Financial Statements 2007–2008 (Unaudited): Addendum to Five Year Report to Parliament

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Future Directions for the Canada School of Public Service
• Orientation and Certification
• Delivery of Training and Development Courses
• Promoting Best Practices
• Evaluation Framework
• Conclusion
• Multi-Year Evaluation Plan

Introduction

The Board of Governors (the Board) of the Canada School of Public Service (the School) is required to report to Parliament on the School's activities every five years. When submitting its Report, the Board looks back on the organization and activities of the School over the previous five years and looks forward at the School's planned directions for the next five years.

When the Board tabled its Report to Parliament in June 2007, work on Public Service Renewal had recently been launched. The Board felt that this work would need to be considered in shaping the School's future directions. As a result, the Board focused its Report on the previous five years. It committed to produce an addendum within 18 months that would set the School's directions for the next five years, as well as establish an evaluation framework against which progress could be assessed.

We are pleased to provide this Addendum to our Five Year Report to Parliament, thus honouring our commitment to report back in 18 months on the School's future directions and evaluation plan for measuring performance.

Canada School of Public Service Board of Governors

• Kevin Lynch
  Chair
• Ruth Dantzer
  President and Chief Executive Officer
  Canada School of Public Service
• Diane Bean
• Margaret Bloodworth
• Shirish P. Chotalia, Q.C.
• Paul-André Comeau
• Dianne Cunningham
• Nicole Jauvin
• Alain Jolicoeur
• Lucie McClung
• Maureen Molot
• David Stuewe
• Suzanne Tining
• Peter Valentine
• Wayne Wouters

Future Directions for the Canada School of Public Service

The Board recognizes that the School plays an important role in Public Service Renewal. It is only through a sustained investment in people - and in their learning and leadership development needs - that the Public Service will ensure that it has the professional, management and leadership skills it needs to meet the challenges of today and in the future.

"The development of public servants as leaders, managers, professional and empowered employees is central to a high performance institution." (15th Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada, April 2, 2008)

The Clerk of the Privy Council notes in his 15th Annual Report that "...renewal in the public service is about updating what we do and how we do it in order to remain relevant and effective. It is about keeping the public service dynamic, fresh and respected." To this end, the School supports deputy ministers and their departments and agencies in addressing their training and development needs. The School works collaboratively with all its partners (directly and through interdepartmental learning networks) to understand and meet those needs. As the School moves forward, the priority will be on delivering learning and innovation services that are aligned to deputy heads' needs as they build capacity within their own organizations. It is within this learning culture that the public service can be a source of new ideas and fresh perspectives to deal with today's challenges. The School's learning and training courses and programs can help Canada maintain its competitive advantage by contributing to a public service that is professional, competent and accountable.

In order to support the Public Service Renewal agenda and fulfil its mandate, the Board believes that, over the next five years, the School should focus its support to departments and agencies in the following areas:

• Orientation and Certification
• Delivery of Training and Development Courses
• Promoting Best Practices

This should be pursued in a manner that promotes, within the Public Service, a diverse workforce and a bilingual culture.

Orientation and Certification

Orientation to the Public Service: As the first step in required training, new employees need a common understanding of the culture and values of the Public Service and their roles and accountabilities as public servants.

"....successful integration of external entrants to the Public Service – at all levels – is crucial to their effectiveness as employees." (Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on the Public Service, First Annual Report to the Prime Minister, March 30, 2007)

The Public Service should continue to support orientation across Canada to new public servants to ensure their successful integration into the Public Service. To better respond to departmental needs, the orientation program should be redesigned to integrate blended learning techniques - a mix of classroom and on-line training - that will allow for a more efficient and cost-effective delivery.

