Building counter fraud capability in partnership with the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre

It’s the start of a new financial year here in the PSFA, where the Practice Standards and Capability team are stepping back to plan the year's activity, aligned to the recently launched strategy for the Counter Fraud Profession.? The new strategy sets out the aims and ambitions for the next 3 years, and has 5 key objectives:

This year, some of the activity will include:

• Completing? the build of the immersive learning aspects of the Counter Fraud Leaders Programme, a bespoke course built to address the capability needs of those SCS leaders, heading up fraud functions across government. Those taking the course will be put through their paces, supporting their development in understanding fraud risk, leadership and strategy, and a focus on the importance of ethics.?
• Increasing access to fraud risk training, via online learning to introduce learners to the knowledge and skills in fraud risk assessment?
• The publication of Fraud Prevention standards for practitioners, providing guidance, products and processes, as well as codifying the knowledge, skills and competencies required?
• Regular skills and competency events, providing updates on practice approaches and technical uplifts to develop individuals
• Membership events, including an annual conference in October 2023??
• Development of an apprenticeship in counter fraud, including prevention, measurement and fraud risk assessment elements- modernising the future focus of career pathways, beyond investigation

The overall focus of this activity- and more planned- is embedding long term structures and producing tools to deepen the counter fraud capability in the public sector, and to drive up the skills and competency of those leading our practitioners. The Profession also helps to build recognition of those working in counter fraud, and provides a way of demonstrating those that have met the standard set by the Profession, enhancing their career prospects now and in the future.?

As the team start to plan this year, they will be doing so with some additional expertise and support in the shape of Chris Mcdermott, who joins us from the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre, part of the Attorney-General’s Department in Australia. Chris is on secondment, part of the new initiative led by the PSFA to talent share- and provide the respective jurisdictions with access to expertise and leading practice. Chris joins us for 3 months and shares below his drivers for applying for the secondment, and what lessons he will bring to the PSFA and Government Counter Fraud Profession specifically in his time with us:

The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre was established in 2019 to strengthen counter fraud arrangements across the Australian Government. This is no small undertaking and involves working with experts, both within Australia and across the world, to identify and develop leading counter fraud practice. Our Centre then makes this leading practice easy to understand and readily accessible to those who need it - the practitioners working on the ground, often with little support, to make a real contribution to preventing fraud within the public sector. Most of our guidance and tools are freely available at www.counterfraud.gov.au. We have also recently launched a new Learning & Development Strategy, with the aim of laying the pathway to a Counter Fraud Profession in Australia.?

Since 2019, we have seen first hand the value of collaboration across countries, who are often dealing with the same challenges and innovating new ways to deal with fraud. There has been no greater supporter of our Centre’s mission than the UK Government, first through the Counter Fraud Centre of Expertise and now through our new strategic partner, the PSFA.?

The international counter fraud secondment program is a real practical opportunity to deepen our engagement and relationships with international partners, share practice and build expertise in countering fraud. During my time in the UK I’m looking forward to contributing to the exciting work and ambitions of the PSFA. I’m also looking forward to meeting members of the Profession across the UK and learning about different approaches and capability we could deploy back in Australia.?

Email us to find out more about the Profession via [email protected] or to read move about the PSFA https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-sector-fraud-authority