Providing Social Services Using FAST
Today, the use of a trustful and comprehensive platform for the development and deployment of e-services based on FAST and e-Citiz enables to provide a Secure Social Portal to the actors and the benefit recipients of social assistance in order to face the new requirements of modernity on the one hand and to meet the increasing needs of solidarity on the other hand.
A Secure Social Portal using e-Citiz and FAST
However, the social missions assigned to the different departments are becoming more and more difficult to manage since that they implement real expertise and assignments networks spread all over the territory.
The financial stakes are very important. At the national level, nearly 25 billion euros are redistributed as social assistance by the different departments.
The strict management of these activities is based on a simple and systematic control, a simplification of the procedures to be followed by the benefit recipient, a drastic reduction in the instruction deadlines and in the management costs.
Today, the use of a trustful and comprehensive platform for the development and deployment of e-services based on FAST and e-Citiz enables to provide a Secure Social Portal to the actors and the benefit recipients of social assistance in order to face the new requirements of modernity on the one hand and to meet the increasing needs of solidarity on the other hand.
Solidarity is not limited to the financial assistance. It is just one of the features of the set of services provided to sustainably relief the benefit recipients from different difficulties. To be effective, the legal assistance (Minimum Income Benefit …) must be provided along with field actors and other benefits.
Each General Council wishes to adapt a legal framework suitable to its ambitions, its priorities and its own demographic constraints. In addition to the legal and national assistance, there are other supplementary and optional measures. They support the compulsory interventions of the departments of social assistance. Besides, they either take the shape of a financial assistance provided to people or a support to the services offered by departments, municipalities and associations.
Examples of optional assistance derived from “l’action sociale extralégale et facultative des départements” [DREES Études et Résultats N°537 - novembre 2006] are listed in table.
For a director, or representative, as well as for a client or user, delivery of the service generates tension. The ability to guarantee quality of public service while conforming to management constraints is like trying to square a circle for the director. The staff responsible for interaction with clients is faced with person who is demanding, in a hurry and often required to accomplish a specific task. This process is particularly complicated and requires several supporting documents. Finally, the client or user must take steps to ensure their availability during opening hours, go to the required location and wait in the queue, only to realize that they are missing some supporting document or that they must return anyway because the procedure involves several steps.
Today, e-government can meet all procedures by offering a virtual single window. The benefit recipients are no longer limited by time or location. Providing such service on the website of the department requires the availability of an investment and a technology that goes beyond the management of contents and portals, or the download of PDF forms.
E-procedures enable the administration to involve the benefit recipient in achieving its approach. In a multi-actors context, this is also the collaborative tool required for perfect service synchronization. E-services can be implemented at all levels of services underlying these procedures.
They are not only provided to initiate a procedure, but also to monitor its status and validate its component steps.
Representatives are no longer steam-rolled by the procedure. They are available to deal with urgent and complex cases. Their role is valorized. The use of a trusted platform such as FAST ensures the traceability and the confidentiality of procedures. As a result, the procedures are accomplished more rapidly and reliably in accordance with regulations.
A Social Single Window is available for the General Councils and includes a set of accessible e-services which are developed using e-Citiz, deployed on the FAST platform and organized by category: Mother/Infant Protection, Social Assistance for Children, People with disability and Elderly People.
Delivery, Adaptation, Development and Maintenance of any e-service related to the included domains (for instance: disability, integration ...) with taking the latest legal changes into account.
An accessible e-service (in compliance with the disability law) includes:
Interfaces using business applications: The provided e-services are the complements of the available business software packages: GFI ™, Implicit ™, Info.DB ™, Sirus ™, ...
The interoperability with the available applications is not automatic. The objectives of the various software layers are different but complementary. They must coexist and interact with one another to avoid any duplication or inconsistency between the systems and to automate the whole chain.
Ergonomics and graphic evolution Interfaces and management rules related to public accounting
To face the scalability needs, the Secure Social Portal is designed to evolve in full transparency. The General Council formalizes the need for a new e-service or change through the use of the e-Citiz wizard. The e-Citiz team takes this need into its account, successively develops and presents two prototypes, gathers the feedbacks and finalizes the e-service.
Each subscriber contributes according to his specifications. The subscribers of the same domain profit from similar e-services. These e-services are maintained and enriched upon request by the e-Citiz team.
