A Critical Perspective on the Integration of Service Delivery Systems in Child-Youth Policy

아동청소년정책 전달체계의 통합방안에 대한 비판적 고찰

Child policy has focused on needy children with special emphasis on residual services but youth policy has implemented to promote capabilities of general adolescents by various activities. The fragmented implementation of child-youth policy by several ministries resulted in possible redundancy of target groups and insufficient service delivery system. Thus, the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs has pushed forward to integrate service delivery systems in child-youth policy after the former Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Government Youth Commission were integrated as part of a government reorganization plan. The purpose of this study is to review limitations of Lee Myung-bak government's plan to integrate child-youth policy and to make important suggestions for effective integration. Lee Myung-bak government's plan seeks to help children and adolescents prepare for the future and move forward with dreams and hope. However, this plan has fatal problems of overemphasizing the efficiency of finance without expansion of budget for children and adolescents. To achieve well-being tailored to one's life cycle, the full-scale expansion of budget is indispensible through the induction of the special fund or the special tax for children and adolescents. Fortunately, Lee Myung-bak government recognized child-youth policy as the social investment that would heighten national competitiveness in the long term, but there was insufficient child-youth policy infrastructure for new implementation. Therefore, Lee Myung-bak government needs a new design for integrated and universal child-youth policy that should take into account national human resource development plan and its economic development policy. The public responsibility for children and adolescents should be strengthened and, in addition, the network function in service delivery system should be complemented.

아동정책은 주로 보건복지부에서 요보호아동을 위한 사후적인 복지제도를 중심으로 집행된 반면 청소년정책은 국가청소년위원회에서 일반청소년을 위한 육성제도를 중심으로 실시되어 왔다. 하지만 아동청소년정책의 부처별 산발적 추진으로 인해 서비스 중복 현상이 나타나고 정책의 체계적 집행이 부족하였다. 따라서 일관성 있는 아동청소년정책의 추진을 위해 이명박 정부에서는 국가청소년위원회를 보건복지가족부로 흡수하면서 아동청소년정책의 통합작업을 진행하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 아동청소년정책에서 통합의 의미가 무엇인지, 이명박 정부의 전달체계 통합방안의 문제를 검토하고 이를 보완하기 위한 방안이 무엇인지를 제언하였다. 바람직한 통합정책을 추진하기 위해서는 부처통합에 따른 보건복지가족부내의 아동정책과 청소년정책의 단순 결합을 넘어서 국가 전체의 인적자원개발계획과 경제정책을 고려하여 통합적인 아동청소년정책이 수립되도록 전면적인 재설계가 필요하다. 또한 정책대상의 비효율적인 중복이 강조되기보다는 정책의 공공성과 적정예산의 확보를 위해 아동청소년정책예산의 획기적인 증가가 선결되어야 한다는 점이 강조되었다.