Social Security Committee gathers feedback on regional challenges and system improvements, discusses second-half operations

The Ministry of Health and Welfare building at Government Complex Sejong [Newsis]
The Ministry of Health and Welfare building at Government Complex Sejong [Newsis]

The Ministry of Health and Welfare held an expert workshop Thursday at The Prima Hotel in Jongno, Seoul, to review the first-half results of its regional pre-consulting program and discuss the direction for the second half of the year.

Chaired by the secretary-general of the Social Security Committee, the workshop was organized to share and assess roughly four months of progress since the committee launched regional expert networks in late February and began rolling out on-site consulting visits to local governments nationwide in April.

Earlier this year, the ministry drew up a reform plan for the social security consultation system in January to help local governments design welfare projects suited to their regional conditions. It also established four regional expert networks — covering the Greater Seoul area, the Chungcheong provinces, the Honam region and the Yeongnam region — staffed by 27 specialists from universities, state-run research institutes and provincial research centers.

During the first-half consulting period from March through May, 41 cases were submitted by 27 local governments nationwide. Of those, 22 received in-depth advisory services covering areas closely tied to residents' daily lives, including youth housing support and asset building, medical costs and care for people with disabilities, infertility support, and locally tailored retirement income security.

The workshop also shared the results of a satisfaction survey conducted among civil servants at local governments that participated in the first-half pre-consulting program.

All survey items scored 4 points or above on a 5-point scale, with an average of 4.5. Particularly high marks went to "revisions and improvements to project content such as eligibility criteria, benefits and implementation methods" (4.7 points) and "consulting content and materials were helpful for actual work" (4.5 points).

More than 90 percent of respondents said on-site consulting visits were "very necessary" going forward, confirming strong demand among local governments for the pre-consulting system.

The ministry said the results show that the central government's approach of visiting communities directly and refining projects alongside local governments is making a tangible contribution to improving the quality of welfare program design.

The workshop also covered the sharing of representative consulting cases from each region, the collection of on-site difficulties and system improvement suggestions from local governments, and the operational direction for the second-half pre-consulting program scheduled for July and August.

"The high satisfaction among local government civil servants is evidence that the pre-consulting system is genuinely helping on the ground," said Lim Hye-seong, secretary-general of the ministry's Social Security Committee. "We will actively reflect the voices heard at this workshop in our second-half operations and continue to develop the system."

The ministry plans to finalize its second-half pre-consulting operational direction by incorporating the workshop's findings and the improvement suggestions identified in the satisfaction survey, then conduct a second round of demand surveys starting in July before launching regular second-half consulting.


thlee@heraldcorp.com