United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The Hope Care System
: Coordinated Social Service Delivery System
with the public-private partnership

■Fast-changing Domestic Environment and Low Welfare Situation

Korea has entered in OECD countries by rapid economic growth, while the improvement of welfare level comparable to it is being magnified as a pending issue. As the social welfare demand such as the world’s fastest elderly society, lowest birth rate, and expanding poor strata is largely increasing, Korea is introducing new welfare systems, increasing a budget for both the central government and local governments. Nevertheless, people feel that the welfare level is still low. Therefore, the improvement of public delivery systems to efficiently execute various welfare polices is standing out as an urgent policy issue.
Especially, the welfare administration system considering regional characteristics, application of private resources to overcome limited public resources, and the welfare service deliver system based on public-private partnership are being urgently required.

■Poor Welfare Environment of Namyangju City

The area of Namyangju City is 458.535㎢, which is 75% of the area of Seoul, the capital of Korea, while its population is 592,970 persons, which is just 5.6% of that of Seoul, making it less-densely populated in comparison. The living zone is decentralized in the center of the multi-core hub zones making it difficult for the city to be integrally governed by a specific service institution. There are only two senior welfare centers and one welfare center for the disabled in private service institutions as well. An alternative for service provisions covering the entire city is needed.

Service institutions such as social welfare centers have provided social welfare services for residents living nearby. As a result, if these various service institutions are contiguous, the same service is doubly provided for one person, while those who live farther afield or whose need has not been identified will have had limited access to such services.

Service recipients have not had a detailed awareness about what kinds of services are available for them. Even if they do know, they must visit related service institutions for themselves. Therefore, it’s often the case that service recipients, who are already ill-qualified to cope with their own situation, have not utilized the existing system.

■Necessity of New Welfare System

The National Basic Living Security System, the representative cash grant offered via the central government, strictly classifies service recipients based on the minimum cost of living. Therefore, it is not an institutional alternative for lower-income families that exceed the benefit criteria even by minute differences. Even if they are included as beneficiaries, efficient measures to ameliorate urgent expenditure such as medical expenses or for educational expenses that can help prevent passing down poverty are not provided. Measures for these are also needed.

