Government to Enhance Data Integration and Inter-Agency Cooperation to Support Vulnerable Groups

Discovering Support Demand Through Data Integration
Crisis Response TF Expanded to Consultative Body

The government announced a cross-ministerial collaboration strategy to expand support for vulnerable groups. The plan aims to strengthen inter-ministerial cooperation structures and enhance data utilization capabilities for managing vulnerable populations.

On the 19th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho chaired the 6th Social Relations Ministers' Meeting at the Government Seoul Office and announced the "Cross-Ministerial Collaboration Strategy for Supporting Vulnerable Groups."

The strategy intends to link social sector data and establish a central-local-private collaboration system to enhance the continuity of support policies for vulnerable groups. Special emphasis was placed on developing a collaboration strategy covering the entire cycle of identifying, supporting, preventing, and managing vulnerable groups.

First, through linking and utilizing social sector data, the government plans to identify social policy needs of vulnerable groups and detect crisis situations. To this end, new statistics such as "Basic Statistics on School-Age Children and Adolescents" and "Disaster Safety Status Statistics for Safety-Vulnerable Groups" will be established. Additionally, surveys on the living conditions of vulnerable groups regarding income, housing, and health will be conducted, and the results will be reflected in the formulation of social policy implementation plans.

Furthermore, policy cooperation between ministries will be strengthened during the support process. To prevent vulnerable groups from being excluded from support policies, the government plans to improve application-based welfare services. To enhance policy linkage, a new category of "Proposals for Institutional Improvement" between ministries will be introduced. Also, in the second half of this year, a "Cross-Government Plan to Resolve Imbalances in Vulnerable Group Projects (tentative name)" will be prepared to analyze and utilize differences in the scope and level of vulnerability across policies for support purposes.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In addition, the existing "Social Crisis Response Task Force" will be reorganized into a consultative body to strengthen the response system, including identifying vulnerable groups and monitoring support policy situations.

To strengthen cooperation between ministries and between central and local governments, a "Vulnerable Group Support Strategy Meeting (tentative name)" will be newly established as a subcommittee within the Social Relations Ministers' Meeting, and the Social Relations Ministers' Meeting linked with local governments will be revitalized. Alongside this, the government plans to enact the "Act on Prevention and Management of Social Crises (tentative name)" to establish a legal basis for responding to social crises.

Deputy Prime Minister Lee stated, "Since the social risks faced by vulnerable groups are complex, we must break down barriers between ministries and policies and consolidate national policy capabilities. We will use this plan as an opportunity to further strengthen policy linkage and collaboration among social ministries, and as Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs, I will do my best to reinforce the social safety net by identifying blind spots for vulnerable groups and more."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.