forums for the Deputy Secretary cohort, inviting experienced public sector figures to share their insights, experience and knowledge with attendees.
Since 2023 we have partnered with Emergency Management Victoria and government departments to deliver the Rapid Response Pilot (RRP) a new operating model to test surge workforce readiness. In late 2024, the RRP was activated to support the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s response to the Grampians bushfires. The RRP program has laid foundations to enable faster, more flexible deployment of public servants to priority areas.
We launched ‘Creating a positive workplace culture’ resources after conducting detailed analysis across multiple Victorian public sector organisations to identify the five key drivers of a positive workplace culture.
We also ran the ‘Building an inclusive board culture’, a tailored course for 377 Victorian public sector board Chairs and Directors. Led by experts including Dr Katie Spearritt and Tarang Chawla, the program educated participants on understanding intersectionality, recognising bias and exclusion and applying inclusive leadership principles. At completion, 94% of surveyed participants reported high levels of competence and confidence in topics covered.
The Commission undertook extensive engagement with First Nations staff and stakeholders to develop and launch the Barring Djinang First Peoples Workforce Development Framework covering 2024 to 2028. The framework builds on the solid foundations of the previous Barring Djinang strategy and deepens our commitment to culturally safe pathways and sustainable career progression for First Nations employees in the sector. To ensure strategic guidance and implementation, the Commission established a Director, First Peoples role.
Under the Barring Djinang framework we:
The Commission delivered the Victorian Government Graduate Program to 14 VPS departments and agencies, recruiting 134 graduates for the 12-month program. About 15% of graduates participated in a diversity pathway, designed to support First Nations graduates and graduates with disability.
Since 2022, the Commission has worked with WorkSafe Victoria to support departments to reduce and prevent mental injuries across the VPS workforce. This year, the Commission designed a recovery at work mobility model and launched refreshed online workplace health and safety tools and resources to strengthen cross-government OHS governance.
We also redesigned Careers.vic, Victoria’s official site for public sector jobs, to improve user experience, security and accessibility for all job seekers.
The Commission has invested in its own capability development and culture so it can best serve the sector.
By devising and delivering an updated communications and engagement strategy the Commission was able to grow the reputation and recognition of both the organisation and the Commissioner. We expanded our communications channels and supported the Commissioner to engage widely with the sector, appearing at a variety of events reaching diverse audiences. Social media analytics showed a steady growth in followers, traffic and engagement across the sector for both the Commission and Commissioner’s accounts.
We relocated the Commission’s office to more modern, central facilities to better support collaboration, accessibility, and service delivery. The results were evident in VPSC’s People matter survey results: agreement to the statement of ‘my organisation provides a physically safe work environment’ increased by 21 percentage points. We commenced redevelopment of the Commission’s website to improve user experience, overall accessibility and better align content with our strategic priorities.
We also strengthened our compliance posture by reviewing and updating internal policy settings to ensure alignment with our legislative obligations and contemporary public sector standards.