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Improvement upon Quality of Social Welfare Services of One Stop Services Center
One Stop Services Center
Thailand

The Problem

Based on the Public Sector Development Plan B.E. 2546-2550 (2003-2007), one of the objectives the Thai Government aims to pursue is to improve the quality of services provided by organizations in the public sector for the general public. Two indicators have subsequently been developed to measure the outcomes. One is on the level of the clients’ satisfaction of sevices provided and the other is on the reduction of the cumbersome procedures and time required for obtaining services. To be more specific, achievements are measured by the following indicators:
1. 80% of the people on average are satisfied with quality of services provided by government agencies.
2. The procedures and time spent on service providing are reduced by more than 50% on average.

Being a government agency responsible for providing welfare services for people in distress, the One Stop Services Center (OSSC) which is under the Department of Social Development and Welfare (DSDW) has, therefore, made an attempt to improve the quality of services provided for its target groups which include children, youths, women, older persons, persons with disabilities, the destitute, beggars, the poor, persons who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, the disadvantaged and their families. The outcomes of such improvement have been evaluated and recognized by the Public Sector Development Committee as being at a high level. The evidence is the streamlining of processes, reduction of cumbersome procedures and more efficient service providing which can be proved by the awards that OSSC has received in recent years. From 2003-2005, OSSC was able to reduce the procedures and time in 3 processes (2003), 8 processes (2004) and 4 processes (2005) respectively and consolation prizes were presented in recognition of their unfailing effort to improve its services.

In 2006, OSSC was awarded the prize in the category of a process to provide welfare services for children in poor families. Such outstanding performance was a result of the overall improvement of service providing system. The key principle was more efficient management of policy implementation and plans, capacity building of personnel, development of processes and methods of service providing and promotion of participation by clients and stakeholders in improving the quality of services through comments and suggestions. Apart from achieving the goal of public sector development, the improved OSSC will also serve as a model for other agencies both domestic and abroad with regard to quality service providing. With reasons earlier mentioned, OSSC should be qualified to be nominated for the United Nations Public Service Awards.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
OSSC provides welfare services for various target groups as earlier mentioned. The Center’s main duty is to provide a total of 12 processes of services relating to welfare assistance for people who are in distress to ease their immediate problems or difficulties so that they are able to lead a normal life and become self-reliant with human dignity. An unfailing effort has been made to improve services with focus being on more coverage and better quality of services resulting in less cumbersome procedures and time for providing services which clients are satisfied. Achievements during the past few years were quite remarkable.

In 2003, OSSC, for the first time, won 3 quality service awards from improving the following 3 processes:
(1) The process of admission to place children in residential institutions (in case of emergency);
(2) The process of providing welfare services for HIV/AIDS-infected persons, AIDS patients and families affected by HIV/AIDS;
(3) The process of providing assistive devices for persons with disabilities (tricycles and wheelchairs).

In 2005, it received 4 awards for improving the following 4 processes and services:
(1) The process of providing welfare services for low-income families and the destitute;
(2) The process of admission to place persons with disabilities in residential institutions (in case of emergency);
(3) The process of admission to place children in Shelters for Children and Families;
(4) Assistance for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

The procedures and time to provide services reduced by 46.67% (8 processes) in 2004 and 61.88% (4 processes) in 2005 respectively. A survey was conducted to find out the level of clients’ satisfaction which was 84.58% on average. By the year 2006, OSSC was awarded the first prize in the category of an individual process that involved provision of welfare services for children in poor families. Such services were available for children and families who are in distress which might include poverty, inability of families to raise and provide proper education for children or families facing various problems that affect children. In 2006, cash assistance was provided for a total of 1,637 families. Before changes have taken place, it required 8 processes and 10 days to complete a case of each individual client. After improvement, there were only 5 processes that took 5 days to complete for each case. In addition to that, other changes have taken place whether they involved the use of technology, human resource development or public relations campaign which, on the whole, improve the quality of services being provided. The level of clients’ satisfaction increased to 97.15%.

Past performance in recent years indicated that OSSC was, to some extent, successful in streamlining the processes and offering quality welfare services that have impact on the quality of life of the target groups. A further attempt has to be made to improve the quality of services provided by the OSSC such that it is geared towards excellence and could become a model of quality welfare service providing for concerned agencies both domestic and abroad.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
1. Identify the processes (October 2005).
2. Set up a working group (October 2005).
3. Prepare a plan (November 2005).
4. Conduct a survey to obtain information about the clients’ comments (November 2005).
5. Collect and analyze data/information (December 2005).
6. Improve facilities, environment and Information Technology (IT) system (January-September 2006).
7. Develop personnel (January-September 2006)
8. Follow-up and evaluation (March-September 2006).

(a) Strategies

 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.
Through systematic improvement of services, clients are provided with quality services in much less time consuming. This means that assistance is available for each client to ease their immediate problems right on time. It also results in the ability to develop a more suitable and clearer long-term plan to help each individual case since problems can be identified rapidly through one single process. OSSC, therefore, could provide welfare services with a better quality and efficiency with optimal use of personnel and resources. The achievements were made possible because the following steps that have been taken to improve provision of services:
- At departmental level, a meeting was held for all agencies under DSDW that are involved with service providing to develop policies and plans to reduce the procedures and time in each process of service providing.
- With policies and plans serving as guidelines, OSSC further held a staff meeting and a working group was subsequently set up charged with the responsibility to increase efficiency. In addition, training was organized for its staff to raise awareness of the need to improve services, develop the quality of being service-minded personnel and strong determination to provide more rapid and timely services.
- Prepare a plan to improve services.
- Implement the plan as follows:
(1) Improvement started from activities at initial stage which included receiving cases and verifying documents. Activities that added no value would be reduced and services relating to the 2 activities were arranged to be in one place so as to reduce the loss caused by waiting and transporting.
(2) Automatic queuing card system has been introduced and public relations campaign was launched to inform the general public of the documents required to be submitted when requesting for services. Additional assistance was provided to check documents, make photocopies and classify the types of clients so that provision of services can be made more conveniently and rapidly.
(3) IT has been used to set up a database of clients. On-line system was also developed to link all service providers under DSDW such that data and information about clients could be transferred, thus, reduced the procedures and time taken to process cases, paper work and, most important of all, enable assistance to be provided immediately without having to transfer cases to other agencies and complete in only one stop.
(4) A system of cash assistance was developed with prior schedule of appointment being clearly fixed so as to avoid the problem of overcrowding, waiting and making it more convenient for clients to request for services.
(5) To enable cases to be processed more rapidly, competent officials concerned were authorized to give approval for assistance to be provided for the clients.

