Organisational Health Framework for Social Services

Overview

The Framework was co-developed by NCSS and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, in partnership with “KPMG” and “108 Growth Partners”. It was launched by NCSS in 2022 along with an assessment tool to empower social service agencies (SSAs) to identify their strengths and areas for development.

The framework enables SSAs to take a holistic view of their organisational health, and strategically plan their capability-building efforts to achieve sustainable outcomes.

The 7 domains of organisational health identified in the framework

Assess your organisation

NCSS strongly encourages SSAs to assess their organisation using the framework before applying for funding support for capability building. The assessment will help articulate organisational health gaps and targets for capability building moving forward. The assessment should be conducted annually to track progress and refine efforts if needed.

SSAs can also sign up for workshops on the Organisational Health Framework for Social Services for guidance on applying the assessment tool to their organisation, and hear about learnings and best practices from other SSAs who have completed the assessment.

To take the assessment, SSAs can follow these five steps:

Step 1: Assign a Diagnostic Lead

• Select a Diagnostic Lead who will lead in the understanding of the structure and questionnaire in the framework.

Step 2: Plan with your Diagnostic Lead

• The Diagnostic Lead and Agency Head should discuss your agency's approach and select participants for the assessment. A minimum of 8 participants is required, including the Head of Agency and Diagnostic Lead (main liaison for the Assessment). Each participant must have a good overview of at least one of the 7 domains identified in the framework. Each participant must submit the Assessment form individually.

Step 3: Register selected participants

• The Diagnostic Lead will register the participants, and each participant will receive a confirmation email from NCSS.

• Diagnostic Leads can register their members with this online form.

Step 4: Complete the online form

• Each participant will receive email instructions to fill in the online form. Please note that participants will not be able to save their responses as draft and will need to complete the form in one sitting.

• Participants may refer to the Organisational Health Framework for Social Services Toolkit to review the questions offline before submission. The estimated time taken to complete the form is between 45 minutes to an hour.

Step 5: Receive a report

• Once all participants finish the form, your Diagnostic Lead will receive the Sectoral Employee Engagement Survey (EES) report.

Support available after completing the OHFSS Assessment

Organisational Health Diagnostic Scheme

• Receive an in-depth diagnosis of your organisational health and a 3-year strategy document with recommendations from Korn Ferry.

Organisational Health Guidebook for Social Services (OHGSS)

• Take actionable steps in improving your organisation by learning more about how you can implement the framework.

Grants

• Apply for funding for your capability building projects to strengthen your organisation.