The ICT Usage in Delivering Integrated Social Welfare Services

Abstract

Fragmented social welfare services provided by the Indonesian government have resulted in unfortunate communities'difficulties, the rightful beneficiaries in accessing social aids. In response to this issue, the government established the Integrated Referrals and Services System (SLRT), covering education, health, and socio-economic services under ‘one-roof’ management. As discussed in the literature, either looking at the vertical or horizontal aspects of integration can be achieved. In this article, a mixedmethod approach was used to evaluate the implementation of the SLRT in Bandung District by focusing on horizontal integration, exploring the perception of beneficiaries and operators. SLRT has equipped itself with an online system named Information System of Social Welfare for the Next Generation (SIKS-NG) to improve the quality of the services further. The use of SIKS-NG can accelerate data distribution from the region to the center; data is always updated and targeted according to the service provider's needs. This study further unravels the implementation of the online system and its impacts on the SLRT. In general, it is found that the perceptions of beneficiaries and operators are in favor of SLRT. On the other hand, SIKS-NG has also been proven to improve the services delivered by operators. However, some areas of improvement were also identified for the system to be sustainable in the future.