Other improvements also added including developing more pleasant environment and facilities for clients such as more seats available, reading corners, drinking water, photocopy and public telephone services, more toilets for people in general and persons with disabilities in particular. Office hours have been rearranged to be from 7.30 am-4.30 pm with no lunch break so as to accommodate more clients.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The main priority is development that is geared towards excellence in service providing with the purpose to unsure the best quality of services to be provided through further reduction of procedures and time for processing, continued development of personnel, improved environment, improved database and the use of IT and other technologies.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
1. Increasing efficiency with regard to the implementation of policies and plans by developing a common understanding, vision and strategic plans with all stakeholders being encouraged to participate through the process of Planning, Doing, Checking and Acting or P-D-C-A.
2. Building the capacity of personnel by formulating a personnel development plan and giving full support for the implementation of such plan, promoting learning within the organization, setting standard of performance by personnel, building networks both within and outside the organization and introducing measures that will boost morale, provide incentives and motivation for changes.
3. Developing and making use of IT and other technologies in preparing database of clients, transferring and recording data, searching and checking the clients’ records, issuing queuing cards, etc.
4. Developing ways and means of providing continued services, providing facilities, creating more pleasant environment and fixing prior appointment, giving clear instructions and location map to make it easier for clients to follow steps required for obtaining services, etc.
5. Promoting participation by all stakeholders and clients in improving the quality of services by using boxes for suggestions and comments to find out the needs and level of satisfaction and, at the same time, promote a better relationship with clients.

(d) Use of Resources

 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
The 5 strategies as earlier outlined have brought about changes which are evident. For the clients, they are more satisfied with services. The results of the survey in 2004 revealed that the level of satisfaction was 46.67%. By the year 2005, it was increased to 61.88% and eventually 84.58% in the year 2006. The main reasons cited were services which were convenient to access, the place was nice and clean, personnel were friendly and willing to offer services and less time consuming from an average of 2-3 days to 4 hours or 1 day at the most. Each client also had a chance to choose services that best suited his or her need(s).

For the organization, several changes have taken place in OSSC. Personnel were equipped with knowledge and better understanding. Their moral has been increased considerably as well as the good relationship with their clients as a result from better working environment. By creating the atmosphere of being a learning organization, it increased the bodies of knowledge for better organization management. In addition to that, by the awards received, it becomes increasingly well-known which is considered to be positive as far as public relations is concerned for it enables the clients to know where and how to approach for services.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The sustainability of quality services provided by OSSC can be achieved through the preparation and implementation of both master and action plans as follows:
1. The preparation of a long-term plan of DSDW for the year 2007;
2. A policy-making level of committee was set up to serve as a mechanism to ensure that the plan will be fully implemented;
3. An action plan has subsequently been formulated and evaluation being carried out for further improvement which might be needed from time to time;
4. The personnel develop a service-minded quality which make them strive for producing quality services to be at the level of standard that has been set.

From the above mentioned reasons, it is believed that improving the quality of services should proceed on a continued and sustainable basis towards being excellence in service providing that can be a model for agencies both in Thailand and abroad.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
There are several positive outcomes and lessons learned from improving the quality of services such as bodies of knowledge and experience gained which enables OSSC to become a model of a one stop services center, guidelines for improving the quality of services that are based on the clients’ needs. Further improvements can be made in the areas of the IT system, counter services which can be classified by types of services available and minimize the procedures and time required for obtaining services.

Compared the success made by OSSC to other service providers under DSDW, there remains problems and obstacles that need to be solved to allow the model to be further extended.
- Senior officials in many agencies have not yet been sufficiently informed and share the common vision that is required to change the attitudes, values and to build the mechanism that will move the processes of improving the quality of services towards the same direction through team work.
- Personnel in many organizations lack knowledge, understanding and skills required in changing the methods and patterns of service providing. Some of them resent or do not adjust themselves to changes resulting in the inability to deal effectively with problems and respond to the needs of the people.
- Opportunity for clients and stakeholders to be involved in improving the quality of services has not yet been sufficiently opened up. In addition, certain limitations of clients make it more difficult to enable all target groups to have greater access and increase more participation.
- Limitations with regard to materials, equipments and technologies which affect the efficiency of service providing.
- Certain legal rules and regulations do not contribute to provision of services and disbursement of budget.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   One Stop Services Center
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Pakorn Pantu
Title:   Director of the Bureau of Social Welfare Services  
Telephone/ Fax:   + (66) 2659 6013
Institution's / Project's Website:   + (66) 2628 2521
E-mail:   pakorn@dsdw.go.th  
Address:   1034 Krung Kasem Road, Pom Prap Sattru Phai
Postal Code:   10100
City:   -
State/Province:   Bangkok
Country:   Thailand

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