To manage these issues under the existing welfare system, the authorities concerned must sharply increase their social welfare budget, including the number of service institutions and the support funding for low-income groups. The central government and the local government have not resolved these problems within the operable budget.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
■Establishment of Creative Service Delivery System by Public -Private Partnership This system is to build a social welfare delivery system in which the persons concerned have a sense of responsibility for the whole of the city. Emerging from existing systems such as administrative institutions (city and town offices) and private welfare service institutions, it puts in place a Hope Care Center established via a private-public partnership hub in mid-size regions that govern several administrative districts. It constructs a cooperative system among administrative institutions that provides legal wage, social welfare foundations and volunteer centers to provide private services, as well as a community welfare consultative group to be a deliberative and consultative body for those related to social welfare. The Hope Care Center is established by a private-public partnership system. A central Hope Care Center composed of civil servants and private experts operates in City Hall. Namyangju City, which has a wide area, is divided into 4 life zones, each of which has a Hope Care Center operated by a private non-profit foundation. To prevent dead zones in a wide area and to provide a visiting service for residents who cannot move freely, such as the elderly and the disabled, a mobile Hope Care Center, which visits at-risk areas by automobile and provides consultation and services, is operated via the central Hope Care Center. ■Building Network and Improving Service Efficiency Based on the Development and Operation of Computer System We have developed a hope care computer system into which we can enter all inspection results for those needing welfare benefits and build a basic database. We can register all personal service details being provided by Namyangju City to the hope care computer system and so prevent services from being overlapped or omitted. A network between social welfare officials and other welfare service institutions is built by the computer system. This system makes it possible to share services among institutions and prevents the same recipient from receiving services doubly in various areas. ■Expansion of Service Delivery by Utilization of Private Resources To overcome insufficient government funding, we collected civic donations through the promotion of a culture of sharing. By using this fund, we have provided living expenses and medical expenses for persons who do not receive a legal wage, and further training expenses and educational expenses for children so that they can emerge from poverty and stand on their own two feet. ■Project Performance: Improvement of Satisfaction by Delivery of Services that Citizens Want The Hope Care Center has selected service items that Namyangju citizens want based on service need survey results, and operates service activities using volunteers in various areas such as assistance for going out, improvement of residential environments, and educational, medical and living supports. The service achievement was about 16,000 cases in 2007 at the beginning of performance. As it increased every year, it recorded about 180,000 cases in 2011. In 2007, when the Hope Care Center was established, it collected donations of 400 million won, and about 1,400 million won on average annually since 2009. Donations have been used for persons who are beyond governmental support, including for those living just above the poverty line. Thanks to this achievement, the welfare service satisfaction research conducted at the end of 2007 indicated that the rate of 'Satisfaction’ for the hope care service was 82% and also the rate of 'Satisfaction’ for overall health and welfare services in Namyangju City was improved to 62% after implementation compared to 38% before implementation. The satisfaction research conducted in 2012 indicated that the rate of satisfaction for the Hope Care Center grew by a surprising 97%.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
■Establishment of Hope Care Center: Phased Progress by Public-Private Partnership The hope care system was established in cooperation with our citizens. The community welfare consultative group is a public-private partnership institution that plays a role to deliberate and consult on important matters regarding social welfare projects in Namyangju City and to strengthen the connection and cooperation of social welfare services. It promotes the idea that all health and welfare services in Namyangju City, which lacks an adequate social welfare infrastructure, need to be integrated so that recipients can be efficiently provided with customized services suited to their needs. We therefore organized a task force team for the hope care project and established a master plan to install and operate the Hope Care Center in October 2006. In November 2006, the Namyangju Mayor made clear that Namyangju City would establish a system to share social welfare material resources being dispersed, capabilities and experiences of social welfare experts, and concentrate them through one point in order to overcome its own inadequate social welfare resources. He also organized an ‘advisory group for the Hope Care Center’, which is composed of social welfare facility workers, social welfare experts, health and medical experts, and related civil servants. Private and public sectors jointly discussed the project operation method. The Hope Care Center was planning to operate the project using civil donations instead of governmental funding. If the project had been put into force based on this, the donation from private sectors or social welfare institutions would have been likely to decrease and the threat of a reduction in project scope would then hang over service institutions. From the establishment of the Hope Care Center, it needed to regulate expected conflicts through an advisory group covering private-public sectors. A private-public