• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.77-101
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• 2009

As a case study in the field of policy implementation research, this study focuses on how the logic of consumer choice and provider competition operates on the front line of policy processing. To find the implementation process of the program, 39 interview data were analyzed, including voucher users, care workers, social workers in 4 agencies and local public officers in one of the district in Seoul, and relevant officials from the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family affairs and the Center for Social Service Management. The main results are as follows: In the level of policy implementation, user choice and competition, which was the main logic behind the implementation of the voucher program, did not occur as expected by policy makers. Instead of user choosing his/her provider, it was found that the providers were choosing its users. Secondly, the case study found that providers have formed a caucus which allocated the local users equally amongst the providers. In this process, local public officers have supported the meeting by providing them with a list of users. Such results may be interpreted as a habitual execution from the tradition of supply-side subsidy, rather than the way of implementation in the market system. Thirdly, although voucher users could not choose their preferred agency in the first stage of service, some other choices exists so that users may choose their preferred care-giver and time for service. Finally, the change of agency and care-giver in the way of delivering services were observed.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.101-121
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the job characteristics of care workers in elderly care voucher service emphasizing a social service quality management approach. The study sample was composed of randomly-selected 233 centers which dispatched care staffs to clients' home. Descriptive analyses were performed for examining the unique aspects of relationship-based labor of care staffs, and logistic regression analyses were performed for investigating the association between service quality structure and human right violation against staffs. As the first empirical study focusing on staff-side service quality factors, this study found out that human right violation against staffs was mainly influenced by record-keeping and document management capacity of center, risk protection under insurance, compliance of standard contract procedure, and regular supervision. These results suggest particular policy attention should be given to basic protection for and set-up of core activity boundaries of care workers as well as clients-centered rights both for preventing human right violation and improving overall social service quality.