Helping government support families in need

Despite spending more than $3 billion each year to strengthen and maintain at-risk families, one North American government's social, children, and family development agencies experienced problems maximizing the benefits of the services they were providing.

"For years, 'siloed' processes made it difficult for government to deliver these services, monitor outcomes, and effectively provide additional benefits for families with multiple needs," explains Sucha Kukatla, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP (Deloitte U.S.). "The government also lacked a case management system that could deliver integrated social service programs across the agencies."

Governmental leaders agreed they could do a better job providing programs for children with special needs, child protection and adoption services, teen suicide prevention, health care, housing assistance, and job-search resources. They realized an experienced consultant could offer and execute solutions that the government didn't have the resources to pursue. But, they didn't know how efficient the system could be and how much money could be saved until Deloitte Consulting showed them the possibilities.

"Our Consulting practice is focused on areas where we can be a leader, and one of those is the public sector," says Jim Moffatt, Chairman and CEO, Deloitte Consulting LLP (Deloitte U.S.) "This sort of work provides a special satisfaction because not only are we building clients' capabilities, but we're also having an impact on citizens—in this case, people who especially need and appreciate a helping hand."

Deloitte Consulting was initially brought in for a six-week project to improve the government's system, but soon realized if the client was going to achieve its desired results, a whole new game plan was needed. "Our team really impressed the client with the understanding and leadership we brought to the engagement, as well as our working style, ideas, and teamwork," Kukatla says.

The initial engagement evolved into a 12-week "approach-refinement" period that ultimately turned into a 10-year contract to transform and integrate service delivery models. "This kind of project has never been accomplished in any North American jurisdiction," Kukatla notes. Working with colleagues from Canada and Mexico, the team moved 14 agency programs to a common platform.

The results have been impressive. Today, the intake procedure is 200 percent faster. Privacy and security breaches have decreased by 300 percent. Administrative errors have decreased by 50 percent. Benefits are distributed 51 percent faster. And case workers can now handle 23 percent more cases, saving $8.8 million annually.

"Deloitte's participation helped the government's agencies improve the lives of people in need by delivering higher quality social services more quickly and efficiently," Kukatla says. "We took them from strategy to implementation and, today, they are achieving results they had not considered possible."  

In this report, the terms Deloitte, our, we, and us are used to refer to the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) network of member firms or to one or more DTTL member firms. See additional information.

[Caption]: Photo credit top banner, Ran Ding, Deloitte China

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