Authority Delegation Training and Certification: The Public Service needs employees who have the core knowledge and skills that are essential to sound public management. Managers at all levels must acquire the knowledge necessary to perform in their job and exercise their delegated authorities. The School should continue to deliver authority delegation training and testing to employees with delegated authorities to certify that they understand the legal requirements of their job and are able to exercise their delegated authorities competently. The School must also define its role in recertification of employees so that it is delivered in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Delivery of Training and Development Courses

Professional Development Training: The School offers professional development courses, on a cost recovery basis, focused on general public administration skills (e.g. core functions of government) as well as specific techniques and practices (e.g. project management). This type of professional development training to the public sector should be provided by the School only if it is uniquely qualified in terms of expertise, cost-effectiveness and economies of scale. This training should focus on learning needs unique to the public sector and be provided on a full cost recovery basis.

A cross-cutting priority for the School will be to design courses in ways that support on-going networking and sharing of ideas among participants - even after the course ends - to build community and accelerate innovation. Greater emphasis will be placed on developing planning and performance management skills and practices.

Functional Community Training: Functional communities - that is, people who share a profession - need to acquire the specific knowledge and skills they require to perform their job. The Public Service should continue to provide training to key functional communities that are identified as needing support by the employer (e.g. finance, human resources, information management and internal audit). It should also support departments and agencies that have unique functional communities such as Correctional Services, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In addition, the Board believes that there should be a focus on the development needs of the managers' community as this is the talent pool for future senior leaders of the Public Service. This should include a focus on helping managers understand the importance of good people management as well as performance management.

Leadership Development Courses: Leaders are the catalyst that can drive and facilitate change, and create a culture that fosters renewal and encourages innovation. The School has established a strong foundation of leadership programming to support departments and agencies in developing leadership talent. Recent investments have been made to fill the gap in the leadership development continuum, through the Advanced Leadership Program for senior leaders.

"...we have been impressed by the range of programs, both new and existing, for developing future leaders. We take particular interest in the new Advanced Leadership Program for senior officials" (Prime Minister's Advisory Committee, Second Annual Report to the Prime Minister, February 22, 2008).

The development of leaders at all levels should continue to be a priority for the School with a particular emphasis on structuring the design and delivery of leadership programs that are aligned with the priorities of deputy heads in building leadership capacity and integrated into the performance management cycle of their organizations. In addition to its existing leadership programs, the School should strengthen the development of its leadership continuum with a new program targeted to upcoming leaders - high performing individuals with strong leadership potential to move into entry level management roles.

Developing Leadership in a Globalized Economic Landscape: The School has recently introduced new leadership programs for senior leaders aimed at building leaders with increased global awareness and stronger international networks. How Washington Really Works introduces senior leaders to the U.S. government and provides information on managing linkages with the United States. Leadership Across Borders is a four country (Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand) joint venture designed to build enhanced leadership skills by sharing experiences with colleagues from other Commonwealth countries. The School should integrate this learning into the School's other programs so that all public servants better understand the international context in which they work and the comparative management approaches and leading-edge practices in other jurisdictions.

Promoting Best Practices

Acquiring and Disseminating Leading Practices: Through its departmental client relations directors, the School works with deputy ministers and their management teams to better understand their organizational learning needs and help them to advance their organizations' management agenda and achieve their renewal goals. Through its partnerships with universities and its international knowledge transfer and exchange activities, the School identifies the "what" and "how to" of innovative management practices. Through its change management services, it helps departments and agencies adopt these practices. For example, the School has gathered together leading-edge international and Canadian public service practices in integrated planning. This has enabled the School to work with departments to develop integrated planning tools and practices. This work is being incorporated into the School's learning programs. The School also organizes information-sharing events and coordinates leading practice dissemination to promote corporate approaches to common challenges within specific functional communities. The School should continue to be a resource for departments, agencies and communities, supporting them in the acquisition and dissemination of leading-edge public sector management practices. As the School moves forward, the focus will be on identifying practical innovation in public management, and accelerating adoption by integrating research results into learning.

