Evaluation of the Department of Justice Professional Development Function
5. Conclusions, recommendations and management response
This evaluation examined both the effectiveness and efficiency of the PD function at the Department. Effectiveness was considered in terms of Justice Canada achieving its objectives in relation to having meaningful impact, meeting employees’ PD needs, addressing barriers to accessing training, and aligning with departmental and governmental priorities. Governance structures and resources were analyzed for efficiency. Examining and comparing costs for PD at the Department is challenging due to the availability, consistency and accuracy of existing data, such as the nature and extent of training undertaken by individual employees and expenditures on training by type/subject matter. Despite these data limitations, a triangulated approach of using multiple lines of evidence has helped mitigate the concerns.
Specifically, results of this evaluation indicate that:
- Justice Canada employees report generally positive impacts of PD, particularly for external training. Although there are LPD and CLEP post-training surveys, there is no permanent process in place to reliably evaluate and communicate PD impacts, particularly in the long term.
- The majority of Justice Canada employees report that they get the training they need, although some barriers to accessibility were noted, including budget and operational constraints. Challenges in delivering training tailored to regional realities and needs were also noted, including limits to virtual participation related to technological issues and time zone differences. Without a systematic departmental training needs assessment, an objective assessment of the degree to which employees’ needs are met is not possible.
- There is an informal approach to planning and alignment with departmental and federal government priorities. There is no strategic approach to planning and priority setting at a departmental level.
- There is no overarching governance of the departmental PD function that encompasses the main delivery providers, portfolios, sectors and regional offices. Although there is some communication of PD activities across these areas, this could be increased to improve efficiency and facilitate sharing of training resources and activities. Roles and responsibilities were not always clear. Despite some challenges with coordination, several portfolios, sectors and regional offices within the Department provided best practice examples of training delivery.
- The absence of a coordinated approach to drive alignment of limited resources with departmental and governmental needs and priorities may limit efforts to deliver training to Justice Canada employees in a cost-effective manner. Although the Department annually transfers funds to CSPS, Justice Canada employees are accessing CSPS products at a lower rate than the public service more generally. This lower rate may be attributed to the absence of legal training and limited number of accredited courses at CSPS. However, the Department demonstrates efforts to deliver training in a cost-effective manner, such as through the use of internal expertise to design and deliver training.
The evaluation has reported on the positive impacts, best practices and ongoing efforts to improve planning and delivery of PD in the Department. However, several challenges were identified related to coordination of the PD function and consistency and efficiency of planning, delivery and data collection. As a result, the following recommendations are made to enhance coordination as well as strategic planning and delivery of the function across the Department:
Recommendation 1:
Establish an overarching governance mechanism for the departmental professional development function. The governance mechanism should include representation at a senior level across portfolios and sectors (including regional offices reporting through the National Litigation Sector), to provide oversight and high-level guidance, and to ensure that learning activities address departmental and governmental priorities.
Management Response:
The Human Resource Branch’s Centre of Expertise for Learning and Professional Development and the Legal Practices Sector’s Continuing Legal Education Program are working together to establish a Learning Steering Committee comprised of senior representatives from each portfolio/sector. The Committee will provide oversight and high-level guidance for the development and implementation of legal and non-legal departmental learning programs and activities in order to ensure the delivery of an efficient, cost-effective and coordinated national approach to learning.
Recommendation 2:
Establish an overarching, integrated framework for the professional development function within the Department, which would include clarification of the mandate for the departmental professional development providers, as well as clear roles and responsibilities for portfolios and sectors (including regional offices through the National Litigation Sector.
Management Response:
The Human Resource Branch’s Centre of Expertise for Learning and Professional Development and the Legal Practices Sector’s Continuing Legal Education Program will work with key stakeholders to develop an integrated framework for the professional development function that will clarify roles and responsibilities and propose an approach for which regions, sectors and portfolios should work together to more efficiently address learning needs and report on learning investments. The framework will also include the need to perform a formal corporate learning needs analysis to strategically identify learning needs for the organization.
Recommendation 3:
Develop a performance measurement strategy to measure the performance of the PD function.
Management Response:
The Human Resource Branch’s Centre of Expertise for Learning and Professional Development and the Legal Practices Sector’s Continuing Legal Education Program will work with key stakeholders to establish a performance measurement strategy that will measure the performance of the professional development function for the Department.
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