partnership was also required to realize the project concept and efficiently use finite resources. A detailed operation plan of the Hope Care Center was established in December 2006 based on this process. It developed common ground on which to prepare an efficient social welfare service foothold that covers the whole of Namyangju City, compensating for its inadequate social welfare resources, and makes the best use of insufficient resources without dissipation in cooperation with private-public sectors. ■Sustainable Growth of Project Based on Public-Private Partnership The community welfare consultative group was developed as a model of private-public partnership in Namyangju City. It operates as an organization to lead the private-public partnership system through which the welfare plan can be efficiently implemented, including development of questionnaires by sector, survey of resident needs, implementation of welfare plan, and monitoring and evaluation on a year-on-year basis. It is also helping civil welfare schools, public-private workshops, and forums by sector to cohere to welfare infrastructures, and strengthens networking for local residents by developing various resources by sector. The integrated case management division is improving its welfare specialization by taking charge of operating systems and education regarding case management such as case management specialized education, specialized case manager candidate training, development of a case management delivery system model in Namyangju City, and publication of a case management manual and regional welfare network resource handbook in Namyangju City.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
■Removal of Welfare Dead Zone and Improvement of User Accessibility To minimize welfare dead zones caused by the welfare administration and promptly provide a neglected groups of people with their desired services, Namyangju City changed the existing supplier-centered welfare delivery system into a consumer-centered, one-stop customized service delivery system combining health and welfare, a first in Korea. We broadly divided the area into four zones (East, West, South, and North) to enable recipients to easily access services considering the regional characteristics of Namyangju City and then installed the Hope Care Centers by zone. We entrusted the specialized management to a private social welfare institution. The central Hope Care Center and the mobile Hope Care Center are under the direct operation of Namyangju City Hall. ■Provision of User-Oriented Integrated Services Any person requiring help can visit either an officer in charge of legal wages in a nearby administrative office or the Hope Care Center and receive his/her desired service after consultation. An integrated case meeting has been instituted once a month so that the skills of private-public experts regarding social welfare can be collected. When intensive intervention is required, social welfare officers, private experts of the Hope Care Center, and experts from regional service-specialized institutions such as mental health centers, hospitals, child protection centers, and regional self-support centers can meet together and intensively discuss case management for related cases. When the Hope Care Center receives a report regarding living difficulty, it immediately visits the family and investigates actual conditions. If any help is deemed necessary, it verifies recipient need, designs a personalized service package, and implements case management through a service connection process so that the recipient can easily receive necessary services from each service provider. Therefore, difficulties,including the need for the recipient to personally understand what services are provided and visit the related institutions, have been removed. ■Incorporating Civil Needs into the System We organized the public-private advisory group to make a model for coping with recipient needs considering regional features characterized by a wide area as compared to population distribution, and collected opinions from residents and recipients. Prior to introducing the system, we investigated the actual life conditions of welfare recipients and their needs through visits and interviews over a period of 60 days. We firstly investigated community welfare resources in 546 institutions to understand the general situation of welfare providers and the possibility of welfare connection network construction. Secondly, we visited 8 important service provision situations for resident life support and regional social welfare resources in a total of 1,302 institutions, including about 756 welfare-related institutions, and lastly built a database to utilize welfare resources. ■Development of Private Resources To collect funds for the project without support from the central government, we encouraged local governments and nonprofit/for-profit organizations to participate in large-scale donation campaigns such as one person/one account and online donation. In this way, we researched private resources to collect welfare support funds. We entrusted regional centers to private social welfare foundations so that specialized services and various resources can be efficiently used. We have built community welfare resources and a partnership network for at-risk groups that includes citizen's donations and goods, effort services and talent donation. Further, we are helping families in crisis to emerge from poverty and also focus on self-support projects to prevent those living just above the poverty line from becoming basic living recipients.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
