Our focus is on being a high performing organisation that is recognised for strong leadership and culture, attracting and retaining top talent and for achieving our corporate objectives.

The key goal for the Perform pillar is ensuring that the ASC has the resources, facilities and capability to drive progress across Win, Play and Thrive to deliver the best outcomes for Australian sport.

The ASC is a unique organisation with a broad reach of activities and operations and diverse workforce who are passionate about working together to benefit Australian sport. We support Play.Sport.Australia. through 12 regional offices across Australia, while the high performance program in support of Australia’s Winning Edge is delivered at the AIS Campus in Bruce, a smaller facility in Pizzey Park on the Gold Coast and the AIS European Training Centre in Italy. Optimising the use of these facilities, including through commercial activities, is important to ensuring that the ASC is well positioned for the future.

The ASC has an important role to play in promoting the sport sector and the value that sport participation and high performance activities deliver. Central to this are the delivery of key events and conferences, including the ASPAs and regular communications across the sport sector and the broader public on the priorities, developments and achievements in Australian sport.

Our approach

In 2015–16 there has been a focus on supporting the business to achieve deliverables under the Win, Play and Thrive pillars and the continued development of systems and support for ASC people. The implementation of targeted communication strategies across both participation and high performance has been a key priority this reporting period, along with the implementation of the ASC commercialisation strategy.

Key activity areas were:

• communication of priorities, goals and successes of the ASC and Australian sport
• effective management of resources
• identification of revenue generation opportunities that present the greatest values
• establishment of AIS facilities as world-recognised centres of excellence
• a focus on strategic priorities and operational effectiveness.

Success is gauged by our media profile and our stakeholders’ satisfaction with the ASC’s performance as a leader in the sport sector, the results of our staff culture surveys, and how effectively we deliver on our strategies.

Our Results

Deliverable	Result	Comment / Supporting statement
Conduct Our Sporting Future conference, ASPAs and ASC Media Awards1		Achieved The Our Sporting Future conference was held on the Gold Coast from 21–23 October 2015 . The ASC Media Awards was held in Melbourne on 26 November 2015. The 2016 ASPAs was held in Sydney on 24 February 2016.
Increased positive media profile and engagement1		Achieved The ASC has conducted regular proactive media engagement and received widespread media attention across key publications and events, including the release of Sports Tally for the Year 2015, a position statement on concussion in sport and the launch of the Sporting Schools program.
Development of a revised learning and development framework in line with better practice approaches1		Achieved The ASC Learning and Development Policy was approved in June 2016.
Actions from the 2015 staff survey are identified and implemented1		Achieved The 2015 staff survey identified two key action areas: communications and employee development. A new communications strategy and the ASC Learning and Development Policy have been implemented in 2016.
Increase in the proportion of ASC funding coming from non-government revenue1		Achieved Non-government revenue comprised 11% of funding in 2015–16 compared to 10.2% in the previous period.
Unqualified financial statement and no ‘A’ category audit findings1		Achieved An unqualified audit opinion was issued by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) for the 2015-16 financial statements.
Stakeholder satisfaction with the ASC leadership of the sector1		Achieved 91% of sport sector partners agree that the ASC demonstrated effective leadership of the sector.
Five-year data centre strategy developed1		Commenced In search of further efficiencies and innovation, the ASC opted to test the market prior to the development of the data centre strategy. The ASC has finalised an approach to market and evaluation process around a suite of ICT services. This process will be completed in 2016–17 including the development of a new data centre operational model.
Develop a long-term plan to manage depreciation and capital for the ASC, including the AIS Bruce campus1		Commenced The depreciation and capital plan for the Bruce campus has been developed to the extent possible prior to the final outcomes of the AIS Future Directions project. Outcomes from AIS Future Directions Review will inform the finalisation of the depreciations and capital plan in 2016-17.
AIS Bruce Campus facility master plan developed1		Commenced In May 2016 the AIS Bruce Campus was included as a Designated Area under the National Capital Plan. As a result, requirements for facility planning have changed, forcing a delay in development of the master plan. The ASC is now working with the National Capital Authority to develop procedures for implementation of these changed requirements.
A Sport High Performance portal with linked up information systems for the NIN Operational use of the Sport High Performance portal by the AIS and 20% of NIN members1		Commenced The development of a sport portal was postponed until 2016-17. Work commenced in June 2016 to develop a detailed scope for the Sport Partner Portal.

1. 2015-19 Corporate Plan and 2015-16 Annual Operational Plan

The ASC has engaged with international, national and regional media to raise the profile of both participation and high performance sport in 2015-16. The Our Sporting Future conference, ASC Media Awards and ASPAs were successfully delivered and recorded strong attendance. The ASPAs were broadcast live on ABC radio for the first time, celebrating the outstanding achievements of Australian’s leading athletes, team, coaches and administrators. The Sporting Schools program received regular national and regional news coverage and the ASC’s continued focus on strong governance has been reflected in media coverage, with the release of the second phase of governance reform and the Integrity Guidelines for directors and leaders of sporting organisations both reported nationally.

In the build up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, the ASC has proactively engaged with the media to promote the role of the AIS and has continued to grow audiences on social media, including dedicated platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The ASC has taken a leading role in the promotion and recognition of women’s sport and attracted strong media attention with the launch of the AIS-funded camps for the Australian Matilda’s football squad, the Change the Game female mentoring program partnership and the announcement of new requirements for NSOs to implement gender-neutral travel policies.

The ASC has progressed with a number of internal planning, commercialisation and policy development projects, including the successful implementation of a new enterprise agreement and the approval of the ASC Learning and Development Policy. The development of a long-term strategy for the management of depreciation and capital and the AIS Bruce Campus facility master plan have commenced in 2015-16, however  factors such as the AIS Future Directions review and designation under the National Capital Authority have resulted in the suspension of these projects. A significant body of work on an ICT transformation project including an approach to market was progressed in late 2015, resulting in the Sport Partner Portal being postponed. Work to progress a detailed project scope for the Sport Partner Portal commenced in June 2016.

The ASC has successfully grown its commercial revenue in 2015-16 including an increase in revenue from sponsorships and strong growth in high performance camps held at the AIS, with residential high performance bed nights increasing 8 per cent since the previous period. The growth of non-government revenue sources will continue to be a focus for the ASC in 2016-17.

In the latter part of 2015-16, the ASC also committed to a number of strategic projects to set the scene for the ASC’s operations over the year ahead, including opportunities to access new sources of non-government funding. Key projects include the development of a business case for a national sport lottery and initiatives to support the national coordination of sports infrastructure.