Using Leading-Edge Technologies to Support Training: The rapid development of new technologies is changing the way people learn and is transforming the way training is designed and delivered. New technologies represent an opportunity for the School to broaden its access and reach, enable greater interaction among course participants and remain relevant to a new generation of public servants who are comfortable with alternative learning methods. The School's new web-based 360 assessment tool for leadership courses will enable benchmarking of individuals to the public service and private sector performance averages. Through Campusdirect, the School's online learning portal, public servants have access to a wide variety of on-line training products, including modern language training tools. The School has introduced web-casting of its armchair events and blended learning (a mix of classroom and on-line training) into a number of its courses. The School should continue to explore and adopt innovative new technologies to support its training activities and to promote networking and knowledge sharing among course participants by integrating classroom, distance and on-line training into the delivery of courses and programs.

Adopting Leading Practices in Official Language Maintenance: The Public Service's language training model recognizes bilingualism, like other leadership competencies, can be acquired and maintained through continuous learning. Public servants need to be able to acquire language skills early in their careers and be provided with the tools to maintain and improve those skills throughout their career. The School should continue to develop learning tools using technologies to support maintenance and improvement of language skills.

The School continues to deliver training only where there is no alternate qualified market, in instances where a department has specifically requested that the training be provided by the School and for persons with learning disabilities. For those departments and agencies that access language training through the School, the School provides timely and accurate language training plans for their employees and assures that they have access to quality-assured and cost-effective language training. The School should also continue to provide quality assurance of those qualified private sector training providers who provide services under the standing offer for language training in the National Capital Region. The School will continue to seek external qualified language providers in the regions.

Evaluation Framework

The Government of Canada is making an investment in training, through the School. It needs to be assured that it is achieving the intended results of this investment. The evaluation plan (see Annex A) meets the commitment made by the Board of Governors of the Canada School of Public Service in its Five Year Report to Parliament to establish an evaluation plan against which performance could be assessed.

Conclusion

The Board of Governors of the Canada School of Public Service is pleased to present this addendum to its Five Year Report to Parliament. The addendum identifies key directions for the School and recognizes that the School will maintain flexibility in order to support the learning needs of departments and agencies as the Government of Canada moves forward on Public Service Renewal. Challenges will be to ensure that the School's offerings are state of the art, responsive to the needs of departments and agencies, accessible in all regions of the country and cost-effective. In following these key directions, the School will be able to better define its roles, and focus its efforts on meeting and serving employee learning and development needs of departments, agencies and their deputies.

The Board believes that the School is well-positioned to play an important role in the renewal of the Public Service by helping to ensure that the Public Service has the right skills and required specialized expertise in its workforce. The Board looks forward to working with the staff of the School to help them succeed. We are committed to reporting back to Parliament on the School's successes in our next Five Year Report to Parliament.

Multi-Year Evaluation Plan

Legend

F = Formative Evaluation. Focus is on learner reactions and learning effects (measured by Level 1 and pre-post Level 2 instruments); management effectiveness (measured by document and administrative data review, management and stakeholders interviews); cost efficiency; integration of classroom and e-learning; regional integration.

S = Summative Evaluation. Focus is on value for money, incremental impacts, and achievement of objectives. Measured by a variety of methods including but not limited to: controlled experimental design, analysis of reported past results of the program, random sample, case studies and/or level 3 assessments.

Framework = Evaluation Framework. Provides a profile of the program, its logic model, identifies issues and questions and specifies the types of performance indicators that will be needed to assess the program's success. It explores the data systems and data collection approaches that must be put in place to support the subsequent evaluation of the program.

1. Required Training Program

2. Official Languages

3. Professional Development for Established Functional Communities (Classroom and Blended)

4. Professional Development for Emerging Functional Communities (Classroom and Blended)

5. Management Development Programs (Classroom and Blended)

6. Organizational Leadership & Innovation

7. Campusdirect (300+)

8. Conferences and Special Events

9. Learning Support Services¹

¹ Learning Support Services section of the Evaluation Plan is subject to alignment with the CSPS Audit Plan.

2007-08 was the first year that CSPS developed a multi-year risk-based evaluation plan. However, as changes are been made to the risk factors and terminology within the new TBS Evaluation Policy, and once the new Policy is approved, the risk criteria and terminology used within the CSPS multi-year Evaluation Plan may be modified to further align it with the TBS documentation.

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