In 2006, we organized a task force team for the hope care project and established the master plan regarding its installation and operation. We organized a civil advisory group for the Hope Care Center on November 30, 2006, collected civic opinions and established a detailed operation plan by December 22, 2006. In 2007, we investigated actual living conditions for and needs of welfare recipients including community welfare resources, designated service priorities to be provided by the Hope Care Center, and surveyed what kind of resources could be provided. As a result, we ordered the installation of the Hope Care Center in four zones on January 22, 2007 and established a hope care consigned operation plan on November 31, 2007. In this process, we collected opinions from the civil advisory group composed of health/welfare experts and a community welfare consultative group, designed a more complete model and sought to prevent conflicts, and enacted an ordinance on the installation and operation of the Hope Care Center in April 2007. With the start-up of the Hope Care Center website in 2008, more citizens have been able to participate. We acquire specialized manpower based on agreements with regional universities and improve capacities of service providers such as Hope Care Center workers and volunteers through consultation with academia. Also, we conduct total inspections for regional resources and construct systems to connect various resources. In 2009, we developed an integrated management computer system to systematically manage recipients and provide them with optimum services using varied resources. Thanks to this, we can share information with private institutions to prevent duplicated support and service omission. In addition, we developed a matching support system to enable citizens to support recipients personally, establishing and invigorating a donation culture. It has been upgraded as an online donation system so that citizens can participate in donation more easily. In 2010, we subscribed hope managers providing a one-to-one care service for people having difficulty living alone. These are specialized volunteers who have completed a training course commissioned to universities. They regularly visit target families and help them in daily life or provide other necessary services. To activate the online donation culture, we entered an online donation agreement with 20 schools. By a relay donation campaign of 1004 Money Box to collect donations, 4,065 money boxes have been donated at present. We have established a system to collect resources by spreading a donation culture such as the 100won miracle campaign in cooperation with civil groups, and special donation live broadcasting for hope sharing. Since we installed a small financing group lending initial expenses for people with low credit ratings in the Hope Care Center in 2011, we have expanded the integrated service scope. We developed an ‘Electronic Display of Welfare’ through which individuals can view at a glance what services are provided and run a simulation to determine whether they are a beneficiary, a first in Korea. In this way, we do our best to ensure recipients rights. We dispatched private-public welfare cooperation teams composed of social welfare officials to four regional Hope Care Centers starting in 2012. This allows officials in charge of public services and private social workers in the Hope Care Center to work in one place and discuss how they intervene in cases in which help is required, efficiently providing recipients with various private/public services.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
■Removal of Conflict Factors by Allowing Citizens to Participate in the Project Planning Stage The most important factors in the Hope Care Center are the share system, a mutually-assistance citizen action system, and the social welfare services delivery system centered on users. Initially, there were negative opinions about the effect, validity and sustainability of the project. There were also other concerns being voiced that if the project was actively conducted, donations from existing private facilities or social welfare institutions might over time be reduced and the business scope of existing service providers might be interfered with. An advisory group composed of persons related to social welfare was organized from private and public sectors beginning at the planning stage of the project. Interested parties were able to participate in discussions about the establishment of the Hope Care Center, propose various opinions and avoid future conflict. By institutional support like an ordinance on the installation and operation of the Hope Care Center and positive civic participation in donations, more than one billion won in average donations were collected annually. As social welfare service achievements through the hope care system are proven and its excellence is recognized across the nation, the voices of concern have disappeared. ■Budget Reduction and Development of Private Resources We saved a budget by remodeling worn-out, disused public offices and also developed our city as a composite town related to health and welfare by establishing related institutions for low-income groups such as financial support institutions for low credit-rating people, psychotherapy centers, community health centers, and food banks. Therefore, the effect of our city was maximized to allow users to receive various services on one place. The hope care system was established by using part of local government welfare finances without the input of public funds. We had difficulties in raising the funds required for manpower and service delivery and ways in which private resources should be used were looked at. The new system through which the city government takes the lead in the project and the private social welfare foundation conducts management in trust was introduced: The city government supports only the required manpower and operating expenses for regional centers, while the expenses and workers required for the project are supported by citizens’ voluntary donations and services. Various plans to enable the entire city to disseminate a donation culture for regional welfare development were drawn. A pan-citizen campaign having “One Person One Account” was developed. Financial resources have been acquired through online fund-raising campaigns. These methods contribute to implementing an advanced welfare culture by resolving problems faced by low-income groups jointly. A contribution of 419 million won was collected in 2007. Annual contributions of 1,400 million won were collected as of December 2011. Based on these financial resources, we can financially support low-income groups living in dead zones which have had no prior access to governmental help. Welfare benefits are more greatly expanded than before. A new welfare method for citizens to mutually assist one another is expected. We devote all our energy to expand volunteers, including volunteer development, specialized management, and the introduction of an incentive system. The number of volunteers registered in the voluntary service center was approximately 62,000 persons as of 2012. It is steadily increasing every year. The number of voluntary services being conducted via the Hope Care Center amounts to about 8,000 instances in various sectors such as housework support, education, bathing, and house repair, etc.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
