Proposals for advancing customized integrated welfare delivery

The main role of the Gyeonggi Moohandolbom Center is to offer an integrated service package featuring collaborative efforts in health, labor and educational services by utilizing its case management system on high-risk households. The following changes are required to enable the Center’s function as the service manager and gatekeeper of regional welfare resources and services.

1. Enhanced cooperation between central and regional governments

The current system is in dire need of reinforcing the cooperative system between central and regional governments.

The regional governments should be delegated the management authority for the central government’s welfare

projects, while the central government should enhance the flexibility of the integrated social welfare management network so as to enable service sharing among private institutions within the regional network. For this end, the regional government should not be confined to its administration, coordination, and service purchasing functions as the case manager of high-risk households, but act as an active cooperative partner supporting the service provision by the private sector.

Thus, the role of the Moohandolbom Center should be expanded as follow: First, the Center should take the role as the administrator responsible for delivery of central government’s social services, and take charge of expanding service coverage in terms of geographical scope and number of beneficiaries. Second, the Center should hold the gate-keeping functions of central /metropolitan/regional government programs, to oversee distribution of regional services and resources and take charge of commissioning tasks to the appropriate institutions.

Furthermore, the Center should be allowed to utilize the functions offered by the integrated service management agent dispatched by the central government.

2. Integrated management of social welfare provisions and services

A screening and assessment system should be established at the regional government level, which allows integrated management of the basic livelihood payments and case management operations by the Service Network Team and the unemployment benefit, job training program, and employment support operations by the Job Center. In the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, welfare provisions and employment services are under integrated management at institutions in the likes of the Job Plus Center and the Work & Income Center. This is not applicable to Korea, however, and local conditions dictate the use of a system where the Center takes charge of reviewing the provision operations handled by individual departments.

For welfare provisions under the purview of the Unlimited Care policy, an integrated management system should be in place to utilize the operational functions at the Moohandolbom Center. An official in charge of Unlimited Care projects will be employed at the Center, and this official will be in charge of eligibility assessments and provision of welfare payments. When necessary, the Center should provide support in case management functions for the recipients of the Unlimited Care project.

The Service Network Team, which is in charge of overall management of service provision, will be integrated into the operations of the Center. When the workload expands, the system may expand accordingly by adding new departments.

Ultimately, the Service Network Team that manages the general service networks of all operations, should be integrated into the Moohandolbom Center and expand into new departments in line with the increasing workload.

When conducting a general review on the support levels by reviewing information-sharing of various payments and social security benefits, and calculation of appropriate payment levels per household, it will use a tier system according to individual budget or household incomes in order to enable service and payment support that correspond to the needs of the recipients.

A tier system based on individual budget or household incomes should be established so as to allow an integrated review of provisions. This system will enable information-sharing on various payments and social security benefits, which will aid computation of appropriate payments per household and provide services/benefits that correspond to specific needs of the household.

3. User-oriented service delivery system, coordination of health and welfare services

In order to form an effective cooperative system that merges the diverse case management networks (differing by field of specialization and recipient types) and institutional networks, the roles of each network and institution should be differentiated and organized in a coherent manner.

The case management programs for the disabled, elderly, children, women, multicultural families, and mental health services should be organized in a systemic manner, by offering professional services corresponding to the specific

needs of each recipient.

The care management at the Moohandolbom Center should be differentiated by its all-inclusive role as a coordinator of various services, which involves overseeing of services in the individual as well as household levels.

An integrated approach should be taken to coordinate the health and welfare needs, by coordinating the medical payment program with the operations of the Center and pursuing cooperative operational exchange with regional health providers.

Furthermore, inspections on health and welfare needs should be comprehensive, involving active participation and information-sharing with the dispatched health officer.

4. Establish local governance based on public-private-resident cooperation

Community Welfare Committee are welfare associations that feature private-public collaboration under the Social Work Act. As such, partnerships with the Community Welfare Committee – to which a wide array of local welfare institutions are participating members – should be encouraged for its positive effect on striking a proper balance between public and private roles and boosting the region’s welfare provision capacities in the long run.

Aside from the Community Welfare Committee, resident participation programs – such as community services and volunteering activities – should be expanded through joint projects with local community organizations, so as to boost the region’s autonomous capacities and vitalize informal networks. As community residents are capable of offering practical, informal aid to high-risk households, their participation should be secured to build a voluntary participation-based communal welfare system where neighbors can refer new cases to welfare services and offer their own informal supports.

Furthermore, a voluntary system that merges the public institutional functions with participation by the private sector and trust of residents will spawn a creative approach to developing human capital and physical resources, which will build a virtuous cycle that reinforces the community’s capacity and problem-solving competence.

For instance, a human network project where residents act as mentors offering academic/job-related/emotional support will provide first-hand experience with communal spirit and solidarity to the participating residents. A system based on such mutual trust will act as a new driving force of change that alters the entire regional community by enabling greater collaboration in the pursuit of the community’s well-being and more effective problem-solving capacities.

Gosta Esping-Andersen | professor of sociology and demography at Universitat Pompeu Fabra [Video Presentation]

Sven E O Hort | Professor of Linnaeus University