• Exhibits, Forensic Information and Miscellaneous Property System
• Improving Employment and Education Outcomes for Mental Health Consumers
• Expansion of the Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program

Exhibits, Forensic Information and Miscellaneous Property System

Winner – Succeeding through Innovation

For decades operational police recorded all evidence and exhibits in a carbon copy book at each respective Local Area Command (LAC). The records were hand written and there were hundreds of books at each LAC.

Locating a piece of evidence or exhibit meant hours of phone calls to LACs. Further there was no central repository or system to manage evidence and exhibits.

NSW Police Force undertook an ambitious and vital modernisation of the collection, management and reporting of forensic evidence and exhibits across the organisation. The Exhibits, Forensic Information and Miscellaneous Property System project used a range of tools and techniques to build comprehensive requirements that were presented in ways never before envisaged by NSW Police Force. The system creates a database where evidence and exhibits are captured. The system touches every aspect of day to day policing and is accessible anywhere and anytime.

The system has the potential to impact 15,000 to 16,000 operational police across the state and is driving efficiency in police operations and visibility.

The system is operational in 4 Local Area Commands and as part of the staged implementation will move to 9 more Local Area Commands.

It is critical that we give recognition to both excellence and innovation in project management within the NSW Public Sector.

Describe how your /your team felt when your project was announced as Winner?

The project team was thrilled to hear that the NSW Police Force had won the Premier's Public Sector Award for 'Succeeding through Innovation' for the Exhibits, Forensic Information and Miscellaneous Property System (EFIMS).

The award gives recognition to the individual dedication, hard work, personal passion and unwavering commitment to delivering a system that places NSW Police Force at the technological forefront of public sector agencies and puts modern tools into the hands of frontline police. The award also validated the approach undertaken by the team early in the project in undertaking extensive consulation with stakeholders throughout the organisation to capture detailed business requirements.

How has winning a Premier's Public Sector Award impacted on your team/organisation?

Winning the Premier's Award for 'Succeeding through Innvoation' is an honour for NSW Police Force, the Forensic Services Group and the EFIMS project team. The award motivates the team to continue to innovate and deliver improvements to EFIMS through to the end of the project in 2012. NSW Police Force will continue to look to achieving benefits for the whole community – the people of NSW – in its operations and projects, through the development of systems that increase the efficiency and capability of operational police.

Improving Employment and Education Outcomes for Mental Health Consumers

Winner – Delivering Services

The incidence of mental health is estimated to affect one in five people over the course of their life. For people with a severe and persistent mental illness, accessing employment and benefiting from its' enabling effect can be a challenge as many people with a mental illness continue to experience discrimination and disadvantage.

The Vocational Education Training and Employment Service in Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service (NSCAHS) caters for people with a severe and persistent mental illness. Over 1700 mental health consumers have been served by over four Vocational Education Training and Employment Consultants from 2007 to 2010. Of these 929 mental health consumers have achieved improvement in their employment and education outcomes, including obtaining employment, completing education, linking with employment services, improving their vocational skills/resources, and participating in volunteer work or social groups.

Describe how your team felt when your project was announced Winner?

"The immediate response in my head was; 'Oh my God!!!'. The two Directors accompanying me almost jumped out of their seats, and a third colleague accidentally whacked the person next to her in the head, as she waved her arms around to cheer. It was a very proud moment indeed.

As a result of winning the Delivering Services category the issue of mental health and employment has been recognised as a worthwhile and achievable cause. The team have attracted a lot of attention from senior management within NSCCAHS as well as NSW Health.

I was also invited to showcase my project to the Director General, NSW Health as part of the NSCCAHS Annual Performance Review Showcase in December 2010."

Expansion of the Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program

Winner – Leading Change

Domestic violence is an issue that pervades all aspects of our society. Providing adequate support and ensuring that people affected by domestic violence have access to the services they require is critical.

The Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program at Legal Aid NSW led a highly effective expansion of court advocacy services for victims of domestic violence. In effect the team almost doubled the services available from 65 NSW Local Courts to 108 NSW Local Courts.

The Women's Domestic Advocacy Services are locally-based and provide independent services for women and children seeking help and information about how to get protection from the court from domestic violence.

The expansion of services was a vast shift to the way Women's Domestic Advocacy Services had been run in the past. To implement this change, Legal Aid NSW effectively managed stakeholder expectations, implemented a consultative approach and ran a transparent and robust expression of interest program through the Grants Committee to determine the appropriate service provider for these services.

The team's dedication to excellence in promoting and leading change led to an effective expansion of critical advocacy services for women and children in need.

Describe how your team felt when your project was announced Winner?

We were thrilled when our team was announced the winner in Leading Change! The project was a real team effort and we all worked tirelessly to ensure the expansion of advocacy services was a success. We knew we did a great job but it was fantastic to be publically recognised and acknowledged for the work we had done.

Winning the Premier's Public Sector Award has had a fantastic impact on our team and has raised the level of understanding about domestic violence in our unit both within Legal Aid NSW and to our external stakeholders.

Winning the award has been a real sense of achievement for the team and for Legal Aid NSW.