■Support of operating expenses for local government institutions and substantial support of low-income groups by development of private resources The Hope Care Center finances are composed partly of local government welfare budget, private financial resources of profit-making/nonprofit groups, and various donations and support payments. The costs expended through the Namyangju City budget include personal expenses of regional workers (a total of 44 including center heads, social workers, and nurses) who engage in commissioned institutions, hope care project costs, and operating expenses. Substantial business for low-income groups is implemented by using civil support payments and private resources. Costs of regional Hope Care Center offices have been saved by remodeling worn-out, disused public offices or using part of current public office buildings. Subsidies for regional Hope Care Centers supported by the Namyangju City budget were approximately 1,140 million won on annual average from 2007 to 2011. However, the support payments collected during the same period were 1,110 million won. The support payments amount to about 98% of the subsidies. This exceeds by three times the rate (32%) of support payments of average subsidies for community welfare centers in Korea. It has been found that the Hope Care Center has improved project efficiency though the invigoration of sharing. Support payments include a regular contribution which participates in a ‘One Person One Account (5,000won) Campaign for Hope Sharing’ and an irregular contribution like temporary donations. Approximately 6,800 million won has been collected at present from the initial foundation in 2007. We receive about 500 million won in annual support goods as wells as support payments and provide them to the poor, including a supply of about 180,000 services yearly, directly or through volunteers. The city government offers substantial support for the poor by subsidizing the minimum operating expenses for the Hope Care Center and disseminating a sharing culture within society. The Korea Act stipulates that part of the support payments can be used for operating expenses in institutions which receive support payments. The Hope Care Center nevertheless specifies that total operating expenses for the center is appropriated by the city’s subsidies and the full amount supported by citizens is used only to help neglected groups in such areas as living expenses, medical expenses, educational expenses, and house repair expenses, thereby ensuring greater reliability. Approximately 180 million won was collected through an online fund-raising campaign where netizens donate money points acquired on the Internet. Various support methods through which all citizens, including adolescents and young adults, can participate in fund-raising are provided. To complete the citizen participatory social welfare system for citizens to help benefit each other, about 799 businesses including restaurants, private learning institutions, beauty salons, and movie theaters in the region are developing a sharing relay campaign through Support Houses. This is a campaign whereby participants give their talent to the poor: Restaurants provide elderly singles with free food once a month, private learning institutions provide free education for one poor student for whom they responsible, and beauty salons provide beauty service once a month. A corporate voluntary service center was established and activated along with the establishment of the Hope Care Center. Citizens can voluntarily participate in financial support, effort service, and talent donation. As a result, a system utilizing various human resources is constructed. The Hope Care Center is developing the project by allowing citizens to help one another though diverse methods in this way.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
■Stabilization Based on Welfare Administration and Service Delivery System On April 12, 2007, immediately after the Hope Care Center was established on April 2, 2007, the Namyangju City Council enacted an Ordinance on the Operation of the Hope Care Center regarding the organization and operation of the hope care system. We could hereby ensure the continuity of the organization and operation from an institutional aspect. As stable donations (6,500 million won collected from April 2007 to October 2012) and volunteers (about 62,000 volunteers registered) were ensured through the dissemination of a sharing culture, the project could be ongoing, as well. ■Benchmarking from National Local Governments The Hope Care Center was selected as the Excellent Case of Local Administration Innovation in November 2007. Since then, it has frequently been a benchmark for approximately 120 national local governments and institutions. Gyeonggi-do Province, which is a metropolitan council of 31 cities and counties established a Moohan Care Center after the model of the Hope Care Center and has disseminated this to 30 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do Province since November 2009, including a Private-Public Partnership Welfare System composed of Moohan Care Centers by city/county and 87 network teams. ■Model for Reorganization of Central Government Service Delivery System The Ministry of Health and Welfare has further reorganized the social welfare delivery system on a national scale in the name of “Hope Welfare Support Group” since April 2012 under the goal – ‘To establish an integrated service delivery system which provides recipients having composite needs with a personalized type of private-public wage, services, and resources through integrated case