Almost two months after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a shake-up to cut the number of departments from 18 to 14 and create four mega-departments, organisations including the Council of Small Business Australia and the Australian Vocational Education & Training Professionals Association say there has been scant detail on the changes, creating uncertainty and confusion.

"Communication is definitely not the strong point," said Dr Shayne Baker, national president of AVETPA.

"There is no detail flowing through about how this will help people get into a job or get qualified."

The changes, due to come into effect on February 1, are contributing to turbulence in the public service as it grapples with the departure of six department secretaries and the adoption of reforms unveiled by the Prime Minister shortly before Christmas, all while mobilising resources to help with the country's unprecedented bushfire crisis.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet confirmed that preliminary work has started on the Delivering for Australians reform agenda for the public service announced by Mr Morrison on December 13, which is intended to complement the machinery of government changes and bring about a "step-change in the delivery of services ... and ensure the APS puts the needs of Australians first".

The government has allocated $15.1 million to help support the reform effort.

PM&C has established an APS Reform Office to help drive the transformation, and detailed planning is due to begin in early February.

The Secretaries Board, comprising the 14 department secretaries, Australian Public Service Commissioner Peter Woolcott and Director-General National Intelligence Nick Warner, has been directed to conduct a three-month 'sprint' early this year to plan reform implementation.

A PM&C spokesperson said the Board would consider the "direction, progress and outcome of reform planning at its regular monthly meetings", and may convene special meetings and discussions "as required".

But even as planning for the reforms gets underway, the government is facing frustration from some about its changes to the structure of departments.

COSBOA chief executive officer Peter Strong said such shake-ups were inevitably disruptive and pleaded for a period of stability.

"We have all become so used to them. It happens just so often, you just roll your eyes," Mr Strong said.

"Public servants are continuing to work as best they can, but there's a few unknowns. On top of that, you've got the change of secretaries. Can we please not have another change for another three years?"

AVETPA president Dr Baker said that although vocational education practitioners would get on with their work, the changes did create uncertainty.

Vocational education and training has been regularly swapped between departments, most recently in May last year when the Department of Education and Training was dissolved and it was moved into the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business.

Dr Baker said that the "toing and froing" of VET between departments often brought with it changes in emphasis and uncertainties around who to talk to.

"It will be in employment where the focus will be on jobs and placement and filling demands or growing new business or training opportunities," he said.

"Then, for some reason, it will revert back to education because it is part of a wider education or learning agenda."

Dr Baker said there had been a lack of information about what the purpose of the latest shift was.

The government announced a $525 million package in the 2019-20 budget to upgrade and modernise the VET sector, including supporting more apprenticeships and scholarships and streamlining incentives for employers.

But Dr Baker said it was not clear how the move back to the Education Department would add to this agenda.

"Whether moving it back into education helps with it is very hard to evaluate," he said.

Director of the Grattan Institute's Energy Program, Tony Wood, said the move of energy from the Environment Department into the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources was the latest in a string of changes for the policy area.

Mr Wood said there was no "right or wrong way" to place energy because aspects of it fit with both environment and industry, and departmental boundaries were a secondary consideration.

"The trick isn't so much break them [departments] up but how you stick them together again," he said.

But Mr Wood said the extent to which the restructure resulted in a loss of energy-related experience and expertise within the public service would be a concern.

He said the APS played an important role in supporting the work of the Council of Australian Governments Energy Council, and "that sort of thing can be affected by change".