management’. When President Lee Myeong-bak visited the Hope Care Center in January 2012 prior to this, the Minister of Health and Welfare clarified, “We are reorganizing the welfare delivery system in the name of the hope welfare support group to disseminate a good business model like that of Namyangju City throughout the country.” ■Visit of Overseas Institutions The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), an international German institute, visited Namyangju City on September 29, 2008. It reported on the operating conditions and results of the Hope Care Project and favorably commented on the generalization of welfare benefit classes through the efficient private-public network and efficient organization operation. A tour of the Hope Care Center is included in exchange training programs such as institute visits and industrial facilities visits sponsored by the Gyeonggi Human Resource Development Center. Public servants from Liaoning and Guangdong Provinces in China, which have set up a sisterhood relationship with us, have regularly visited the Hope Care Center since 2011. ■Career of Various Awards The excellence of the hope care system has been recognized through various awards: in 2007, the selection of the Excellent Brand Project on Local Administration Innovation, won the Gold Medal of the Gyeongin Hit Goods, and won the Excellence Prize of Resident Life Support Sector in the 8th National Public Innovation Competition; in 2008, it received the Certificate of Local Administration Innovation Goods; in 2009, was winner of the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Prize for selection as a successful case management institution; and in 2011, won Grand Prize in the Excellent Case Competition of Manifestos in the heads of national local wards. In 2012, the Hope Care Center won a New Quality prize from the New Quality Forum, including a special achievement award from the Minister of Health and Welfare, for its distinguished services that it contributed to the reorganization of the social welfare delivery system.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
■Mutual Development of Private-Public Sectors First, the mutual partnership of the private-public sectors is very important in making the system a success. And the private-public partnership can be better developed when the system is successively operated at the same time. The hope care system is a system through which private ideas collected via public sectors have been systematically improved. It has been established in cooperation with the Hope Care Advisory Committee and the Community Welfare Consultative Group since before it was institutionally enforced. The Hope Care Center has been a study and training place for private-public sectors to cooperate together in the process of producing new systems based on this type of cooperation and discussion. As it is successively established and attracts public attention, it serves as a momentum that gives self-esteem to both private and public sectors and greatly strengthens the private-public partnership. Namyangju City is an exemplary case in which private-public representatives maintain mutually–beneficial relationship based on a community welfare consultative group, set up a community welfare plan as a long-term development plan of the social welfare in Namyangju City, and mutually cooperates to achieve the goal. Even though the hope care system has been established and operated by a private-public partnership, the private-public partnership system itself has been more developed in the process of successive operation. ■Converting Disadvantages into Advantages Second, a disadvantage of an inadequate social welfare infrastructure was converted into a low-cost, high-efficiency system. The regional Hope Care Center is an institution operated by private sectors but it has strict responsibility throughout the related zones. This center cannot refuse services for the reason that the service recipient live remotely or there are many prior cases to be managed. Accordingly, the single hope care system can cover the whole of Namyangju City, compensating for the lacking social welfare infrastructure. By this method, we could decrease duplication and omission of services and prepare an efficient system through a small number of institutions. Also, we committed respective regional Hope Care Centers to different social welfare foundations and induced mutual competition among them. Therefore, we were able to make a system which improves achievements by internal competition in the same name. ■Vitalization of Sharing Culture Third, we enhanced project efficiency by the dissemination of a sharing culture such as support and service activities. A sound life culture through which citizens can practice sharing activities in daily life was formed. The hope care system was planned to minimize an increase of welfare budget and use donations and volunteering for efficient operation. However, as the project has continued, one culture trend has been formed by the dissemination of a sharing culture, an increase of donations and volunteers, and a diverse change of support methods. For example, gas stations and restaurants might donate parts of sales at a fixed rate, restaurant owners host birthday parties and support food expenses for the day, or citizens collect and donate points from commercial advertisement on the Internet, etc. Entertainers give their talent instead of cash and regularly put on free performances for the underprivileged. Many specialized volunteers having a national health personnel license offer care for elderly singles. In this way, and thanks to an increase in the number of people who participate in various the sharing services possible in daily life, a society full of energy both socially and culturally is being formed.


Institution Name:		Hope Care Center
Institution Type:		Public-Private Partnership
Contact Person:		Yang Hyouk Jin
Title:		assistant officer
Telephone/ Fax:		82-31-590-8678/82-31-590-8679
Institution's / Project's Website:		http://hope.nyj.go.kr
E-mail:		hk0512@korea.kr
Address:		1037 gyeongchun-ro
Postal Code:		472-701
City:		Namyangju
State/Province:		Gyeonggi
Country:

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information